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Magic in literature, while condemned by some Christians, is often viewed by Christians as non-evil. The key distinction would be between real-life magic and pretend magic. This view holds that in real life, the practice of supernatural abilities (i.e. magic) must have a supernatural power source or origin, which would be either holy or evil.
In Christianity, exorcism involves the practice of casting out one or more demons from a person whom they believe to have been possessd by demons. The person performing the exorcism, known as an exorcist, is often a member of the Christian Church, or an individual thought to be graced with special powers or skills.
In many Hindu traditions, people can be possessed by bhootas, pretas or pisachas, restless and often malignant beings roughly analogous to ghosts, [33] and to a lesser extent, demons. [34] Of four Vedas, or holy books, of Hinduism, the Atharva Veda is most focused on knowledge such as exorcism, [35] magic, and alchemy. [36]
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believe that the Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead, and is a personage of spirit, without a body of flesh and bones. [128] Unlike in many other denominations, the term "Holy Ghost" remains much more common than "Holy Spirit" in LDS contexts. [129]
Early sociological interpretations of magic by Marcel Mauss and Henri Hubert emphasized the social conditions in which the phenomenon of magic develops. [1] According to them, religion is the expression of a social structure and serves to maintain the cohesion of a community (religion is therefore public) and magic is an individualistic action ...
Many authors believed that demons could assume the shape of an animal. [citation needed] Raoul Glaber, a monk of Saint-Léger, Belgium, seems to have been the first in writing about the visit of a demon of horrible aspect in his Historiarum sui temporis, Libri quinque (History of his Time in Five Books). [citation needed]
Arndt, whose book True Christianity was popular among Protestants, Catholics and Anglicans alike, combined influences from Bernard of Clairvaux, John Tauler and the Devotio Moderna into a spirituality that focused its attention away from the theological squabbles of contemporary Lutheranism and onto the development of the new life in the heart ...
Initial guidelines were issued in 1614. [1] In Catholicism, exorcism is a sacramental [2] [3] but not a sacrament, unlike baptism or confession. Unlike a sacrament, exorcism's "integrity and efficacy do not depend ... on the rigid use of an unchanging formula or on the ordered sequence of prescribed actions.