Spiritual Warfare

Borgman and Ventura realize they're heading into dangerous territory here – far too many books on this topic are sensationalistic, fantastic (and I don't mean that as a synonym for great), and unbalanced. On the other hand, there's the danger of downplaying the need for this kind of material. They seek (and succeed, I should add) at striking a Biblical balance in their approach.

Essentially, this is a careful study of Ephesians 6:10-20, not a systematic or biblical-theological approach to the topic. Which is well and good, but I'd have preferred one of the latter. Still, there are enough cross-references here to ensure they're interpreting Scripture by Scripture, as well as illustrating principles from the Ephesians passage elsewhere.

The authors also cite other writers like crazy – for the sake of clarification, illustration, and (I think) to demonstrate to those wary of the topic that they're not the only ones to consider the idea of spiritual warfare outside the Neil Anderson, Nicky Cruz, Frank Peretti crowds. The authors they cite from are a varied and impressive collection of Reformation-era, Puritan (and slightly later)-era, and contemporary Reformed and quasi-Reformed writers, preachers and commentators. They clearly owe a debt to William Gurnall here, but I think they could've used him a bit more throughout.

A solid book, nothing earth shattering. A good starting point, though. Readers would be well off to use this to get an overall look at the topic and then to use the cited authors (particularly those that are pre-20th century) for further study.