Levack advocates an approach that, in his view, takes religious belief more seriously than many studies of witchcraft and possession, which have often asserted that what was \u201creally going on\u201d was fakery, manifestations of physical or mental illness, or some other modern, dismissive explanation. The key to interpreting demonic possession, according to Levack, is seeing both the afflicted and those treating them (especially exorcists) as \u201cperformers in religious dramas who were following scripts they learned from others\u201d and from religious texts, especially the Bible. This \u201ctheatrical\u201d interpretation is probably less controversial than it seems at first glance, because Levack repeatedly insists that most demoniacs were not faking their symptoms. Instead, they were (subconsciously) following \u201cscripts that were encoded in their religious cultures.\u201d This explanation sets aside the question of the supernatural quality of possessions, although it is hard to avoid the impression that Levack \u2013 who does not divulge his own views directly \u2013 is not open to any spiritual significance of possessions.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/29\/96Mariazeller_Wunderaltar-Exorzismus.jpg\/482px-96Mariazeller_Wunderaltar-Exorzismus.jpg\")
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There\u2019s no question, however, that a great deal of religious practice follows \u2013 with no lack of sincerity \u2013 cultural and churchly \u201cscripts.\u201d It doesn\u2019t take long for people to learn, whether as children or those new to a church or denominational tradition, what to expect from a typical sermon, testimony, baptism, or observance of communion. And \u2018scripts\u2019 no doubt also apply in church contexts where demonic possession and deliverance are seen regularly. (Today one might expect to witness diagnoses of demon possession in certain Pentecostal<\/a> churches in North America, some conservative Catholic circles, and in a number of denominations in sub-Saharan Africa, among other settings.)<\/p>\n But the question of \u201cwhat\u2019s really going on\u201d seems exceptionally pressing in cases like demon possession, exorcism, and prayers of deliverance (or, one might add, miraculous healings, visions, angelic apparitions, or other transcendent experiences). Even believing historians might be hard-pressed to remain \u2018open\u2019 to reported experiences from the early modern period, or from today, especially when they are reminiscent of William Blatty\u2019s The Exorcist<\/em>, from children\u2019s heads rotating 360 degrees, to people vomiting up demons [see picture above] or vast quantities of nails. Such reports (as well as witchcraft prosecutions) were rife in the era of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and victories over dark powers became ideological ammunition in contests between Protestants and Catholics.<\/p>\n By the eighteenth century, witchcraft cases began a long decline in the Christian West, but demon possession declined much more slowly, and diagnoses of possession have shown signs of a renaissance among Catholics and Pentecostals in recent decade. In May 2013, there was quite a media hubbub over whether Pope Francis had performed an exorcism<\/a> on a wheelchair-bound man in St. Peter\u2019s Square.<\/p>\n Levack notes that whatever the state of secularization and \u201crational\u201d explanations of supernatural phenomena, demon possession and deliverance were common features of both Christ\u2019s and the apostles\u2019 ministries. (Witchcraft, by contrast, plays a minor role in Scripture.) Because of its centrality in Scripture, it would be difficult for conservative Protestants and Catholics to get away from at least the theoretical possibility of demonic possession in the contemporary world.<\/p>\n