Desires of the Spirit

2020 ◽  
pp. 183-231
Author(s):  
Simeon Zahl
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Culturally Embedded

This chapter examines the work of the Holy Spirit in the transformation and sanctification of Christians. It argues that accounts of sanctification that build upon the idea of an instantaneous implantation of new moral powers in the Christian upon receipt of the Spirit have significant problems. It then turns to Augustine’s theology of delight and desire to provide an alternative theology of sanctification that is experientially and affectively more persuasive. The second half of the chapter shows that this “affective Augustinian” approach has a number of further advantages. It can account for the fact that sanctifying experience of the Spirit exhibits variability and that human beings are often a mystery to themselves; it can affirm a qualified role for practice and habituation in Christian sanctification without overestimating the transformative power of Christian practice; and it directs attention to the social as well as materially and culturally embedded dimensions of sanctification. The chapter concludes by arguing that an “affective Augustinian” vision of Christian transformation can also account effectively and compassionately for the persistence of sin in Christians.

The Trinity’s Loving Act of Creation

2015 ◽  
pp. 123-138
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Weinandy
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
The Holy Spirit

This chapter discusses the Catholic understanding of God as Creator. It begins with an overview of the biblical proclamation as found in the Old and New Testaments and proceeds by citing the writings of Irenaeus as an example of early patristic thought. It then considers the doctrinal and philosophical understandings of God as one and as a Trinity of persons, with particular emphasis on the thought of Thomas Aquinas. It also examines the act of creation and the type of relationship such an act establishes between God and creation. The chapter highlights creation’s eternal purpose: for human beings to become the Father’s children after the manner of his own eternal Son, which would be achieved through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.

The Goodness of Home

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Marandiuc
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Middle Term ◽  
Human Love ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Theological Argument

The question of what home means and how it relates to subjectivity has fresh urgency in light of pervasive contemporary migration, which ruptures the human self, and painful relational poverty, which characterizes much of modern life. Yet the Augustinian heritage that situates true home and right attachment outside this world has clouded theological conceptualizations of earthly belonging. This book engages this neglected topic and argues for the goodness of home, which it construes relationally rather than spatially. In dialogue with research in the neuroscience of attachment theory and contemporary constructions of the self, the book advances a theological argument for the function of love attachments as sources of subjectivity and enablers of human freedom. The book shows that paradoxically the depth of human belonging—thus, dependence—is directly proportional to the strength of human agency—hence, independence. Building on Søren Kierkegaard’s imagery alongside other sources, the book depicts human love as interwoven with the infinite streams of divine love, forming a sacramental site for God’s presence, and playing a constitutive role in the making of the self. The book portrays the self both as gifted from God in inchoate form and as engaged in continuous, albeit nonlinear becoming via experiences of human love. The Holy Spirit indwells the attachment space between human beings as a middle term preventing its implosion or dissolution and conferring a stability that befits the concept of home. The interstitial space between loving human persons subsists both anthropologically and pneumatologically and generates the self’s home.

Moral Formation in Christ, the Beautiful Beloved

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Loving Relationship ◽  
Falling In Love

Christ’s healing of humanity consists, crucially, in forming human beings for loving relationship with himself and others. In this respect, Christ also takes the role of the beautiful beloved. Believers become pilgrims by falling in love with the beautiful Christ by the initiative of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses their eyes to see him as beautiful and enkindles desire in their hearts. By desiring and loving the beautiful Christ, the believer is conformed to him and learns to walk his path. Desiring the beautiful Christ forms a believing community shaped aesthetically and morally for a particular way of life: pilgrimage to the heavenly homeland. Formation is both earthly and eschatological, for so too is the journey and the activity of the pilgrim.

Tradition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Joint Declaration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Roman Catholics

This book opens by establishing the substantial convergence in reflection on Christian tradition proposed by a 1963 report of the Faith and Order Commission (of the World Council of Churches) and the teaching of Vatican II (1962–5). Despite this ecumenical consensus, in recent years few theologians have written about tradition, and none has looked to the social sciences for insights into the nature and functions of tradition. Drawing above all on sociologists, this work shows the difference that tradition makes in human and religious life. In the light of the divine self-revelation that climaxed with Jesus Christ, the central characteristics of tradition are set out: in particular, its relationship to and distinction from culture. The risen Christ himself is the central Tradition (upper case) at the heart of Christian life. All the baptized faithful, and not merely their ordained leaders, play a role in transmitting tradition. The ‘sense of the faithful’ amounts to a ‘sense of the tradition’. The essential, if invisible, agent of tradition remains always the Holy Spirit. Scripture and tradition function in mutual dependence, as shown by the emergence of the creeds, the image of Christ as the New Adam, and the doctrine of justification (on which a 1999 joint declaration shows substantial agreement now reached by Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and others). The full context of Christian life and history focuses the relationship between Scripture and tradition. The book deals with the challenge of discerning and reforming particular traditions. A closing appendix shows how modern studies of memory—above all, collective memory—can illuminate ways in which tradition works to maintain Christian identity and continuity.

Pentecostal Understanding of Sanctification from a Pentecostal Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Hollis Gause
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Birth ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Fruit Of The Spirit ◽  
The Trinity

AbstractThe doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the product of divine revelation, and is a doctrine of divine worship. The expressions of this doctrine come out of worshipful response to divine revelation demonstrating the social nature of the Trinity and God's incorporating the human creature in His own sociality and personal pluralism. The perfect social union between God and the man and woman that he had created was disrupted by human sin. God redeemed the fallen creature, and at the heart of this redemptive experience lies the doctrine of Holy Trinity, with the Holy Spirit as the communing agent of all the experiences of salvation. The Spirit is especially active in the provision and fulfillment of sanctification, which is presented here as the continuum of 'holiness-unity-love'. He produces the graces of the Holy Spirit – the fruit of the Spirit. He implants the Seed of the new birth which is the word of God. He purifies by the blood of Jesus. He establishes union and communion among believers and with God through His Son Jesus. This is holiness.

