"to play the devil's advocate": a Russian equivalent?

[Alina Israeli]

I totally agree with Jules. And as it transpired from Gasan's message,  
it is rather new, as expressions go. What is old is saying about  
someone who is contrarian that дух противоречия в него вселился.

On Apr 17, 2014, at 3:01 PM, Jules Levin wrote:

> This concept goes back to the Catholic Church's procedure for  
> determining sainthood.  In addition to the clergy arguing for  
> sainthood, a clergyman (priest? cardinal? bishop?) was appointed to  
> argue against--he was the "devil's advocate".  If the Orthodox  
> Church had a similar procedure, there should be an old authentic  
> term; otherwise, however it's said in Russian would be a translation  
> of some western language.
> Jules Levin
>
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Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
WLC, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu






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