Question 1: What do these four have in common?

• Foot-stomping, healing-declaring, tongue-speaking, Charismatic/Pentecostal churches
• The prayers, incantations, curses, blessings and healing practices found in the vast diversity of various indigenous spiritualities
• Catholic spirituality which includes practices like adoration of the Host (flowing from a belief in Transubstantiation), praying to departed saints, etc.
• The various occultic practices that are stereotypically ‘dark’ and engage in a multitude of ways with the unseen realm

Answer 1: They all believe that interaction with spiritual realities is a normal, every-day component of life in our time-space-matter world.

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Question 2: What do these two have in common?

• Atheists, deists and/or philosophical naturalists.
• A lot of Christian churches and denominations

Answer 2: They tend to strictly separate spiritual from physical, except for rare interventions, which one of them denies entirely.

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Short Reflection:

Contrasting these two lists is a bit of a cheeky attempt at framing things to make a point. Another way to frame them would be on a spectrum, from totally denying any/all spirit activity at one end, to some possibly harmful ways of being hyper-focused on spiritual activity at the other end. (For example, I would not want to naively accept every belief or practice reflected in the rather ad-hoc and vastly diverse collection of the first four.)

But it is worth noticing the binary. It’s a warning to people like me. The more I think and speak and act like naturalistic atheists or deists, the less vital my spiritual life will be.

Whatever negatives we may want to assert about any of the first four, the basic worldview at work is perfectly reasonable and resonant with vast human experience. A worldview that has at least these few points:

• reality is not just physical but also spiritual
• engagement with spiritual reality is not just for special rare occasions, but to be a regular part of life
• Spiritual reality is not simplistically ‘good’ and pure, but also consists of spiritual realities that are good-that-has-been-corrupted, or good that is no longer good, or good that is curved in on itself, or good that has fallen into a state of malevolence. Or put simply: there are angels and demons. Good and Evil.

Taking evil seriously is directly referenced in the prayer that Jesus gave his disciples: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one…”

The evil one does not tempt us in stereotypically obvious ways. It’s possible to be meticulously avoidant of any situations that could possibly lead you to anything even remotely resembling ‘demon possession’, whilst being naively unaware of evil’s sway in your life through ordinary things like viewing advertisements, shopping, avoiding people you don’t like, hundreds of ordinary fears and resentments, escaping from work with sensational travel experiences, etc.

The evil One, the great enemy, the adversary, the devil, the deceiver, the prince and power of the air, the Satan, Lucifer, and all the evil spirits or demons that exist – are rightly understood to be temporary, limited, permitted, defeated, destined for destruction, and in no way equal to the power and authority of the Good Creator.