Date of Award

Winter 1-1999

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Theology

Abstract

The dissertation examines the nature and function of demon possession and exorcism within the context of divine providence in Luke-Acts. Chap. 1, after defining the subject and purpose of the study, lays out the dissertation's methodology, constraints and relevance. Chap. 2 provides a survey of the state of scholarship on demonology in the New Testament. Chap. 3 discusses the backgrounds against which Luke's account of demonic possession and exorcism have been understood by prior scholarship. Chap.4 and 5 are devoted to the exegetical analysis of the demonic stories in Luke-Acts. Chap 4 examines stories of Jesus' encounter with the demoniacs in the Gospel o{ Luke and how they serve Luke's literary purposes. Chap. 5 examines similar miraculous phenomena in the early Church as narrated in Acts of the Apostles. Chap. 6 discusses the dissertation's contributions by placing the demonic stories within Luke's understanding of God's plan and purposes in history. In doing so, we revisit earlier approaches and studies of demon possession, exorcism and in the Luke-Acts. The implications this study has, as far as the question of the criteria for distinguishing early Christian miraculous deeds from Jewish and pagan practices are also drawn. The result of the study include the following; (1) Demon possessions in Luke-Acts have to do with actual beings as demons who take possession of people. And even more important for Luke, they have to do with a unified intention' of Satan and his minions to enslave and oppress those for whom, Jesus came; (2) the exorcisms and the miraculous deeds by Jesus and the early Church are not meant simply to demonstrate the power of early Christians over demons and rival magicians, but to demonstrate God's power and his intentions to thwart Satan's scheme so that his purposes in history would prevail; (3) for Luke, the difference between early Christian deeds and those performed by, non-Christians lies in the context within which those deeds are embedded (context, being God's plan in history), and not in the forms or content (i.e., the seeming parallels that early Christian miracles have in Jewish and pagan literature of the period).

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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