Abstract
In recent years, scholars have scrutinized popular interest in the occult, but there have been fewer treatments of the “entrepreneurs” providing services to these practitioners. The anthology The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in Christianity, edited by Giuseppe Giordan and Adam Possamai, examines the supply as well as the demand for exorcism, bringing together several fascinating accounts and studies of exorcists and exorcism at a time and in places where these type of rituals and phenomena are supposed to be extinct. The editors argue that the explosion of interest in the occult starting in the 1960s and 70s (helped along by such horror films as The Exorcist) provided a ready-made market of people seeking spiritual assistance in their claims of demonic influence and oppression (it is made clear that full-blown demonic exorcism cases, in contrast to “deliverance” prayer ministry, are still relatively rare).
In an informative introduction, Giordan and Possamai write that the growing significance of the rite of exorcism is both a challenge to secularization and an indicator of how religion is now less beholden to tradition and more willing to draw on elements of magic and therapy, as well as rationalized techniques. Deidre Meintel and Guillaume Boucher write about the increase of cases of demonic deliverance in Quebec, but their observation can apply to other Western societies: “Secularization did not only diminish the power of the Church; it also led to the deregulation of the world of the spirit … Moreover, many individuals circulate among various spiritual currents, picking up religious tools and techniques along the way” (133). The book’s case studies capture the diversity of contemporary exorcism—from of exorcists commissioned by the Vatican to the Pentecostal Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil to a controversial case of Eastern Orthodox nun-exorcists in Romania—and confirms how their practitioners borrow techniques and teachings from each other. In some cases, deliverance and exorcism ministries came close to splitting churches and traditions due to their charismatic and messianic fervor, with one chapter by Joseph Laycock recounting a case study of a near-schism in American Catholic history.
The various chapters suggest how exorcism is a source of competition between its providers in the religious marketplace. For instance, a chapter by Tiago Pires argues that the Catholic Church in Brazil (and much of the West) revived and adapted its rite of exorcism as a result of competition with Pentecostals and their deliverance ministries as well as conflicts with Spiritism. The relation between the phenomenon of demonic oppression and possession and psychiatry and mental illness is another provocative theme in the volume. Most of the authors bracket the question of whether there is validity to exorcists’—and the exorcized’s—claims of actual demonic possession and oppression, but they often report that the various ceremonies and techniques can have beneficial results for the afflicted. Mental illness is usually ruled out before exorcism and deliverance is attempted (more systematically in some churches than others) and even in those cases, there is cooperation as well as conflict between religion and therapy. This is driven home in a captivating chapter by J. Tyler Odle on the aftermath of an exorcism in Florida, where a clear resolution to this affliction was not easily found. The individual under question experienced a catharsis from the ceremony but still suffered the stigmatizing impact of the experience years after, requiring therapy. A religious professional dealing with such cases said long-term effects from deliverance attempts are not uncommon, especially when there is a negative community response to this activity. In these cases, support structures provided by the family and religious community are important.
Although the chapters in this important volume appear to lack a unifying theme beyond the broad topic of exorcism and deliverance, it should be noted that this is a relatively new field. A wide range of methods and theoretical approaches are to be expected and welcomed, leading to more in-depth studies on how these sub-topics may relate to each other. In attempting to explain the burgeoning supply and demand of exorcism, the editors suggest that it may result in the “over-policing” of the devil engaged in by religious specialists as they seek to identify demonic influence in society. Giordan and Possamai’s conclusions about the way self-help and spirituality have merged with mainstream medicine, accompanied by the processes of rationalization, migration and globalization, suggest a continuing robust market of supply and demand for deliverance and exorcism. Indeed, given the trend toward “self-healing” in charismatic and Pentecostal churches, this reviewer wonders whether the exorcist “middle-man” will be discarded as “self-deliverance” becomes the next frontier.
