Angelology and Exorcism Dissertation

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Greetings to you all!

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but, I thought this might be the most appropriate board to put this thread.

I am a Theology student starting to write an extensive dissertation on Angelology, Demonology and Exorcism with the title question of ‘Is angelology and exorcism still a necessary or relevant part of theology of contemporary Catholic Christian belief and practice?’

This will cover three key areas: Origins of angels and demons and the Devil (in OT scripture Re. Creation), and the Judeo-Christian understanding of Angels Dem… etc. (looking at the view of Satan and demons as testers of faith (examining Job) and the interaction of angels and humans in OT).

The second area is Jesus’ ministry, in the synoptic Gospels, of deliverance and exorcism.

Finally, the third is Contemporary Catholic belief and practice regarding Angels, demons and exorcism, examining the rites of exorcism, the current theology of angelology and what we believe as a result of systematic theology over the past 2000 years (this section reflecting on the past two sections of the essay).

I was wondering, if you were to read an essay such as this, what questions you would have regarding these areas that you would expect to be answered or debated in a dissertation such as the one I am writing on this subject.

In Christ, with thanks,
Hatter
 
MadHatter said:
Greetings to you all!

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but, I thought this might be the most appropriate board to put this thread.

I am a Theology student starting to write an extensive dissertation on Angelology, Demonology and Exorcism with the title question of ‘Is angelology and exorcism still a necessary or relevant part of theology of contemporary Catholic Christian belief and practice?’

This will cover three key areas: Origins of angels and demons and the Devil (in OT scripture Re. Creation), and the Judeo-Christian understanding of Angels Dem… etc. (looking at the view of Satan and demons as testers of faith (examining Job) and the interaction of angels and humans in OT).

The second area is Jesus’ ministry, in the synoptic Gospels, of deliverance and exorcism.

Finally, the third is Contemporary Catholic belief and practice regarding Angels, demons and exorcism, examining the rites of exorcism, the current theology of angelology and what we believe as a result of systematic theology over the past 2000 years (this section reflecting on the past two sections of the essay).

I was wondering, if you were to read an essay such as this, what questions you would have regarding these areas that you would expect to be answered or debated in a dissertation such as the one I am writing on this subject.

In Christ, with thanks,
Hatter
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One of my first questions would be why don’t you keep it to Demonology and Exorcism.
The two topics support each other. I wouldn’t think it would be too necessary to go all through the Theology of Angels to get where you are going…
:twocents:
 
Hi, the point of talking about Angels is to describe and explore their nature in order to discuss that of Demons (which are also angels). Demonology is a successive theology to Angelology, and so it would be very difficult to talk about one side without having assessed the original nature, Demonology leans on Angelology for its theology. By assessing the development of the beliefs and theologies of those areas, we find how it influences later ideas on the subject (e.g. OT and NT ideas on angels and demons influencing the medieval). It will be a smaller size subject, simply to establish fundamental theological ideas of angels and demons in the Judeo-Christian perspective.

If there are any questions in the three sections aforementioned, it would be interesting what people would like to find out about and see if it is worth exploration in the dissertation (for example are there similarities between OT demonology and medieval (e.g. ‘are the ideas of the OT nephilim and Medieval Incubi/Succubi similar in theology or different?’ or ‘is there a difference between Jesus exorcising demons and priests in contemporary practice?’).

Many thanks for your reply,
Hatter
 
pianistclare said:
One of my first questions would be why don’t you keep it to Demonology and Exorcism.
The two topics support each other. I wouldn’t think it would be too necessary to go all through the Theology of Angels to get where you are going…
:twocents:
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I second that. Good dissertations tend to be deep rather than broad.
 
MadHatter said:
Hi, the point of talking about Angels is to describe and explore their nature in order to discuss that of Demons (which are also angels). Demonology is a successive theology to Angelology, and so it would be very difficult to talk about one side without having assessed the original nature, Demonology leans on Angelology for its theology. By assessing the development of the beliefs and theologies of those areas, we find how it influences later ideas on the subject (e.g. OT and NT ideas on angels and demons influencing the medieval). It will be a smaller size subject, simply to establish fundamental theological ideas of angels and demons in the Judeo-Christian perspective

Many thanks for your reply,
Hatter
Click to expand...
I don’t know about your particular program, but in general, one needn’t always start at the very beginning in academic writing. You can always simply provide the necessary background, overview style, and say that you’re taking it as a given. Since it’s not your main subject of inquiry, it doesn’t need a deep treatment or any arguments.
Right now, it sounds like you’re writing two (or more) separate, but related dissertations. Narrow it down. (Of course, narrowing can take place after you’ve done preliminary research.)
 
