The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical / Or, An Examination of the Validity of Some Recent Objections Against Christianity as a Divine Revelation

by C. A. Row

Chapter XII. Possession, If An Objective Reality, Neither Incredible Nor Contrary To The Ascertained Truths Of Mental Science.

I now proceed to the consideration of the remaining alternative, the truth of which the form of the narrative seems most to favour, viz., that our Lord accepted the distinction between possession and mania; and that during those times possessions were actual occurrences.

In considering this subject, it will be necessary to pay attention to the distinction to which I have referred in the previous chapter, that even if many of the phenomena that accompanied possession were due to superhuman agency, the Gospels are by no means pledged to any particular theory of the modus operandi by which the phenomena were brought about. What I mean is that these phenomena might have been due to a superhuman agency, without involving the fact that the demon had a local habitation either in the body or the spirit of the man. All that the Gospels can be taken to affirm is, that the evil spirit in some way or other, of which we are ignorant, held the man in a state of thraldom, made his mental powers the subject of a divided consciousness, overpowered the functions of his reason and his will, and through his action on the mind used for his own purposes the organs of his [pg 269] body. The writers of the New Testament are pledged to no theory as to how such results were effected. They have simply reported the phenomena as they presented themselves to their observation. In doing this, the language which they have employed denotes local habitation; but the words used in stilling the storm make it quite clear that the literal meaning cannot be pressed. Considering the general character of these narratives, it is impossible to pledge them to the particular mode in which these results were brought about.

One circumstance seems to militate against the supposition that possession involved nothing but simple mania, namely, the numbers of those who are spoken of as possessed. If the Gospel narratives are historical, it would appear that such cases were numerous. Not only are several miracles of this description definitely recorded, but the Evangelists several times affirm that our Lord cured demoniacs in considerable numbers, without furnishing us with the details. Now it is difficult to believe that maniacs existed in such large numbers in a country of the size and population of Judæa. Yet all the phenomena of possession point to maniacal, and not to harmless lunacy. The number of the cases of mania that occur bears but a small proportion to those of the latter form of derangement. It is true that at times of popular excitement various forms and numerous cases of frenzy manifest themselves; but these differ from mania, though they not unfrequently terminate in it. I have made these observations, because, in discussing such a subject, it is only right to state fully the difficulties with which particular theories are attended. It is very probable, however, that as the symptoms so closely resembled each other, many cases of actual mania would be confounded in popular estimation with possession, and, therefore, that cases of actual possession [pg 270] may not have been so numerous as at first sight would appear.

On the supposition that possession was a reality, we have no means of determining what moral or physical preconditions were necessary for its manifestation. It is clear that the authors of the Gospels must have considered that it was owing to some predisposing causes, physical or moral, though they have not described them. Unless this was the case, the evil, instead of being partial, would have been universal. Various moral causes would naturally form a suitable precondition for its manifestation. There can be no doubt that a number of vices, when indulged in beyond a certain point, reduce man's moral being to a wreck and render him obnoxious to the action of external agency. The power of self-control may be indefinitely weakened. If vice is carried to its extreme forms, it produces phenomena hardly, if at all, distinguishable from madness. Such a state of man's moral nature would form a suitable precondition to enable a superhuman being to overpower the reason and the will, the supremacy of which was already impaired by an influence from within. In such cases possession would have been rendered possible by a man's self-induced moral corruption.

The testimony of history proves that during the century which preceded and that which followed the Advent, the state of moral corruption was extreme. Men were sated with the old, and craving for new and unheard of forms of sensual gratification. The old class of ideas, moral and religious, were gradually dying out, and men were eagerly seeking for something to fill the void. There consequently never was a time when a greater number of abnormal forms of thought burst on the human mind, which was shaken to its utmost depths. The outbreak of fanaticism [pg 271] combined with moral wickedness, which displayed itself forty years after in the Jewish war of independence, is probably without a parallel in the history of man. For this there must have been years of preparation. A somewhat similar state of things existed in the Pagan world, which led to the production of numerous religious charlatans and impostors. The times were characterised by an extravagance of thought on almost every subject, philosophy itself forming no exception. Such an abnormal mental condition was peculiarly suited to the reception of external mental influences, if we suppose them possible.

But I am bound to admit that the facts recorded in the Gospels prove that possession was not always the result of moral degradation. This is proved by the case of the youth, whose possession the father directly connects with lunacy, and says that it had seized him from a child. In this case the cause which rendered the possession possible must have been physical, probably a derangement of the nervous system.

If I understand rightly the position which is taken by those who affirm that possession was mania, and nothing else, it is as follows. It is alleged that at certain periods of history, the belief in possession has been widely spread. Possessions are unknown in modern times; and all the instances which have been alleged are either cases of mania or delusion. The belief in it has gradually died away as knowledge has advanced. In former times it generated a number of grotesque stories, which were pure inventions of the imagination heated by enthusiasm. Such facts as were real may be referred to madness as their cause. The others are simply disbelieved. Under the influence of increasing knowledge, there has arisen a widespread belief in modern times, that there is nothing superhuman [pg 272] in the causes of such phenomena, but that they are due to influences existing within the mind itself. This, as it is affirmed, being true of all the alleged instances of possession in the modern world, it is inferred that similar ones in the ancient world are equally unreal; and if we had the requisite data before us, we should be able to refer them all to ordinary human causes.

With respect to the general fact, there can be no doubt that advancing knowledge has caused a general disbelief in the reality of any modern form of possession, or of witchcraft. The supreme grotesqueness of the phenomena of the latter has caused the belief in it to perish under the influence of common sense, aided by an increased acquaintance with sound principles of causation, and the stability of the operations of nature. Still it is incorrect to affirm that the prevalence of such beliefs has been due to no other cause than universal ignorance. The belief in witchcraft produced its most unhappy results during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, in the very age of Bacon, Shakespeare, and Raleigh. Such beliefs originate in certain principles of our minds whose gratification consists in the contemplation of the marvellous, the action of which I shall consider hereafter. They have existed in every condition of society, and only changed the form of their manifestation. Those who boast of our freedom from such delusions, owing to the superior light of the nineteenth century, seem to have forgotten the existence at the present day of a belief in spiritualism, which is little, if at all, less absurd than witchcraft, though the former has encountered a less severe treatment than the latter. This has been more due to the improvement of our humanity than to our knowledge of physical science. It is a fact that spiritualism is believed [pg 273] in by multitudes; and its votaries belong far more to the cultivated class of society than to the ignorant and the vulgar. What the witch mania was to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, spiritualism is to the nineteenth. It is the peculiar form rather than the possibility of such delusions that has passed away.

It should be observed also that the demoniacal supernaturalism of the monastic writers, and of the middle ages, differs from that of the New Testament to such a degree that they cannot fairly be compared. In the former the apparition of demons and departed spirits was a thing of constant occurrence; in the latter, never. To the monks the devil was continually appearing in the most phantastic forms, and performing the most grotesque miracles. To this form of demonology modern spiritualism can put in very strong claims to be esteemed the genuine successor. The heated imagination of even such a man as Luther suggested to him that he saw Satan in visible reality. It is worthy of remark that St. Paul knew nothing of visible Satanic manifestations. With him they were invariably spiritual.