The Devil's Theology

(forgive the need for some editing; i pasted this straight from facebook)

The theology of the devil is really not theology but magic. "Faith" in this theology is really not the acceptance of a God Who reveals Himself as mercy. It is a kind of psychological "force" which applies a kind of violence to reality in order to change it according to one's own whims. Faith is a kind of supereffective wishinig: a mastery that comes from a special, mysteriously dynamic will power that is generated by "profound convictions." By virtue of this wonderful energy one can exert a persuasive force even on God Himself and bend His will to one's own will. By this astonishing new dynamic soul force of faith (which any quack can develop in you for an appropriate remuneration) you can turn God into a means of your own ends. We become civilized medicine men, and God becomes our servant. Though He is terrible in His own right, He respects our sorcery, He allows Himself to be tamed by it. He will appreciate our dynamism, and will reward it with success in everything we attempt. We will become popular because we have "faith." We will be rich because we have "faith." All our national enemies will come and lay down their arms at our feet because we have "faith." Business will boom all over the world, and we will be able to make money out of everything and everyone under the sun because of the charmed life we lead. We have faith.But there is a subtle dialectic in all this, too.We hear that faith does everything. So we close our eyes and strain a bit, to generate some "soul force." We believe. We believe.Nothing happens.We close our eyes again, and generate some more soul force. The devil likes us to generate soul force. He helps us to generate plenty of it. We are just gushing with soul force.But nothing happens.So we go on with this until we become disgusted with the whole business. We get tired of "generating soul force." We get tired of this "faith" that does not do anything to change reality. It does not take away our anxieties, our conflicts, it leaves us a prey to uncertainty. It does not lift all responsibilities off our shoulders. Its magic is not so effective after all. It does not thoroughly convince us that God is satisfied with us, or even that we are satisfied with ourselves (though in this, it is true, some people's faith is often quite effective).Having become disgusted with faith, and therefore with God, we are now ready for the Totalitarian Mass Movement that will pick us up on the rebound and make us happy with war, with the persecution of "inferior races" or of enemy classes, or generally speaking, with actively punishing someone who is different from ourselves.Another characteristic of the devil's moral theology is the exaggeration of all distinctions between this and that, good and evil, right and wrong. These distinctions become irreducible divisions. No longer is there any sense that we might perhaps all be more or less at fault, and that we might be expected to take upon our own shoulders the wrongs of others by forgiveness, acceptance, patient understanding and love, and thus help one another find the truth. On the contrary, in the devil's theology, the important thing is to be absolutely right and to prove that everybody else is absolutely wrong. This does not exactly make for peace and unity among men, because it means that everyone wants to be absolutely right himself or to attach himself to another who is absolutely right. And in order to prove their rightness they have to punish and eliminate those who are wrong. Those who are wrong, in turn, convinced that they are right...etc.Finally, as might be expected, the moral theology of the devil grants an altogether unusual amount of importance to...the devil. Indeed one soon comes to find out that he is the very center of the whole system. That he is behind everything. That he is moving everybody in the world except ourselves. That he is out to get even with us. And that there is every chance of his doing so because, it now appears, his power is equal to that of God, or even perhaps superior to it...In one word, the theology of the devil is purely and simply that the devil is god.
--A selection from Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation, ps.94-97--

My dearest friends,

I think this is remarkably profound. It is steeped in the ever-present context of nuclear war on the exterior, but for Merton, this is ever indicative of an internal war; he saw a direct line between our inner pride and illusions and the terrors of the nuclear age. But so much more than a social commentary is being made...In the moral theology of the devil according to Merton, we might see several things: the prosperity gospel, the ego-driven, self-obsessed slave, the self-righteous, the violent...in short, what is evil makes us turn in on ourselves, a wedge of deceit and self-hatred deep in our souls. What frees us turns us outward - that we might touch and bless everything, that we might heal as we have been healed......which brings us to the indelible mystery of grace. And the grace of God is the raw mercy shed on our behalf, the willing sacrifice of the Son that we might be gathered again, and loved, and called our true names. For the great deceit of the devil is to create factions that would render such grace "unnecessary;" as if we ought to earn it through the sound logic of self-righteous debate where we could plead our case, never grasping the inescapable truth that the argument is over... If only we could withdraw and create within ourselves room for the other, for the one who you were born to love, that is, for every person you see. We trust ourselves without the guidance of mercy and so cannot create room for each other in our hearts.Let us not be thwarted by the vain promises of our own moral law void of what is revealed to us. For the Lord is gracious and on the move...in Jesus we are transformed by the mercy of God and in the Spirit led to the banquet where we can share in the feast that everyone is invited to, where everyone belongs, nourished by serving one another, discovering our true identities in the love of God. Apart from such love, the notion of worship is cold and empty...it is false and disgusting...it kills all faith.And so let us wait on mercy. Let us be interrupted by the Presence of God, Who acts within us and all around us. Let God love your innermost being that you might find the eternal worth in Jesus and so love your sister and brother with a free heart. I love you, my friends. In the depths of the Spirit of Jesus, you are called and you belong.