Posted on 09/03/2009 2:06:06 PM PDT by Teófilo
Sober and Informative. In The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, author Matt Baglio has set out to document what is perhaps the scariest claim that Church can make: that spiritual entities, perpetually bent on evil, at times come to affect and even alter the consciousness of individual people. Baglio has successfully avoided the pitfalls of the sensational and lurid, bringing to the reader a fair and balanced description of the often misunderstood phenomenon of demonic possession, and the rite of exorcism that Catholic priests, in the Name of Jesus Christ, utilize to free their victims from this form of demonic influence.
Mr. Baglio presents his findings in a story form centered around the experiences of Fr. Gary Thomas, a California priest sent to Rome by his bishop to attend formal training to become an exorcist back in 2005. According to Mr. Baglio, the courses there “taught him, among other things, how to distinguish between a genuine possession and mental illness. Eventually he would go on to participate in more than eighty exorcisms as an apprentice to a veteran Italian exorcist. His experiences profoundly changed the way he viewed the spiritual world, and as he moved from rational skeptic to practicing exorcist he came to understand the battle between good and evil in a whole new light.”
The author researched the matter thoroughly and he either interviewed or quotes several big names in this field throughout the book: Fr. José Antonio Fortea, a Spanish priest and author of several books on demonology and exorcism; Fr. Gabriele Amorth, also a noted exorcist and author, Fr. Carmine De Filippis OFM Cap, Fr. Francesco Bramonte, and various others. Mr. Baglio also researched classical sources such as Sts. Agustine and Thomas Aquinas, as well as modern such as catecheses and other addresses by the late Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and other little-known documents from Vatican congregations.
Not content with ecclesiastical sources alone, Mr. Baglio expanded his research to medical and anthropological sources, many of them skeptical of the supernatural, to say the least about the existence of demons and the existence of such a thing as “possession.” One such authority Mr. Baglio quotes is the late Dr. Barry Beyerstein, a renowned skeptic and cofounder of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, who dismissed demonic possession as merely an abnormal brain state, explainable under the established laws of science.
An skeptical quote I found most interesting because it hit “home” refers to the work of the late Dr. Nicholas Spanos, Multiple Identities & False Memories: A Sociocognitive Perspective, who espoused a “socio-cognitive” view of exorcism in his studies of espiritistas in Puerto Rico. That brought back to memory some third-hand chilling stories told to me during my childhood and youth in the utmost seriousness by adults who had heard about them, or witnessed it themselves. In this view, although not fully stated in the book, Catholic exorcists are but as members of a large set of shamans that extend through other Christian denominations and world religions, something that Mr. Baglio also mentions, albeit not with the word “shamans” – that’s my take on the conclusions of “socio-cognitive” scientists. All these sources and more Mr. Baglio collected in an extensive bibliography compiled at the end of his book.
Written in a simple, straightforward journalistic style, Mr. Baglio’s book is not a religious book, but a book about religion, or rather, about a limited subset of religious belief and practice in the Catholic Church. This is not a “Catholic book.” To be frank, you will get from it what you bring to it. If you’re not a religious believer, odds are that you won’t be one when you finish this book, but if you are a religious believer, specifically of the Catholic sort – like me – you will see your faith confirmed. The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist is a sober work worthy of anyone interested in the paranormal, abnormal psychology, anthropology, as well as Catholic theology.
PING!
Yeah, it's called American liberalism.
What a coincidence, I am reading this book right now. I ordered it from Amazon 3 or 4 weeks back, and am about half-way through it. I have also read some of the other books by the authors this reviewer mentions (such as Father Amorth’s 2 books). It is interesting to read more theolgical and/or “factual” books on this topic, as opposed to the hype that comes out of Hollywood.
Agreed! I am thinking about reading Fr. Amorth’s books next. Happy reading!
-Theo
Those were interesting books. Another really good one that I read recently is called “Interview With an Exorcist - An Insiders Look at the Devil, Demonic Possession, and the Path to Deliverance”, by Father Jose’ Antonio Fortea. Hearing the theological background on these matters is interesting.
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