The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit and Personal Fulfilment

Abstract

This article presents an understanding of the Spirit as that which creates and sustains an authentic and open form of common life. It develops an insight of C. K. Barrett to illuminate a reading of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 finding it complementary to the understanding of the interconnecting Spirit developed by John V. Taylor. The sense of the Spirit that derives from these late twentieth-century considerations, as the opposite of the ego, and as a force which fosters community, is one that has the potential to reshape Christian mission in a context where the spiritual quest is framed as one for well-being and where many expect to find helpful guidance not from ‘religion’ but from ‘spirituality’. In short, the suggestion here is that a renewed understanding of the Spirit might facilitate the re-imagining of Christian mission to contemporary western society.