Spiritual warfare?
In The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, the novel for children published in October 1950, C.S. Lewis, one of the leading Christian apologists of the 20th century wrote, "There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan."
Spiritual warfare was what Lewis was talking about almost six and a half decades ago, just as the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians almost 2,000 years earlier had said, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
In his Monday homily at a mass some six weeks ago on Nov. 18, Pope Francis, 77, made reference to the 1907 apocalyptic and dystopian novel Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson, son of the Archbishop of Canterbury Edward White Benson and himself a former Anglican clergyman, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1903 and was ordained a priest in 1904, in which he writes of an imagined future where, in the words of Father Robert Barron, rector of University of Saint Mary of the Lake, also known as Mundelein Seminary, in Chicago, "Europe and America are dominated by a rationalist regime bent on making life as technologically convenient and politically harmonious as possible." Sound familiar?
Of course when exorcism makes it to the front row of popular culture and it's not just Roman Catholics who become interested in one of the most arcane yet powerful symbolic and spiritual rituals in both ancient and modern Christianity, you might suspect spiritual warfare remains part of our continuing consciousness. "Exorcism is as old as Christianity itself," religion writer Laurie Goodstein noted in the New York Times on Nov. 12, 2010. "The New Testament has accounts of Jesus casting out demons, and it is cited in the Catholic Church's catechism."
In fact, Anglicans also have a rite of exorcism, and some evangelicals embrace the practice in rare and serious circumstances. It's a struggle with the Devil, or the "Enemy" as we Catholics often call him. Italian priest Father Gabriele Amorth, 88, is the most famous living exorcist in the Catholic Church. His 1994 memoirs, published in English under the title An Exorcist Tells His Story, became an instant classic.
Trumpeted in both Time and Newsweek as the creator of the crossover Christian thriller, Lethbridge, Alta.-born evangelical fiction writer Frank E. Peretti, 61, who now lives in northern Idaho (he spent from 1978 to 1984 as a factory ski maker working at the K2 ski company on Vashon Island in Washington State's Puget Sound) wrote two of the best-selling spiritual warfare novels in recent times - This Present Darkness, published in 1986 and Piercing the Darkness, published in 1989.
He also played the banjo in a bluegrass band called Northern Cross.
This Present Darkness was not an immediate publishing phenomenon, but gradually word began to spread, and the book remained on the Christian Booksellers Association's Top 10 bestsellers list for over 150 consecutive weeks. It has sold over two million copies worldwide. This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, popularized the idea of territorial spirits ruling over specific geographical areas, vividly portraying demons, commanded by Rafar, and angels -led by Tal, captain of the heavenly host - engaging in fierce aerial battles over schools, churches, towns and territories, have combined sales of more than 3.5 million copies.
Oh. And one of the unlikely heroes of This Present Darkness? The fictional editor of the local small town weekly newspaper, the Ashton Clarion, former big city reporter and skeptic Marshall Hogan.
No kidding. Really.
