Apocalyptic Pneumatology and the Holy Spirit in the Religions: The Contributions of Christoph Blumhardt

Abstract

The nineteenth century is still with us. Though we often think of the twentieth century as far more consequential because of the many social, political, technical, religious, and other upheavals that populated that century, it was, nonetheless, the ideas birthed in the nineteenth century that fueled many of those developments. The present essay is conceived with this fact in mind and is offered as a contemporary theology of religions or religious pluralism by virtue of correlating a discussion of the apocalyptic pneumatology of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842–1919). Blumhardt’s apocalyptic pneumatology enabled him to offer a novel assessment of Christianity and other religious traditions and deserves to be considered in light of developments occurring within the contemporary discussion of the theologies of religious pluralism. Though Blumhardt cannot provide a comprehensive theory that resolves the tensions within the theology of religions, nonetheless, his voice adds an important pneumatological texture to the discussion. Because of the unique apocalyptic structure of his pneumatological theology of religious pluralism, Blumhardt was able to offer both positive affirmations of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in other religious traditions, as well as a needed prophetic critique of religion in general and of Christianity and the other religions in particular.