The End of the Incarnation: John Owen,Trinitarian Agency and Christology

Recent interpreters of John Owen incorrectly argue that Owen's trinitarian theology undermines the doctrine of inseparable operations (Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa). On the contrary, this article argues Owen upheld this doctrine like his Reformed Orthodox contemporaries, using the incarnation as a test case. Owen maintained the incarnation was an undivided act of the Trinity, which had its appropriative terminus on the Son alone – a pattern of thought he extended to the Spirit's work on the Son's humanity. Owen's creative use of the tradition is an example for contemporary theologians who would emphasize the Spirit's role in Christology.     

The Spirit,Creaturehood and Sanctification: On Avoiding Theological Overcompensation

Talk of the Spirit's work of sanctification often leads to a number of different conclusions, ones that often appear mutually exclusive. Under such conditions, their espousers often make cases for their views in overcompensatory ways by highlighting their approaches over and against other views that may be complementary in their own way. This article contends that behind this diversity are often competing claims within different domains of inquiry surrounding the Creator–creation interface. These commitments lurk in the background of these debates, and their exposure may help in the ongoing task of speaking of the Spirit's endeavoring in and among creatures.     

Holiness and Mediation: Pneumatology in Pietist Perspective

In contemporary Christian theology, Pietism denotes a form of Christianity that rejects mediation in favor of the Holy Spirit's direct, unmediated infusion of grace into the human heart. In this article, I contend that this reading of Pietism is deeply flawed. Drawing on recent scholarship, I show that Pietism, especially in its Methodist, Wesleyan‐holiness and Pentecostal forms, embraces and promotes mediation through a wide range of places, materials, persons and practices. From a Pietist perspective, God's holiness precludes presumption, not mediation per se. It also leads Pietists to underscore the significance of waiting for the Christian life.     

Rethinking ‘Enthusiasm’: Christoph Blumhardt on the Discernment of the Spirit

This article uses resources from the theology of Christoph Blumhardt to argue that Luther was mistaken in identifying a necessary theological connection between ‘enthusiastic’ views of the Spirit and naive anthropology. It demonstrates that Blumhardt successfully combined an abiding concern over the problem of spiritual self‐deception together with a pneumatology that affirmed the importance of affective experience of the Spirit not mediated exclusively by the proclaimed Word of Scripture, through a conviction that the most reliable sign of the Spirit's activity is ‘negative’, in suffering and visceral encounter with divine judgement, in the first instance. This critical ‘enthusiasm’ helps explain Blumhardt's singular critique of the nationalistic ‘Spirit of August’ from the start of World War I.     

THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST'S NORMATIVE SPIRIT: A CONSTRUCTIVE READING OF SCHLEIERMACHER'S PNEUMATOLOGY

Contemporary theologians have enriched our understanding of the Holy Spirit's identity and broadened our grasp of the pneumatological tradition, but a crucial question has not been sufficiently addressed: while we have renewed understandings of who the Spirit is and what the Spirit does, very little has been said about how the Spirit works. On the basis of some clues from Schleiermacher, this essay elaborates and defends an answer to this question. According to this proposal, Christ's normative Spirit is mediated through a process of mutual recognition which carries on the Spirit of Christ's beliefs and actions.     

Rediscovering pneumatology in the “Age of the Spirit”: A North American Lutheran contribution

This essay explores Luther's pneumatology, especially in his sermons on the Gospel of John, might offer resources for “discerning the spirits” in the emerging “age of the Spirit,” as Harvey Cox and Phyllis Tickle have dubbed it, which sees the rise of the “spiritual but not religious” and movements calling for spiritual revolution. The author shows that Luther's insistence that the Spirit work through the given means of “Word and sacrament,” was not intended to limit the Spirit's activity in the world, but rather to protect God's people from those who would wish to use the Spirit for their own means and power.     

Scripture between the Incarnate Christ and the Illuminating Spirit

An examination of what Scripture indicates about the revelatory mission of Christ, the nature of apostolic testimony and the way the Spirit's revelatory mission relates to that of the Son sheds important light on the debate about the extent to which the Spirit exercises hermeneutical freedom with respect to the historical sense of the Bible text. The results of such an investigation provide theological grounds for affirming the primacy of original meaning in the church's reading of the New Testament and for questioning reading practices that depart from it.     

The Holy Spirit,Eco‐Justice,and an African Lutheran Response to Ecological Peril

In response to the environmental degradation that is taking place right now in much of Africa—and in light of a traditional African emphasis on interdependence—this article seeks to provide an African Lutheran “eco‐pneumatological” contribution to the ongoing conversation about eco‐justice. To do so, it draws on classic Lutheran understandings of creation and grace, even as it calls for a more expanded—and more deeply biblical—understanding of the Holy Spirit's presence and activity throughout all of creation.     

