(No spoilers here)
I watched “Pope’s Exorcist” the other day, more because Russell Crowe is in it than anything else. TLDR: Father Gabrielle Amorth is sent by the Pope (see Note 1) to investigate a powerful case of demon possession in Spain. He uncovers some conspiratorial crap by the Vatican, fights the demon, etc.
Anyway, ok, so here are few points comparing material in the movie with what I understand from the Bible:
1. The younger papal leadership’s rejection of Father Amorth’s belief in demons, and doing so in the name of greater “relevance”, has uncanny echoes in real life.
I know a few Christians (incl theologians) who want to have nothing to do with talk of demons because, as per N.T. Wright (who also doesn’t talk much about demonic forces), this may give ppl the impression of “horned beings with pitched forks”.
Basically, some Christians are (for whatever reason) ‘embarassed’ by the idea that demons and demonic possession are real. As a result people like Walter Wink and Nadiz-Bolz Weber prefer to reduce the demonic to social or cultural institutions. Essentially, for them the limits of volitional evil stop with Man; there’s no need to invoke Satan or malevolent spiritual agents (esp if these can’t be “scientifically proven”).
My own take is that such folks have privileged modern culture and ‘science’ to the exclusion of what the Bible (esp the New Testament) actually says; in doing so, they’ve relegated huge chunks of Scripture to either sheer literary fantasy or error (which is a bad call, but what do I know). It’d be interesting to understand from such folks who then is Jesus’ temper in the wilderness, or was Matthew doing a Rushdie and writing magical realism? Should we translate all of Jesus’ exorcisms into psychiatric categories? Is “Satan” just a fancy personal name that centuries of Bible writers used because they just didn’t know better? See note 2).
2. The association of demonic possession with physical violence and bodily harm is attested to in the New Testament (Mark 1:26, Lk 9:39, 11:14, Matt 17:15 and lots more verses). Example, Mark 1:25–26 could fit a Hollywood script.
3. The clear separation of mental illness from demonic possession is also something I’ve heard of (a few pastors I know have mentioned this); this, to me, is additional proof that we cannot ‘reduce’ the demonic to the social-psychological.
4. Asmodeus, the “King of Hell”, isn’t in the Bible but it’s found in other ancient Jewish spiritual writings. Also, this idea that demons can be ‘encaged’ in some physical or earthly cage (which can be later opened unintentionally, wrecking havoc and so on, etc.) doesn’t sound Biblical.
5. The ‘hierarchy’ of demons or the understanding that some demons can be more powerful than others, whilst not explicit in the Bible, could be implied by the fact that Satan is known as the “prince” of this world (Eph 2:22) and his rule may be divided if his minions don’t all fall in line (Mark 3:23–26). Also, in Daniel 10 it’s said that the arch-angel Michael was held back by the Prince of Persia. I don’t know how you read such a passage but to me it shows that some demons are clearly more powerful than others.
Nevertheless, I don’t think there’s any warrant to the suggestion in the movie that demons are more powerful at night or that praying in Latin is more effective. Speaking of which…
6. Whilst there’s nothing in the Bible to suggest that praying in Latin will hit demons harder, it’s clear that prayer is a key weapon against dark spiritual forces (Mark 9:29). The call at the end of Ephesians 6 to pray 24/7 for everything, coming right after talking about the ‘armor of God’ also suggests to me that Paul believes that prayer is a powerful force to combat evil. Note, too, that Paul equates the ‘sword’ of God to God’s word (Eph 6:17) so Father Amorth’s constant use of the Bible against the demon is Biblically sound.
Alas, there’s nothing in the Bible to say that you need wield a cross or crucifix to cast out demons.
7. Blaming the Devil for centuries of persecution and oppression of the church is convenient (and maybe a tad bit irresponsible) but a) if what the NT says about the influence of the “powers and principalities” (translated as a bad-ass kingdom of demons, see Note 2) then it’s not entirely false that bad shit from Christian organisations has a demonic influence and b) check out David Bentley Hart’s “Atheistic Delusions” for a nuanced take on these evils in church history (TLDR: there’s a lot of light too in the midst of the darkness).
Note 1: Some movie trivia. In this film the Pope is played by Franco Nero who was also in John Wick 2 where he asked John, “Sei qui per il Santo Padre?” (Are you here to kill the Holy Father?).
Note 2: I’ve blogged quite a bit about the pervasive influence of demonic powers.
