The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in Christianity

by Giuseppe Giordan, Adam Possamai

Overview

This book presents an academic analysis of exorcism in Christianity. It not only explores the crisis and drama of a single individual in a fight against demonic possession but also looks at the broader implications for the society in which the possessed lives. In recognition of this, coverage includes case studies from various geographical areas in Europe, North and South America, and Oceania.

The contributors explore the growing significance of the rite of exorcism, both in its more structured format within traditional Christian religions as well as in the less controlled and structured forms in the rites of deliverance within Neopentecostal movements. They examine theories on the interaction between religion, magic, and science to present new and groundbreaking data on exorcism.

The fight against demonic possession underlines the way in which changes within the religious field, such as the rediscovery of typical practices of popular religiosity, challenge the expectations of the theory of secularization. This book argues that if possession is a threat to the individual and to the equilibrium of the social order, the ritual of exorcism is able to re-establish a balance and an order through the power of the exorcist. This does not happen in a social vacuum but in a consumer culture where religious groups market themselves against other faiths. This book appeals to researchers in the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030431723
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Series:	Popular Culture, Religion and Society. A Social-Scientific Approach , #3
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Giuseppe Giordan is Professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Padova (Italy). He is author, co-author, editor and co-editor of twenty books and journal special issues in the sociology of religion. He is Co-Editor of the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion (Brill), and elected member of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion. He is Director of the International joint PhD programme in Human rights, society and multi-level governance based at the University of Padova. He served as General Secretary of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion from 2009 to 2013.

Adam Possamai is Professor in Sociology at Western Sydney University (WSU). He is the past President of the International Sociological Association’s Committee 22 on the Sociology of Religion and is the Deputy Dean of the School of Social Sciences. His latest books are The Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity (with Giuseppe Giordan, Palgrave McMillan, 2018), The I-zation of Society, Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism (Palgrave McMillan, 2018), Religions, Nations and Transnationalism in Multiple Modernities (edited with Patrick Michel and Bryan Turner, Palgrave McMillan, 2017), and the novel L’histoire extraordinaire de Baudelaire (Rivière Blanche, 2017).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1.Introduction.- Part I - Case Studies in Early Modernity.- Chapter 2.The Secret History of the “Earling Exorcism.- Chapter 3.Demoniac possession and religious scientific debate in nineteenth-century France.- Chapter 4.A Brazilian exorcist at the beginning of the 20th century: the supernatural as an empowerment strategy.- Part II - Case Studies in Late Modernity.- Chapter 5.The Devil returns. Practices of catholic Exorcism in Argentina.- Chapter 6.Diagnosing the Devil. A Case Study on a Prool between an Exorcist and a Psychiatrist in Italy.- Chapter 7.Shaping the Past, Envisioning the Future. Exorcism and the Demon of Memory.- Chapter 8.Doing Battle with the Forces of Darkness in a Secularized Society.- Chapter 9.Exorcism, Deliverance, and the Embodied Presence in the Church of England.- Chapter 10.Spiritual Flows and Obstructions: Local Deliverance in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.- Chapter 11.Mental health of the Exorcist: an ethnographic case study in Tampa Bay.- Chapter 12.Exorcism, medias and the Romanian orthodoxy: chasing the Devil, coping with uncertainty.- Chapter 13.Ruqyah and Islamic Treatment Centers in Indonesia.- Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

This volume demonstrates that the subject is rightly deserving of serious academic treatment.” (Sarah Ferber, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 90 (1), March, 2022)

“This volume succeeds as both a well-researched contribution to the study of modernity and one of the best analytic studies of exorcism more generally.” (William Chavez, Reading Religion, readingreligion.org, September 1, 2021)

From the Publisher