A batch of the best highlights from what Todd's read, .
The unholy spirit (think mood or attitude) of the satanic is the inclination to blame, accuse, and recriminate. (The words satan and devil both mean to accuse and blame.)
A Farewell to Mars
Brian Zahnd
A cat with a mouse—the cliché example of cruelty. I want to say clearly that I do not believe any animal is capable of being cruel. Cruelty implies consciousness of another’s pain and the intent to cause it. Cruelty is a human specialty, which human beings continue to practice, and perfect, and institutionalize, though we seldom boast about it. We prefer to disown it, calling it “inhumanity,” ascribing it to animals. We don’t want to admit the innocence of the animals, which reveals our guilt.
No Time to Spare
Ursula K. Le Guin, Karen Joy Fowler (Introduction)
Another way to think about this, especially faith-as-allegiance, is that, in the Biblical imagination, there is no space for free moral agency. Every space has a Power or a Lord. The only option before you, therefore, is to whom you will swear allegiance.