14AR19-38

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Apologia Report 19:38 (1,221)

November 5, 2014

Subject: Understanding Spiritual Warfare

In this issue:

APOLOGETICS - "an excellent text for a class on spiritual warfare"

ISLAM - recent political and cultural integration

SECULARISM - "a tour-de-force survey of the changing relation of culture and religion"

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APOLOGETICS

Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Four Views, by James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy [1] -- writing for the academic journal Missiology (42:3 - 2014, pp333-4), Richard Hibbert (senior lecturer in missions, Sydney Missionary Bible College) considers this topic "of vital interest to missionaries and missiologists. Books on spiritual warfare usually advance a single perspective and often fail to interact with other views. ...

"In their extended introduction the editors set the scene for the conversation by discussing key issues in the debate, including recent alternative interpretations of the nature of Satan and demons. Most helpful, and worth the price of the book on its own, is the introduction's extensive footnotes that serve as an annotated bibliography of angelology and spiritual warfare and as a starting point for further study.

"Each view presented in the book has been carefully chosen to provide a distinctive conception of Satan's nature and work and of how to engage in spiritual warfare." For the sake of brevity, we generalize the views as follows:

- "world systems" | Satan = impersonal symbol of human evil

- "classical" | Satan = fallen angel resisted through prayer

- "ground-level" | opposing Satan's oppression via deliverance

- "strategic" | targets "territorial" evil spirits

"Three contested themes with broader significance are woven through this volume: the question of maintaining a 'balance' between the modernist assumption that spirits and Satan do not exist and an overly strong emphasis on their role in the Christian life; the degree of sovereignty that God has over Satan and evil; and the degree to which experience should shape our understanding of spiritual warfare." Hibbert considers this "an excellent text for a class on spiritual warfare."

In the Asbury Journal (69:1 - 2014, pp98-99), Fredrick J. Long's review includes criticism. "Absent here is a concluding essay. However, the forty-five (!) page introductory essay by editors Beilby (prof. of theology) and Eddy (prof. of biblical and theological studies) virtually justifies purchasing the book, in some ways outshining the other contributions."

In response to the section "The Strategic-Level Deliverance Model," the critics of the view "(whose collective response is devastating) question the subjective nature of discernment and assessment of success, as well as their exegesis, use of mythic stories, and triumphalist perspective." Long is frustrated that James 4:7 "is cited (not quoted) only briefly in a footnote" and finds it "diabolical" that a number of passages are not cited at all, such as Matthew 6:13, John 17:15, Ephesians 5:27, and 1 John 5:18.

ISLAM

The Cambridge Companion to American Islam, Juliane Hammer and Omid Safi, eds. [2] -- Choice (Sep '14, n.p.) describes this resource as "a rewarding study of how Islam has integrated with American culture" giving us "Islam's history in the US." The Companion describes "a total of perhaps 8 million diverse American Muslims, somewhat over 70 percent foreign born, by the close of the first decade of the 21st century. Most of the volume deals with recent political and cultural integration. Contributors describe an active and extensive Muslim presence, particularly after 9/11, in the American media, legal system, politics, and interfaith cooperation; in the foundation of mosques, national organizations, and educational institutions; in the prominent participation of women; and in the global impact of distinctively American Islam in thought, literature, film, music, and youth culture."

SECULARISM

Culture and the Death of God, by Terry Eagleton [3] -- considers "how culture participates in the promotion of secularism in its various guises [where] the question of the death of God provides a background for a narrative that explores how philosophers have struggled for over three centuries to articulate how culture might succeed - or fail - to provide a point of social cohesion, given the diminishing importance of shared religious commitments." The reviewer for Choice (Sep '14, n.p.), independent scholar D. R. Boscaljon, considers this "a good introduction to how major British and Continental thinkers interrelate, written at an accessible level that adds to but does not require prior understanding of modern philosophy." [5] Kirkus (Mar '14, #1, n.p.) explains: "Since the Enlightenment, philosophers have attempted to displace the perceived superstitions of religion as a basis for Western civilization and to replace them with secular reason, with limited success. [Eagleton] traces the course of this intellectual quest from 18th-century Germany [to our] postmodern era of extreme relativism. ... Eagleton deftly explores the shifting relationships among reason, religion, culture, myth, art, tragedy and the modern sensibility of the absurd, all expressed with a dry wit and provocative epigrams. The book, however, is neither intended nor recommended for general readers. This wealth of content can only be contained in a slender volume by assuming that readers are already familiar with philosophers from Kant to Kierkegaard; without this background, it will prove slow going, though still rewarding. Now that the West is colliding with a resurgent Islam for which God is very much alive, Eagleton's insights are particularly timely."

Publishers Weekly (Feb '14, #2, n.p.) calls this "a tour-de-force survey of the changing relation of culture and religion." It also notes Eagleton's observation that "'human history arrives for the first time at an authentic atheism,' because people no longer feel a need to be redeemed" and concludes that "a new configuration of faith and culture might arise if religions practiced solidarity with the poor and powerless."

Graeme Hunter deploys incisive evangelical satire of this book. Touchstone, Nov/Dec '14, pp46-48. <www.ow.ly/DPJxF>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Four Views, by James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy (Baker, 2012, paperback, 240 pages) <www.ow.ly/DFMwr>

2 - Cambridge Companion to American Islam, Juliane Hammer and Omid Safi, eds. (Cambridge Univ Prs, 2013, paperback, 386 pages) <www.ow.ly/DFRMa>

3 - Culture and the Death of God, Terry by Eagleton (Yale Univ Prs, April 2015, paperback, 248 pages) <www.ow.ly/DFMPG>

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