Christian theologian NT Wright offered a warning against focusing on demons too much. He was speaking on his program “Ask Me Anything” when he received a question that asked, “Did Jesus’ arrival trigger a surge in demonic activity, and should Christians today expect to encounter the demonic?” Wright rejected the idea that Jesus’s arrival on Earth inspired more demonic activity, but that it did reveal it. “When Jesus comes into Galilee and starts saying, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand,’ it’s as though suddenly all the furniture starts flying around the room. The dark powers realize, if He does everything that He looks as if He’s going to do, then we’re in deep trouble,” he said.

He acknowledged the reality of “non-human dark forces” and pushed back against a common view that puts Satan and his demons at the same level as God and his angels. “We have to get away from any sense that there is God on one side of the page and Satan on the other, locked in endless struggle. That’s not the biblical picture.” Biblical scholars understand Satan to have formerly been the angel Lucifer before he turned against God. This makes him a created being under God’s authority. “These forces are not the ‘real gods.’ But they seek to spoil God’s creation and pull it down,” warned Wright.

He encouraged Christians to understand that demonic forces still continue today, but also warned against developing an unhealthy fascination. “It’s good to be alert to the spiritual texture of the world. But there’s always the danger of wanting to find the demonic under every stone,” he said, warning against practices that encourage Christians to see visions. He also warned against romanticizing the role of those who are called to drive out demons. “One of them said, ‘It’s like cleaning out toilets,’” he said of one such individual gifted with discernment, the ability to distinguish demonic activity. “It’s a messy, murky world involving poor human beings trapped in destructive patterns.”

The subject of demons has become a hot topic lately, especially with the success of K Pop Demon Hunters. Many Christians felt encouraged by the film’s portrayal of demons as evil rather than romanticized versions of demons with varying moralities such as in the popular Demon Slayer. Others, However, cautioned against a film that displayed demons apart from the powerful sovereignty of God. “If there is no capital-G God around, who defines what is good and what is evil? Humanity is no longer intimately tethered to a divine, external being who is far more powerful and all-knowing than our finite selves can ever be,” Isabel Ong, writing about K-Pop, wrote for Christianity Today. She urged Christians to discernment. “Christians can be more aware of the misconceptions and assumptions that popular culture brings to our notions of God and the self while remaining spiritually sensitive and aware of how Scripture can affirm or challenge them. As my colleague Kate Lucky wrote, ‘Our job is not to justify our taste in culture but to explain what we see from a vantage point oriented to Christ.’”