Book Review
The Devil, You Say
I Am Not Afraid: Demon Possession
and Spiritual Warfare
by Robert H. Bennett
Concordia Publishing House, 2013
(216 pages, $24.99, paperback)
reviewed by Timothy R. Furnish
Observing that demonic possession is legion in our allegedly secularized culture may be an understatement. Dozens of movies on demons and exorcism have followed 1973's The Exorcist, just as hundreds of books, both fiction and non-fiction, were spawned by William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel. (As I write this review, the Spanish film Exorcismus is showing on TV channel IFC.) Many films and published works claim, like The Exorcist, to be true accounts. The Vatican, under Pope Benedict XVI, was reported to have begun the training of hundreds of new exorcists. Evangelical pastors such as Bob Larson have created entire spiritual warfare ministries. Even the Antiochian Orthodox Church in the U.S. has at least one prominent exorcism expert these days—Fr. George Aquaro.
Now, the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LC–MS), not exactly known for openly battling the devil—at least since Martin threw his inkwell at the Adversary—has published a new book on the topic by one of its ministers. Robert H. Bennett, a LC–MS pastor who holds S.T.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, and has done mission work in Madagascar, has written a book on spiritual warfare among the Malagasy people. Slightly over half of the book treats possession and exorcism in Madagascar, while the remainder deals with those topics in the New Testament, in Luther's time, and in the views of a number of prominent LC–MS theologians.
Dr. Bennett is attempting to provide a conservative Lutheran alternative view of spiritual warfare to the secular doubting Thomases in the Western world, as well as to refute the "foolishness" of the "medieval" and "magical" Roman Catholic perspective, particularly the exorcism rite itself (137). While his fieldwork is impossible to refute, and his pastoral concerns are clear, Bennett's narrow focus on the conservative Lutheran assessment of possession and exorcism limits this book's analytical utility and its appeal to other Christians.
The Battle in Madagascar
Madagascar, an island nation off Africa's southeastern coast, has a population of about 21 million, split between Austronesian and African (mainly Bantu) ancestry. About 40 percent of the island's people are Christian, divided between four denominations: Roman Catholic, Church of Jesus Christ (Reformed), Lutheran, and Anglican. The Lutherans number about three million but are the fastest-growing group, thanks to a revival movement known as Fifohazana, which is kept going by mpiandry, "shepherds" who are specially trained laity. Christians, however, are outnumbered by adherents of traditional religion, among whom the placating—and, indeed, worship—of ancestral and other spirits is rife.
But whether animist or Christian, "for the Malagasy, all experiences, including disease, sickness, and death have spiritual causes" (15). According to both pastors and mpiandry, many Malagasys "become possessed through their interaction with the traditional religions. They beg the ancestral spirits to possess them, but these are . . . [actually] demons who disguise themselves as ancestral spirits" (22). This includes Christians as well as non-Christians.
Bennett also thinks that the obsession with propitiating dead ancestors via building them expensive and elaborate tombs is a major element keeping the people mired in poverty: "the tombs are well kept and modern looking, while the homes are many times falling down and deserted looking" (39). Furthermore, many Malagasy practice famadihana—exhuming and re-burying their dead every few years (40–41) which also contributes, at least in the minds of the people, to spirit
possession.
The liturgy of the Malagasy Lutheran Church contains two forms of exorcism: a general one, of a place; and a specific one, of an individual (44f). Both consist of prayers, Gospel readings, and invocations in the name of Christ that the evil spirits depart. According to a Malagasy pastor, Joseph Randrianasolo, "exorcism . . . puts the mpiandry and the Fifohazana at the forefront of a daily battle against Satan and his kingdom" (47). Bennett notes that "sometimes many exorcisms are needed to free the possessed person from the grasp of the demons" (50–51), and the exorcism is not deemed successful until "the individual regains composure and begins to pray in Jesus' name" (52).
Bennett's empirical methodology consisted of interviews with 64 Malagasy individuals, 35 of whom self-reported having been possessed at some point in their lives. While that is a rather small statistical sample, the anecdotal accounts are disturbing and ring true. As Michael Green observed in his seminal work Evangelism in the Early Church, modern missionaries in Asia and Africa are recapitulating the experiences of the Church in apostolic times—particularly in spiritual warfare.
Timothy R. Furnish is an author and consultant who specializes in Islamic eschatology and sects, as well as in comparative Christian—Muslim issues. He is a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod who is also quite fond of Orthodox Christian theology.
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