The Devil Within: Possession & Exorcism in the Christian West

A fascinating, wide-ranging survey of the history of demon possession and exorcism through the ages.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the era of the Reformation, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons. In response to their horrifying symptoms—violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of foreign objects, displaying contempt for sacred objects, and others—exorcists were summoned to expel the evil spirits from victims' bodies. This compe...