Creator Spirit Research Articles

Come, Holy Spirit: Inner Fire, Giver Of Life, And Comforter Of The Poor by Leonardo Boff

Reviewed by: Come, Holy Spirit: Inner Fire, Giver Of Life, And Comforter Of The Poor by Leonardo Boff Gilberto Cavazos-González, OFM (bio) Come, Holy Spirit: Inner Fire, Giver Of Life, And Comforter Of The Poor. By Leonardo Boff. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2015. 222 pp. $28.00 Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian theologian and prolific author with over 60 books, including Francis of Rome & Francis of Assisi, Jesus Christ Liberator, and Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, to name a few. He is best known for his work with Liberation Theology and Base Communities (CEBs) as the source of his theology. He has received several honorary doctorates and awards including the Right Livelihood Award in 2001. His most recent reflection on the Holy Spirit has produced a small book comprised of 13 short chapters, plus a preface and a conclusion. It moves with inspiration, complexity, and at times confusion from our need for the Holy Spirit to come and rescue us to our experience of the Holy Spirit at work in the universe, the church, and ourselves. Chapter one reminds us that Creation, humanity, and especially the poor and oppressed, cry out "Come, Holy Spirit." Boff considers the presence of the Holy Spirit in history and creation's need to be delivered from great crises. He considers the action of the Spirit in the socio-political and religious events of the twentieth century, in the decay of modern reason, in the rise of world feminism, and in the Catholic Charismatic renewal. In his next chapter Boff affirms our "need to deepen our understanding of the word 'spirit'" (33). This chapter is an interesting recovery of the word "Spirit" in nature and life (plant, animal, and human). Spirit opens us up to the other and the "human spirit is touching the hem of the Holy Spirit's garment" through Charism, enthusiasm, prophetic action, and poetry (42). He does an interesting analysis of flesh and spirit in his section on the "Spirit in the face of oppression." Moving to theological reflection on the Spirit of God in Chapter 3, he calls for a need to interpret the foundational experiences of spirit and Holy Spirit. This chapter is both appealing and confounding as he tried to move from animism to modern cosmology, packing too much into only 11 pages. Having considered "the various meanings of the word 'spirit' (ruah, pneuma, spiritus, axé, and energy)" (61) he moves into his shortest chapter in the book. In 3 pages he considers "the spirit as Spirit of Creation" (60), moving quickly from [End Page 131] speaking of the human spirit as the "noblest expressions of human beings" (61) to the "spirit of holiness" as referring to God acting in creation and history. The fifth chapter considers the revelation of the spirit in the Second Testament. Reviewing the four Gospels, Boff sees the spirit revealed in Jesus, dwelling in Mary of Nazareth, and forming the community of disciples. He especially sees the "full revelation of the Spirit as Holy Spirit (God)" in John's Gospel (75). In the letters of Paul, Boff finds "a clear distinction between the Risen One and the Holy Spirt," leading him to declare Jesus and the Holy Spirit as the "two arms of the Father" through which "God reaches out to us" (77). Chapter 6 considers the sources of the Christian faith giving us a "development in the early Church's reflection and discourse on the Holy Spirit, toward accepting its divinity" (83). These sources are liturgical, lifestyles (martyrs and monks), and theological disputes. Chapter 7 is fascinating in its cultural distinctions between Greek and Latin ways of thinking as giving rise to the "controversy over the origin of the Holy Spirit." Also intriguing is Boff's use of the images of "love, the lover, and the beloved" (94) and of Speaker, Word, and Breath for the Holy Trinity, as well as the modern us of perichoresis (99) to speak of the interrelationship among the Divine Persons of the Trinity. Turning to the usual suspects (Joachim of Fiore, Hegel, and Tillich), in Chapter 8 Boff examines what various men have said about the Holy Spirit. To these Boff adds the work of...

