Ever wonder what the devil’s eye view is on religion, politics, evil, Disney? Jeffrey C. Pugh, the Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies, on Thursday night will read from his latest book - Devil's Ink: Blog from the Basement Office - to address these and other concerns that perplex and mystify humans in the present age as part of the Elon University Distinguished Scholar Award Lecture.
Jeffrey C. Pugh, “Devil’s Ink: Blog from the Basement Office” – April 14
LaRose Digital Theatre, 7 p.m.
Elon University Distinguished Scholar Award Lecture
Devil’s Ink is a collection of fictionalized blog posts from Satan instructing, informing, ridiculing and occasionally encouraging his demonic minions to “use those things that humans have created to help us reach our goals.”
Published by Fortress Press, the book is already receiving glowing reviews, with Publishers Weekly lauding Pugh as “so winsome a voice for evil that readers will have to remind themselves not to adopt his point of view.”
“What I want is for the reader to start asking questions, to think about things in a way they haven’t before,” Pugh said in a recent interview. “Hell has its own logic. I want to confront the reader with whether or not they’ve embraced the logic of hell within the societal structures they live under.”
Pugh joined the faculty in 1986 after earning his master of divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., and another master’s and doctorate from Drew University Graduate School in Madison, N.J. His graduate research focused on systematic and historical theology, and he continued that work after arriving at Elon. Pugh’s research has produced four books that seek approaches to religious studies that have both historical and contemporary relevance.