Fulton Sheen’s new book about the demonic

By Dr. Jeff Mirus (Bio – Article – Email) | July 12, 2024

Five years before his death, Archbishop Fulton Sheen mentioned that he intended to write his own book on the demonic, but at the time of his death in 1979, such a book had not yet been published. In 2016, newly ordained Father Dave Tomaszycki (Archdiocese of Detroit) became very interested in this intention of Archbishop Sheen. Needing a topic for his theology thesis, he decided to search the Sheen archives more thoroughly to see if he could find a manuscript for such a book that Sheen had not yet been able to publish.

Unfortunately, no such manuscript existed, so Father Tomaszycki did the next best thing: he spent a total of four years identifying and labeling everything Archbishop Sheen had written on the demonic, and then organized all of the material to create a series of chapters that would amount to something like the book the famous bishop wanted to write. The result, entirely in Sheen’s own words and just published by Emmaus Road, is On the Demonic, some 200 pages of Archbishop Sheen at his best, advising us on a subject that has preoccupied him since at least 1952, when he could already clearly see that demonic activity was on the rise in the United States, the West generally, and around the world.

In my previous post I also dealt with the problem of the demonic (diabolical attack and the absence of witnesses for God), but I am only a messenger here. Father Tomaszycki explains in detail in his preface how he organized the material for the chapters into which the book is conveniently divided, and how he edited the various texts only in a very minimal way, with very few editorial notes. He has the perfect temperament for such a task, not only because he really wanted to publish Sheen’s book, but because he wisely dislikes editing something that is already well written. To underscore this, Father Tomaszycki mentions, “I am a purist; I don’t even like the addition of the designated hitter in baseball” – a sentiment that will endear him to the pure-hearted everywhere.

In addition to explaining his own role in the preface, Father Tomaszycki has managed to produce a preface, an introduction, and fourteen detailed chapters, all written by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. In a very real sense, then, this is simply the book that Archbishop Sheen himself simply could not bring into its final form. But it is important to recognize the thoroughness with which Father Tomaszycki has approached the task: the various chapters are not simply reprints of individual pieces that Sheen had already written elsewhere; rather, they are, in most cases, a smoothly connected compilation of material from a wide variety of Sheen’s writings and speeches, which, when thus connected, provide a more thorough examination of each topic than each would do on its own.

The details are laid out in the preface, and the result is a text that reads seamlessly, not like a torn compilation but like a real book, and all in Sheen’s own words. Here I will simply list the sixteen chapters so that the reader can easily identify the topics covered:

• Foreword
• Introduction: The Nature of the Demonic
• 1. In the beginning: Satan’s anti-creativity
• 2. In the Life of Christ: Shortcuts from the Cross
• 3. Since the Birth of Christ: The Enemies of the Church
• 4. The Prince of this World
• 5. At the end
• 6. The mystical body of the Antichrist
• 7. First sign of the demonic: love of nudity
• 8. Second sign of the demonic: violence
• 9. Third sign of the demonic: Schizophrenic mentality
• 10. First weapon against the demonic: The name of Jesus
• 11. Second weapon against the demonic: The blood of Jesus
• 12. Third weapon against the demonic: Mary, the mother of Jesus
• 13. The Cross
• 14. Fighting the demonic with the Holy Hour

Of course, it is entirely reasonable to assume that had Archbishop Sheen been able to carry out his intention of writing a separate book on the demonic, he could have added additional thoughts in compiling his material and writing his most developed thoughts in one book. But it is also entirely reasonable to assume that, for someone who had already written so much in a shorter form, the bulk of this book would have been created through a well-organized use of his previous notes, lectures, articles, and speeches. So while it is true that Fulton Sheen did not write this “book,” it is also true that Fulton Sheen “wrote” this book. Either way, highly recommended.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, About the demonic. Compiled and edited by Father Dave Tomaszycki. (Emmaus Road: 2024). 220 pages. Paperback or e-book: $17.95.

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. View full bio.

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