The effect of re-engineering of administrative operations On strategic performance. (Engistrative) Case study; Jordanian companies of mining

This research purposes to recognize the effect of re-engineering of administrative operations( engistrative ) on strategic performance in Jordanian companies of mining ; and reach the recommendations that aim to increase the necessity of this side to ameliorate the strategic performance level in these companies from the financial sides ; operational and competitive sides , this research also includes recognizing the effect of personal variables ( gender ; age ; years of experience ; administrative level and scientific qualification) on strategic performance ; whereas this research depends on the descriptive analytical curriculum ; using the questionnaire to study the opinions of sample of research that composes 55 persons like an average ( 15.7%) from the society of research. And this research confirms an effect with statical indication ( a 05) in strategic performance of the mining companies attributed to personal and functional variables ( gender, age ) , The results also approved differences related with statical significance on the significance level ( a > 05) in strategic performance of the mining companies attributed to the variables (scientific qualification , scientific experience and administrative level ) . The research recommended a number of recommendations, the most important; work on the application of the concept of operations re-engineering to increase its ability to ameliorate the strategic performance by supporting creators and motivating them , adopting their ideas , assigning them with works show their intellectual challenges and sharpen their spirit of creation , also encouraging them to be against the familiar from typical specific thinking to a thinking characterized by variety , authenticity and innovation , and changing the methods of work , its ways and its measures and increasing the attention to the human origin and work on acquiring it the appropriate technical skills which according to business requirements . In addition to the appropriate attention to raise this level and increase it. And that requires work on finding out their performance restrictions by doing more researches about this side and work on clearing it or decreasing it.

THE ATTITUDE OF THE CLERGY TOWARDS THE BODILY NURTURE AND PLAYING ENTERTAINMENTS IN THE PERIOD OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY

Man in his education always tries to combine the mind, spirituality and the body. But in different historical times the essence of the man and his destination in the society was interpreted differently. The appearance and development of the ancient period gave a boost to the spiritual development and the struggle against the bodily upbringing. The man of that period was revealed as a spiritual person, but not as a natural and bodily being. That is why the question of the attitude of the church and the clergy to corporaleducation upbringing and playing entertainments is to be understood. Objective of the research: history of the physical nurture in the first half of the first millennium. Taskofresearch: on the basis of the analysis of the scientific, theoretical and methodological literature to show the views of the first church fathers of the period of the development of the ancient Christianity on the life of the person and their attitude to the body improvement and game entertainments. Results of the Work. The world view reference-points of influence of the church and clergy on the human of the period of the Christianity are exposed in this article. Opinions of the first fathers of the church about the destiny of a man are expounded. It is studied, how the clerics affected the human consciousness by their speeches, treatises and actions. The negative attitude of the clergymen to the corporal perfection and to the playing entertainments is thoroughly considered. The attitude of the clergy is shown towards calendar holidays with games and mass competitions in amphitheaters and the arenas of the circus. The attempt of the church to provide ideological prohibition to engage in physical exercises and in playing entertainments and participate in spectacles is reflected. Conclusions.In the ancient period the church and clergy gradually gained the influence in the society. By their public speeches and dogmas they affected the human consciousness. Conquering political rights, the church successively introduced a ban of physical exercises, entertainments and competitions. As a result, the connection of the physical and mental upbringing was broken. The man was considered by the church only as a spiritual creature and the essence of the man was not taken into account at all.

Filozofija kulture Ratka Božovića

The author in this discussion opens a great theme from the spiritual creation of the Belgrade, Montenegro, ex-Yugoslav and European philosophers of culture, prof. dr. Ratko Bozovic (1934). It is a reception of sociological, philosophical and literary points of view, this excellent reader, critical intellectual and writer, or emeritus professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade. The life path of R. Božović went from his native Banja Luka through Montenegro (he finished high school in Nikšić), and then he was educated in Belgrade, where he studied and graduated in sociology and literature, master's and master's degree at the Belgrade University. He worked for a short time in several institutions, the culture of the federal administration, and then devoted himself to a professorial career at several universities. His opus is very impersonal and diverse, content and moves in several philosophical and sociological disciplines. He is the author of over fifty works and more than 300 debates and studies, published in the country and abroad. Translated into several world languages. In many democratic environments, a guest and a lecturer are very pleased. Prof. R. Bozovic is a participant in many tribunes and gatherings, which he gave the impression of an extraordinary critical reader, and many call him a modern Demonstration of Belgrade. In this paper, we intend to present a critical review of Božović's work, and on the occasion of the 83rd year of life and six decades of scientific and research work. The aim and task of this paper is to make a modest contribution to reflecting Božović's philosophical literary.

