When you hear “playing devil’s advocate,” your mind might first go to Keanu Reeves’ role in the 1997 thriller The Devil’s Advocate. And while that’s a pretty solid film, today’s edition is about something different: a figure of speech. Let’s examine the idiom’s origins, which date back to the 16th-century Roman Catholic Church.
The term “devil’s advocate” stems from a position in the Catholic Church known as the Promoter of the Faith (promotor fidei). This role emerged in the early 16th century during Pope Leo X’s reign and was formalized in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V. Whenever an important individual was nominated for beatification or canonization (parts of the process for granting sainthood), the promotor fidei was responsible for bringing to light any past wrongdoings or sins. This would fuel a critical debate to examine if the candidate’s positives outweighed the negatives. Given the promoter fidei’s focus on past wrongs, they came to be called advocatus diaboli, which translates to “devil’s advocate.”
In modern parlance, the idiom “playing devil’s advocate” is applied more broadly to debates on any topic, not just canonization. “Devil’s advocate” is defined as “a person who champions the less accepted cause for the sake of argument.” The person playing the role of devil’s advocate doesn’t need to believe the case they’re arguing; they may just be bringing up those points to make the argument more interesting or promote a more critical lens. Worst case, the devil’s advocate is just being annoying for the sake of argument, but let’s hope your friends aren’t that cruel.
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