Date of Award

4-1-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Systematic Theology

First Advisor

Leopoldo Sanchez

Scripture References in this Resource

Ephesians 6:17; 2 Timothy 2:3; Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 4:10; 1 Timothy 4:1; Romans 2:15; Ephesians 6:10–20; Luke 8:26–39; Ephesians 3:10; Daniel 10:10–21

Abstract

Furgeson, Jon C. “The Sword and the Mask: Toward a Confessional Lutheran Theology of Spiritual Warfare.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2020. pp. "[Number of pages]"

This dissertation, a work in Trinitarian & ecclesial theology, seeks to recover the foundations of a full doctrine of spiritual warfare. Considering seeming disparate voices such as Walter Wink, C. Peter Wagner, John Kleinig, Gustav Wingren, and Leopoldo A. Sánchez, this dissertation asserts a constructive and integrative approach to spiritual warfare wherein the warfare is only enacted by the fallen powers of the sinful nature, the fallen world, and the fallen angels. This warfare is in reaction to the reign of Christ in denial of his authority. The dissertation proposes a theocentric, antifragile approach to spiritual warfare in which the Holy Spirit’s actions through the form of God’s Word (the sword of the Spirit) and Martin Luther’s concept of masks of God can be used to construe not only how God creates and shapes Christian faith amidst the efforts of the fallen powers, but how God is able to thwart the work of the fallen powers by using their schemes to deepen faith and Christian identity.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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