The Sunsum of Onyame: Akan Perspectives on an Ecological Pneumatology

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Owusu Agyarko
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Natural State ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Dynamic Equivalent ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

Abstract The Akan notion of sunsum may form the basis for an ecological pneumatology. Sunsum may be understood as the central, unifying vitality which integrates various elements in Akan thought. Amongst the Akan, God has Sunsum and anything which exists in its natural state has sunsum, a spark from God. The concept of sunsum expresses how the “one” (Onyame) and the “many” (nature including human beings) are related. It is the dynamic equivalent of the Holy Spirit in the Akan Twi Bible. Sunsum is energy, life, communicating itself and transcending itself. It is absolute spirit, who enlivens the whole universe. The Akan concept of sunsum suggests the possibility of a union of the concrete with the universal. The concept of sunsum may therefore enable one to speak of the Holy Spirit and its relation both to God and to nature. This proposal may also enable one to understand the Holy Spirit as cosmic in nature and as divine in being. This contribution offers theological reflection on the implications of the notion of sunsum for ecotheology.

scholarly journals SAKRAMEN BAPTIS SEBAGAI SAKRMEN KESELAMATAN DAN PERSEKUTUAN PARA MURID KRISTUS

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Ola Rongan Wilhelmus
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Good News ◽  
Evil Spirit ◽  
Disciples Of Christ ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Spirit Baptism ◽  
The World ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
God's Grace

Baptism is a sacrament instituted and used by God Himself through Christ to purify, sanctify and to save human being out of  the power of evil spirit. Baptism celebration maintaining in a proper and faithful manner will be brought about the fullness grace and favor of God to the Catholic faithful. The experiences of the Catholic faithful regarding God’s grace and favor should not be only responded by full faith but also be properly responded by full action to bring it to the entire nations and human races. The Catholic Church as a communion of Christ disciples has been sent and guided by the Holy Spirit to spread out such grace and favor of God to all nations. Pastoral assembly of Surabaya Diocese conducted in 2019 strongly articulated that Baptism is a mean exactly used by God Himself to channel His grace and salvation to the entire human beings. Hence, the Disciples of Christ have to fully respond it by full faith and opened hart.  Christ Himself has sent His disciples to collectively spread out the grace, favor and salvation of God to all over the world.  This good news has to be brought firstly to the inner circle of the Catholic families, neighbours, communities, parishes, and diocese then to the society in general.

The Spirit

2019 ◽  
pp. 293-308
Author(s):  
Wolf Krötke
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The One ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter presents Barth’s understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It demonstrates the way in which Barth’s pneumatology is anchored in his doctrine of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit is understood as the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the One whose essence is love. But Barth can also speak of the Holy Spirit in such a way that it seems as if the Holy Spirit is identical to the work of the risen Jesus Christ and his ‘prophetic’ work. The reception of the pneumatology of Karl Barth thus confronts the task of relating these dimensions of Barth’s understanding of the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit’s distinct work is preserved. For Barth, this work consists in enabling human beings to respond in faith, with their human possibilities and their freedom, to God’s reconciliation in Jesus Christ. In this faith, the Holy Spirit incorporates human beings into the community of Jesus Christ—the community participates in the reconciling work of God in order to bear witness to God’s work to human beings, all of whom have been elected to ‘partnership’ with God. Barth also understood the ‘solidarity’ of the community with, and the advocacy of the community for, the non-believing world to be a nota ecclesiae (mark of the church). Further, to live from the Holy Spirit, according to Barth, is only possible in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Luther, Martin (1483–1546)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. Higton
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Good Works ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
The Holy Spirit

Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who found the theology and penitential practices of his times inadequate for overcoming fears about his salvation. He turned first to a theology of humility, whereby confession of one’s own utter sinfulness is all that God asks, and then to a theology of justification by faith, in which human beings are seen as incapable of any turning towards God by their own efforts. Without preparation on the part of sinners, God turns to them and destroys their trust in themselves, producing within them trust in his promises made manifest in Jesus Christ. Regarding them in unity with Christ, God treats them as if they had Christ’s righteousness: he ‘justifies’ them. Faith is produced in the sinner by the Word of God concerning Jesus Christ in the Bible, and by the work of the Holy Spirit internally showing the sinner the true subject matter of the Bible. It is not shaped by philosophy, since faith’s perspective transcends and overcomes natural reason. Faith, through the working of God’s Holy Spirit within the believer, naturally produces good works, but justification is not dependent upon them – they are free expressions of faith in love. Nevertheless, secular government with its laws and coercion is still necessary in this world because there are so few true Christians. Luther’s theology brought him into conflict with the Church hierarchy and was instrumental in the instigation of the Reformation, in which the Protestant churches split from Rome.

The Cosmology of Conversion

2018 ◽  
pp. 25-45
Author(s):  
Helena Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Spirit Possession ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Autonomy ◽  
Evil Spirits

This chapter discusses Pentecostal cosmology, which holds that power is located not in people, but in spirits. In this cosmos, freedom is not human autonomy but liberation from evil spirits, enabling individuals to submit their will to the Holy Spirit. Converts weave a new web of relations with spirits that disrupt their over-determined relations with people and with drugs. Holy Spirit possession, for instance, channels supernatural forces through discarded addicts, disrupting not only the intrapersonal, but also the social, order. Pentecostal converts disrupt routines through sleep deprivation, fasting, prayer, and drone-like incantation. They induce a state in which mental activity becomes less structured, and the normal rules of hierarchy, class, and causality cease to apply.

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