This is a Penguin Classic edition. Penguins are collectors’ items nowadays. Instagram collectors feature them in their posts. They never go out of style since the bindings are well glued together even if the covers become frayed over the years. I have many Penguin editions which I have collected over the years. Penguins used to be used as textbooks for college classes, so they were always around if you wanted to find them. Now Penguin issues new editions with distinctive covers to attract new buyers/collectors. This book is classified under History & Religion. The editor for this book has presented an edition which overall I feel is more specifically steeped in folklore. I will explain.
This is actually a very informative book as it deals which how humans have dealt with paranormal phenomena and ritualistic formulas to recapture a balanced way of life. The word “exorcisms” here in the book title deals with a generalized subject of anything adversely effecting people which is then attended to by another so-called expert who performs a type of ritual for the person beset by said adversity. The book describes varying degrees of success for the exorcists. Many of the cases here take on what we would call a “medical procedure” with an examination, diagnosis, and treatment. In the religious parlance the familiar word “ritual” is used to describe this.
The greatest exorcist of all is Jesus of Nazareth who performed many expulsions of demons. Jesus’ accounts are not listed in this book. The cases of Jesus are so well known that even in the post Christian world they are one of the few things that survive in the popular western imagination.
The issue with the book in my view is that since it is not a Christian publication on Demonology or Christian ritual for those under the influence of malignant spirits it, perhaps intentionally, becomes a catalog of white magic versus black magic. A world where forces of evil become predominate over the forces of good, someone becomes an agent for good to try to arrest the dark forces from spreading their influence. This is not a Christian view of the world and therefore not the purpose of exorcisms in that tradition. This book indirectly brings Christian understandings under the umbrella of incantations to ward off evil sometimes using apparent forces of good but just as easily using any force for evil as well. The schema of the book is to illustrate how someone enters the picture of another’s personal distress to use occult powers to fend off occult influence. This book offers a dualist understanding of spiritual realities. Not helpful per se, but interesting for historical documentation. The chapters proceed chronologically from earliest times to 2012. There are many excellent selections such as from: St Thomas Aquinas, St Athanasius, Erasmus, Josephus, and Report of a Poltergeist which touches on the case which prompted William Peter Blatty to write his novel The Exorcist.
Most people would read this for interest in the paranormal but I read it as an anthology of cases to be evaluated from different religious perspectives. No photos, interesting notes and suggested readings. ( )