An Exorcist Explains the Demonic: The Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels (2016) by Gabrielle Amorth

This is a brief book, accessible and free of most obscurantist jargon.

There are practical nuts-and-bolts explanations of procedures and double-checkings that an exorcism is warranted.

There are several personal accounts of exorcisms, as well as of near death experiences that are truly horrific.

I'm a Marxist and an atheist. The authority of the RC church is in the largest context waning. Some defenders of religion claim God is proven by intelligent design and the clockwork universe. Amorth's book is the coin's other side: there is a literal demonic kingdom set up to harry and torture humanity and rob it of presence before God.

There can certainly be some very spectacular phenomena during exorcisms, such as speaking in tongues — that is, speaking in foreign or esoteric languages — the overturning of the eyes, and levitation. I recall two cases: the first was that of a young mechanic who worked not far from my community at Rome and who, even before the exorcism was initiated, began to levitate just as I placed my hand on his shoulder. Five people could not hold him still. The second incident was related to me by Father Candido: he exorcized a young peasant girl of seventeen, who was more accustomed to speaking in her dialect than in Italian. While he was reciting the formulas in Latin, Father Candido was distracted by the continuous questions addressed to him by the two priests who had accompanied the girl. After having had enough, he said to them in Greek rather than in Italian (perhaps he was tired), “Shut up! Stop that!” Immediately the girl turned toward him and asked him, in a satanic manner: “Why do you order me to be quiet? Tell it to these two who continue to interrupt you!”

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An Exorcist Explains the Demonic is not a book to think about at 3am, the hour when men have feet of clay.

Jay

18 July 2026