Christianity commits every Christian to believing that ‘the Devil is (in the long run) an ass.’ (C.S. Lewis, “A Preface to Paradise Lost”) The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn. (Martin Luther, Table Talk) In Book 2 of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan holds council in Pandemonium with his fallen angels in the wake of their expulsion from heaven. Moloc presses for further war. Mammon suggests that devils should form an independent republic, preferring “hard liberty before the easie yoke” of heaven. Beelzebub proposes that hell might exact revenge on…