Strategic level spiritual warfare has been an emerging trend within Evangelical missiology
ever since C. Peter Wagner published his Spiritual Power and Church Growth (1986). The
distinctive doctrines of Wagner’s SLSW are 1. The doctrine of territorial spirits, which
entails the belief that powerful demons control specific geographical territories and its human
inhabitants. Through a variety of spiritual warfare techniques such demons can be overcome.
2. The doctrine of territorial defilement. The assumption here is that a territorial spirit can
only hold people in a location in bondage if it has obtained the legal right to do so because of
sins and evils committed in that locality in the past. Identificational repentance on behalf of
the people living in such territories removes the legal right of the territorial spirits. 3. The
doctrine of Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare prayer. The underlying assumption is that
territorial spirits can only be removed by means of aggressive spiritual warfare in the form of
a variety of prayer and exorcism methods for dealing with territorial spirits. (4) The doctrine
of territorial commitment. This doctrine justifies the exercise of spiritual power and authority
by modern apostles in their communities. Wagner’s missiology has been largely shaped by
the church growth movement. In his quest for better techniques to bring about mass
conversions Wagner, impressed by the Latin American Pentecostal churches, embraced
Pentecostalism and developed SLSW. However, a thorough biblical study demonstrates that
SLSW is mostly unbiblical. A study of SLSW in Church history also demonstrates that
SLSW was never accepted in orthodox Christianity. From a contextual point of view SLSW
turns out to be a North American missiology with nationalist and political biases. Finally,
when looking at the potential effects of a SLSW style missiology in the context of Malawi it
emerges that Wagner’s SLSW is likely to reinforce rather than diminish the prevalent
witchcraft fears in the Malawian society. At the same time SLSW tends to ‘demonize’ other
cultures and thus hinders genuine contextualization. In the final analysis SLSW turns out not
to be a commendable strategy for Christian Mission in Malawi. / Christian Spirituality Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/2891 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Van der Meer, Erwin |
| Contributors | Kritzinger, J. N. J. (Johannes Nicolaas Jacobus), 1950- |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xi, 311 leaves) |
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