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1. It is the property of the mechanisms of psychic release in all cultures to project vague fears and unfulfilled aggressions on nonhuman beings. In tribal religions—as in the medieval popular belief of Europe—the dead (and various animals), as dangerous revenants, in manifold versions, become hostile demons of this kind. Devils (Gk., diáboloi, ‘pell-mell throwers’) appear in collective myths or in the ‘theologized’ form of such ( Demon/Demonology; Evil/Evil One). Hebrew Bible 2. Judaism regarded the highest of the fallen angels as the—admittedly always inferior—adv…

Main Themes 1. In the life of adults of the Western culture of the present, religious fears generally carry no weight. More impressive seems an unspecified ‘fear of existence,’ or Weltangst. Ultimately, a fear of death, however unconscious, underlies this feeling, along with, doubtless, the awe before an essence that inspires reverence or dread, a numen, or mysterium tremendum (Rudolf Otto; → Holy). Furthermore, the arousal of fear no longer figures among the pastoral concerns of the Christian churches, so that fear can readily be undervalued as an imp…