I can’t help but feel that my post has been largely misunderstood. This dissertation does not have the view to dig up the entire theology of Angels, that would be so time consuming would take forever and is certainly an entire discourse (and more) on its own merit. The idea of viewing the origin of Angels is to establish to the reader the very beginning of the Judeo-Christian idea which will be referred to throughout the essay. This will include looking at the creation story, specifically (as pointed out in the parentheses in the first paragraph). Also there will be a discussion on the idea of the Devil as a tester of faith (hence the pointing out of the book of Job, specifically). This will lead on to the next section on Jesus and his ministry of exorcism where a different idea is presented, the idea of Satan as Primary and Active Evil. This segues to the discussion of the contemporary Church teaching. This will explore how contemporary Church teaching and practice it has been influenced by these two very different ideas and whether, with such varying theologies and practices which the Church has, it is still necessary or even relevant in contemporary time.
 
Okay, that makes sense. So, there’s still a LOT going on. It’s a good idea to have one question to answer, and then all of the other stuff is part of the answer. It looks like your question is about the current relevance of exorcism/demonology. Is that right?

So, you’ll give a little background to provide context for the question. Something like “All this stuff about angels and the middle ages tells us what demonology IS and what its import was historically.” and then the main question “Does that matter today?” and the answer, which will draw on some of the stuff you said in the background information and will be the main body of your work. All of the other things you were saying would be in that part, I assume.

Does that work as an extremely simplified version of what you want to do?
 
You have to consider your audience. They are academics. You don’t need to backtrack and “school” everyone on the Theology of Angels.
You paper seems to have a focus on Demons and Exorcism. Just stick to that.
It’s a long long process. If you have to defend it, you want to keep the subject matter clean, succinct, and defendable. The more components you put in there…the more you will be challenged.
it sounds like a good paper. I stand by my original suggestion.
Since you asked.
🤷
 
MadHatter said:
… the title question of ‘Is angelology and exorcism still a necessary or relevant part of theology of contemporary Catholic Christian belief and practice?’
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I would find it incredibly difficult to imagine a thoughtful answer to that question without consulting the scholarly work of actual exorcists discussing their actual cases. If there’s demons, and if people get possessed by them, and if we can prove this, then we clearly need exorcism. Everything else is conversation, and perhaps a needless and tangential one.
 
MadHatter said:
Greetings to you all!

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but, I thought this might be the most appropriate board to put this thread.

I am a Theology student starting to write an extensive dissertation on Angelology, Demonology and Exorcism with the title question of ‘Is angelology and exorcism still a necessary or relevant part of theology of contemporary Catholic Christian belief and practice?’

This will cover three key areas: Origins of angels and demons and the Devil (in OT scripture Re. Creation), and the Judeo-Christian understanding of Angels Dem… etc. (looking at the view of Satan and demons as testers of faith (examining Job) and the interaction of angels and humans in OT).

The second area is Jesus’ ministry, in the synoptic Gospels, of deliverance and exorcism.

Finally, the third is Contemporary Catholic belief and practice regarding Angels, demons and exorcism, examining the rites of exorcism, the current theology of angelology and what we believe as a result of systematic theology over the past 2000 years (this section reflecting on the past two sections of the essay).

I was wondering, if you were to read an essay such as this, what questions you would have regarding these areas that you would expect to be answered or debated in a dissertation such as the one I am writing on this subject.

In Christ, with thanks,
Hatter
Click to expand...
scripturecatholic.com/angels.html
 
Thank you for your replies, I shall endeavour to look at the articles and clips! I am currently going through the last part of my 2years research for this dissertation, I am hopefully setting up a meeting with a diocesan exorcist as well as having read through many priest’s works on their experiences and theology, it will be an interesting conversation I’m sure! There is a very good clip on YouTube, titled ‘An evening with an exorcist’, if you have the time give it a listen, very good speaker and account of angelology and demonology.
 
MadHatter said:
Greetings to you all!

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but, I thought this might be the most appropriate board to put this thread.

I am a Theology student starting to write an extensive dissertation on Angelology, Demonology and Exorcism with the title question of ‘Is angelology and exorcism still a necessary or relevant part of theology of contemporary Catholic Christian belief and practice?’

This will cover three key areas: Origins of angels and demons and the Devil (in OT scripture Re. Creation), and the Judeo-Christian understanding of Angels Dem… etc. (looking at the view of Satan and demons as testers of faith (examining Job) and the interaction of angels and humans in OT).

The second area is Jesus’ ministry, in the synoptic Gospels, of deliverance and exorcism.

Finally, the third is Contemporary Catholic belief and practice regarding Angels, demons and exorcism, examining the rites of exorcism, the current theology of angelology and what we believe as a result of systematic theology over the past 2000 years (this section reflecting on the past two sections of the essay).

I was wondering, if you were to read an essay such as this, what questions you would have regarding these areas that you would expect to be answered or debated in a dissertation such as the one I am writing on this subject.

In Christ, with thanks,
Hatter
Click to expand...
It would be interesting to see the results of a survey asking whether church goers, Roman Catholic or otherwise, believed in personal, intelligent agents of Satan (i.e. demons) at all. The results of such a survey or surveys might be cause for alarm.
 
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