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Commonplace Holiness

Tag: spiritual formation

  • Spirituality and the Holy Spirit

    Spirituality and the Holy Spirit

    I have previously written about spirituality in what might be called a generic sense: as a human capability. A simple way of understanding the spiritual side of human nature is to see it as the capacity for self-transcendence.

    I have explored this idea here:

    As I say, it is possible to see all of this as “spirituality” in a generic sense. It’s a human capacity.

    To go further in discussing this, I need to draw on ideas explicitly from Christian theology.  At this point, the Christian perspective gives us some help in understanding how human spiritual capabilities connect us with God and with the world around us.

    The helpful concept in this case is the Holy Spirit. Our human capacity — and yearning — to reach out beyond ourselves is answered by the reality of God’s Spirit reaching to us. This is only natural to expect. We have a desire to connect with a higher reality than ourselves. Our desire to breathe is answered by the air around us. Our desire for food and water are answered the reality of food and water. Our desire for a connection with God  — which would give a framework of meaning to our lives and our moral choices — is answered by the Holy Spirit of God.

    It is sometimes said that the doctrine of the Spirit is a neglected theme in Christian theology. Maybe in some circles this is true. It has not been true in either the Holiness or Pentecostal streams of the Christian tradition. The emphasis in these movements has been on Christian experience and the practical aspects of the life of faith, great emphasis has, in fact fallen on the work of the Spirit.

    1. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Life.

    It is helpful, in the first place, to remember who the Spirit is and the nature of the Spirit’s role in general. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1,2 NASB).

    The Spirit of God is spoken of in the Bible as being the Spirit of all life. “O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, In which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great. … They all wait for You To give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good. You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they expire And return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the ground.” (Psalm 104:24-30 NRSV.)

    God has created by His Spirit. God upholds all life by His Spirit. When we speak of the Holy Spirit we are speaking of the very breath of God that breathed life into the human race at the beginning. “…then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7 NRSV).

    Because God is the Creator and preserver of all life, the Spirit of God is also the Spirit of all life. This larger Biblical view of the work and role of the Holy Spirit — which comes out most expressly in the Old Testament — must be kept in mind as think about this.

    Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928–2014).

    In the beginning of an essay entitled “The Spirit of Life,” Wolfhart Pannenberg writes:

    When the second Ecumenical Council of the Church at Constantinople (381) made additions to the Nicene Creed, the Father’s first reinforcement of the third article was a qualification of the Holy Spirit as the one who gives life. This term was, of course, far from novel; it recalled the New Testament descriptions of the Spirit. Paul and John in particular had spoken of the Spirit as the one who makes alive, or quickens; as the primal source of life. Nowadays that is often interpreted restrictively as a purely soteriological expression referring to the new life in faith — a topic which is undeniably at the centre of the early Christian writings. But, references to the Spirit as the giver of life are certainly not to be restricted to the life of faith.

    — Wolfhart Pannenberg, “The Spirit of Life” Faith and Reality (translated by john Maxwell) 1977.

    Creation itself is spoken of in the Bible as beginning with the movement of the Spirit upon the primal waters: “…while a wind (spirit ר֣וּחַ) from God swept over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 NRSV). The talents of prophets and craftsmen and poets and artists and heroes are  spoken of as being inspired by the Spirit of God. While, the New Testament is primarily concerned to speak of the new life or the eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον) that is available through faith in Christ — but this promise is given against the backdrop of this larger vision of the Spirit as the Spirit of all life.

    Although the New Testament writings when they speak of the Spirit are primarily concerned, therefore, with his charismatic presence and the new life of faith mediated by him, the profound scope of these statements and their peculiar logic are only apparent if one is aware that they are rooted in basic convictions of Jewish tradition about the Spirit as the creative origin of all life.

    — Wolfhart Pannenberg, “The Spirit of Life” Faith and Reality (translated by john Maxwell) 1977.

    The God that Christians worship is no parochial God — but the God of all people. So, also the work of the Spirit must first of all be understood to be universal in scope.