Physical culture: A framework for the media clarification of man's cultural being

Culture, and its related syntagm of physical culture, especially in its most narrow of meanings which refers to spiritual creation, is the foundation of every nation. As a result the term physical culture, which we have for a long time now wanted to unburden ourselves of and leave it in our past, should be rehabilitated, like our colleagues from the Scandinavian countries have done, and it should be given back its (necessary) cultural dimension. Since, as we ourselves know, in the very focus of our profession, physical culture, we find man who is his own biggest mystery. And this man accepts physical movement - exercise, like nourishing food, necessary not only for his body but for his soul. Precisely in that, in this emergence of physical exercise from man's body do we find the entire phenomenology of physical culture. Man experiences "thirst" for various types of satisfaction of his own cultural needs. And just like he has the need to read a good book, hear a good piece of music, look at a beautiful picture, … he also has the need to add to physical exercise, in a dietary or agonistic sense, everything that has already been mentioned. These expectations of a man desiring spiritual and physical food must be satisfied. The printed and electronic media are a good opportunity to meet this need. After all, these media are at every moment available to man who has increasingly less free time. This is the opportunity to "ad hoc" inform man and encourage him to turn to this aspect of his cultural needs - physical culture.

“THERE MUST BE DESIGN”: THE THREAT OF UNBELIEF IN DISRAELI'S LOTHAIR

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) has long suffered accusations of insincerity and expediency, especially with regard to his religious position. The mercurial novelist and prime minister famously evaded reference to his theological opinions. His official biographers, W.F. Moneypenny and G.E. Buckle, claimed that an “absolute reticence as to his personal religion was one of [Disraeli's] marked characteristics” (qtd. in Vincent 38). In June of 1832 – early in Disraeli's literary career – a critic in the Monthly Review even charged him with outright irreligion. The subject of the column was Disraeli's new novel Contarini Fleming (1832), which called itself a “psychological romance.” Speaking to the protagonist's various experiments with the hedonism of poetic expression, devout Roman Catholicism, and political pragmatism throughout the novel, the reviewer asked, “What are we to understand by the exemption from ‘sectarian prejudices’? The absence of religion. What is meant by the [artist's] ‘flowing spirit of creation’? Simply that there is no God” (qtd. in Letters 1: 284). Days after the review was published, Disraeli wrote to his sister, Sarah, “I suppose you have read the Review in the Monthly [-] where I am accused of Atheism, because I retire in Solitude to write novels” (Letters 1: 284).

“Bond of love”: The action of the spirit

The emergence of the various forms of Pentecostal and Charismatic theology has led to a welcome interest in the third Person of the Trinity, who has been largely neglected for centuries. However, while there has been a concentration on the experience of the Spirit, this has not been matched by an understanding of his work. The ancient idea, seen especially in Augustine, is that the main activity of the Spirit is that of providing relationship, as the “bond of love”; this provides a key concept which undergirds the work of the Spirit in creation, redemption, sanctification and empowering. It is hoped that increased understanding of the work of the Spirit will contribute to the healing of divisions in Christianity which emerged out of conflictingattitudes to the modern experiences.

