- Origin of the term
- The Catholic Church created the term
- Flexibility
- Examples of situations
- Labor sphere
- Personal scope
- Advantages of being a devil's advocate
- References
The " devil's advocate " is intuitively associated with someone who always opposes, but the image behind the metaphor suggests that the proponent must overcome the forces of evil before imposing their criteria, being able to refute any argument. Only persons proposed for Catholic veneration could deserve such a distinction.
As we have said, popularly being the devil's advocate immediately places the indicated person in an unwanted position or of little virtue. Despite the fact that legally we all have the right to defense, having the task of exercising it in favor of someone whose name condemns it, puts any man of the law in a bad position.
The notion of the devil's advocate was born out of the Catholic Church. Source: Internet Archive
It is one of those phrases that most people use without having much idea of what it means and that most of the time they do not fully understand. There are few occasions when it is taken out of context, using it at discretion and with pejorative intentions that are not always conducive or appropriate.
Only when we delve into the origin of the term and its place of provenance, can we then assess fairly what initially looked like a macabre trade, and even take advantage of assuming such a defense to enrich controversies in an attempt to get to the bottom of non-issues. always obvious.
Origin of the term
To delve into the origins of the term, we must go back to the 16th century and locate ourselves in the Catholic Church, an entity that had lost some weight, but still exerted much influence in the Old World. As is well known, for a long time this religious institution ruled the political destinies of humanity.
After Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the now decadent Roman Empire in the third century of our era, a whole framework was available that sought to establish the institutional support necessary for this faith to prevail in all the imperial territories.
Within the framework of feeling convinced of being culturally opposed to barbarism and with the Greek philosophical legacy, many of the actions and initiatives assumed by the Church in the theological sphere are born from the bosom of the Roman tradition.
The Catholic Church created the term
Although it may seem paradoxical, it was the Church that instituted the figure of the devil's advocate, which had the task of guaranteeing the impeccable nobility and purity of the figures that would gradually become part of the different instances of profession of the Catholic faith.
In 1586 Pope Sixtus V -the then highest prelate of the Catholic Church- created the institution of advocatus diaboli with the task of constraining the canonization processes to such an extent that there was no doubt about the probity and virtue of the men and women who ascend to the holy altars.
Also called "promoter of the faith", whoever was in charge of this function assumed the responsibility of making sure that all those proposed to be beatified, canonized or sanctified did not show the slightest moral flaw in their behavior, and that they would enjoy such high spiritual esteem to support its causes.
Then, in the endless processes carried out by religious officials, their task was to refute all the arguments of those who presented the initiatives that were initially accepted and deserved to be considered, but who succumbed in their attempt by not being able to overcome the resistance that it involved the action of the devil's advocate.
Flexibility
After important reforms addressed by Pope John Paul II in which the canonization processes were made more flexible, the figure of the devil's advocate went from prosecutor to a kind of secretary who supports and documents the files.
These reforms resulted in 500 canonizations, as opposed to the 98 that had taken place since the beginning of the 20th century and before them.
Examples of situations
Acting as the devil's advocate is to bring to the fore reasons that go against one's own conviction in order to stimulate the argument of someone who is not necessarily an ideological opponent, and who in their attempt to fully convince may not be contemplating all the possibilities.
Labor sphere
The aforementioned can be reflected when we evaluate a work situation using scenario analysis. Commonly, this intellectual exercise is carried out in homogeneous groups of workers who pursue the same objective, so they naturally tend to coincide in their points of view.
Although this is favorable for uniting efforts and compacting work teams in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the result, it entails many weaknesses. Without the effort involved in breaking away from the underlying preconceptions in the form of paradigms, any analysis can be superficial and inaccurate.
In the construction of scenarios of situational rooms of any nature, it is essential to have people who assume an attitude of devil's advocate, even if it is not exhaustively declared. Furthermore, it is highly desirable and convenient for this role to jump dynamically between one and the other, to enrich what is involved there.
Personal scope
There are scenarios where devil's advocates are not entirely beneficial, and some of these may come from a personal level.
For example, when one person constantly criticizes another with whom they have a friendship relationship, highlights the negative aspects of the situations that the second faces and repeatedly questions their criteria in a destructive way, it is of an individual who acts as the devil's advocate.
Advantages of being a devil's advocate
The exercise of opposing ideas at all costs -even when internally they are not embraced as their own- favors the search for the truth and implements a way to bring to light all the points of view that, otherwise and protected in an environment of consensus, would be left without being considered.
As we can see, after all being classified as a devil's advocate should not be a reason to feel insulted, but quite the contrary, in many cases it is a reflection of being able to assume an exercise of intelligence based on questioning what is evident to us. first glance.
In summary, being the devil's advocate may imply possessing the rare ability to approach the same issue from the most varied sides, leaving aside one's own beliefs.
References
- "Devil's advocate - Roman Catholicism" in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved on April 2, 2019 from Encyclopaedia Britannica: britannica.com
- "Devil's Advocate" on Wikipedia. Retrieved on April 2, 2019 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org
- "How was the devil's advocate born?" on BBC Mundo. Retrieved on April 2, 2019 from BBC Mundo: bbc.com
- "What's the story behind the phrase« devil's advocate »?" on National Public Radio. Retrieved on April 2, 2019 from National Public Radio: npr.org
- Bunson, M. "Is Devil's Advocate role eliminated from canonization process?" on EWTN Global Catholic Network. Retrieved on April 2, 2019 from EWTN Global Catholic Network: ewtn.com