What do you think?
Rate this book
Confronting Powerless Christianity: Evangelicals and the Missing Dimension
"The only kind of Christianity in the New Testament is Christianity with power."
If you are skeptical about--yet intrigued by--the issue of spiritual power for today, Charles Kraft provides a biblical, reasonable apologetic for a realm too often overlooked. He describes his own paradigm shift concerning the power of Jesus to heal and free others, and explains persuasively why every Christian should be confronted with this "missing dimension."
Confronting Powerless Christianity will inspire a more robust faith that is powerful enough to heal, to free people from emotional wounds and to bring about real life change.
If you are skeptical about--yet intrigued by--the issue of spiritual power for today, Charles Kraft provides a biblical, reasonable apologetic for a realm too often overlooked. He describes his own paradigm shift concerning the power of Jesus to heal and free others, and explains persuasively why every Christian should be confronted with this "missing dimension."
Confronting Powerless Christianity will inspire a more robust faith that is powerful enough to heal, to free people from emotional wounds and to bring about real life change.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2002
19 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Charles H. Kraft
50 books24 followersRev. Dr. Charles H. Kraft is an anthropologist and linguist whose work since the early 1980s has focused on inner healing and spiritual warfare. He is the Sun-Hee Kwak Professor of Anthropology and Intercultural Communication in the School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, teaching primarily in the school's spiritual dynamics concentration. He joined Fuller's faculty in 1969. In the 1950s he served as a Brethren missionary in northern Nigeria. He has been a professor of African languages at Michigan State University and UCLA, and taught anthropology part-time at Biola University. He holds a BA from Wheaton College, a BD from Ashland Theological Seminary, and a PhD from the Hartford Seminary Foundation.
-Wikipedia
-Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 8, 2015
Kraft joins a host of Evangelical scholars (Moreland, Willard, Grudem, Storms) who are admitting the Spirit's power being manifested in the kingdom today yet are doing so from non-Pentecostal platforms. In this work Kraft summarizes past arguments, responds to recent criticisms, and offers models and templates on how to engage in deliverance ministry. Kraft makes the provocative argument that there are regularities, rules, and principles in the relationships between the human world and the spirit world exist and can be studied scientifically (61; I wish Kraft would have said “systematically” instead of scientifically).
*Dealing with Demons*
Kraft suggests that demons attach themselves to damaged emotions (at least part of the time) and many exorcisms, if they don't go wrong, are protracted longer than necessary because the exorcist isn't dealing with root-level issues. This seems to work more with "sin-issue" demons more than institutional or territorial spirits.
Kraft has come under attack for claiming we can make systematic studies of the spirit world. Perhaps he is sometimes guilty of overreach, but there does seem to be something there. He notes that God’s universe has rules and order. From this premise he infers that the spirit-realm also operates by an order. He gives seven principles that guide his work (108-110). Kraft has been accused of animism, seeing power in objects and rituals. Kraft responds by noting that animists have relatively correct logical principles; they simply misunderstand how God works (112).
He notes a number of "rules" that he has seen work in deliverance ministries (see pp. 162ff). He does a good job noting the various hierarchies within the spirit realm.
Conclusion:
This book does a fine job breaking open new paradigms and the differences between animism and biblical supernaturalism. I do have some criticisms: Kraft is correct in that synergy is a key point in intercession and deliverance, but he lends himself to overstating the case (God can’t work without partners, 151). *Kraft utilizes “Free Will” as an interpretive model but doesn’t actually define it (152).
*Dealing with Demons*
Kraft suggests that demons attach themselves to damaged emotions (at least part of the time) and many exorcisms, if they don't go wrong, are protracted longer than necessary because the exorcist isn't dealing with root-level issues. This seems to work more with "sin-issue" demons more than institutional or territorial spirits.
Kraft has come under attack for claiming we can make systematic studies of the spirit world. Perhaps he is sometimes guilty of overreach, but there does seem to be something there. He notes that God’s universe has rules and order. From this premise he infers that the spirit-realm also operates by an order. He gives seven principles that guide his work (108-110). Kraft has been accused of animism, seeing power in objects and rituals. Kraft responds by noting that animists have relatively correct logical principles; they simply misunderstand how God works (112).
He notes a number of "rules" that he has seen work in deliverance ministries (see pp. 162ff). He does a good job noting the various hierarchies within the spirit realm.
Conclusion:
This book does a fine job breaking open new paradigms and the differences between animism and biblical supernaturalism. I do have some criticisms: Kraft is correct in that synergy is a key point in intercession and deliverance, but he lends himself to overstating the case (God can’t work without partners, 151). *Kraft utilizes “Free Will” as an interpretive model but doesn’t actually define it (152).
September 11, 2017
Wow! This was one of the best books I have ever read on the subject of the Christian life and ministry. There is no doubt in my mind that most of the Evangelical world these days, (at least the one in the West), is so different from the world of the church we see in the New Testament and in early Christian history. Cessationists would like us to think that this is God's doing thanks to the canonization of the Holy Scriptures. They are wrong. Terribly wrong!! Dangerously wrong!!
Here in this book, Charles Kraft, makes the case for both the reality of and the need to, engage in the spiritual world if we are to see the Kingdom of God advance like it is meant to; like it did in the days of Christ and His original Apostles.
