Devil's advocate

For other uses, see Devil's advocate (disambiguation).

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, just for the sake of argument. In taking such 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 (less commonly) to someone who takes a stance that is seen as unpopular or unconventional, but is actually another way of arguing a more conventional stance.

Origin

During the canonization process of 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 the candidate.^[1] It was their 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, etc. The Devil's advocate opposed God's advocate (Latin: advocatus Dei; also known as the Promoter of the Cause), whose task is 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, which has led many^[who?] to question the validity of the process and whether all of those canonized today are deserving of the recognition.^{[citation needed]} Such a dramatic increase suggests that the office of the Devil's Advocate had served to reduce the number of canonizations. It is argued^[who?] that it served a useful role in ensuring that canonizations did not proceed without due care and hence the status of sainthood was not easily achieved. In cases of controversy the Vatican may still seek to informally solicit the testimony of critics of a candidate for canonization. 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 Evil One, as it were, pro bono".^[3]

See also

• Dialectic
• Polemic
• Roman Rota
• Poe's law

References

1. ^ "Promotor Fidei". Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12454a.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
2. ^ "Papież Jan Paweł II". Polonica.info/. http://www.polonica.info/Themas/johnpaul2.html. Retrieved 18 March 2010. 
3. ^ "Less than Miraculous" by Christopher Hitchens, Free Inquiry 24(2), February/March 2004.

External links

• "Advocatus Diaboli". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01168b.htm. 
•  "Promotor Fidei". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.