‘Spirit Possession and Exorcism in Today’s Church of England’

Davies, Douglas J.

Abstract

The Church of England, a Protestant transformation of Catholicism, is derived from a two thousand year cultural history of belief and ritual that has, within its own biblical texts, included ideas of the hard-form of possession and exorcism, and is heir to liturgies of baptismal initiation whose early forms included formal exorcism. Moreover British Protestantism itself hosted a significant late-medieval cum early-modern phase of possession and witchcraft engaging possession by evil forces. Focused, then, on its state church, this chapter briefly sketches its historical background, offers a slightly fuller account of the last fifty years, and a more detailed analysis of contemporary exorcism and its complementary notion of possession. The detail will take three Anglican dioceses, document their approach to what is often called deliverance ministry, and furnish some detailed account of case studies of a small number of selected clerical professionals. In theoretical terms the chapter will briefly indicate the way possession and exorcism are related to ideas of evil, of social deprivation, and of personhood and embodiment. This will include the theoretically challenging phenomenon of the post 1970s Charismatic Movement within Anglicanism with its doctrinal stress of the Holy Spirit as an influence upon its largely middle-class devotees, some acceptance of evil spirits, influences, and deliverance. This ritual-focus on deliverance will be compared with that of medically-linked therapeutic care. These two foci frame an arena of cultural uncertainty, revealing paradoxical attitudes to notions of personhood, identity, ecclesial authority, mental wellbeing, and divine or satanic influence. This uncertainty will, finally, be discussed alongside phenomena that are not usually related to exorcism and yet which bring home the often ‘exotic’ elements of exorcism as belonging to some ‘other’ culture. Here the theoretical emphasis will lie on identity and one’s apparently ‘dead’ kin. The human capacity to identify with other living persons and to embrace them as part of one’s composite identity offers its own very weak form of possession, most especially when experiencing one’s dead parent’s embodied behaviour (habitus) in one’s own. In other words, the sense of the presence of one’s dead in oneself, whether in everyday behaviour or, of the sense of being close to one’s dead, as fostered in some forms of liturgical context, offers a phenomenological family resemblance to possession, albeit a benign kind not usually requiring any exorcism.

Citation

Davies, D. J. (2020). ‘Spirit Possession and Exorcism in Today’s Church of England’. In G. Giordan, & . A. Possamai (Eds.), The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in Christianity (137–157). Springer

• Online Publication Date: Jun 2, 2020
• Publication Date: Jun 2, 2020
• Deposit Date: May 5, 2025
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 137–157
• Book Title: The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in Christianity
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 978-3030431723
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3931873
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-43173-0
• Additional Information: 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.