An unsettling, absorbing account of the phenomenon of demonic possession by a medical expert.
A professor of clinical psychology at New York Medical College chronicles his decades of experience with people who believe they are demonically possessed.
In his foreword, Joseph English, past president of the American Psychiatric Association, writes that this book “may be unique in history: the serious treatment of a long-disputed topic by a superbly credentialed academic physician.” Gallagher was drawn into the world of demons by a priest who asked him to help rule out medical causes for a woman who said she was being beaten by invisible spirits. He’s been working in this field, mostly as an unpaid consultant to Catholic priests, ever since. Gallagher provides helpful context and background, including the history of belief in demons and the role of the Catholic Church in their exorcism, and he explains signs of the presence of demons: superhuman strength, speaking in foreign or archaic languages, abusive attacks, unexplained knowledge of the exorcist’s personal life. The author defines a continuum between demonic possession and oppression (possession is more serious) and describes the suffering of the possessed. He speculates on how victims came to be pursued by demons (several subjects indulged in satanic worship) and analyzes cases where a belief in demonic possession masked true mental illness. Skeptics be forewarned that Gallagher truly believes in demons. A Catholic, he calls them “cosmic” terrorists who despise humans and seek to “negate our loving personalities, destroy us spiritually…even cause our physical death.” The author doesn’t provide an explicit cosmology or theology for the origin of demons. In the name of confidentiality, he changes names and locations of his victims and the priests he worked with and doesn’t provide anchoring dates, making it difficult to further research his account. Nevertheless, this is a cogently written book on a fascinating subject. Believers will love it, unbelievers will relish an argument with its premises, and even the most skeptical will marvel at the mysteries of human behavior it investigates.
An unsettling, absorbing account of the phenomenon of demonic possession by a medical expert.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-287647-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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