HOLY SPIRIT WEEK 1

KARKKAINEN: RENEWAL Factors that led to renewal: ecumenical dialogue, Pentecostalism, late-modern hunger for concrete, bodily, lived experience of the Spirit. It is an interest not so much in Trinitarian speculations as to the status of the Spirit, but the Spirit as a field of life-transforming experiences, i.e., spirituality. In the Western tradition, Spirit has been a sort of ‘Cinderella’. Christomonism (in the form of ‘objectivist’ doctrines of atonement) signaled a pneumatological deficit. We believed with heads, not with bodies and lives. Yet theology is not simply an echo of raw experiences, but seeks to provide some criteria for discerning what is an experience of the Spirit. It is as though the Spirit contains within itself a moment of mediation, of hermeneutics. Theology, in this sense, is the Spirit seeking to understand itself!

CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGIANS Zizioulas: Ontology of communion, koinonia. The Spirit is an enactment of a new ontology, a new mode of being, that is always corporate. The church is instituted by Christ, but constituted by the Spirit. Rahner: Spirit as self-transcendence God has already communicated God’s own self in the Holy Spirit to every person as the innermost center of his existence. Therefore, human beings are ec-static beings. Pannenberg: The Spirit as a force-field Spirit refers to an impersonal aspect, God as a force-field; and to the personal aspect of God, a relation of communion with persons. Moltmann: Spirit as the passion of life against death, liberation against oppression, justice against injustice.

QUESTIONS Do we sense an awakening and hunger in our communities? In which ways? What difference does it make for a religious confession to be pneumatologically centered/aware? How does it relate to our more Christocentric confessions? Do we have a pneumatological deficit in our traditions? Does the dialogue with other traditions (Orthodox, Pentecostal, Charismatic ) help us? In what ways our contemporary understandings of gender, ecology, society, biology, quantum physics, psychology, etc. modify/challenge former conceptions of the spiritual/Spirit?

HOLY SPIRIT WEEK 2

JENSON Biblical images, metaphors, points to the Spirit (ruach, pneuma) as motion. Principle of transcendence: both of God as well as humanity. Spirit “in-spires”: to be blown through. Spirit is not a substance; it is an event, `Spirit of…’ Spirit gives life, but also judgment and death.

HEBREW SCRIPTURE Joel: eschatological promise, the Spirit will dwell in all. Empowerment (Acts 2:16-33). All shall be speakers, not just hearers. A ‘communist’ event. Prophets: experiences of rapture, visions, manticism, dreams, ecstatic states. Ruach related to Dabar, God’s Word that leads to speak, to address. Ruach creates something new: Exodous, building community. Spirit as a political event. Spirit is not just a word about the future, but creates the future. Related to Liberation Theology: God acting in history.

NEW TESTAMENT Jesus as the Christ is not only the bearer of Ruach, but the giver of Ruach. Root of the controversy of filioque. 3 nuclei in the Gospels:  1. Baptism.  2. Birth of Jesus as Messiah.  3. Praxis of healing; activity of inclusivity at the margins.

PAUL Spirit related to gifts, charismata. These gifts are for the common good (I Cor. 12) The Christian community is an anticipating community: is both an end as well as a means. Two ways of living: according to the flesh, according to the Spirit. Spirit becomes synonym with Promise, with Gospel.

PATRISTICS Spirit: ontological opposite to death. Patristic era: Irenaeus and Ignatius, the Spirit make us children of God. The Spirit carves in us the image of Christ. Creeds: prophetic address, baptism, church, resurrection, eternal life.

DUNN In Hebrew Scripture Spirit may refer to wind, breath or divine power. There is no clear distinction between divine ruach and anthropological ruach. Ruach was an existential category: the experience of the mystery of vitality, divine energy, dynamism.

Novelty of Christianity: the expectation/affirmation of the outpouring of the Spirit through an intermediary. The exalted Christ. In the NT we see a transition in Jesus: from prophet to exalted Lord. This involves a transition in Jesus’ relationship with the Spirit.

Jesus is confessed as dispenser of the Spirit. But while Jesus was identified with different aspects of God’s immanence (Logos/Word/Dabar; Wisdom/Sophia), he was not identified with the Spirit as such. It is as though Jesus stands between God and Spirit.

Pneumatological Turning Point: what led the early church to break with Second Temple Judaism was the evidence of the outporing of the Spirit among gentiles. It is an inclusive act which doesn’t fit any longer old molds and traditions.

For Paul the Spirit was existential, life-transforming events. Spirit of God referred to an unpredictable power that impacted the life of ordinary hearers/believers in unexpected ways. Usually was accompanied by ecstatic experiences, enthusiasm, charismatic ‘eruptions’. Christianity began as an ‘enthusiastic sect’

Yet for Paul another dimension is critical: discernment. In I Cor , he provides three criteria: 1.Confession of Jesus as Lord (12:3) 2.Love (ch. 13) 3.Upbuilding of community (ch. 14) The ultimate criteria that undergird all these is that the Spirit signified grace: gracious acceptance and empowerment by God.