Paul’s Pneumatology

Paul’s pneumatology in summary: The Lord who has become life-giving Spirit fills him. The Lord, the Spirit transforms him from glory to glory as he gazes at the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Since the glory of Jesus is the glory of the cross, Paul’s translation into glory means . . . . Continue Reading »

Personal Mystery

In the highly sensible opening chapter to his Creator Spirit: The Holy Spirit and the Art of Becoming Human , Steven Guthrie asks what makes “art” seem “spiritual” to so many people. Many, he notes, find that art is spiritual because both “art” and . . . . Continue Reading »

Actualizing Spirit

In his epistle to Serapion, Athanasius gives his most extensive consideration to pneumatology. As in his debates with Arians, Athanasius consistently focuses attention back to the pattern of biblical language, what Anatolios calls the “intertextual scriptural characterizations of Father, Son . . . . Continue Reading »

Security

Athanasius believes that human beings are inherently unstable, just because they are creatures. For Athanasius, the stability of salvation rests, Anatolios argues, in the inner-Trinitarian life of giving and receiving. Explaining the “anointing” of Psalm 45 as an anointing of the Son by . . . . Continue Reading »

I-Thou

In his Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God , Jenson ponders why Barth’s Trinitarian theology so often seems to collapse into a binity: “the inner-divine community of the Father and the Son is, explicitly [in Barth], ‘two-sided.’” Since the Spirit is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Hovering Spirit

Ephrem the Syrian on Genesis 1: “The Holy Spirit warmed the waters with a kind of vital warmth, even bringing them to a boil through intense head in order to make them fertile. The action of a hen is similar. It sits on its eggs, making them fertile through the warmth of incubation. Here . . . . Continue Reading »

Doves and Eagles

The Spirit is a dove. So is the Bride in the Song, since she is her Lover’s inspiration and since she is formed by the Dove into the image of the Dove, so that the Bride and the Dove can moan with one voice of longing for the Lover’s return. Jonah’s name means “dove,” . . . . Continue Reading »

Wedding homily

Ephesians 5:18-21: Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to . . . . Continue Reading »

Exhortation

“Do not cast me from your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me,” David prayed after Nathan exposed his sin with Bathsheba. David understood what was at stake. He had watched Saul’s terrifying decline – Saul, who received the Spirit, became a new man, joined the . . . . Continue Reading »