The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in Christianity (eBook)

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.

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).