On a side note: Mr. Kraft does not originate from a Charismatic or Pentecostal background but rather from the traditional evangelical branch of Christendom. This fact piqued my interest in this well written, argued book. I believe his background can also be a bridge to help those skeptical of supernatural expressions of the Christian life cross over into a more complete, Biblically based and powerful Christian ministry that is so absent in much of the Evangelical world.
As I read through this wonderful book, I found myself not only highlighting large portions but also exclaiming, "Finally! Someone is putting to words what I have felt and seen and believed for a LONG time!!"
Besides the well-argued case for spiritual warfare, I appreciated his practical advice on how to engage in deliverance and spiritual warfare.
A few quotes -
"Strangely, theologians and those who are theologically trained (e.g. pastors) often seem to have imbibed most deeply the worldview-based skepticism of spiritual things due to the academicism of theological training...
"Even evangelical scholars who claim to be committed to biblical truth often accuse Christians who practice the spiritual authority Jesus gave us of endorsing and advocating an outdated first-century worldview...Thus, they contend, secular applications of power (e.g., in physical and emotional healing) should be seen as ordained by God to replace the ways God worked in biblical times." (Pages 29, 30)
"...I conclude that the evangelicalism in which I was brought up was a rather secular Christianity - knowledge based and without power. As evangelicals, we considered our relationship with Jesus central but cultivated it largely as a byproduct of the knowledge we were continually fed. Not that this knowledge was unimportant! It was very important, but incomplete, especially since we were taught to distrust our experience. We equated experience with emotionalism. The truth, we were taught, lay in the rational statements of belief (the propositions), not in the experience." (Pgs 119-120)
"As evangelicals, we have rightly focused on conversion as the essential first step for Christians. To climb beyond that step, orthodox evangelism gives the impression that we must emphasize correct intellectual belief (doctrine) based primarily on the epistles, especially Romans. While paying little attention to the fact that the letters (epistles) are experiential, relational and context-specific, we have treated them as if they were written as theological treatises. Which of our own personal letters would we live to have analyzed and picked apart word by word as we have done with the New Testament epistles?
"With this as our ethos, many marvelously converted, sincere young Christians have died spiritually because nobody helped them first to get free from internal strongholds and then to grow strong in their relationship with Jesus. Their attention was turned to doctrine and they soon became containers of information based, intellectual understanding of the faith with precious little development of their relationship with Christ and little or no experience of the power of Christ." (Page 244)
Here in this book, Charles Kraft, makes the case for both the reality of and the need to, engage in the spiritual world if we are to see the Kingdom of God advance like it is meant to; like it did in the days of Christ and His original Apostles.
On a side note: Mr. Kraft does not originate from a Charismatic or Pentecostal background but rather from the traditional evangelical branch of Christendom. This fact piqued my interest in this well written, argued book. I believe his background can also be a bridge to help those skeptical of supernatural expressions of the Christian life cross over into a more complete, Biblically based and powerful Christian ministry that is so absent in much of the Evangelical world.
As I read through this wonderful book, I found myself not only highlighting large portions but also exclaiming, "Finally! Someone is putting to words what I have felt and seen and believed for a LONG time!!"
Besides the well-argued case for spiritual warfare, I appreciated his practical advice on how to engage in deliverance and spiritual warfare.
A few quotes -
"Strangely, theologians and those who are theologically trained (e.g. pastors) often seem to have imbibed most deeply the worldview-based skepticism of spiritual things due to the academicism of theological training...
"Even evangelical scholars who claim to be committed to biblical truth often accuse Christians who practice the spiritual authority Jesus gave us of endorsing and advocating an outdated first-century worldview...Thus, they contend, secular applications of power (e.g., in physical and emotional healing) should be seen as ordained by God to replace the ways God worked in biblical times." (Pages 29, 30)
"...I conclude that the evangelicalism in which I was brought up was a rather secular Christianity - knowledge based and without power. As evangelicals, we considered our relationship with Jesus central but cultivated it largely as a byproduct of the knowledge we were continually fed. Not that this knowledge was unimportant! It was very important, but incomplete, especially since we were taught to distrust our experience. We equated experience with emotionalism. The truth, we were taught, lay in the rational statements of belief (the propositions), not in the experience." (Pgs 119-120)
"As evangelicals, we have rightly focused on conversion as the essential first step for Christians. To climb beyond that step, orthodox evangelism gives the impression that we must emphasize correct intellectual belief (doctrine) based primarily on the epistles, especially Romans. While paying little attention to the fact that the letters (epistles) are experiential, relational and context-specific, we have treated them as if they were written as theological treatises. Which of our own personal letters would we live to have analyzed and picked apart word by word as we have done with the New Testament epistles?
"With this as our ethos, many marvelously converted, sincere young Christians have died spiritually because nobody helped them first to get free from internal strongholds and then to grow strong in their relationship with Jesus. Their attention was turned to doctrine and they soon became containers of information based, intellectual understanding of the faith with precious little development of their relationship with Christ and little or no experience of the power of Christ." (Page 244)
December 15, 2019
This is huge!
I wish, like Charles Kraft, I had understood this 40 years ago, and I'm really grateful to him for sharing both his own experience and the principles on which he works, with Jesus, to bring about freedom for people who are stuck in a spiritual prisoner-of-war camp, unable to see the causes and solution to their captivity
I wish, like Charles Kraft, I had understood this 40 years ago, and I'm really grateful to him for sharing both his own experience and the principles on which he works, with Jesus, to bring about freedom for people who are stuck in a spiritual prisoner-of-war camp, unable to see the causes and solution to their captivity
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews