BELIEF IN DEMONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17956, 5 December 1921, Page 9

BELIEF IN DEMONS.

CHURCHMEN'S DEBATE. SCIENCE OR SUPERSTITION. NEW TESTAMENT EVIDENCE. The controversy regarding belief in demoniacal possession is continued in the current issuo of the Church Gazette. Tho journal publishes a reply from Canon A. F. Williams, of Napier, to the article in its August number, in which it challenged Canon Williams' acceptance of demon possession and exorcism to explain phenomena of disease and recovery observed by him among Maoris. In the course of a lengthy letter, Canon Williams quotes Dr. A. T. Schofield and Dr. C. Williams, of London, both of whom, he says, believe " demon possession" is a fact to-day, and adds: "I know a mental specialist in New Zealand who holds similar views, and it has been stated in print that the medical superintendent of one of our mental hospitals has said that in his opinion a large proportion of those under his care are cases of possession " Answering tho Church Gazette's contention that tho " simplest explanation" muit be accepted, Canon Williams says: —" Surely the simplest explanation is to believe that Jesus Christ knew what Ho was talking about when He chose and commissioned the twelve apostles, and then the seventy others, and gave them ' power and authority' and a definite command to ' cast out devils.' . . . Some clever people, had they lived 1900 years ago, would no doubt have demanded a ' scientific explanation' of a'.l Christ's miracles. I prefer ' the simplest explanation.' If exorcism in the name of Jesus Christ sets many of these abnormal cases free at once, and if they "become not only normal but most earnest followers of Him also, surely, a priori, the inference is that the Bible explanation is correct." The Church Gazette dismisses Canon Williams' authorities with the remark that " the erratic of inions of a. few odd scientists cannot alter the plain fact that the characteristic spirit of modern psychology is strongly hostile to demonology, witchcraft and similar superstitions. . . The new psychology has no patience with demoniacal explanations of nervous or mental disorders'. General belief in demons, sorcery, charms, and witches only survives among people in a low state of culture." As to the other argument that disbelief in demonology is equivalent to disbelief in Clirist, the journal refers to the view of recognised authorities, that our Lord, in assuming human nature, really lived in it under properly human conditions. He shared the views of the people among whom Ho lived, and was not a prodigy iff advance of His age in regard to human knowledge. Dr. Headlam, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, states that the people mentioned in the Gospels aB possessed with devils were persons subject to nervous diseases, and our Lord simply adopted the current theory in relation to them. H-i used the psychological language of His time. " To sum np. we assert without fear of rational contradiction that the main trend of modern science is stronglv against belief in demons and demoniacal possession."