scholarly journals The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their interpretation

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Van Oort
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
John Wesley ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
East And West

The earliest Christians – all of whom were Jews – spoke of the Holy Spirit as a feminine figure. The present article discusses the main proof texts, ranging from the ‘Gospel according to the Hebrews’ to a number of testimonies from the second century. The ancient tradition was, in particular, kept alive in East and West Syria, up to and including the fourth century Makarios and/or Symeon, who even influenced ‘modern’ Protestants such as John Wesley and the Moravian leader Count von Zinzendorf. It is concluded that, in the image of the Holy Spirit as woman and mother, one may attain a better appreciation of the fullness of the Divine.

scholarly journals The Holy Spirit and the early Church: The experience of the Spirit

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Van Oort
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Justin Martyr

Firstly, the present article explored the occurrence of special gifts of the Holy Spirit (charismata) both in the New Testament and in a number of early Christian writers (e.g. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Augustine). Secondly, it indicated how this experience of special charismata exerted its influence on the formulation of the most authoritative and ecumenical statement of belief, viz. the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople (381).

scholarly journals „Związać mocarza”: starcie Jezusa i Belzebuba. Starożytna egzegeza Mt 12, 29 oraz tekstów paralelnych

Vox Patrum ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Bastit-Kalinowska
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
The One

Although Peter seems to echo the opinion commonly held when he says that Jesus „went about doing good” (Act 10, 38), Jesus was accused of „casting out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons” (Mt 12, 24). In answer, he pro­poses a very short parable, the one of the „Strong one” tied up to seize his goods (Mt 12, 29). The present article studies the influence of this verse in the early Christian literature. The victory of the Saviour over evil is interpreted as the result of a cosmic fight (Origen) or as the merciful redemption of the human being and his restoration and vivification by the Holy Spirit (Irenaeus).

‘Is the Lord One of the Two Angels?’: Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, Early Christian Hermeneutics, and Justin's Pneumatological Christian Readings

2019 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-181
Author(s):  
Shawn J. Wilhite
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Early Formation ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Argument Proceeds

In second-century Trinitarian thought, some early figures may often overlook the role of the Holy Spirit in contrast to providing a more secure identity for the Son. This contrast seemingly appears in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho. In 2008, Michel Barnes wrote an essay on the early formation of Christian Pneumatology. As Barnes’s argument proceeds, Justin and Trypho focus upon the clarity of language that concerns the Son: (1) a triumphant and (2) suffering Messiah. Yet, with regard to the Holy Spirit, both Trypho and Justin do not appear to question the terminology that one another employ. So, Barnes suggests that both Trypho and Justin maintain a similar pneumatological presupposition that overlaps with Jewish Pneumatology. This article revisits how Justin addresses the pneumatological language in the Dialogue with Trypho and inquires what pneumatological discontinuities exist between Justin and Trypho. Even if Justin coheres with many facets of Jewish pneumatological ideas, he still distinctly represents, though incipiently, a Christian pneumatology.

Dual Processions of the Holy Spirit: Development of a Theological Tradition

1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Nodes
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Principal Difference ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Back Door ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Trinity

The theology of the Holy Spirit waited through the early Christian centuries until the main doctrines regarding the Trinity and the person of Christ had been forged. Even then pneumatology was introduced ‘by the back door’, in Theodore Campbell's phrase, that of how the Son was placed in the Father, Son and Spirit confession. While prayers to the Spirit were not lacking in the earliest liturgies, still, at Nicea the doctrine ‘had been disposed of in lapidary brevity’, as Jaroslav Pelikan has described the credal line, ‘and we believe in the Holy Spirit’. ‘Nor does there seem to have been a single treatise dealing specifically with the person of the Spirit composed before the second half of the fourth century’. After Nicea, however, controversy concerning the Spirit erupted ‘with a vengeance’, producing the same kind of energy that had accompanied the Christological debates. Pneumatomachi, Tropici, and Macedonians, though losers in the fight for orthodox doctrine on the Spirit's nature, had mounted formidable campaigns, as Arians had done over the relationship of Christ to the Father. But disagreement over the Spirit had an even greater impact than Arian opposition in that the filioque remains a principal difference between the Catholic and Orthodox, and now Catholic and Anglican, creeds.

Chrysostom’s Homily on the Word Koimeterion and on the Cross: A Translation and Commentary

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
David M. Friel
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Full Text ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Cross

Abstract Chrysostom’s homily De coemeterio et de cruce (CPG 4337) was delivered during a full eucharistic synaxis on Good Friday in a cemetery outside the gates of late-fourth-century Antioch. It demonstrates both rhetorical and theological prowess. Chrysostom consoles his hearers by likening death to sleep and reflecting on the cemetery as a “sleeping place” (koimeterion). The text is notable for its theology of physical space, its conception of liturgical anamnesis, and its presentation of the Christus Victor atonement motif. The homily also highlights the liturgical role of the Holy Spirit, especially by alluding to the eucharistic epiclesis, and it chastises the congregation for their poor behavior during the communion rite. This article presents the homily’s full text in Greek with English translation, followed by a commentary that probes its major themes and liturgical aspects.

The Outbreak of Evangelicalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-172
Author(s):  
Baird Tipson
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
John Wesley ◽  
British Isles ◽  
New Birth ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
George Whitefield

This chapter first describes the theology of the leaders of the evangelical awakening on the British Isles, George Whitefield and John Wesley. Both insisted that by preaching the “immediate” revelation of the Holy Spirit during what they called the “new birth,” they were recovering an essential element of primitive Christianity that had been forgotten over the centuries. Both had clear affinities with the conscience theology of William Perkins, yet both distanced themselves from it in important ways. In New England, Jonathan Edwards explored the nature of religious experience more deeply than either Wesley or Whitefield had done, and Edwards proudly claimed his Puritan heritage even as opponents found him deviating from it.

Amulets and the Ritual Efficacy of Christian Symbols

2019 ◽  
pp. 349-366
Author(s):  
Rangar H. Cline
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Insight Into

Although “magical” amulets are often overlooked in studies of early Christian material culture, they provide unique insight into the lives of early Christians. The high number of amulets that survive from antiquity, their presence in domestic and mortuary archaeological contexts, and frequent discussions of amulets in Late Antique literary sources indicate that they constituted an integral part of the fabric of religious life for early Christians. The appearance of Christian symbols on amulets, beginning in the second century and occurring with increasing frequency in the fourth century and afterward, reveals the increasing perception of Christian symbols as ritually potent among Christians and others in the Roman Empire. The forms, texts, and images on amulets reveal the fears and hopes that occupied the daily lives of early Christians, when amulets designed for ritual efficacy if not orthodoxy were believed to provide a defense against forces that would harm body and soul.

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