Aquinas against spiritual matter

Nature of angels have been the object of interest of Christian thinkers since the times of the Fathers of the Church when the teaching of Holy Scriptures was confronted with Late Ancient Philosophy. The teaching on the intellectual beings in noetic realm was very important especially for Neoplatonic philosophers. It was Plotinus who first used Aristotelian concept of hyle noete (intellectual mater) to describe the distinctions between spiritual beings. His opinions evolved at ancient Neoplatonic systems and found its place in Arabic and Jewish philosophy. Idea of intellectual matter took its fully developed form in the writings of Avicebron (Solomon ibn Gabirol). His work Fons vitae was early translated to Latin in twelve century and was widely read. Through this work much of Neoplatonic philosophy was transferred to Latin Europe along with the teaching on spiritual beings and spiritual matter. St Thomas Aquinas, who confronted his ideas building systematic angelology, also knew work of Avicebron. The main problem of Christian angelology at his time was to show the difference between the nature of angels and God. This distinction did not played the key role in pre-christian systems, because there was no Scripture like concept of the one God as the only creator who transcends all beings. For the medieval Christian thinkers the idea of spiritual mater seemed to be very helpful in resolving this issue. It allowed them to claim that angels as creatures had spiritual matter in their essences while God was pure form and pure act. St Thomas Aquinas explained this difference in unique way using his new metaphysics. He argues that God is subsistent act of being (ispum esse substitens) and angels do not have their own essence identical with their being. Spiritual beings (often called by him „separated substances”) are composed of act of being (ipsum esse) and essence, which is form (forma). Thanks to such explanation there is no need to claim that there is a spiritual matter in nature of angels and Aquinas formulates arguments refuting this idea. In De substantis separatis he shows that such solution allows to reject spiritual matter and helps to demonstrate that angels have purely spiritual nature. His approach to the problem also preserves the claim of fundamental difference between God and spiritual creatures.

Fox's "A way to God: Thomas Merton’s creation spirituality" (Book Review)

Fox's "A way to God: Thomas Merton’s creation spirituality" (Book Review)

Embodied Liturgy: Lessons in Christian Ritual by Frank C. Senn

Reviewed by: Embodied Liturgy: Lessons in Christian Ritual by Frank C. Senn Mark Mattes Embodied Liturgy: Lessons in Christian Ritual. By Frank C. Senn. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016. xxiii + 416 pp. Frank Senn is one of the best-known scholars of liturgical studies. This book originated in a course which he taught in 2014 at Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia, a school rooted in the Dutch Reformed tradition (xxi). Designed to present the basics of Christian liturgy and liturgical theology to college and seminary students, Senn’s Introduction advocates that liturgy should be seen through a unique perspective, human experience as embodied. For Senn, the reality of human embodiment can be established through the practice of yoga. Most chapters offer specific, guided yogic exercises designed to ground one’s body in the liturgical truths being examined. As an example, here is a short yoga sequence Senn offers in honor of the Holy Trinity: [End Page 489] Let us conclude with a bodily devotion to the Holy Trinity. This is the half-sun salutation . . . . Assume the standing (mountain) pose. Extend the arms overhead, “Glory”; backward bend, “to the Father”; forward fold to the earth, “and to the Son”; monkey pose, “and to the Holy Spirit”; stand, hands in prayer position over heart, “Amen.” 27–28. This exercise is shorter than others. For Senn, yoga serves as an auxiliary discipline to help remind us “of important aspects of our faith that we tend to forget” (327). So, for example, breathing exercises can remind us of the Holy Spirit’s work in our bodies. Postures can “influence a Christian’s self-understanding as a body created in the image of God and an object of unutterable dignity redeemed by the blood of Christ” (327). So, Senn secularizes yoga, divests it of any saving power that may have one time been attributed to it in Hinduism, and baptizes it, if you will, into a Christian context. His point is that with technology, a Cartesian mind/body split, and ambivalent feelings about the body, Westerners increasingly tend to take their bodies for granted, when in fact, the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, liturgy, rightly understood, is a deeply embodied event, akin to the incarnation. Senn situates liturgy less in a theology of the word, as Protestant theology historically tended to do, and more in cultural practices. Thereby, he links Christian practices to practices in other faith traditions, showing analogies between them and indicating how liturgy itself is shared by all humans, regardless of confession or lack thereof. This book is ecumenical in spirit, though Senn does not hide his Lutheran roots. Sensitive to his readers, Senn repeatedly refers to experiences from his decades in the parish, such as his improvising Lenten offerings or his orchestrating chancel dramas. Anything related to Christian liturgy, including matters as unique as medieval and current flagellation (175ff), exorcism (218), Greek Orthodox youth “diving for the cross” on Epiphany Day, and numerous other examples, appear. But, the crux of liturgy, for Senn, is that it should “express a disinterested character as far as the world is concerned precisely so that it can see the world in a clearer light and be able to discern where prayer is needed and what should be done to fulfill the church’s mission in the world” (113). [End Page 490] Overall Senn’s work demonstrates a wider move from an erstwhile “penitential piety” of a previous Western Christianity focused on human guilt and divine forgiveness to a “creation spirituality” centered in joyful reception of creation as a gift. While many aspects of this move should be affirmed, it is obvious that confession and forgiveness, practices which in today’s world recovering addicts would be the quickest to remind us of, is not as strong here as it was in traditional Lutheranism. Given the need of humans to receive new, clean hearts, a path honoring both penance and celebration needs to be respected. That said, this is a brilliant, creative, and daring book, worthy of study, particularly for those inclined towards reimaging the church’s praxis. Mark Mattes Grand View University, Des Moines, Iowa Copyright © 2016 Johns Hopkins University...

