Description

Edited by Laycock, Joseph P.; By (author) Laycock, Joseph P.

Perfect for Hallowe”en: haunting accounts of real-life exorcisms through the centuries, from ancient Egypt and the biblical Middle East to colonial America and twentieth-century South Africa

Levitation. Feats of superhuman strength. Speaking in tongues. A hateful, glowing stare. The signs of spirit possession have been documented for thousands of years and across religions and cultures, even into our own time. Unsettling and chilling, The Penguin Book of Exorcisms brings together the most astonishing accounts: Saint Anthony set upon by demons in the form of a lion, a bull and a panther, who are no match for his devotion and prayer; the Prophet Muhammad casting an enemy of God out of a young boy; fox spirits in medieval China and Japan; a headless bear assaulting a woman in sixteenth-century England; the possession of an entire convent of Ursuline nuns in a French town; a Zulu woman who daily floated to a height of five feet; the exorcism in Earling, Iowa, in 1928 that inspired the film The Exorcist; a Filipina girl ”bitten by devils”; and a rare example of a priest”s letter requesting permission of a bishop to perform an exorcism – after witnessing a boy walk backwards up a wall. . .

Review quote:
Suitably chilling reading for Halloween . . . Shows in illuminating detail how the belief in demonic possession stretches back more than 2,500 years

Review quote:

Gripping . . . Thoroughly researched . . . [with a] descriptive flare in rendering the ”goblinlike entities,” jealous demons, and evil spirits . . . This is a boon for anyone curious about exorcism and its wide-ranging, spiritually diverse legacy

Review quote:
Spellbinding . . . Gripping . . . Fascinating . . . Demons, devils, dybbuks, jinn, zar and Chinese fox-spirits abound in accounts dating back to ancient times. . . . The editor”s introductions are sharp and cogent. . . . [For] readers hungry for illumination – and a touch of terror

Biographical note:

Joseph P. Laycock (Author, External Editor)

Joseph P. Laycock is an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University and a co-editor of the journal Nova Religio. He is the author or editor of several books about religion, including Speak of the Devil, Spirit Possession Around the World, and The Seer of Bayside, and has written for Quartz and The New Republic. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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Haunting accounts of real-life exorcisms through the centuries and around the world, from ancient Egypt and the biblical Middle East to colonial America and twentieth-century South Africa

Excerpt:

Contents

The Ancient Near East

· An Exorcism from the Library of Ashurbanipal, Seventh Century BCE
· The Bentresh Stela, Fourth Century BCE

The Greco-Roman World

· Hippocrates, “On the Sacred Disease,” 400 BCE
· Lucian of Samosata, The Syrian Exorcist, 150 CE
· Tertullian, The Nature of Demons, 197 CE
· Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 210 CE
· Athanasius, The Life of Saint Anthony, 370 CE

Medieval Europe

· Cynewulf, “Juliana,” 970–990
· Thomas Aquinas, The Powers of Angels and Demons, 1274

Early Modern Europe and America

· Desiderius Erasmus, “The Exorcism or Apparition,” 1519
· A Possessed Woman Attacked by a Headless Bear, 1584
· “A True Discourse Upon the Matter of Marthe Brossier,” 1599
· Des Niau, The History of the Devils of Loudun, 1634
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