INVITING THE SPIRIT TO FIGHT THE SPIRITS? PNEUMATOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FOR MISSIONS IN HEALING AND EXORCISM

Abstract

Abstract From time immemorial to the present, numerous people all over the world have perceived hearings 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 rational enlightenment proved false. However, since the subject of spirit-worlds has hardly ever been seriously 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 demonology remain missiological liabilities that, when seriously 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 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. Introduction The theme of the 2004 IAMS General Conference, Integrity of Mission in Light of the Gospel: Bearing the Witness of the Spirit, is a stimulus for in-depth exploration of the question, 'How far and to what extent are or can healings bear a genuine witness to the Spirit--the Holy to be precise?' From time immemorial up to the present, numerous people the world over 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 readings will vanish in proportion to the growth of rational enlightenment (1) proved false. Nowadays, spirit-talk has come vividly to the fore again, not only in Asia, Latin America and Africa (2), but also in Europe and North America, as the fascination with The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter stories clearly shows. (3) However, issues of spirit-worlds were hardly ever seriously addressed before in modern times by anyone, let alone by missiology. This left a vacuum prone to be filled by whatever anyone pleased. Though missionaries always recognized the pivotal religious importance of spirits in the respective cultures in which they were working, they generally tended to view such spirits negatively and opposed them outright. This attitude became noticeably strong in the age of rationalism, as can be seen for instance in the report by Carl Edelmann from the Berlin Mission Society. In 1864, Edelmann commented on his work among the Pedi in Transvaal: Their religion is the religion of the devil, their priests are sorcerers ... sorcery and superstition associated with it is the main bulwark of Satan which we campaign against here. (4) Edelmann was not alone in his opinion. His pointed remarks represent an attitude common to the majority of 19th-century missionaries, especially Protestants, as any study of their writings quickly discloses. Yet, while fighting the belief in spirits was one of their main challenges, missionaries lacked a sound and proper theological rationale. …