Poetry and Prayer: The Power of the Word II ed. by Francesca Bugliani Knox, John Took

Reviewed by: Poetry and Prayer: The Power of the Word II ed. by Francesca Bugliani Knox, John Took Francis X. McAloon S.J. (bio) Poetry and Prayer: The Power of the Word II. Edited by Francesca Bugliani Knox and John Took. Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2015. Hardcover. 249pp. $120.00. Never has there been a doubt about the Christian community’s reliance upon the practice of praying with the poetry of the Bible: The Psalms. However, early in the twentieth century, the relationship between poetry and prayer—their seemingly shared practices of attentiveness, contemplation, imagination, and intuition—became a source of literary, theological, and mystical/spiritual debate. The French literary critic and theologian, Henri Bremond, is generally credited with launching the modern debate with his work Prère et Poése (1926), in which he argued that both poetry and prayer share a common grounding in the human capacity for contemplation, such that, when we read or listen to poetry, we potentially move into a psychological space of quiet reflection. According to Bremond, the significant distinction between these two experiences is that while poetry may point in the direction of prayerfulness, only prayer itself, with its requisite divine grace, leads us into the higher realms of mystical prayer. Bremond’s text inaugurated a century-long debate among theologians, literary critics, philosophers, and scholars of Christian spirituality over the shared (or not) sources, practices, and outcomes associated with both poetry and prayer. Are the poet and one who prays with poetry [End Page 284] on similar paths? Can non-biblical poetry serve to lead to mystical experience? In furtherance of this ongoing dialogue a disparate group of scholars, representing multiple disciplines, have gathered in recent years under the moniker of “The International Power of the Word.” The second of these conferences, hosted by the University of London in 2012, provides the material for Poetry and Prayer: The Power of the Word II, edited by Francesca Bugliani Knox and John Took. This excellent collection of articles offers theoretical and practical engagements with the topic at hand. Especially noteworthy is the editors’ decision to include separate sections on pre-modern and twentieth century case studies of individual poems and poets. Given the rich diversity of materials included in this volume, I will highlight a representative sampling of articles; however, I assure you that none of the thirteen articles included in this volume disappoints with its content, expression, and conclusion. The first part of the book considers five theoretical perspectives. David Lonsdale, who surveys representative approaches to the twentieth century disputes concerning poetry and prayer, offers the first point of view. Beginning with Bremond’s central claim that poetry and prayer, qua experience, share a common mystical quality even though the latter is of an entirely different order from the former, Lonsdale proceeds to survey some of Bremond’s subsequent interlocutors, including T.S. Eliott, William T. Noon, Karl Rahner, and Enda McDonagh. Most notable here are Lonsdale’s careful reviews of (1) Noon’s general objections to Bremond’s perspectives and, (2) Rahner’s take on prayer generally and a theology of the Word in particular. In his article entitled “Poetry at the Threshold of Prayer,” Antonio Spadaro, SJ, draws from an interesting collection of sources, including the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Samuel Coleridge, John Donne, and Michelangelo, to propose that “God can even be present through His absence, the empty form of an unrecognizable presence . . . These are poets who have experienced, in one way or another, a profound connection between their poetic inspiration and the form of expression that is prayer” (64). Jay Parini, in his article “Poetry as Immanence: How Language Informs Reality,” proposes that poetry and prayer are cousins, which “are intimately involved in ‘seeing’ nature, and therefore in working with the spiritual aspects of reality” (68). In short, both forms of expression provide a sort of incarnation, putting into words unspoken things and offering material images for spiritual truths. Parini borrows from the logos tradition in Christian scripture and history to assert that poetic language offers a sort of incarnation, an enactment of spiritual creation. To support his claim, he cites...

