The Catholic Book Blogger
Dr. Paul Thigpen is an internationally known speaker, best-selling author and award-winning journalist. He has published books in a wide variety of genres and subjects: history and biography, spirituality and apologetics, anthologies and devotionals, family life and children’s books, study guides and reference works, fiction and collections of poetry and prayers. His most popular titles include The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to “End Times” Fever (2001) and the novel My Visit to Hell (2007).
In addition, Thigpen has published more than five hundred journal and magazine articles in more than forty religious and secular periodicals for both scholarly and popular audiences. His work has been circulated worldwide and translated into twelve languages. He is also past editor of The Catholic Answer, a national bimonthly magazine that answers questions about the Catholic faith.
Thigpen graduated from Yale University in 1977 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Distinction in the Major of Religious Studies. He was later awarded the George W. Woodruff Fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, where he earned an M.A. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1995) in Historical Theology. In 1993 he was named as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow by the U.S. Department of Education. He has served on the faculty of several colleges and universities.
Thigpen is currently the Editor of TAN Books, a Catholic publishing company in Charlotte, North Carolina.
PETE: You and I spoke about this before. Could you tell readers how this book developed? It actually came about from your work on the Manual for Spiritual Warfare didn’t it?
PAUL THIGPEN: Yes, it did.
The existence of the Devil and other demons, and their ongoing activity to turn us away from God, is repeatedly affirmed by Scripture, the liturgy, the Church’s magisterial teaching, the writings of the Church Fathers and Doctors, and the lives of the saints. My personal experience has also confirmed this reality.
Nevertheless, until recently only a few of our Catholic contemporaries (including Pope Francis) seemed to be talking about this issue. Fewer still had provided specifics about the Devil’s strategies—especially, temptation—and how we can resist him. So I recently wrote a Manual for Spiritual Warfare (TAN, 2014) as a way of widening awareness of this important matter.
Saints Who Battled Satan is an expansion of that book’ssection on the saints. You could say that the fascinating, gripping anecdotes from their lives illustrate the principles of spiritual warfare that I lay out in the Manual.
PETE: Why is Saints Who Battled Satan an important book for people to read?
PAUL THIGPEN:No one is exempt from spiritual warfare. Every single soul is a battlefield, and the outcome of the war will determine each person’s eternal destiny. So we need all the help we can get to win!
This book focuses on seventeen canonized saints from throughout Church history whose battles with the Enemy provide us lessons and inspiration for fighting our own. In addition, knowing that they understand our struggles encourages us to turn to them for assistance in combat.
PETE: You have seventeen stories of saints who engaged in spiritual warfare in this book. Is any one of them your favorite?
PAUL THIGPEN: Each one has endeared him or herself to me in various ways, but I have a special fondness for St. Martin de Porres. The desert fathers and mothers of the ancient Church used to emphasize that the virtue of humility was an essential part of the armor that protects the soul from the wiles of the Devil. St. Martin’s legendary humility served him well in this regard, and I have much to learn from him.
PETE: It seems spiritual warfare is an inexhaustible subject. Are there plans for any further books on the topic? What other books do you have in the pipeline?
PAUL THIGPEN:We’ve talked about producing versions of the Manual customized for specific audiences—such as clergy, for example, or families. I’d also like to see a new book reporting the firsthand experiences of exorcists, whose testimonies might help convince skeptics. In addition, someday I hope to write a spiritual memoir with a least a chapter on some of my personal experiences with the extraordinary activity of the Devil.
As for my immediate projects: The Manual for Spiritual Warfare was the first in a series of spiritual handbooks on various topics to be produced by TAN Books with a similar binding that’s beautiful, durable, and portable. I hope to write another book for that series, called Manual for Those Who Grieve.
In addition to book projects, I’m working with Fr. Jeffrey Kirby on a new group Bible study called Luke: The Gospel of Mercy, for Catholic Scripture Study International.It includes DVDs, a study guide, and a leader’s guide that I believe will help Catholics discover more fully the riches of St. Luke’s beautiful, powerful Gospel.
PETE: It’s been a while since I asked this so…..what books are currently on your bookshelf to read?
PAUL THIGPEN:The top three right now are Fr. Chad Ripperger, Introduction to the Science of Mental Health (Sensus Traditionis, 2013); Jacalyn Duffin, Medical Miracles: Doctors, Saints, and Healing in the Modern World (Oxford, 2009); and Douglas M. Beaumont, ed., Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome (Ignatius, 2016).
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Other books by this author:
Manual for Spiritual Warfare
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