Devil's advocate
In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, for the sake of debate. In taking this position, the individual taking on the devil's advocate role seeks to engage others in an argumentative discussion process. The purpose of such process is typically to test the quality of the original argument and identify weaknesses in its structure, and to use such information to either improve or abandon the original, opposing position. It can also refer to someone who takes a stance that is seen as unpopular or unconventional, but is actually another way of arguing a much more conventional stance.
Origin[edit]
During the canonization process employed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith (Latin: promotor fidei), popularly known as the Devil's advocate (Latin: advocatus diaboli), was a canon lawyer appointed by Church authorities to argue against the canonization of a candidate.[1] It was this person’s job to take a skeptical view of the candidate's character, to look for holes in the evidence, to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent, and so on. The Devil's advocate opposed God's advocate (Latin: advocatus Dei; also known as the Promoter of the Cause), whose task was to make the argument in favor of canonization. This task is now performed by the Promoter of Justice (promotor iustitiae), who is in charge of examining how accurate is the inquiry on the saintliness of the candidate.
The office was established in 1587 during the reign of Pope Sixtus V and abolished by Pope John Paul II in 1983.[2] This reform changed the canonization process considerably, helping John Paul II to usher in an unprecedented number of elevations: nearly 500 individuals were canonized and over 1,300 were beatified during his tenure as Pope as compared to only 98 canonizations by all his 20th-century predecessors. In cases of controversy the Vatican may still seek to informally solicit the testimony of critics of a candidate for canonization. Aroup Chatterjee, the author of the book Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict, testified against the late nun as a so-called devil's advocate. The British-American columnist Christopher Hitchens was famously asked to testify against the beatification of Mother Teresa in 2002, a role he would later describe as being akin to "representing the Devil, as it were, pro bono".[3]
In fiction[edit]
The Devil's Advocate plays an important role in opposing canonization for Liebowitz in the classic science fiction novel "A Canticle for Liebowitz", written in 1960 by Walter M. Miller. Liebowitz, an engineer killed while trying to save written works being destroyed by the scattered and embittered survivors of a nuclear apocalypse, represents the human desire for knowledge that is ultimately self-destructive. The novel Angels & Demons featured a depiction of a fictional "devil's advocate" who contributed negative information about each candidate for pope, though the official's Devil Advocate never had any role in the selection of a pope.[4]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Fanning, W. (1911). "Promotor Fidei". Catholic Encyclopedia 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
- ^ "Papież Jan Paweł II". Polonica.info/. Retrieved 18 March 2010.[dead link]
- ^ Hitchens, C. (February/March 2004). "Less than Miraculous". Free Inquiry 24 (2). (Subscription required.)
- ^ Martin, R. (2013-03-03). "Who Is The 'Devil's Advocate'?". Weekend Edition Sunday. NPR. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
External links[edit]
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Look up devil's advocate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
"Advocatus Diaboli". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
"Promotor Fidei". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
