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INVITING THE SPIRIT TO FIGHT THE SPIRITS? PNEUMATOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR MISSIONS IN HEALING AND EXORCISM *
Author(s) -
Grundmann Christoffer H.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international review of mission
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.118
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1758-6631
pISSN - 0020-8582
DOI - 10.1111/j.1758-6631.2005.tb00486.x
Subject(s) - exorcism , witness , victory , pneumatology , missiology , power (physics) , greatness , subject (documents) , civilization , philosophy , aesthetics , sociology , environmental ethics , history , law , theology , literature , politics , art , political science , physics , quantum mechanics , library science , computer science
From time immemorial to the present, numerous people all over the world have perceived healings as the victory of a mighty power over inferior, life‐threatening evil spirits, demons and bewitchment. The conviction once cherished by proponents of Western civilization that, in the course of time, such beliefs would vanish in proportion to the growth of rationalenlightenment proved false. However, since the subject of spirit‐worlds has hardly ever been serwusly addressed before in modern times, let alone by missiology, a vacuum has been left which is prone to be filled by whatever anyone pleases. Today, pneumatology and demonoloqy remain missislogwal liabilities that, when serwusly addressed, may eventually necessitate a complete re‐evaluation of missions in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The following article is an attempt to address this lacuna by focusing on the phenomenon of healing, and discussing it from a perspective within the Christian tradition. For the sake of establishing common ground for dialogue across dividing denominational and theological lines, the article draws heavily on biblical references, especially from the New Testament. It opens with principle considerations regarding the church, the Holy Spirit, and healing, while the second part reflects on missiological implications that result from any serious recognition of spirit‐worlds, and then applies these to healing in an attempt to identify to what extent healing bears legitimate witness to the Holy Spirit. It turns out in the end that inviting the Spirit to fight the spirits so that healing happens is not the proper question to ask because the Holy Spirit can never be turned into an instrument; if it is so turned, then it is not the Holy Spirit. Instead, the proper question to ask is, ‘How can we bear witness to the Holy Spirit in such a way that healing really does come about?’ This turns the question back to those who pose it.