intercultural movement for justice.” The Spirit empowers the church and allows it “to experience the kingdom of God as a present reality.” The values of the kingdom are here present in history in anticipation of that final day when all will be complete.
The authors of these chapters take us on the journey of the Spirit whose workings are wider than the individual heart. Issues of community and relationality are paramount, often stemming from the relational dimension of the Trinity. The community where the Spirit works is not only the church but also the wider society, both before and after the coming of the gospel. The Holy Spirit is not antithetical to culture, as he both critiques and affirms. Each of these authors deeply appreciates the heritage of Nicea but understands that the Spirit is restless. There is work to be done in the world, healing and redemptive work, that began in the first moments of creation and continues in the present out to the eschaton. The Spirit was, and is, and will be over all the earth.
* * *
This book, along with the other volumes in the Majority World Theology series, is the product of a strong community effort to facilitate the discussion about emerging Majority World perspectives in biblical studies and theology. We want to thank the authors for their literary contribution and for their willingness to gather in San Diego in November 2014 for the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Institute for Biblical Research (unfortunately, Ngewa and Satyavrata were unable to attend). We are all indebted to the Rivendell Steward’s Trust, ScholarLeaders International, and the SEED Research Institute for their financial support and tremendous encouragement. Many of the scholars could not have attended these gatherings without the gracious help these agencies offered. Thanks also goes out to the leadership of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Institute for Biblical Research for creating space for this important discussion about pneumatology. Michael Thomson of Eerdmans has been an indefatigable supporter and counselor all along the way, and, once again, we tip our hats to him. Thanks are also due to Langham Partnership International and Langham Literature for supporting the global publication and distribution of the Majority World Theology series. Pieter Kwant of Langham Literature has been an energetic ally and we offer him our thanks. Jessica Hawthorne, teaching assistant extraordinaire, prepared the indices. We are all indebted to her. And, as always, we are grateful to God for his answers to prayers so that this global project could move forward. Soli Deo gloria!
Chapter 1
I Believe in the Holy Spirit: From the Ends of the Earth to the Ends of Time[9]
Amos Yong
Abstract
The first section of this chapter provides an overview of the broad spectrum of the Christian tradition and highlights the diversity of its pneumatological thinking, especially in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Majority World theologies of the past century, and modern pentecostal-charismatic movements. Building on such foundations, the second section of the chapter revisits the third article of the Nicene Creed and suggests how such global perspectives can enrich contemporary pneumatological resourcement even as the latter might be disciplined in light of historic Christian commitments.
The doctrine of the Holy Spirit—pneumatology—is experiencing a contemporary renaissance that promises to correct its relative neglect by the classical tradition.[10] Yet the claim that the Spirit historically has been the “shy” or “hidden” member of the Trinity[11] tells us only half the story when assessed in a world Christian context. This chapter revisits the broad spectrum of the Christian tradition and highlights the diversity of its pneumatological thinking, especially in the past century. Such pneumatological pluralism reflects both the many ways in which the divine breath[1] encounters people across space and time and the various modalities through which understanding of such occurs. Contemporary “third article theology”—which refers to the theology of the Spirit (pneumatology) and theology informed by a Spirit-oriented approach (pneumatological theology)[2]—retrieves and elaborates on the third article of the creed both by being anchored in the revelation of God in Christ and by being open to wherever and however the wind of God blows.
This chapter begins descriptively with an overview of pneumatology in a global historical context, and then shifts toward a constructive theology of the Spirit that is simultaneously a theology inspired by the Spirit (pneumatological theology). As a pentecostal theologian,[3] I find inspiration from the New Testament book of Acts, especially in a number of phrases in the early chapters. The narration of Luke, the author, about Peter’s Day of Pentecost sermon—quoting from the prophet Joel: “God declares, . . . I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (2:17)[4]—invites consideration of the global character of Christian pneumatological reflection, especially non-Western voices and perspectives. Even before this, Luke records Jesus telling the disciples that they will receive the empowerment of the Spirit to be his witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (1:8b). The Greek in this case, eschatou tēs gēs, refers not only to the spatial breadth of the earth but more technically to its temporal ends as well, the ends of the times of the earth, in fact.[5] Both aspects of the Spirit’s outpouring—the spatial and the temporal—are reiterated at the end of Peter’s Day of Pentecost homily where the gift of the Spirit is promised “for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him” (2:39b).[6] So if the first part of this chapter attempts to document the breadth of pneumatological reflection “upon all flesh,” the second section seeks to think creatively with the historical and dynamic deposit of faith, particularly with the Nicene confession about the Spirit, in ways appropriate to the third-millennium global context and beyond.
Poured Out on All Flesh: Pneumatology in Global Historical Perspective
This initial mapping proceeds along three lines. I begin with Eastern Christian understandings of the Spirit in order to ensure that this important historic stream is not neglected in any constructive pneumatology for the present time, move on to more recent Majority World perspectives, and conclude with developments in pentecostal-charismatic and renewal theology. Throughout I highlight minority reports on theology of the Spirit in order to gain traction and momentum vis-à-vis the dominant Western pneumatological tradition for when we turn to the second part of this chapter.
Eastern Christian Pneumatology
There is no doubt that the achievement of a fully trinitarian orthodoxy, one that speaks not just to the Son’s relationship with the Father but also includes the Spirit, would not have been secured apart from the efforts of theologians in the Eastern, or Greek-speaking, church in the fourth century. The Cappadocian fathers—Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus—each played crucial roles in arguing against those who did not believe the Spirit to be divine as the Son and the Father.[7] Against these so-called Spirit-fighters (Greek pneumatomachians) from the region of Macedonia,[8] these champions of trinitarian faith followed out the theological logic of the church’s hallowed practices of baptism into the triune name and of prayer and worship offered to the Spirit, and insisted that such liturgical commitments sustained over centuries would be invalid apart from the implicit recognition of the Spirit’s divine essence and character. Their efforts not only secured creedal elaboration on the deity of the Spirit (at the Council of Constantinople in 381) but also have profoundly impacted the main lines of Christian pneumatological reflection even in the Western tradition.
For our purposes, however, it would be a mistake to overlook the distinctive features of early Syriac pneumatology given their shaping of Cappadocian thinking about the Spirit. Second- and third-century Syriac sources clearly delineate the role of the Spirit in the process of Christian initiation.[9] The Spirit is invoked in the pre-baptismal
