Jesus' preoccupation with evil forces and his clear desire to rid the world of such oppression need a more imaginative reconstruction. Let's not rush in with the familiar solution of exorcism, or in more recent usage, the notion of deliverance. There are several hints in the Gospels that evil spirits represented unmet needs. The spirits inhabit the inner empty shell caused by feelings of inferiority, unworthiness, disempowerment, torture, pain, and alienation. There is nothing in the Gospel narratives to suggest that these evil forces are the result of wrong inmoral behavior; their power is garnered not from wrong things the afflicted people did, but rather from wrong things that have been done to them by the brutal forces of external oppression.
Diarmuid O'Murchu, from Christianity's Dangerous Memory, 18
