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Christian demonology is the study of demons from a Christian point of view. It is primarily based on the Bible ( Old and New Testaments ), the interpretation of these scriptures, the writings of early Christianity philosophers , hermits , and the associated traditions and legends incorporated from other beliefs.
Christians have understood the devil as the personification of evil, the author of lies and the promoter of evil, and as a metaphor of human evil. However, the devil can go no further than God, or human freedom, allows, resulting in the problem of evil.
According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, 74% of Christians in Ethiopia claim to have experienced or witnessed an exorcism. [51] Demon-possessed persons are brought to a church or prayer meeting. [52] Often, when an ill person has not responded to modern medical treatment, the affliction is attributed to demons. [52]
Illustration of Jesus exorcizing the Gerasene demoniac by Spencer Alexander McDaniel, 2020. In the New Testament, Legion (Ancient Greek: λεγιών) is a group of demons, particularly those in two of three versions of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac, an account in the synoptic Gospels of an incident in which Jesus performs an exorcism.
Demons (also known as div), though part of the human conception, get stronger through acts of sin. [47] By acts of obedience (to God), they get weaker. Although a human might find pleasure in obeying the demons first, according to Islamic thought, the human soul can only be free if the demons are bound by the spirit (ruh). [48]
The exorcisms that they performed were, according to Contemporary American Religion, "clandestine, underground affairs, undertaken without the approval of the Catholic Church and without the rigorous psychological screening that the church required. In subsequent years, the Church took more aggressive action on the demon-expulsion front.
The Testament of Solomon, [4] an early treatise on demons of Judeo-Christian origin, presents the demon Ornias, who assumes the shape of a woman to copulate with men (though in other versions he does it while in the shape of an old man [5]). After meeting him, King Solomon asks Beelzebub if there are female demons, suggesting a difference ...
The situation was further complicated by the rise of new religious movements that considered witchcraft to be a religion. These perspectives do not claim that witches actually consciously enter into a pact with Satan because Satan is not normally believed to exist in Wicca or other modern neo-pagan witchcraft practices. [28] [29]