A reader asks

Hello, a quick question for you that I’m writing on behalf of a friend.

My friend is a protestant who has recently become worried about demons and their interactions with humanity. This is in no small part because her own church offers next to nothing by way of explanation of the nature of demons or how they work. It’s getting to the point where she’s started taking every little thing that goes wrong as a sign of “demonic influence”. I’ve tried steering her towards books that do a pretty decent job (in my own opinion anyway) of explaining things from a catholic viewpoint since I know no good protestant literature on the subject.
However she insists that if you try other sorces then you can get into more trouble because it brings your focus to them and not to God and will only read things that can “directly reference the bible and provide solid quotes and examples”.
I’m no scholar on the ways of the supernatural and was wondering, do you know of any good books, magazine articles, websites, anything really that will give her a solid understanding of demons and why she should stop jumping at her shadow? I’m almost afraid this fixation is going to invite some real meddling from the underworld one of these days.

I’m skeptical that you’ll be able to help her with mere information. Her problem sounds more psychological that than theological. Scripture, while it acknowledge the reality of Satan and the demonic realm, does not spend much time talking about it, precisely because Jesus has power over the demonic realm and does not encourage his disciples to chew their nails over it, but instead tells them “The gate of hell shall not prevail against the Church.” Paul occasionally mentions Satan, but only in passing and in a tone of “Yeah. We know he’s up to no good, but the gospel is powerful for breaking down strongholds.” Christianity is born as an aggressive insurgency against the kingdom of death and has, from a start, a sort of yankee cockiness about it that comes from the trust that Jesus, having already fought and beaten the King of Death, can’t be stopped now. So what your friend needs is not so much more information as to really accept the information she’s been given and to trust that Jesus has power over sin, hell, and death.