Returning to Hirsch (2002, The Intermediary chap.), he makes a distinction between duende and what has come to be known as demonic. At the same time, though, he notes they might be unconsciously related. As an example, he points to Martin Luther and the struggle he had with the “theological demon of doubt,” which resulted in him throwing an inkwell at the devil. I use the example of Luther to note the important difference in duende and the demonic. Hirsch states that duende “bypasses the negative Judeo-Christian implications of demon” and that it “side-steps the moral terminology of foul possession.” I also use this example to point out something else common to heroes, their fallibility. Martin Luther’s heroism notwithstanding, his anti-Semitism created many problems. (The history of Martin Luther is beyond the scope of this paper, but a Google search using key words mentioned here will yield good information about it.)
Just to give you a brief recap of the nature of that post, here is a snip from the abstract: “The purpose is to show how heroism emerges in everyday life, and how it is significant in the life of an ordinary person. It covers a variety of aspects of heroism, in particular the heroes who have crossed my path, how their heroism has manifested, how heroism manifests in ordinary people, and some components that are present in a heroic life.” (Why an abstract? Because this is a paper I turned in for a class.)
I had shared the paper with a friend and he ended up pointing me to this article, The Luther Legend. The article is long and somewhat tedious but I made it through. Not sure what to think of it, actually, but it seemed significant enough to put out there into the blogosphere. Maybe I will return to it later.
My beliefs have changed so much over the past decade or so. As a secular-minded person, I don’t subscribe to belief in a God or gods. But all this religious history is significant, regardless.
That’s all for now. Thanks, as always, for reading.
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