It appears that American Christians have a hard time with the personhood of both Satan and the Holy Spirit ^[1]:

The majority of American Christians do not believe that Satan is a real being or that the Holy Spirit is a living entity, the latest Barna survey found.

There are probably a myriad of reasons for this, including Scriptural ignorance, New Age influences, and a denial of the supernatural.

One of the challenges of the New Evangelization is that we must evangelize people who already identify themselves as Christian. Note I did not say that we must catechize them, but evangelize them. Catechesis is very important, but it builds on the foundation of evangelization. Until someone recognizes his personal need for a redeemer, he is not going to listen to explanations of the personhood of the Holy Spirit or Satan. But if someone already considers himself Christian yet has not really come into a deep relationship with Christ, it will be quite difficult to lead him “back,” so to speak, to the basics of evangelization. We have our work cut out for us.

St. Paul, pray for us!