    2. This Connects with the Wesleyan Theological Concept of Prevenient Grace.

    This line of thought naturally brings us into the realm of what theologians in the Wesleyan tradition call Prevenient Grace. By this we mean to speak of the grace of God that is available to all people — whether they are aware of it or not. This is the grace that stirs in the heart of all people, calling them to search for meaning, and purpose — as well as forgiveness and reconciliation. It is a grace that convicts and convinces the world. It is “the life” that is “the light of all people.”

    Grace is available — in this form — to all because God is the God of all people and because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of all life. Remembering the Old Testament depiction of the Spirit as the source of all life — and the source of all inspiration — leads us in this direction.

    Both Charles Gutenson in Reconsidering the Doctrine of God and Kent Eilers in Faithful to Save: Pannenberg on God’s Reconciling Action note the similarities of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit and John Wesley’s conception of Prevenient Grace.

    The Spirit of God has an epistemic role — making the knowledge of God a possibility. It is precisely this prevenient grace that makes it possible for human beings to even know God.

    Our very capacity for self-transcendence is a gift from God. It opens for us a possibility that our lives need not be consumed by selfishness and self-destruction. Grace is conveyed to us in our lost-ness — making saving faith in Christ a possiblity.

    3. The Spirit Connects Us with All of Life.

    In fact, it is the work of the Spirit of God to connect us with God, with other people, and with life in the world.

    Self-transcendence need not lead to escapism — though obviously it can, and often does. The Spirit of God, being the Spirit of life and the Spirit of God, seeks to lift us out of ourselves into connection with the God of all creation, and the best interests of other people — and, ultimately, all creation.

    As long as our lives are closed in upon ourselves, in fact, there is no hope for this. The hope given to us in the Gospel of Christ includes the possibility of being lifted beyond ourselves — in love for God (who has created all) and in love for all other people. And, that is certainly good news.  

  • The Ecstatic Structure of Human Spirituality

    The Ecstatic Structure of Human Spirituality

    Last week I posted on “What is Spirituality?”. This was my attempt to get a handle on what it might mean to call something “spiritual.” While spirituality is certainly a subjective phenomenon, I believe there is a way of talking about it and analyzing it, to some extent. I said:

    Human spirituality is self-transcendence. A spiritual experience is something that lifts us beyond our selves. The true essence of spirituality is to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind; and our neighbor as much as we love our own self. (See Luke 10:27, etc.) There is both a vertical (God-ward) axis and a horizontal (other-ward) axis to this. But, spirituality is always being lifted out of ourselves. Spirituality connects us with God, with the community of faith and with the needs of other people outside the community of faith. These vertical and horizontal axes correspond roughly with the idea of God’s transcendence and God’s immanence. Traditionally, Christian theology has affirmed both God’s transcendence and God’s immanence.

    Here is another way of saying it: there is an ecstatic structure to human spirituality. A spiritual experience is something that lifts us beyond ourselves. It may provide us a sense of connection to a higher reality or it may provide us with a sense of connection with other people. Or, it may do both. But, in any case, it lifts us beyond ourselves — outside ourselves.
    I realize that this assertion (especially the language of “ecstasy”) is very much open to misinterpretation, so I feel the need to say more about it.

    As with many things, it was Wolfhart Pannenberg that first drew my attention to this:

    In all their forms of manifestation the works of God’s Spirit have an ecstatic character.

    — Systematic Theology, Volume 3 page 135.

    If this is so, then we would expect there to be a close connection between spiritual experiences and emotion. A spiritual experience is bound to be an emotional experience. It can hardly help but be!

    People who come to a new-found realization about life — and make new commitments to God — are bound to feel emotional about it. People who feel a new or renewed bond with others are bound to experience this as an emotional experience. So, if we are going to renew the church spiritually it will (of necessity) be an emotional thing. People will be lifted out of themselves.

    Personalities differ, so the nature of these emotional experiences — and the expression of these emotions will differ. Nonetheless, emotion can be expected.

    But, while spiritual experiences are bound (in the nature of the case) to be emotional experiences, the inverse is not true. Emotion, per se, is not spiritual. Emotional experiences are not necessarily spiritual. So, while emotion should be expected, it is not demanded. If we focus our attention on the emotional component of spirituality, we, in fact, get off track.

    Emotion is the side effect of spiritual connection. It is expected but not demanded — nor do we know the form such emotions might take. Individuals (as I said) will respond differently.

