Editing Devil (section)

== Definitions ==
In his book ''The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity'', [[Jeffrey Burton Russell]] discusses various meanings and difficulties that are encountered when using the term ''devil''.  He does not claim to define the word in a general sense, but he describes the limited use that he intends for the word in his book—limited in order to "minimize this difficulty" and "for the sake of clarity". In this book Russell uses the word ''devil'' as "the [[personification]] of [[evil]] found in a variety of cultures", as opposed to the word ''[[Satan]]'', which he reserves specifically for the figure in the [[Abrahamic religions]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jeffrey Burton Russell|title=The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D2-Na937xRYC|year=1987|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0-8014-9409-5|pages=11, 34}}</ref>

In the Introduction to his book ''Satan: A Biography'', Henry Ansgar Kelly discusses various considerations and meanings that he has encountered in using terms such as ''devil'' and ''Satan'', etc. While not offering a general definition, he describes that in his book "whenever ''diabolos'' is used as the proper name of Satan", he signals it by using "small caps".<ref>{{cite book|last=Kelly|first=Henry Ansgar|date=2006|title=Satan: A Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gPIpQg0lRbMC&pg=PA12|location=Cambridge, England|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-60402-4|pages=3–4}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' has a variety of definitions for the meaning of "devil", supported by a range of citations: "Devil" may refer to Satan, the supreme spirit of evil, or one of Satan's emissaries or [[demon]]s that populate Hell, or to one of the spirits that possess a demoniac person; "devil" may refer to one of the "malignant deities" feared and worshiped by "heathen people", a demon, a malignant being of superhuman powers; figuratively "devil" may be applied to a wicked person, or playfully to a rogue or rascal, or in empathy often accompanied by the word "poor" to a person—"poor devil".<ref>Craige, W. A.; Onions, C. T. A. "Devil". ''A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (1933) pp. 283–284</ref>