This is an exquisitely written meditation on one of the most important subjects of the decade. The author, who teaches humanities at Columbia University, traces the history of the concept of evil in America from the Puritans through the Civil War and up to the present era. Delbanco tries to find an imaginative and ethical way of acknowledging the importance of evil without tilting to either the moral emptiness of secular humanists or the hate mongering of religious fundamentalists. The author's impressive purview includes the thoughts and philosophy of St. Augustine, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Death of Satan is an exceptional work of high moral seriousness.