There's also an interview with Archie Wright on his book Satan and the Problem of Evil: From the Bible to the Early Church Fathers (Fortress Press, 2022) over at the New Books Network that was very insightful.
"I was looking for an examination of Satan himself, not only as a socio-political phenomenon, but as imagery, characterization, etc."
I'm one of those who think that Satan is largely a concept the Hebrews adopted from Zoroastrianism during the Babylonian Captivity. There are mentions of fallen angels in "The Book of Watchers", which is the first part of "The Book of Enoch"-a book that didn't make the cut and get into the official biblical canon at the Council of Nicaea-which is a shame because it's full of intriguing imagery. However, to actually get at that imagery takes more contextual study than I am willing to give it. I don't subscribe to any of the Abrahamic religions, but many of those who do understand allusions in a different way. I'm not a big reader of fiction, but I liked Anne Rice's vampire novels, and one of the later ones, "Memnoch the Devil", features a long section in the middle where Lestat (a frequent vampire protagonist) has a long dialogue with "the Devil" that I found thought-provoking. Rice herself was an interesting figure who was raised as an observant Roman Catholic, became agnostic, and much later in life reembraced her Catholicism for eleven years before distancing herself from that faith because of its reactionary stances on social issues, and spent her final years describing herself as a secular humanist-and as a member of the LGBTQIA community, I was happy to return her books to a place of honor on my shelves.
Andrew Mark Henry has an episode in Religion for Breakfast on the development of Satan. https://youtu.be/5sYhbtk8jJc?si=LMtIUWGtKNAPPGDR
There's also an interview with Archie Wright on his book Satan and the Problem of Evil: From the Bible to the Early Church Fathers (Fortress Press, 2022) over at the New Books Network that was very insightful.
https://newbooksnetwork.com/satan-and-the-problem-of-evil
Thanks very much for the suggestions.
"I was looking for an examination of Satan himself, not only as a socio-political phenomenon, but as imagery, characterization, etc."
I'm one of those who think that Satan is largely a concept the Hebrews adopted from Zoroastrianism during the Babylonian Captivity. There are mentions of fallen angels in "The Book of Watchers", which is the first part of "The Book of Enoch"-a book that didn't make the cut and get into the official biblical canon at the Council of Nicaea-which is a shame because it's full of intriguing imagery. However, to actually get at that imagery takes more contextual study than I am willing to give it. I don't subscribe to any of the Abrahamic religions, but many of those who do understand allusions in a different way. I'm not a big reader of fiction, but I liked Anne Rice's vampire novels, and one of the later ones, "Memnoch the Devil", features a long section in the middle where Lestat (a frequent vampire protagonist) has a long dialogue with "the Devil" that I found thought-provoking. Rice herself was an interesting figure who was raised as an observant Roman Catholic, became agnostic, and much later in life reembraced her Catholicism for eleven years before distancing herself from that faith because of its reactionary stances on social issues, and spent her final years describing herself as a secular humanist-and as a member of the LGBTQIA community, I was happy to return her books to a place of honor on my shelves.