"Exorcism and Enlightenment" by H. C. Erik Midelfort

Exorcism and Enlightenment Johann Joseph Gassner and the Demons of Eighteenth-Century Germany H. C. Erik Midelfort

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Series:: The Terry Lectures Series
Format:: Hardback
Publication date:: 28 Jul 2005
ISBN:: 9780300106695
Imprint:: Yale University Press
Dimensions:: 240 pages: 210 x 140mm
Illustrations:: 3 halftone illus. + 2 maps
Sales territories:: World

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In the late eighteenth century, Catholic priest Johann Joseph Gassner (1727–1779) discovered that he had extraordinary powers of exorcism. Deciding that demons were responsible for most human ailments, he healed thousands, rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic. In this book H. C. Erik Midelfort delves deeply into records of the time to explore Gassner’s remarkable exorcising campaign, chronicle the official efforts to curb him, and reconstruct the sufferings of the afflicted.

Gassner’s activities triggered a Catholic religious revival as well as a noisy skeptical reaction. In response to those who doubted that he was really casting out demons, Gassner marshaled hundreds of eyewitness reports that seemed to prove his exorcisms really worked. Midelfort describes the enormous public controversy that resulted, and he demonstrates that the Gassner episode yields important insights into the German Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment, the limitations of eighteenth-century debate, and the ongoing role of magic and belief in an age of scientific enlightenment.

H. C. Erik Midelfort is C. Julian Bishko Professor of History and Religious Studies, University of Virginia. He is the author of numerous award-winning books, including A History of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Germany and Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany.

'Exorcism and Enlightenment is a book to be highly commended for its tactful treatment of Catholicism. Midelfort presents with complete fairness, even while he does not share the beliefs of Gassner and his followers.' Anne Barbeau Gardiner, New Oxford Review