This paper elucidates Pentecostal/Charismatic understandings of demonology (study of demons—in Christian theology, disembodied evil spirits with intellects, wills, and emotions, capable of entering or influencing humans), exorcism (practices intended to drive demons out of people or places), and deliverance (practices intended to liberate people not fully “possessed” from demonic influences). This paper explains why practices aimed at “freedom from demons” play a significant, poorly understood role in Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, and it illuminates how U.S. practices emerged though multi-staged, cross-cultural interactions.
Despite the centrality of exorcism and deliverance to the ministry of Jesus, the subject is controversial, or simply ignored, in most U.S. churches. Theologians debate thorny questions: Did Jesus’ victory on the cross end demonic activity? Do modern medical and psychological diagnoses (e.g. epilepsy, dissociative identity disorder) account for phenomena once attributed to demons? Is demonic power limited to deception, or does it extend to physical harm? Can Christians, or Spirit-baptized Christians, be demonized? Does blaming problems on demons evade moral accountability? Should deliverance have any place in modern church practice? If so, should it be done often or as a last resort?
According to polls, 50% of the U.S. population believe demons/evil spirits definitely or probably exist (Ballard 2020) and can possess people (YouGov 2013), and 68% agree that angels and demons are active in the world (Pew 2009). Among U.S. Pentecostals, 34% have witnessed exorcism (Pew 2006). The Exorcist (1973)—the highest-grossing R-rated horror film ever made—launched an ever-growing industry of supernatural films, television series, podcasts, and books. Both Catholic and Protestant leaders report that U.S. demand for exorcism or deliverance is increasing despite modern medical and psychological advances (Gallagher 2020; Peck 1983). Moreover, Muslims (Gholipour 2014) and Hindus (Nandy 2016) share with Christians belief in demonic possession.
Demonology and deliverance are controversial or undiscussed in most (even Pentecostal or Charismatic) U.S. churches, notwithstanding the prominence of exorcism in the New Testament and early Christianity (MacMullen 1984; Graham 2007). A U.S. leadership vacuum is filled by maverick, self-styled exorcists whose sensationalism or lack of follow-up sometimes causes trauma—or even death—to already-suffering people (Cuneo 2001).
By contrast, deliverance is well-integrated into many churches (Protestant and Catholic, even non-pentecostal ones) in the “Global South”—in areas of Latin America, Africa, and Asia where illness and poverty pervade (Chesnut 1997; Meyer 1999; Ma & Ma 2010). Surveys show that most Pentecostals in the Global South (e.g. 80% in Brazil, 86% in Kenya) have personal deliverance experiences (Pew 2006); Southern leaders attribute their higher retention of new converts, compared with U.S. evangelistic crusades (80% vs 6%), to deliverance (Clark 1999).
Historically, as Christianity spread to the Global South, many converts reinterpreted traditional spirits in terms of Christian demonology and read the Bible as a practical guidebook to exorcise them (Jenkins 2006). In cultures that presume porous boundaries between the material and spiritual realms, people often attribute physical misfortunes to spiritual agents (Sanneh & Carpenter 2005). Colonial and post-colonial economies exacerbated poverty, drove wedges between kin, and created psychological tensions, provoking new charges of witchcraft (Hasu 2009; Währisch-Oblau & Wrogemann 2015; Crooks 2018). Although spiritual cosmologies can obscure awareness of structural injustices, deliverance often aids larger-scale work for social justice (Miller & Yamamori 2007; Espinosa 2014). The same term—liberación in Spanish, liberação in Portuguese—can denote spiritual and social freedom. Historically, as U.S. missionaries observed indigenous evangelists perform exorcisms, some missionaries became convinced of the reality of demons. At first discounting the problem as irrelevant to “civilized Americans,” later encounters with similar phenomena in the United States convinced these missionaries that North Americans might also need deliverance (Prince 1998).
The imperial context of modern missions created conditions for the emergence of culturally multi-lingual, highly educated, and globally influential elites who disseminated re-enchanted biblicism globally (Woodhead 2011). Nevertheless, certain U.S. church leaders influenced by Enlightenment rationalism and materialistic reductionism sometimes make culturally arrogant assumptions: that co-religionists in the Global South are “primitive,” “superstitious,” “syncretistic,” or more in “need” of deliverance; such premises are challenged by leaders in the Global South who have probed deeper to develop theologies and practices of spiritual liberation (Deiros & Bottari 1999; Ma et al. 2014).
Demonology and deliverance practices that are normative for many of the world’s Christians are becoming increasingly relevant to U.S. churches. Since passage of the U.S. Immigration Act of 1965, there has been an influx of immigrants from cultures with spirit-rich cosmologies (Eck 2001; Jenkins 2002). In 2019, 14% of the U.S. population was immigrant, with the largest proportion (44%) Hispanic (Esterline & Batalova 2022). Belief in demons is more common among U.S. Black (81% of Protestant churchgoers, 72% of Catholic churchgoers) and Asian Americans (81% of Evangelicals, 67% of Catholics) than other U.S. Christians (67% of Protestants, 57% of Catholics) (Pew 2021; Pew 2012; Ballard 2020). Personal experience with exorcism is reported by 18% of Hispanic Charismatic Catholics versus 6% of non-Hispanic Catholics, 11% of all U.S. Christians, and 34% of U.S. Pentecostals (Pew 2006; Pew 2007). Meanwhile, U.S. Christians of European ancestry have appropriated practices such as Transcendental Meditation, Buddhist mindfulness, yoga, and acupuncture that developed in religious contexts other than Christianity (Brown 2013; Pew 2014; Brown 2019). Certain Christian leaders from the Global South (e.g. Maharaj 1977; Bottari 2000) suggest that North American experimentation with such practices, although intended to improve physical and mental health, may unintentionally make U.S. Christians more vulnerable to demonic influences.
The few scholars who have studied U.S. deliverance practices (Cuneo 2001; McCloud 2015) focus too narrowly on the U.S. context; they overestimate the role of popular media, consumerism, therapeutic self-help, and conservative politics, while overlooking multidirectional, global cultural flows that shaped U.S. developments. Notably, U.S. Christians who popularized deliverance borrowed from Christians in the Global South but often failed to credit their sources, neglected contextual factors, or distorted emphases (Jackson 2016). This has in certain cases resulted in harm to individuals and provided grounds for charges of intellectual theft and cultural appropriation (Corten & Marshall-Fratani 2001).
This paper explains why practices aimed at “freedom from demons” play a significant, poorly understood role in Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, and it illuminates how U.S. practices emerged though multi-staged, cross-cultural interactions. Despite the centrality of exorcism/deliverance to the ministry of Jesus—and widespread popular belief in demons today—the subject is controversial, or ignored, in most U.S. churches. A U.S. leadership vacuum is filled by maverick, self-styled exorcists whose sensationalism exacerbates suffering. Meanwhile, deliverance is well-integrated into many Global South churches. Spiritual cosmologies can obscure or facilitate awareness of structural injustices. The same term—liberación in Spanish, liberação in Portuguese—can denote spiritual and social freedom. Historically, as U.S. missionaries observed indigenous evangelists perform exorcisms, some missionaries became convinced of the reality of demons. At first discounting the problem as irrelevant to “civilized Americans,” later encounters with similar phenomena in the United States convinced missionaries that North Americans also need deliverance.