The Spirit and creation

Henco Van Der Westhuizen

doi:10.4102/ids.v54i1.2639

Abstract

This article explores the relation between the Spirit and creation, or rather the theology of the Spirit and a theology of creation, with reference to the theology of Michael Welker. The first part of this descriptive article explores what Welker refers to as a reductionist understanding of creation. The second part is an in-depth exploration of Welker’s understanding of biblical creation. In this light, the third part examines the relation between this differentiated understanding of biblical creation and the Spirit. The conclusion explored the implications of Welker’s theology of creation for his theology of the Spirit. It explains how Welker’s understanding of this relation, which allows for a more complex understanding of the Spirit’s role in reality, provides impulses, for example, for ecotheology.

Highlights

[T]he possibility is excluded, and Christians can make a unique contribution to the environmental movement, when we seek neither a human- nor an earth- – but a God-centred understanding of the world – a biblical doctrine of creation based on the promises and requirements of the God who is the Creator, Preserver, Saviour, and Renewer of all that is. (p. 148)
In a recent paper presented in preparation for the 11th assembly of the World Council of Churches in 2021, Conradie (2019) asks if and how a theology of God the Creator Spirit allows for impulses towards an ecological theology
In a recent article based on the paper presented in preparation for the 11th assembly of the World Council of Churches, Conradie (2020:3) inquired about the four tasks of Christian ecological theology

Summary

Introduction

In An introduction to Christian theology, Migliore (2014:97) argues that the ‘gravity and scope of the ecological crises give an unprecedented urgency to the task of rethinking the Christian doctrine of creation’. The fact that for Welker, the creature’s activity is parallel to God’s activity without ceasing to be the creature’s activity, is clear in his essays on heaven and earth (Welker 1999a:56–68; 2001d:216; 2006:313–323; 2013a:16–22; 2013b:6–8) He highlights that the biblical traditions refer to the reality of creation, to which human beings have relatively direct access. Welker underscores, is what the biblical traditions refer to as creation He describes biblical creation as constructing and maintaining activity, whereby different interrelated creatures – inter alia the heavens, the earth, and human beings – themselves creating and taking part in the creating activity, are brought into differentiated interrelations and forms of interdependence, that is both fruitful and life-furthering (Welker 1988:1119–1120; 1991a:56–71; 1991b:208–224). The activity rather is realistic in the Spirit’s creation of new life-furthering relations of interdependence.

Preliminary conclusion

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