Music to distract and delight: benefitting people with dementia

The power of music has long been realised. Spirit of Creation instigate a collaborative piece of research aimed at demonstrating music's ability to aid recovery of social skills, communication and positive behaviour for those with dementia

Love Is Stronger Than Stewardship

Love Is Stronger Than Stewardship

The Spirit of Creation in the Old Testament

The Spirit of Creation in the Old Testament

Thierry of Chartres and Gundissalinus on Spiritual Substances: The Problem of Hylomorphic Composition

In this essay, the author examines the problem of the composition of spiritual substances in Thierry of Chartres and Gundissalinus. While Thierry is reticent to admit a hylomorphism in spiritual creatures, Gundissalinus develops Thierry’s thought on the matter through al-Ghazālī’s and Ibn Daud’s treatment of the composition in spiritual substances. Gundissalinus concludes that spiritual creatures are composed of matter and form (if not exactly in the way that Ibn Gabirol proposes), a conclusion that would be unacceptable to his main philosophical authorities.

Reading Hopkins after Hubble: The Durability of Ignatian Creation Spirituality

The Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins already demonstrated a special sensitivity to nature as a young Anglican. But his conversion to Catholicism, followed by his formation as a Jesuit, nurtured a creation spirituality that moved him from the rather cold view of the cosmos typical of his Victorian era to a vibrant sense of God intimately revealed in nature. This new sense of being a creature involved in an intimate personal relationship with the Creator comes from Hopkins' appropriation of the creation spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola. After reviewing the evolution of worldviews from the medieval synthesis melded with the Newtonian mechanical model (the Victorian picture) to our contemporary cosmic “story,” this article then samples poems that illustrate the creation spirituality that Hopkins absorbed from Ignatius' vision. This vision is remarkably in tune with the new sense of the place of the human creature in the cosmic story that the sciences now tell regarding the emergence of matter, life, and persons.

