A study of the partnership of prayer and the armour of God in William Gurnall’s ‘The Christian in Compleat Armour'

This thesis aims to demonstrate that William Gurnall (1616-1679) posits an essential connection between the armour of God and prayer in spiritual warfare against the assaults of Satan. Gurnall contends that prayer facilitates a hopeful and strengthening connection with God, while the armour enables an outward manifestation of that connection to the world, providing a framework for prayer, particularly during a period of disunity and fracture in the church and country. This thesis will examine that partnership in detail.
The study will commence with a brief overview of William Gurnall's life and potential motivations for writing, followed by an analysis of current research of prayer and spiritual warfare in the Early Modern Period and of his perception of spiritual conflict. The focus of the thesis will then be on Gurnall's understanding of prayer and the armour of God. Gurnall attributes great significance to the essential partnership between the armour and prayer, and the thesis will then examine the symbiotic relationship between the two, and the interconnection of the individual components of the armour. The thesis will conclude with an examination of the role of prayer in each element of the armour. The thesis will elucidate Gurnall's emphasis on the connection between prayer and the armour in spiritual warfare.