The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West
Brian P. Levack
2013 Yale University Press edition
STARTING FRAMEPsychological / Academic — religious history
EXPLORESScience, History & Faith
ENGAGEMENT EFFORTDemanding
HOW IT MAY HELPHelps orient
A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
A history of possession and exorcism that asks how religious cultures supplied the scripts through which afflicted people and their communities understood and enacted possession.
Good starting place if…
You want historical explanation before deciding what possession reports mean metaphysically or clinically.
Know before you begin…
The book studies Western Christian history and performance; it does not diagnose individual cases or settle whether spiritual beings exist.
