Severn
July 8th, 2007, 07:36 PM
I own both This Present Darkness and Piercing The Darkness. The thing to understand about these books is that they are designed to be preachy. In fact, I would go so far to say that while many of the main characters are angels and demons, the premier emphasis is on the human characters and the issue of their personal salvation.
The spiritual battles merely set the stage for people to find the Lord and be saved. Or for christians to find their own inner, spiritual strength.
There are many many incidents where demons are physically latched onto people's heads, controlling their actions - rapists, murderers and the like. And, thus, the chance for christians to 'fight' as it were against the devil's work is emphasised.
One particularly disturbing incident was of a little girl at the New Age school Miriamele mentioned who had a visition through meditation of a little pony - a 'spirit' guide. The guide was, of course, a demon.
So, it isn't necessarily that new age practices were considered evil in and of themselves (I could be wrong, been a long time since I read them), but rather that the devil manipulated and used the practitioners of them. The interesting thing is that these books, to christians, aren't remotely horror. In fact, at the church I was going to 10 years ago, they were - among the youth group I belonged to - regarded as truth, not fiction. It was generally believed that Peritti had recieved instruction from God to reach out into the world through his fiction. As I recall there are some fairly moving scenes in the books of salvation and the like. They had a profound effect on me, and I would still read them today, and probably enjoy them. Being a christian I could also still understand and embrace the author's message of salvation. (And no, I don't think that all the other horror writer's out there are inspired by the devil heh).
So, yes, anyone who doesn't share these spiritual beliefs will either be intrigued and investigate further into christianity or be completely offended/annoyed/fill in the blank and throw them down in disgust; the books are definitely black and white, and I think most will have a black or white reaction.
The spiritual battles merely set the stage for people to find the Lord and be saved. Or for christians to find their own inner, spiritual strength.
There are many many incidents where demons are physically latched onto people's heads, controlling their actions - rapists, murderers and the like. And, thus, the chance for christians to 'fight' as it were against the devil's work is emphasised.
One particularly disturbing incident was of a little girl at the New Age school Miriamele mentioned who had a visition through meditation of a little pony - a 'spirit' guide. The guide was, of course, a demon.
So, it isn't necessarily that new age practices were considered evil in and of themselves (I could be wrong, been a long time since I read them), but rather that the devil manipulated and used the practitioners of them. The interesting thing is that these books, to christians, aren't remotely horror. In fact, at the church I was going to 10 years ago, they were - among the youth group I belonged to - regarded as truth, not fiction. It was generally believed that Peritti had recieved instruction from God to reach out into the world through his fiction. As I recall there are some fairly moving scenes in the books of salvation and the like. They had a profound effect on me, and I would still read them today, and probably enjoy them. Being a christian I could also still understand and embrace the author's message of salvation. (And no, I don't think that all the other horror writer's out there are inspired by the devil heh).
So, yes, anyone who doesn't share these spiritual beliefs will either be intrigued and investigate further into christianity or be completely offended/annoyed/fill in the blank and throw them down in disgust; the books are definitely black and white, and I think most will have a black or white reaction.