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demonology
Sign in to savethumb|The Nightmare (1800) by Nicolai Abildgaard depicting a demon|300x300px
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- field of study
- Subclass of
- theology
- Part of
- theology
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Demonology
- topic's main category
- Category:Demonology
- P8168
- Ōkuchi
- is the study of
- demon
via Wikidata · CC0
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
15 sectionsContents
- Prevalence of demons
- Characterization of spirits
- Types
- Ancient Mesopotamian religion
- Abrahamic religions
- Judaism
- Christianity
- Islam
- Buddhism
- Hinduism
- Zoroastrianism
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
thumb|The Nightmare (1800) by Nicolai Abildgaard depicting a demon|300x300px
Demonology is the study of demons within religious belief and myth. Depending on context, it can refer to studies within theology, religious doctrine, or occultism. In many faiths, it concerns the study of a hierarchy of demons. Demons may be nonhuman separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body. A sharp distinction is often drawn between these two classes, notably by the Melanesians, several African groups, and others. The jinns, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls. At the same time, these classes are frequently conceived as producing identical results, e.g., diseases.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “demonology” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.