    Part of the problem here is within the very word: “ecstatic.” This naturally makes us think of something irrational and out-of-control. But, this is not what is meant at all. In no way would should we set rationality and spirituality at odds with one another. They should, in fact,  support one another. In explaining the statement above, Pannenberg goes on to say:

    Wolfhart Panneenberg (1928–2014)

    But we must rid this statement of any idea of irrational states of intoxication. Ecstasy can mean that creatures, while outside themselves, are supremely with themselves. The reason for they lies in the ecstatic structure of living phenomena. Every living thing lives its life by existing outside itself, namely, in and by the world around it. On the stage of human life, too, the Spirit gives life by lifting individuals above their particularity and finitude; their spontaneity of self-transcendence is only the reverse side of this. The forms of human conduct and experience we call ’spiritual’ in the narrower sense also have ecstatic features for those who experience them, most intensively perhaps in productive spiritual experiences of artistic inspiration, or in insights that come by sudden bursts of illumination, though also in the experience of inner freedom from the stifling bondage that was seemingly invincible. This applies already in a general way to the basic trust with which, in spite of all disillusionment, we constantly open ourselves to what is around us, to the world. And it applies especially again to trusting faith in the God who encounters us in Jesus Christ.

    — Systematic Theology, Volume 3 page 135.

    It is natural for human beings to look beyond themselves — in fact, really, we must. So, it is natural for human beings to try to place their own lives in a larger context of meaning. Thus, in this sense, people are naturally religious. Or, it might be better to say: naturally spiritual. We find ourselves asking what life is about, how we ought to act (not just what’s convenient or best for ourselves — but what is right), and where we fit into the scheme of things.

    In this sense, we can see that the struggle is not: atheism vs. religion. Various religions address the questions of meaning and morality in different ways. Atheism is a denial: either: there is no meaning / morality; or: the theistic God (granting for the moment we could arrive at a common idea of God) is not the basis of meaning / morality. But, a denial does not end the question. It is just a subtle way of saying: “You can’t ask that question.” Pannenberg continues:

    This faith [in Jesus Christ] lifts us above our particularity inasmuch as God is powerfully present to us as the light of our final future and assures us at the same time of our own eternal salvation. By the event of this elevation of our own particularity, we as individual believers are also linked with others in the fellowship of believers, a fellowship whose common setting is the extra nos* of faith in the one Lord. The ecstatic integration of this fellowship by the Spirit into the common praise of God can mediate the sense of initial removing of alienation between this and that individual and therefore also the antagonism between individual and society.

    — Systematic Theology, Volume 3 pp. 135 & 136.

    Legitimately spiritual experiences support the Christian Gospel’s call for us to love God with all out heart, mind, soul and strength; and our neighbor as ourselves. Spirituality turns us outward toward God and outward toward other people.

    John Wesley says that the evidences of genuine Christian re-birth include “the love of God” and “a sincere, tender, disinterested love for all [human]kind.” Having such a love kindled in our hearts will, of necessity, be an emotional experience.

    But, not all emotional experiences mean more love.  

    *The Latin term extra nos (in the last quote above) means “outside of us.” It is commonly used by Lutheran theologians — and others, of course — in discussing the Theology of the Cross. So, the grace and forgiveness and reconciliation and righteousness a believer receives by faith in Christ is extra nos — a gift received from outside the self.  

  • A Test of Spiritual Experiences

    A Test of Spiritual Experiences

    John Wesley (1703 –1791)

    Another ground of these, and a thousand mistakes, is, the not considering deeply, that love is the highest gift of God; humble, gentle, patient love; that all visions, revelations, manifestations whatever, are little things compared to love; and that all the gifts above-mentioned are either the same with, or infinitely inferior to, it. It were well you should be thoroughly sensible of this, —’the heaven of heavens is love.’ There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else; if you look for anything but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others, ‘Have you received this or that blessing?’ if you mean anything but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them upon a false scent. Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing more, but more of that love described in the thirteenth of the Corinthians. You can go no higher than this, till you are carried into Abraham’s bosom.

    — Farther Thoughts on Christian Perfection.

    I think it is interesting that such a comment is made at the very outset of the Wesleyan movement.

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