It is typical in the church calendar for preachers to start sermon series on the Holy Spirit after Easter. This is because Pentecost chronologically follows Easter. Jesus is crucified, is buried, resurrects, ascends to heaven, then sends the Holy Spirit so that his disciples can fulfill their calling to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. They witness to the fact that Christ (not death, and certainly not Caesar) reigns over the creation. That witness comes through the Holy Spirit’s help, or supernatural empowerment over sin in their lives. In short, the Holy Spirit helps Christians to fulfill their call to holiness with the greater aim of glorifying Jesus.
This time in the Christian calendar where we turn our focus to the Holy Spirit and Pentecost is one of my favorite times of year. You would think that we’ve heard enough about the Holy Spirit but this just isn’t the case.
A recent study published by Christianity Today revealed that an estimated 58% of evangelical Christians in American believe that the Holy Spirit is a force, not a Person.[1] Another study showed that the average American evangelical’s understanding of the Holy Spirit is more aligned to New Age and Eastern Religions than the Judeo-Christian worldview.
Contemporary Western Christianity is Holy Spirit anemic. The following statement by Karl Rahner in 1998 is still true today. Rahner wrote,
“We must be willing to admit that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dripped as false, the major part of religious literature could well remain virtually unchanged.”[2]
On a more practical level, when asked to teach on the Holy Spirit I often get the response, “I’ve never heard this before!” It could be that my personal experience is the exception to the rule, but as far as it goes, the people in the pews of the churches where I frequent are hungry to hear more about the Holy Spirit. Even more than this, people want to hear more about how the call to holiness is achievable with a helper.
On a more academic level, over the past half-century or so there has been an increase in study related to reading the Bible as a single story (i.e., biblical theology). The Bible isn’t just a loose collection of stories. The Bible is one story. There has been a rediscovery of the fact that to understand what the Apostle Paul is talking about in his letters, we have to understand the Old Testament. Paul, Jesus, and all of the New Testament authors understood that what was happening in the first century was a continuation of the single story of redemption that began with the Jewish people all the way back in Genesis.
This rediscovery has caused an influx in scholarly books and articles about the doctrine of justification, election, biblical metaphors for salvation beyond the forensic metaphor (justification), and a number of other related topics. Pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit)—at least as I see it—is one of the under-represented parts of the flurry of dialogue.
As such, I will be publishing a series of entries on the Holy Spirit. One of the main goals is to lay out in an accessible way how the Holy Spirit fits into the single story of the Bible. In other words, I will not be offering a systematic theology of the Holy Spirit. Rather, I will make every attempt to keep in-step with the methodology of scripture in talking about theology within the framework of story.
Lastly, and in this same vein, I also hope to spend some time on the biblical symbols of the Holy Spirit as they keep our feet on the ground the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of ordinary, holy people.
[1] For more information on the study, see Caleb Lindgren and Morgan Lee, “Our Favorite Heresies of 2018: Experts Weigh in” in Christianity Today, October 26, 2018.
[2] Karl Rahner, The Trinity, trans. Joseph Donceel (New York: Crossroad, 1998), 10–11.
Awesome, as usual. Miss you all, looking forward to seeing you in June if the band on groups is lifted by then.