Spiritual warfare is the concept of taking a stand against evil forces. The foundation for this ideology is having a belief in evil spirits. Initially rooted in Paganism, various Christian groups have adopted practices to repel such forces, as based on their doctrine of Christian demonology. A common form of spiritual warfare among Christians, is prayer. Other practices may include exorcisms, laying-on of hands, fasting, or anointing with oil.
Read more about Spiritual Warfare: Practices in Christianity, Criticism, Cultural Influence
Famous quotes containing the words spiritual and/or warfare:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
—Bible: New Testament St. Paul, in Ephesians, 6:12.
St. Paul’s words were used by William Blake as an epigraph to The Four Zoas (c. 1800)
“The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)