The Holy Spirit as the Fulfillment of the Liturgy

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 32. Vladimir Lossky, Orthodoxy Theology: An Introduction (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1989), 46. C. F. D. Moule, The Holy Spirit (London: Mowbrays, 1980), 44. Basil the Great, De Spiritu Sancto, 1:3, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3203.htm. Pavel Florensky, The Pillar and Ground of the Truth, trans. Boris Jakim (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), 85. E.g., Otto Weber, Foundations of Dogmatics, trans. Darrell L. Guder (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983), 2: 235–36. Eugene F. Rogers, “The Mystery of the Spirit in Three Traditions: Calvin, Rahner, Florensky Or, You Keep Wondering Where the Spirit Went,” Modern Theology 19, no. 2 (April 2003): 243–60 (256). See the generally negative assessment by R. A. Knox, Enthusiasm (London: Collins, 1987 [1950]). Such examples can be seen in The Spirit of Worship and Worship in the Spirit, eds. Teresa Berger and Bryan Spinks (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009). W. J. Hollenweger, “Gifts of the Spirit: Natural and Supernatural,” in International Dictionary of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Stanley M. Burgess, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 667–68. E.g., John Mansford Prior, S.V.D., “Jesus Christ the Way to the Father: The Challenge of the Pentecostals,” FABC Papers 119, http://www.fabc.org/fabc%20papers/fabc_paper_119.pdf. Lumen Gentium no. 4, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html. Hans urs von Balthasar, Explorations in Theology III: Creator Spirit, trans. Brian McNeil (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 125–26. Cf. David L. Schindler, “Institution and Charism: The Missions of the Son and the Spirit in Church and World,” Communio 25, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 258. Boris Bobrinskoy, “The Church and the Holy Spirit in 20th Century Russia,” Ecumenical Review 52, no. 3 (2000): 329. The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann 1973–1983, trans. Juliana Schmemann (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002), 137, 291–92. Emphasis his. Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 1:157. Jenson, Systematic Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 2:204–5. Jenson, Systematic Theology 2:167–88 (see n. 16). Translation by the author. Angelos J. Philippou, “The Mystery of Pentecost,” in The Orthodox Ethos, ed. A. J. Philippou (Oxford: Holywell, 1964), 91. Nissiotis, “Spirit, Church, and Ministry,” Theology Today 19 (1963): 485. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (London: James Clarke, 1957), 168. Author's emphasis. David du Plessis, The Spirit Bade Me Go: The Astounding Move of God in the Denominational Churches, rev. ed. (Oakland, CA: David du Plessis, 1963), 16. Reinhard Hütter, Suffering Divine Things: Theology as Church Practice (Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans, 2000). John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press), 130. Nikos A. Nissiotis, “Called to Unity: The Significance of the Invocation of the Spirit for Church Unity,” in Lausanne 77: Fifty Years of Faith and Order (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1977), 54. Florensky, 89–90 (see n. 5). For a classic study of the synergistic nature of the liturgy see Jean Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005). Kenneth Paul Wesche, “The Doctrine of Deification: A Call to Worship,” Theology Today 65 (2008): 175. Gordon W. Lathrop, Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1993). Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, no. 30, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html. “The Second Helvitic Confession,” in Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition: Reformation Era, vol. 2, eds. Jaraslav Pelikan and Valarie Hotchkiss (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), chap. 1, sect. 4. John H. McKenna, The Eucharistic Epiclesis: A Detailed History from the Patristic to the Modern Era, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2009), chap. 8. “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville, TN: United Methodist Publications, 1989), #384. Convergence churches are those seeking to integrate the sacramental, evangelical, and charismatic dimensions of worship. See Wayne Boosahda and Randy Sly, “The Convergence Movement,” in The Complete Library of Christian Worship, vol. 2, ed. Robert Webber (Nashville, TN: Star Song, 1994), 134–40. Wout van Laar, “Churches as Healing Communities: Impulses from the South for an Integral Understanding of Healing,” Exchange 35, no. 2 (January 1, 2006): 226–41. Additional informationNotes on contributorsSimon ChanSimon Chan is the Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Theological College, Singapore.

