The Promise of an Actualistic Pneumatology: Beginning with the Holy Spirit in African Pentecostalism and Karl Barth

Christians in the developing world are sending a clear message to all who will listen: more attention needs to be paid to the Holy Spirit than ever before in the history of Christian thought. This essay explores what African Pentecostalism could teach Karl Barth and in particular how the actualistic Christology that Barth is known for can be applied to concrete acts of the Holy Spirit. The essay employs James Buckley's distinction between what Barth says versus what Barth shows to demonstrate profound possibilities that exist within Barth's thought for beginning theological reflection from the concrete acts of the Spirit.     

Evangelism and Popular Culture

This article reports on the work and the deliberations of the United Evangelical Mission's Working Group on Evangelism and Popular Culture. Working with rough heuristic categories, the group identifies Protestantism's discomfort with popular cultural expressions and finds it rooted in Protestant history and modernist cultural theory. Using a postmodernist approach that looks at ways of meaning making in popular culture, the group calls for theological discernment and the identification of the work of the Holy Spirit within popular cultural expressions. Following J. K. A. Smith, liturgies are identified as shaping human identities. Secular, thick liturgies are often far more influential than Christian thin practices. Popular culture is a mirror of groundbreaking social change, but classical Protestant churches still follow the organizational principles of the 19th century. The group argues that to evangelize within popular culture, these churches will have to change their shape and structures, becoming missional but not consumer‐driven.     

Orthodoxy in Unity and in Conciliarity

This article considers how the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church faced challenges such as how the gospel relates to a pluralistic society; the Christian message in a society marked by religious pluralism, ethnic diversity, and cultural relativism; whether Christians encountering today's pluralist society should concentrate on evangelism or on dialogue; and on how conciliarity relates to the unity of the church. The article examines how the council attempted to respond to, or at least reflect on, these challenges in relation to the theological dialogue of the Orthodox Church with the other Christian churches and confessions. The bilateral theological dialogues have also increasingly led to bearing Christian witness, and an atmosphere of mutual appreciation, friendship, and fellowship has already become at least a reality. But has this development also led to a deeper mutual theological understanding? Have the profound differences between the Orthodox churches and the other churches in bilateral dialogues been clarified theologically?     

Liberation Pneumatology: On the Unfettered Work of the Holy Spirit in the World

Despite the frequent refrain concerning the paucity of attention paid to pneumatology in the theological discipline, a review of literature over the past fifty years reveals that pneumatology is an idea whose time has come. However, while writings on the Holy Spirit are manifold, systematically developed pneumatologies are not. In response to this reality, this essay explores four contextually constructed pneumatologies based in communities experiencing marginalisation, oppression, and exclusion: Latin American, womanist, Latinx, and black. These pneumatologies not only represent particular ethnic, social, and racial contexts, but also express a particular hermeneutical perspective on the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, i.e., that of liberation. This perspective reflects the conviction that each genuine act of the Holy Spirit is essentially liberating—individually, socially, politically, ecclesially, and theologically. While other effects accompany this experience, liberation emerges at the heart of the encounter with Spirit. Exemplifying this in multiple ways are pneumatology as the irruption of the Spirit by liberation theologian José Comblin, pneumatology as the memory of the future by womanist Linda E. Thomas, the Holy Spirit as the improvisation of God by black theologian David Emmanuel Goatley, and the Spirit dwelling in convivencia by Latinx theologian Néstor Medina.     

“I Am Still With You”: Dementia and the Christian Wayfarer

Persons with dementia suffer not only from neuropathology but also from cultural norms that exalt agency, privilege rationality, equate worth with capacity, and discourage disability and dependence. In Christian theological context, however, these are faulty assumptions that harm people with dementia. Christian tradition affirms, rather, that humans are integrated, whole-person, embodied souls on a journey to God; dependent on others and on God; and endowed by God with intrinsic worth that is unrelated to capacities. Four theological parameters—creation, participation, lament, and song—enable resistance to prevalent toxic social norms and promote faithful Christian re-membering of people with dementia.     

C. S. LEWIS & CHRISTOLOGICAL PREFIGUREMENT

This paper is an examination of the Christology and Pneumatology that C. S. Lewis read from the apparent prefiguring of elements of the Incarnation‐Resurrection narrative in religious myths, and also his assertion that the incarnation‐resurrection narrative operates on us both as fact and myth. After an initial examination of the term myth and mythopoeia, Lewis' writings on the myth that became reality (the Christ event) are discussed along with examples of prefigurement. Through his understanding of natural theology (rooted in that of Augustine, though fed by Lewis' daily reading of the Summa Theologiae) and his cautious respect for human imagination (from the poet, theologian and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and in contrast to his earlier deference for the conclusions of the Victorian religionist and social anthropologist James George Frazer, Lewis came to regard these prefigurements as the work of the Holy Spirit – intimations of God's salvific action in Christ – though Lewis' orthodoxy saw human imagination as flawed through original sin. This leads us to ask three questions: first, how do these prefigured ideas come to be in these myths and how do these intimations, splintered fragments of the true light, relate to Lewis' understanding of Christ as the light of the world; second, how does the Incarnation‐Resurrection narrative act/operate on us as a myth, whether spoken or read (a baptized imagination is crucial here for Lewis in both the creation and receiving/hearing of such narratives); and third, is there internal evidence for a mythopoeic interpretation within the Incarnation‐Resurrection narrative? Our conclusions can be illustrated by a brief examination of Lewis' own Christian myth – Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia– originally written for a Christian audience but now read by mainly non‐Christian/post‐Christian children and adults.     

