Depression or Spiritual Warfare: What If It’s Both?

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Christianity

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2016

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. Also, I help spot demonic possession.” That’s the headline from a Washington Post essay from Richard Gallagher, a Catholic Ivy-league educated mental health professional who has worked for decades with priests to determine the difference between the two phenomena. While Gallagher’s colleagues have raised their eyebrows at the nature of his work, “careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases can be explained no other way,” he writes. Part of that comes with experience, says Eric Johnson, a professor of pastoral care at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. When “you have experience with people with schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder and someone that is demon-possessed, you know the difference,” says Johnson, recalling what others who have worked with those in both situations have told him. (Johnson has not himself worked directly with anyone he believes suffered from demonic possession.) Johnson joined Katelyn and Morgan to discuss studying the supernatural, how our understanding of mental health makes sense of spiritual warfare, and the importance of holistic health. • (5:45) As a psychologist, how do you discern the difference between the demonic and mental illness? • (13:30) When did people start studying mental illness as a phenomena? • (21:18) You talk about the importance of keeping an open mind while also being skeptical when it comes to these issues. What part of the church does this apply to? • (5:45) As a psychologist, how do you discern the difference between demonic and mental illness? • (13:30) When did people start studying mental illness as a phenomena? • (21:18) You talk about the importance of keeping an open mind while also being skeptical when it comes to these issues. What part of the church does this apply to? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at Apologeticsky.com.
0:25.3	Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen, the Christianity Today podcast where we go beyond
0:30.0	hashtags and hot takes and set aside time to explore the reality behind a major cultural event.
0:35.5	I am Caitlin Beatty, the print managing editor of Christianity today,
0:38.8	and I am delighted to be joined by my co-host Morgan. Hey Morgan. Hey, Caitlin, it's good to see you
0:44.2	after all our travels over the weekend. Good to see you too. How was New York? I had a great time.
0:49.5	Did you have a good time in your little lake house as well? It was awesome. I didn't think about work
0:54.0	once. Mission
0:55.1	accomplished. So Caitlin, today our guest is Eric Johnson, and he is a professor of pastoral care at the
1:02.7	Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. One of his favorite classes to teach is biblical and theological
1:08.4	foundations for counseling. He is also the author of Foundations for
1:12.7	Soul Care, a Christian psychology proposal. And so I bet this is going to intrigue all of our
1:17.1	listeners about what exactly what could we be talking about. Hi, Eric. Hey there. How you doing? Good.
1:22.7	Thank you so much for joining us this week. Yeah, really happy to be on. Well, some of our listeners might have seen an interesting Washington Post piece that was
1:31.7	published last week, written by a psychiatrist and professor of clinical psychology, not a
1:38.4	Christian, not anybody with a religious background who says, based on his own work in the field,
1:45.1	that demonic possession is real and that it's actually a helpful category for diagnosis.
1:49.8	The psychiatrist's name is Richard Gallagher.
1:51.8	He says he has witnessed individuals do things like voice statements of contempt for religion
1:57.4	out of the blue, speak in various foreign languages, previously unknown to them,
	...

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