Ecology: Its relative importance and absolute irrelevance for a Christian: A Kierkegaardian transversal space for the controversy on eco-theology

The controversy about the importance of eco-theology or creation spirituality seems to be in a deadlock. Those who support it and those who oppose it do not even seem to be able to communicate with one another. On the one hand, Celia Deane-Drummond, for example, writes in her Eco-theology (2008:x): ‘I find it astonishing that courses on eco-theology do not exist in many university departments of theology and religious studies.’ Matthew Fox desperately asks in his Creation spirituality (1991:xii): ‘Need I list the [environmental] issues of our day that go virtually unattended to in our culture?’ On the other hand, evangelical Christians are known for their ecological ‘blind spot’ (Davis 2000), until recently at least. Pentecostal proponents of the prosperity gospel preach a consumer-lifestyle for all Christians, which is not very eco-friendly (cf. Kroesbergen 2013). Even in more mainline Christianity we find, for example, the well-known theologian Robert Jenson who writes in his Systematic theology: Volume 2 (1999:113, n. 2): ‘Recent waves of “creation spirituality” are simply apostasy to paganism. And it is such unguarded, even unargued judgement that is required of the church.’ We find eco-theologians, who do not understand that not everyone agrees with them on the one hand, and opposing theologians, who do not even feel the need to argue against them on the other hand. What would be needed to re-open communication between those in favour of eco-theology or creation spirituality, and those opposed to it?

The Spirit in creation

AbstractThe result of the Arian controversy was the affirmation of the total equality of the trinitarian persons. This led to the realisation that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in every external action of God. Despite this, the role of the Holy Spirit in creation has not been clear, partly due to few specific references in the creation narratives. However, it may be suggested that the Spirit does not act in the creation of matter, which is the role of the second person, but in the provision of the underlying form and order necessary for very existence, and specifically for the dynamic interaction which is of the essence of life, as in the second account of the creation of the man (Gen 2). This reflects the fact that the action of the Spirit is also essential in salvation to link Christ's work on the cross to the believer. While separation is a feature of the Genesis creation narrative, this is balanced by the interrelating of what had been created.So, although Christian theology has commonly seen the world as ‘spirit’-less, restricting the action of the Holy Spirit to the church, this would be understood as referring to the limitation of his direct action. His immanent presence is nevertheless essential in all for very existence. The Spirit is not in the world, but underlies it.Creation may be seen as a theistic act, by transcendent intervention to give matter, and giving interaction in immanent presence. The nature of the world therefore reflects the theistic nature of God, involving both distinction and relating. Indeed it then reflects the trinitarian nature of the creator, in which the persons maintain their absolute distinction at the same time as their total equality through the interaction of perichōrēsis, specifically enabled by the action of the Spirit as generating and undergirding relationship. The parallel between the created and the creator is seen especially insofar as the discrete elements of matter interrelate to give form and interaction.It is in their interaction that the elements of creation fulfil their purpose, and so specifically that humanity reflects its nature as created in imago Dei.

Spirit as field of force

AbstractIt is a familiar refrain in various theological conversations that pneumatology has been woefully underdeveloped in Western theology since the time of Augustine. However, some theologians are working to correct this situation and to develop new ways of understanding the person of the Holy Spirit in ways which are faithful to traditional theological sources. Wolfhart Pannenberg is one such theologian. One way in which he seeks to revitalise contemporary pneumatology is by appealing to field theory as it has been developed in modern physics. Pannenberg justifies such a move by investigating the etymological and philosophical roots of both field theory and pneumatology in the Stoic understanding of the doctrine of the πνεῦμα as the field of all material existence. While the Stoic notion of field was rejected by the apologists as a way of understanding, because of its inherent materialism, this possibility has been reopened by modern physicists who have developed field theories as a way of understanding the animating and binding qualities of nature which are devoid of materialism. Pannenberg takes up this language in a distinctive way to describe the unity of the Godhead in order to avoid modalism and to undo emphasis on rationality which has been the central feature of much of modern Western pneumatology. He also draws upon field theory to understand the activity of the Spirit in creation as its animating and unitive property, while preserving the freedom and individuality of creaturely existence. The author argues that this distinctive feature of Pannenberg's use of field theory in pneumatology has laid the ground work for a renewed understanding of the role of the Spirit in creation and a new avenue of conversation between theology and the natural sciences. In particular, field theory should be seen as an important way of understanding the loving relations between persons which is grounded in a mutual self-giving which respects the individual, in contrast to those who ground love primarily in compassionate suffering.