DISCIPLINING RELATIVISM AND TRUTH

Abstract. Imre Lakatos's philosophy of science can provide helpful leads for theological methodology, but only when mediated by the disciplines that lie between the natural sciences and theology. The questions of relativism and truth are used as indices for comparing disciplines, and Lakatos's theory of natural science is taken as the starting point. Major modifications of Lakatos's work are demanded as one moves from the natural sciences, through economics, the interpretive social sciences, literary theory, and into theology. Although theology may consist of Lakatosian research programs, it also includes programs of interpretation and programs for living. This conclusion must influence our definition of theological truth and our assessment of theological relativism.     

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE CAPPADOCIANS: PAST AND PRESENT

Theologians have long recognized that the Cappadocian fathers are a valuable resource for contemporary reflection on the Holy Spirit. The modern use of their work, however, tends to reflect only a thin sampling of their many writings; it shows little awareness of their complicated historical situation; and it generally operates on the false assumption that Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa offer but three versions of the same theological project. This article provides a new comparative assessment of Cappadocian pneumatology in connection with larger Trinitarian concerns and with practical matters of spirituality, monasticism, and the role of divine grace in the Christian life. It highlights the distinctive character of each theologian's approach to the Holy Spirit by analyzing their relationships to prior fourth-century traditions, their respective uses of Origen, and their differing stances in the contemporary debates with the Pneumatomachians. It argues that Basil's work on the Spirit is less fully Trinitarian and ascetically weaker than that of the other two, that Gregory Nazianzen offers the most fully Trinitarian and methodologically insightful pneumatology of the three, and that the Holy Spirit plays only a minor role in Gregory of Nyssa's theological and ascetical system. In conclusion, it identifies three key areas in which the Cappadocians can still make a significant contribution to current work on the Holy Spirit.     

A Compelling Trinitarian Taxonomy: Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theology of the Trinitarian Inversion and Reversion

In trinitarian theology, the problematic place of the Holy Spirit in the taxonomy of the immanent Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) does not seem to correspond to what is revealed in the economy (Father, Holy Spirit and Son). Because of this pneumatological problem, some theologians have abandoned the traditional trinitarian taxonomy. This approach, however, does not provide a finally convincing answer that is consistent with both the biblical witness and the theological tradition. In this article, I argue that Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology of the trinitarian inversion and reversion does provide a convincing answer to the trinitarian taxonomy problem. After supporting my thesis by first referencing the traditional trinitarian taxonomy offered in Augustine's de Trinitate and then examining the possibility of abandoning the taxonomy given by Jürgen Moltmann and Leonardo Boff, I will offer von Balthasar's solution as the most compelling trinitarian taxonomy, especially in light of the ecumenical dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.     

The Trinity in Qur’anic Idiom: Q 4.171 and the Christian Arabic Presentation of the Trinity as God,his Word,and his Spirit

ABSTRACT

Since the early centuries of Islam, the Qur’an’s deep imprint on Arabophone Christians has been evident, not only in their evocation of qur’anic language, but also in their creative employment of the text in constructing their own orthodox Christian Arabic theology. This article investigates the presentation of the Trinity as ‘God, his Word, and his Spirit’ in Christian Arabic theological tracts in the early centuries of Islam. It argues that Q 4.171 played a foundational role in constructing a distinct Christian Arabic Trinitarian theology and that Arabophone Christian writers discerned in it the nucleus of what could be developed as an orthodox Trinitarian theology. It traces the development of the Christian Arabic Trinitarian formulation in four works by Arabophone authors: John Damascene’s On Heresies 100; On the Triune Nature of God; the interreligious disputation in the court of the ?Abbāsid Caliph al-Ma?mūn attributed to the theologian Theodore Abū Qurra; and the apologetic letter by ?Abd al-Masī? al-Kindī. This article also makes observations on the implications of the Christian Arabic theological project for interreligious encounter in the early Islamic centuries.     

Faith in Christ today: An engagement with Klaus Nürnberger

Today's Lutheran theologian must retrieve his or her particular Christian tradition while articulating the faith for our globalized twenty‐first‐century context. South African Klaus Nürnberger's new two‐volume systematic theology, Faith in Christ Today, adds heat to the current creative flurry of red‐hot systematic theologies. Nürnberger, who is oriented both to God's future and the world's future, places the theological articulation of the faith within the context of the worldwide and multi‐cultural Christian church. We all can learn from Nürnberger.     

