A Book Review . . . Spiritual Warfare: Know Your Enemy
By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
Manual for Spiritual Warfare, by Paul Thigpen, Ph.D. TAN Books, 342 pages, leather bound, $24.94; www.tanbooks.com.
This book is divided into two parts. The first, entitled “Preparing for Battle,” looks at the biblical and theological foundations for the ongoing warfare between humanity and the Devil, while the second, “Aids in Battle,” offers aids to help believers in this struggle, including scriptural texts and prayers.
As Paul Thigpen indicates in his introduction, the “primary purpose of this manual…is to help everyday Catholics recognize, resist, and overcome the Enemy’s attacks in their own lives and the lives of those for whom they bear responsibility.”
The chapter headings for the first part include titles such as “Know Your Enemy,” “Know Your Commander and Comrades,” and “Keep the Enemy Out of the Camp,” while the second part focuses on Church teaching, the lives of the saints, and various prayers, devotions, and hymns as aids against demonic or diabolical influence.
The author begins by stating that belief in the Devil and demons is obligatory for Catholics and Christians generally, based on the scriptural witness, and particularly those accounts of Christ being tempted and casting out evil spirits. We can be tempted by demons, or attacked in more serious ways, such as by infestation, oppression, obsession, or most dangerous of all, possession, which is when an evil spirit takes control of the body of a victim.
Paul Thigpen cautions that while lay people can pray some prayers of deliverance, these are different from the solemn exorcisms of the Church, which should only be performed by designated Church exorcists.
Through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, Christ, the “New Adam,” has already defeated the Devil, so if we call on Him when under any form of diabolical attack, He will always come to our aid. Likewise, our Lady, the “New Eve,” has, because of her Immaculate Conception and her obedience to God, great power over the Devil and his demonic followers.
As St. Bonaventure said: “Men do not fear a powerful, hostile army as much as the powers of Hell fear the name and protection of Mary.” Similarly, we can always call on St. Michael and our guardian angels for help against the Devil.
As the author points out, prayer is the number one weapon in our battle against Satan, and calling on the name of Jesus has been for the saints one of the best ways to defeat demonic attack. On this point, St Bernard of Clairvaux said:
“However great may be the temptation, if we know how to use the weapon of prayer well, we shall come off as conquerors at last, for prayer is more powerful than all the demons.”
St. John Vianney agreed with this saying: “We can see how much the Devil fears those who pray, since there’s not a moment of the day when he tempts us more than when we are at prayer.”
Likewise, taking part in worship is important, and particularly the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as is eucharistic adoration. Fasting, too, has been recommended as a powerful weapon against the Devil, and we can fortify ourselves spiritually by daily reading of the Bible. In particular, the sacraments are powerful means of protection against the Devil, although the power of sacramentals such as the Sign of the Cross, holy water, St. Benedict medals, and blessed objects generally, should not be underestimated.
Regarding the struggle against the Devil, as St. John Climacus said, the essential virtue is humility: “Humility is the only virtue no demon can imitate.”
As an example of this, Thigpen includes the following account from the lives of the Desert Fathers:
Some people brought a demon-possessed man to an old monk to exorcise him. The monk said to the demon, “Get out of God’s creature!”
The demon replied, “I’ll go, but first I will ask you a question: Tell me, who are the goats and who are the sheep?” (cf. Matt. 25:31-46).
The old man said, “The goats are people like me. Who the sheep are, God alone knows.”
At these words, the demon cried out, “Look, I must go out of him because of your humility!”
We also have to avoid any possibility of demonic contamination through such things as Ouija boards or any form of participation in magic rituals, and also more generally keep a careful watch on our thoughts.
Words From The Saints
The second, larger, part of the book opens with a chapter on Church teaching about spiritual warfare and provides a series of quotes from various Church documents to emphasize how seriously the Church takes the whole area of demonic activity.
Then there is a whole section on how the Bible deals with the Devil and his followers, including appropriate scriptural quotations and passages which will help the reader during times of temptation.
There is also a chapter entitled “Help From the Saints,” which contains many striking quotations, such as this text from St. Thomas Aquinas “When the Devil is called the god of this world, it’s not because he made it, but because we serve him with our worldliness.”
There is also this text from St. Ignatius Loyola: “It is the mark of the Evil Spirit to take on the appearance of an angel of light. He begins by whispering thoughts that are suited to a devout soul, and ends by suggesting his own.”
St. Teresa of Avila cautioned that “great courage is required in spiritual warfare,” but paradoxically, she also stated that if we stand up to the demons then they lose their power: “Every time we make the demons the object of our contempt, they lose their strength, and the soul acquires a greater superiority over them. They have no power except against cowardly souls who surrender their weapons.”
St. Teresa was a great believer in the power of holy water against demonic attack: “I know by frequent experience that there is nothing that puts the demons to flight like holy water. They run away before the Sign of the Cross as well, but they return immediately; great, then, must be the power of holy water.”
As for general advice, St. Thomas More had this to say: “Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the Enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied they cannot be.”
To sum up, as St. Maximilian Kolbe said: “Modern times are dominated by Satan, and will be more so in the future.”
Apart from the above, the Manual for Spiritual Warfare contains many very useful prayers, litanies, and devotions to strengthen us against demonic attack. At a time when many people, even within the Church, are playing down the influence of the Devil, this book is a very valuable resource in the struggle against the evil which is all around us.
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(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian apparitions, and maintains a related website at www.theotokos.org.uk.)