‘From the time he took on the form of a servant’: The Christ's Pilgrimage of Faith

Addressing the pistis christou debate in New Testament studies, this article argues that in the eternal life of the perfect God, the divine Son pleases the Father in the Spirit and, therefore, the divine Son trusts the Father by the Spirit's power during his earthly pilgrimage. It roots soteriology in Christology and shows that the christological account flows forth from the eternal relations of the Trinity. The article concludes by noting implications for dogmatics and exegesis.     

From the Same Spirit: Receiving the Theological Gifts of Transgender Christians

Transgender Christians bear four transformative gifts to the body of Christ. They celebrate that humans are God's created co‐creators, and that God creates with and through them. Second, gender non‐conforming Christians have learned to steadfastly love (hesed) themselves as they love God and the world. Next, transgender Christians witness that humans are a coherent unity of body‐mind, not a mind in a body. Finally, transgender followers of Jesus welcome the Holy Spirit's gifts of plurality, newness, unity, and freedom.     

The Staurocentric Logic of Eberhard Jüngel: Pneumatology and Ecclesiology

Ecclesiology and pneumatology remain two areas of Eberhard Jüngel's thought that are repeatedly critiqued as being ‘underdeveloped’ or ‘deficient’ due to his reliance on an Augustinian grammar in describing the Holy Spirit. This article argues for a revised understanding of both Jüngel's trinitarian theology and ecclesiology in light of his commitment to staurocentrism. Jüngel's staurocentric doctrine of God, for which he is so often lauded, is only possible because of the Augustinian grammar he accepts for his pneumatology. Only as the bond of love, the relation between the relations, can the Spirit make clear how it is that the triune God, fully identified with the life of Jesus, can die. Ultimately, Jüngel builds on Augustine's doctrine of the Spirit to demonstrate two distinct, yet interrelated, theological principles: first, that the person of the Spirit is indispensible within the event of God's triune being; and second, that within the church it is the Spirit's personhood, uniquely, which makes possible ecclesial correspondence to God.     

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.     

Spirituality in adolescence and young adulthood: A method for a qualitative study

This paper discusses an ongoing research project on contemporary forms of youth and young adult spirituality, highlighting issues in the history and definition of spirituality and in development of appropriate qualitative methods of investigation. Previous research on the topic has been bedevilled by difficulties of definition. 'Spirit' and 'spirituality' have a long history in both philosophy and religion and surviving senses of the terms include both religious and non-religious meanings. This paper suggests that 'lexical' definitions based on usage prove unwieldy because of widely varying and conflicting contents. Only a 'stipulative' definition will serve to provide a research project with a clear focus; our definition of spirituality as 'a conscious way of life based on a transcendent referent' is explained and defended. Next, we outline the distinctive features of our methodology: no direct mention of the term spirituality, an emphasis on personal narration and the use of evocative techniques. We conclude by outlining the 10 dimensions of spirituality which we have developed from our initial investigations.     

God's Transforming Spirit

God's transforming Spirit takes us where theology matters most: how we speak of the life of God in a way that speaks to the life of the world. The following reflections undertake this especially in the context of the pre‐eminent crisis in the world's life today, the pollution and unrepentant exploitation of the earth. In some senses, these reflections flow from an environmental liberation theology, trying to address issues of creation, mission and spirituality from the perspective of earth's hurt and her Creator's pain. They even aim to come from a new “below”, lifting up the complex, diverse non‐human life of the planet to be understood as partner and agent in God's mission. Informed by injustices of human exploitation of the earth, this study is, nevertheless, inspired by hope in the earth's Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. While rooted in a deeply trinitarian notion of God, it sees a new and exciting route into these issues via the particular life of the Trinity expressed in the ru'ach Spirit. There is a wide spectrum of terms for the Spirit. This document allies itself with an eco‐feminist perspective on the Spirit as ru'ach. This signals an identification with the eco‐feminist perspective as an essential corrective to the androcentric perspective that has been so exploitative. It also opens the way to invite fresh insights from Indigenous Peoples that also inform the characterization of the Spirit in this text. But the fundamental character of the Spirit in this text is transformational. This makes the Spirit dynamic within and beyond Creation and with and without humanity. This dynamic is often recognized in the text as a spiral. This describes the Spirit's movement and is also a metaphor for the spirit as life. “The ru'ach is a force for life, a sign of God's deep compassion embracing all life. Such love calls forth more love in answer and response. We meet her compassion with our care and commitment and find ourselves accountable to each other. The flow of love spirals forth and the gift of life is renewed and transformed”. And further: “This spiralling life force relates, gathers, empowers and sends us into relationship, into gathering, into empowerment as the means by which we witness that all are related, all Connected within Creation and between Creation and Creator”. God's transforming Spirit not only creates and empowers life in general, she also agitates and ferments life into partnership with God's mission. This is the further transformation she brings. She is not a deist Spirit, content to let individual lives exist in isolation but embroils herself in Creation's life, inviting fresh communities turned towards the vision of life she exudes. This study offers a spirituality and praxis for mission that seeks to live in harness with this.

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