Medieval Europe’s ultimate other was the Devil

Evidence

Medieval Christianity was part of the foundation of the feudal estates of nobles, clerics, and peasants, each occupying their God-given place, like the caste system in India founded in Hinduism. Differences between Christians and heathens overlaid earlier lines of distinction that ran between the Roman Empire and its peripheries: the Pax Romana and the world outside. Regional differences in language, food, costume, and customs were significant. In the hierarchy of estates, “others” were primarily those who did not fit in - Jews, Gypsies, travelers, regional minorities such as the Marranos in southern Spain, heathens and nonbelievers. The real Other in the Christian world was the Devil — represented by the “Bogey,” the “Bugaboo,” the “Black Man.” Thus, the main difference was a metaphysical difference with moral ramifications, and other differences were mirrored in this central difference - identity and otherness were essentially measured in relation to God and the Devil. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 185

Categorization

• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone interested in religious history or the etymology of ‘bogey’/‘bugaboo’ as devil-terms.
• XREF: The ‘Black Man’ devil figure connects to color symbolism in religious cosmology, echoing how color-coding runs through Western othering.