The Embodied God: Core Intuitions About Person Physicality Coexist and Interfere With Acquired Christian Beliefs About God,the Holy Spirit,and Jesus

Why are disembodied extraordinary beings like gods and spirits prevalent in past and present theologies? Under the intuitive Cartesian dualism hypothesis, this is because it is natural to conceptualize of minds as separate from bodies; under the counterintuitiveness hypothesis, this is because beliefs in minds without bodies are unnatural—such beliefs violate core knowledge intuitions about person physicality and consequently have a social transmission advantage. We report on a critical test of these contrasting hypotheses. Prior research found that among adult Christian religious adherents, intuitions about person psychology coexist and interfere with theological conceptualizations of God (e.g., infallibility). Here, we use a sentence verification paradigm where participants are asked to evaluate as true or false statements on which core knowledge intuitions about person physicality and psychology and Christian theology about God are inconsistent (true on one and false on the other) versus consistent (both true or both false). We find, as predicted by the counterintuitiveness hypothesis but not the Cartesian dualism hypothesis, that Christian religious adherents show worse performance (lower accuracy and slower response time) on statements where Christian theological doctrines about God's physicality (e.g., incorporeality, omnipresence) conflict with intuitions about person physicality. We find these effects for other extraordinary beings in Christianity—the Holy Spirit and Jesus—but not for an ordinary being (priest). We conclude that it is unintuitive to conceptualize extraordinary beings as disembodied, and that this, rather than inherent Cartesian dualism, may explain the prevalence of beliefs in such beings.     

Luther and China

Abstract : Luther, a founding father of Protestant Christianity, has a promising future in Chinese theology and in the study of Christianity in China, both in the theological seminaries and in the secular universities. As a theologian, he has the potential to greatly impact Chinese Christian thought and he remains a model of social reform. He can be a source of inspiration for Chinese theologians and scholars who are creating in their own cultural contexts new ways of constructing an authentic Chinese Christian theology     

Introduction to Focus Issue on Laudato Si'

The encyclical Laudato si’ can be read as a religious ethic in several different ways. Contributors to this focus issue read it as magisterial teaching, as environmental thought, as Global South criticism, as Latinx theology, and as philosophy of religion. Foregrounding South American and Latinx receptions, the cumulative argument of this focus issue is that LS represents a cultural event that invites interpretations from contexts and disciplines beyond North Atlantic theological ethics.     

The Holy Spirit and Unity: Getting out of the Way of Christ

This article argues for a limited pneumatological definition of Christian unity, in favor of a more exclusive christological explanation. It traces some of the theological problems associated with tying Christian unity too closely with the Holy Spirit, by examining the works of three near‐contemporary seventeenth‐century theologians, Bossuet, Baxter and Owen. The pneumatological ‘expansionism’ in each of these writers, still common in contemporary discussions of ecclesial unity, are not only counterproductive but obscure the specific kinds of charismatic gifting demanded by Christian reconciliation.     

The commerce of human body parts: an Eastern Orthodox response.

The Orthodox Church teaches that the bodies of those in Christ are to be regarded as sanctified by the hearing of the Word and faithful participation in the Sacraments, most particularly the Holy Eucharist; because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the consecrated bodies of Christians do not belong to them but to Christ; with respect to the indwelling Holy Spirit there is no difference between the bodies of Christians before and after death; whether before or after death, the Christian body is also to receive the same veneration; and notwithstanding the physical corruptions that the body endures by reason of death, there remains a strict continuity between the body in which the Christian dies and the body in which the Christian will rise again. That is to say, it is the very same reality that is sown in corruption and will be raised in incorruption. Given such consideration, the notion of "selling" and integral part of a human being is simply outside the realm of rational comprehension. Indeed, it is profoundly repugnant to those Orthodox Christian sentiments that are formed and nourished by the Church's sacramental teaching and liturgical worship. One does not sell or purchase that which has been consecrated in those solemn ways that the Church consecrates the human body.     

When the Common Good Takes the Grand(est) Stage The Cosmic Common Good: Religious Grounds for Ecological Ethics,Daniel P. Scheid,Oxford University Press, 2016 (ISBN 978‐0‐19‐935943‐1), xvi + 248 pp., hb £19.99

Rooting itself in Catholic social teaching rather than theology of creation, this book develops a novel approach to Catholic ecological ethics. It argues that the traditional conception of the social common good should be fully broadened to encompass all creation, including abiota. Furthermore, the book suggests a comparative‐theological approach to ecological ethics through careful conversations with Buddhist, Hindu, and American Lakota conceptions and practices. While its vision of the cosmic common good at times appears too inclusive and perhaps ‘too good to be true’, this book is a valuable contribution to Christian ecological ethics and includes a fresh comparative‐theological take on ecological questions.     

BETWEEN MT. MORIAH AND MT. GOLGOTHA: How Is Christian Ethics Possible?

In this paper, I explore a new way of understanding Christian ethics by critically interconnecting the theological meanings of the Aqedah (“binding”) narrative of Mt. Moriah and the Passion story of Mt. Golgotha. Through an in‐depth critical‐theological investigation of the relation between these two biblical events, I argue that Christian ethics is possible not so much as a moralization or as a literalistic divine command theory, but rather as a “covenantal‐existential” response to God's will in the impossible love on Mt. Moriah as well as in the Son's willing embrace of God's will on Mt. Golgotha.