Pagan Demonolatry

This chapter continues the investigation of signs and sacraments of demons in pagan religion and its gods, which Augustine sees as the very foundation of Rome’s history of moral corruption. It shows what Augustine thinks is particularly demonic in Roman polytheism, both as it is presented most straightforwardly to the public and as it is understood by its most clever interpreters, chiefly the Platonists, Apuleius, and Porphyry. This analysis reveals that Augustine’s demons interact with and manifest among humanity in three principal ways: the straightforward imitation of demonic pride, the demons’ administration of false religion as though they were true angels, and, folding these two together, the promotion of religion known to be false for the sake of possessing other people politically. The chapter concludes with Augustine’s commendation of ecclesial incorporation into Christ as true and good, where demonic religion is false and wicked, and thus as the primary means by which humanity is to find freedom from such possession by the lordship of demons.