Exorcism in the Catholic Church and the Relation to Mary Douglas' Purity and Danger

The Catholic Church is one of the many religions that uses the religious ritual practice of exorcism. Despite Hollywood’s dramatization of exorcism practices with movies such as The Exorcist (1973) and other subsequent films that shape our perception of exorcism, it has existed within the Catholic Church for hundreds of years. The act of exorcism is performed only by a duly authorized priest on a person that is proven to be possessed by an evil demon. Approval is needed from the local bishop before a true exorcism can be performed. Demons thought to possess a person can be cast out by prayer. “Demons are not removed like a cancer that is accessed from the outside by a surgeon. Rather, they are cast out by a force that wells up inside the possessed by the power of faith. It is not the virtue of the priest that makes an exorcism successful (although his striving for virtue is important), nor is it his intelligence or the decibel level of his voice that casts out demons; cunning spiritual beings can manipulate all the weaknesses inherent in any such display of human emotion or presumption. Exorcisms are successful when the exorcist marshals the power of faith and prayer in a spiritual battle like a field commander training his howitzers on a well-armed fortification.” Exorcism is a perfect example of the battle between good and evil in the spiritual realm, and can be tied in to Mary Douglas’ book, Purity and Danger in a number of ways. Her perception of dirt, including going against social conventions as well as hygiene, her use of internal evil, and her definition of ritual all tie into exorcism and demonic possession and can be applied to many of Mary Douglas’ ideas about purity, pollution, and taboo.

Mary Douglas’ concept of impurity is something that goes against the social structures of a society . Impurity is also directly related to the concept of “dirt” which is, according to Douglas, anything promoting disorder or violating a social convention. Dirt consists of two elements: Hygiene and normative social conventions. The possession of a human by a demonic presence is a perfect example of something that goes against the normal social standards. During the middle ages, there was no physical distinction between the mentally or physically ill and possession by evil spirits. Cases of epilepsy, mental illness, and psychotic disturbances were regularly treated by the use of ritualistic exorcism. The use of a religious ritual practice was used to treat that in which was abnormal in society, which can be classified by Douglas as impure. As greater knowledge and understanding of the human body and mind developed over time, the use of exorcism in these types of cases was abolished for modern medicine and treatments. This fits perfectly with Douglas’ idea that impurity is subject to change and re-constitution. This idea also fits with her notion of anomaly, which is something that does not fit