The Holy Spirit in Mission

God initiated mission and intends to achieve it by work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, mission—which God commands his church to accomplish—belongs to God, not to human agency. Prior to ascending to heaven, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his disciples, and asked them to wait in Jerusalem. This Holy Spirit is given to enable them to be witnesses of Jesus from Jerusalem to the end of the world. This implies that the church has to partner with the Holy Spirit to fulfil this mission. Missionaries need to consciously work together with Spirit and be directed and guided by the Spirit.     

为门徒洗脚

当时,耶稣被圣灵引到旷野,受魔鬼的试探”(太4：1)。首次读到此节经文,着实令人有点费解和疑问：圣灵怎么和魔鬼同工呢?甚至好像是魔鬼试探耶稣的助手?一般人的理解：圣灵和魔鬼不会联系在一起,因他们的终极目的和工作范畴迥然不同。圣灵使人谦卑,为罪为义为审判自己责备自己;而魔鬼叫人骄傲,自高自大自己炫耀自己。圣灵是带领人明白一切真理,清楚地认识神、亲近神;而魔鬼是叫人在神的真理上糊涂,不认识神、远离神。圣灵感动人悔改,使灵魂得救,走永     

Eternal progression and temporal procession of the Holy Spirit

ABSTRACT

This article exposes the way in which Anglican ecumenists have adopted mutually conflicting positions on the historically controverted filioque clause in agreed statements with different bilateral partners. It contrasts the restriction of the filioque to the divine economy agreed with representatives of the Oriental Orthodox tradition in the Procession and Work of the Holy Spirit (2017) with the possibility of an eternal manifestation of the Spirit from the Father through the Son which is explored in the Moscow, Dublin and Cyprus discussions (with the Chalcedonian Orthodox). The article shows how the latter position resonates better with the pneumatology contained in historic Anglican formularies and in theologians such as John Pearson and William Beveridge. The paper concludes by springboarding into broader questions about the purpose and method of Anglican ecumenical endeavour.     

Democratic Moral Education and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

How far is Thomas Aquinas available for current discussions in political philosophy? While there are certainly things to be learned from him about our political preoccupations, the pedagogy of his moral teaching typically resists our familiar questions. This holds even when the question is put in terms that Thomas should recognize—say, as a question about the virtues appropriate for a democracy. Thomas not only gives different meanings to these terms, he moves political topics away from the center of theological attention and so organizes them very differently. A reader can notice these differences at many points but perhaps especially in the attention that Thomas gives in the Summa to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. His account of these gifts qualifies significantly what he says of virtue and suggests large limits on human agency, whether in ethics or in politics.     

The Holy Spirit in EG,TTL, and CTC: The Pneumatological Impulse for Christian Mission

This article examines the correspondence in the pneumatological impulse for mission among three documents: Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Together towards Life (TTL), and The Cape Town Commitment (CTC). This consonance in EG, TTL, and CTC is significant given the dissonance on theological and missiological perspectives across the representing ecclesial bodies since the mid‐20th century. Following a review of pneumatology in these three documents, the paper proposes a forward‐looking trajectory to a more expansive view of the Spirit's ever‐mysterious operations in the church, in missions, and in the world.