Toward a Confessional Lutheran Account of Spiritual Warfare
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Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 4-1-2020 The Sword & The Mask: Toward a Confessional Lutheran Account of Spiritual Warfare Jon Furgeson Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/phd Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Furgeson, Jon, "The Sword & The Mask: Toward a Confessional Lutheran Account of Spiritual Warfare" (2020). Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation. 79. https://scholar.csl.edu/phd/79 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SWORD & THE MASK: TOWARD A CONFESSIONAL LUTHERAN ACCOUNT OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Department of Systematic Theology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Jon. C. Furgeson April 2020 Approved by: Dr. Leo Sánchez Dissertation Advisor Dr. Kent Burreson Reader Dr. Timothy Dost Reader © 2020 by Jon Furgeson. All rights reserved. ii To Alice, Ian, and Aidan, who daily demonstrate Christ’s love toward me. iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... VIII ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................... IX ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. X CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 FOUR APPROACHES AND A DEFINITION.................................................................... 1 THESIS ................................................................................................................................. 9 DELIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................. 11 METHODOLOGY AND OUTLINE ................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................................................................... 22 THE SPIRITUAL SALAD BAR AND THE EXCLUDED MIDDLE: SECULAR AND ECCLESIAL CONSTRUALS OF THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE POST- ENLIGHTENED WEST..................................................................................................... 22 SECULAR SUPERNATURAL CONFUSION .................................................................. 22 ECCLESIASTICAL DIVERSION AND THE EXCLUDED MIDDLE ........................... 31 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................................... 39 WALTER WINK’S SOCIAL APPROACH TO SPIRITUAL WARFARE ...................... 39 WALTER WINK’S INFLUENTIAL SOCIAL APPROACH ........................................... 39 WINK’S HERMENEUTICAL METHOD ......................................................................... 40 WINK AND THE POWERS AS SOCIAL ETHIC............................................................ 46 AN ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL APPROACH ............................................................. 57 CHAPTER FOUR ........................................................................................................................ 62 C. PETER WAGNER’S PNEUMATIC NARRATIVE OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE ..... 62 iv C. PETER WAGNER BECOMES A CHARISMATIC ..................................................... 62 WAGNER’S HERMENEUTICAL APPROACH .............................................................. 65 WAGNER’S IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIC-LEVEL SPIRITUAL WARFARE ............................................................................................................................................ 73 AN ANALYSIS OF WAGNER’S PNEUMATIC APPROACH ....................................... 77 CHAPTER FIVE ......................................................................................................................... 82 THE BIFURCATED APPROACH AND LUTHERAN VOICES..................................... 82 THE COMMON CRITIQUE RE-EXAMINED ................................................................. 82 EXTENDED CONTRIBUTIONS BY CONTEMPORARY LUTHERAN THEOLOGIANS ................................................................................................................ 92 Gustav Wingren on Vocation as a Battle between Two Governments ..................... 93 John Kleinig on the Intercessory Character of Spiritual Struggle ........................... 109 Leopoldo Sánchez on Spirit Christology and Models of Sanctification.................. 117 CHAPTER SIX .......................................................................................................................... 129 A CONFESSIONAL LUTHERAN APPROACH TO SPIRITUAL WARFARE: THE ANTIFRAGILE APPROACH — IDENTITY, THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, AND THE MASKS OF GOD ............................................................................................................. 129 ANTIFRAGILITY: AN OVERVIEW OF A NEW APPROACH ................................... 129 GOD THE SON REIGNS OVER THE FALLEN POWERS .......................................... 136 The Nature of Christ’s Reign in the New Testament .............................................. 137 The Confessions and Lutheran Tradition on the Reign of Christ: Jesus Christ Reigns in the Spirit in Accordance with the Will of the Father ........................................... 141 The Narrative of Christ’s Reign Regarding Spiritual Warfare ................................ 143 THE ANTIFRAGILE APPROACH, PART ONE: SPIRITUAL WARFARE AS THE FALLEN POWERS RAILING AGAINST THE REIGN OF CHRIST—THE FALLEN POWERS AND THEIR TARGETS ................................................................................. 146 The Fallen Sinful Nature: Warfare Against Christ and the Imputed Regenerate v Identity ..................................................................................................................... 146 THE ORIGIN AND DEFINITION OF THE UNREGENERATE NATURE147 THE ORIGIN OF THE REGENERATE STATE OF THE NEW IDENTITY ........................................................................................................................ 150 THE UNREGENERATE AND REGENERATE IN PARADOX—THE SINFUL NATURE AT WAR AGAINST CHRIST AND CHRISTIAN IDENTITY ..................................................................................................... 152 The Fallen World: Warfare Against Christ, the Church, and Competing Collectives ................................................................................................................................. 155 A DEFINITION OF “WORLD” AS A FALLEN POWER ........................... 156 THE FALLEN WORLD IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE ................................. 159 The Fallen Angels: Warfare Against Creation to Spite God ................................... 161 THE FALLEN ANGELS FROM CREATION TO JESUS ........................... 162 THE FALLEN ANGELS DURING THE TIME OF JESUS’ MINISTRY ... 168 THE FALLEN ANGELS AT CHRIST’S RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION .................................................................................................. 173 THE CURRENT SITUATION UNTIL JUDGMENT DAY–-THE POWER OF SPITE ............................................................................................................. 175 THE FALLEN POWERS IN TANDEM ....................................................... 177 THE ANTIFRAGILE APPROACH, PART TWO: THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT AND THE MASK OF GOD SHAPE, ENACT, AND DEEPEN CHRISTIAN IDENTITY DESPITE THE FALLEN POWERS ................................................................................ 184 The Sword of the Spirit............................................................................................ 188 DEFINING THE SPIRIT’S SWORD ............................................................ 188 THE SPIRIT’S SWORD AS LAW AND GOSPEL ...................................... 190 THE SPIRIT’S SWORD AMIDST THE ANFECHTUNGEN ....................... 196 THE COMMUNAL ASPECT OF THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT ............. 200 vi The Masks of God ................................................................................................... 207 LUTHER’S CONCEPT OF A MASK OF GOD ........................................... 207 THE SCOPE OF GOD’S MASKS IN CHRISTIAN LOVE AND VOCATION ........................................................................................................................ 210 THE NEIGHBOR IN IDENTITY AND RELATION ................................... 215 THE NEIGHBOR AND GOD’S MASK IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE ........ 217 MASKS AS ENACTED IDENTITY AND REDEMPTIVE GESTURES .... 219 CHAPTER 7 .............................................................................................................................. 232 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................