Evil, Spirits, and Possession
Subtitle: An Emergentist Theology of the Demonic
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 323
ISBN-13: 9789004338494
Subjects: Demonology
Description: In 'Evil, Spirits & Possession: An Emergent Theology of the Demonic' David Bradnick develops a multidisciplinary view of the demonic, using biblical-theological, social-scientific, and philosophical-scientific perspectives. Building upon the work of Pentecostal theologian Amos Yong, this book argues for a theology informed by emergence theory, whereby the demonic arises from evolutionary processes and exerts downward causal influence upon its constituent substrates. Consequently, evil does not result from conscious diabolic beings; rather it manifests as non-personal emergent forces that influence humans to initiate and execute nefarious activities. Emergentism provides an alternative to contemporary views, which tend to minimize or reject the reality of the demonic, and it retains the demonic as a viable theological category in the twenty-first century.