Word: satanic
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...there is no sin but ignorance. Faustus holds the same views, but this time the play moves in exactly the opposite direction. Here religion is a dominion of implacable law reducing man and his will to a broken toy; and it is knowledge that is tainted with evil. Through Satan's agent Mephistophilis (James Ray), the learned Dr. Faustus (Lou Antonio) makes a pact with the Devil. He wills his soul to eternal damnation for 24 years of life, during which he will unlock all the secrets of the universe, command all earthly power, be granted every whim...
...despair; yet Faustus cannot repent. He can grasp the letter of God's law ("The reward of sin is death: that's hard"), but he cannot conceive the saving grace of Christ. He asks Mephistophilis why the Devil's agent is out of hell, and Satan's servant answers: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it: Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells, In being depriv'd of everlasting bliss? As Faustus...
...cast gargles "Marlowe's mighty line" like polysyllabic mouthwash, except for James Ray's Mephistophilis, who, to give him his due, is devilishly good. By contrast, Lou Antonio in the title role is fumbling and playboyish. It is rather too bad that Faustus' pact with Satan should overlook mastery of the part...
...Turkish enemies he is Satan incarnate; the British press dubbed him Mack the Knife. Western diplomats find him wily and willful, sly and stubborn-the man most likely to fumble the world into war. But in the eyes of the Greeks of Cyprus, His Beatitude Makarios III, Archbishop of Nova Justiniana and all Cyprus, is almost a living saint who can do no wrong. Though he is architect and President of the island republic, Makarios is also head of Cyprus' Orthodox Church, and he spends almost as much energy serving God as bedeviling...
...tolerant, Kronenberger charges other men with folly rather than outright evil, and recognizes that the very extremism that often makes the U.S. unbearable has helped to make it great. His conclusion: "We are a corrupted people but not a depraved one. We don't make pacts with Satan; what we try to do is to make pacts with...