Satan, the Fallen Angel

In the Christian religion, Satan has been perceived in one of three ways. Some see him as a metaphor for evil in general, much like the Dark Side of the Force in the modern day epic Star Wars. In this point of view, "Satan" is merely a symbol of hate, jealousy, pride, or greed, and the Biblical passages that refer to Satan are metaphors for humankind's struggle against these sinful ideas. However, this concept is not in line with the mainstream Christian tradition, which holds that Satan is not merely a metaphor or an idea, but a real person, a specific center of evil power.

Even this concept of Satan has variations. Some see the devil as the ultimate bogeyman, God's arch-nemesis, striking fear into the hearts of humanity. This viewpoint of Satan as the supervillain of all supervillains can be seen in the Old Testament's account of Job, an ancient patriarch with great wealth and a large family. He becomes the target of Satan, who proceeds to wipe out his possessions, kill his children, and turn his wife against him, and even afflicts Job with painful boils, in order to make Job curse God. Although Job does question God's wisdom, and even accuses God of being unjust, he never actually curses God, and in the end, God restores everything Satan took away. Like all supervillains, Satan never wins.

There is another viewpoint of Satan besides seeing him as the number one bad guy, and that is the portrayal of Satan in John Milton's classic poem, Paradise Lost. This version, in my view, agrees the most with the Satan of the Bible, in that it shows Satan as someone who was once good, once a beautiful, wise, intelligent angel enjoying the wonders of Heaven, but who tragically fell into evil and lost the splendors of Heaven.