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The Dialectical Interaction between God and Satan –
Exploring Modern Western Humanism in Literature through Satanism
III. Research Methods

Michel Foucault’s idea of contradiction in The Archaeology of Knowledge seeks to
unveil the hidden tensions and conflicts within discourses. It encourages researchers to

analyze the gaps, shifts, and inconsistencies within a body of knowledge. Therefore, the
researcher intends to use it as a research method to analyze the dialectical relationship
between God and Satan, which may allow for a closer examination of the ways in which

these two archetypal figures are portrayed, their roles defined, and their existence
interrelated.

Christianity, as a religious tradition, has long grappled with the complex dialectical
relationship between the absolute divine justice and ever-evolving humanity, as

represented by God and Adam respectively in Paradise Lost. Foucault’s idea may help the
researcher explore the contradictions that have emerged over time, such as the shifting
portrayal of Satan from a divine servant in the Hebrew Bible to the embodiment of the

rebellious spirit against tyranny in the western literary tradition after the 18th century.
These contradictions can be seen as reflections of changing societal norms and power
dynamics.

IV. Analysis and Results

(I) Contradiction

The following is a passage of how Foucault defines “contradiction”:

“Contradiction is the illusion of a unity that hides itself or is hidden: it has
its place only in the gap between consciousness and unconsciousness, thought
and the text, the ideality and the contingent body of expression. “(Michel

Foucault, 1972)

If we use the above-quoted passage of Foucault as a metaphor to examine the

relationship between divinity, which is represented by Christianity most of the time. and
modern western humanism, we can establish two sets of equivalence:
consciousness/thought/ideality = divinity; unconsciousness/the text/the contingent body of
expression = Humanity. Based on the idea shown in this passage, we can speculate that the
reason these two, divinity and Humanity, have persisted and thrived over time is not

because they are each self-evident truths but because they continually and dialectically
engage with each other in history. In other words, without this dialectical relationship, the
former as a religion would have disappeared (similar to the ancient Greek religion where

the Olympian gods did not have an antithetical counterpart in power and status), and the
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