What is meant by the phrase playing devils advocate?
Eckhart’s answer is right and there’s a good novel called “The Devil’s Advocate” by Morris West (1959). It is definitely worth reading and demonstrates the principle of the Devils Advocate. In the book, an Englishman who is a Vatican priest in Italy after WW2, is charged with finding evidence to deny the beatification of a brave and honest but martyred mystery-man. The whole thing is fabulously written and is complicated by the fact that the mystery-man was apparently English, and the priest is dying of cancer. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a different type of detective story. Amazon has editions below from about £3.50 ($6).
