One of the key reasons that Pentecostal Christianity has grown so rapidly since its inception around the twentieth century is because of its emphasis on embodied spirituality. When believers are ...“filled” with the Holy Spirit, every emotion experienced is understood as Spirit-directed. This affective faith led hundreds of early Pentecostal missionaries to move around the world with the expectation that God would supernaturally impart them with the requisite language skills and financial support, and embodied affectivity continues to animate the global Pentecostal movement today. In this essay, I focus on the emotion “righteous anger,” which I argue is inextricably tied to rather than opposed to Spirit-filled love. I begin by exploring Pentecostal embodiment, accentuating Pentecostal worship and practice that is infused with ardent feelings, sensations, and emotionality. Indeed, Spirit-filled love repudiates indifference; consequently, injustice, which is attributed to the demonic, is confronted with the same passion and emotionalism (i.e., righteous anger). For pentecostals, the demonic is active in the world, causing destruction, and it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that evil can be defeated. Finally, I compare Pentecostal righteous anger with Buddhist compassion, suggesting that there is room for mutual growth and development within these positions for dealing with injustice. Righteous anger empowers individuals to act with immediacy, responding to needs quickly and enthusiastically. Buddhist compassion strengthens righteous anger by transforming the impassioned energy into a sustainable, steadfast energy that is necessary for actual change. Thus, the Holy Spirit, like the wind, moves gently and fiercely, filled with compassion and righteous anger.
This paper focuses on sobranie (assembly) practice of the Doukhobor (Doukhobortsy or Spirit Wrestlers) community in Saskatchewan. The paper describes Doukhobor prayer homes, sobranie/molenie (prayer ...assemblies) as well as the major event of the year: Peter's Day celebrations. The study is based on over 60 hours of observations between 2010 and 2018. The evolution of the prayer assemblies from the early 20th century to modern times, as well as the issues facing the community, are outlined. The text of the Doukhobor Lord's Prayer is compared with the Lord's Prayer in other Christian denominations.
The Art of Doubting Koeppler, Daniela
European Judaism,
03/2020, Volume:
53, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article discusses how issues of doubt and scepticism were addressed during the history of the Reformation, citing as examples disagreements between Luther and Erasmus. It focuses on the less ...familiar figure Sebastian Castellio, whose disagreements with John Calvin put his life at risk. He took a stand against all the leading Reformers who understood themselves to be the chosen proclaimers of a single true Protestant teaching and considered every deviating opinion or critical question to be a betrayal of God’s work and of God’s renewed Church. His last, incomplete book, ‘On the Art of Doubting and of Believing, of Not Knowing and of Knowing’ was written in exile in Basel.
This article presents a Christian liturgical leader as an empty, but useful vessel whose strength is made perfect by the reliance on God’s grace. The word vessel is often used in the Bible, and in ...English terms it translates to be either a container such as a bowl or a jug, or either a ship or a boat. The biblical meaning denotes a person whom God calls and uses as a vessel. The metaphor of a leader as a useful vessel, refers to a person that is receptive. Paul in 2 Timothy 2: 20–21 clearly proclaims that vessels come as useful ones and not so useful ones; some bring honour and others dishonour – the choice belongs to each individual and is illustrated in 2 Corinthians 4:7: ‘… but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us’. While the task of Christian liturgical leadership is ambiguous and complex, this article refers to someone called to exercise authority and leadership in the way as Jesus called Paul, namely as ‘a chosen vessel of Mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel’ (Ac 9:15). On the flip side, this brings in a challenging equation of 1 Peter 3:7 where the woman is termed ‘the weaker vessel’ that ‘should be honoured …’. From this perspective, this article explores what impact this problematic passage has on women’s liturgical leadership and practice, especially in the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical culture. It presents a functional biblical vision derived from an understanding that leaders are the vessels that God calls and uses, and that they are guided by a biblical spirituality of leadership. This leadership is consistent with the democratic tradition within Christianity that emphasises dialogue with the Holy Spirit.
This book explores the organic motif found throughout the writings of the Dutch Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck (1854-1921). Noting that Bavinck uses this motif at key points in the most ...important loci of theology; Christology, general and special revelation, ecclesiology and so forth; it seems that one cannot read him carefully without particular attention to his motif of choice: the organic. By examining the sense in which Bavinck views all of reality as a beautiful balance of unity-in-diversity, James Eglinton draws the reader to Bavinck's constant concern for the doctrine of God as Trinity. If God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Bavinck argues, the creation must be more akin to an organism than a machine. Trinity and organism are thus closely linked concepts. Eglinton critiques and rejects the 'two Bavincks' (one orthodox and the other modern) hermeneutic so commonplace in discussions of Bavinck's theology. Instead, this book argues for a reunited Herman Bavinck as a figure committed to the participation of historic orthodox theology in the modern world.
Anders Nygren argues that Augustine's adherence to a Platonist notion of eros undermines both his own and a wider Christian account of agape. On Nygren's reading, eros, which is self-fulfilling love ...that originates in the soul's movement toward God, stands in contradistinction to agape, which is self-denying love that originates in God and condescends to us through the sacrifice of Christ. While it is true that Platonism plays an important role for Augustine, he comes to interpret love through a lens of Christian doctrines on creation, Christ, and the Trinity that leads him to reshape the Greek ideal of love. In particular, Augustine reads human upward love of God (eros) as flowing out of God's triune downward love of creation (agape) mediated through the incarnation. Nygren contends that Augustine's connection here between eros and agape is contradictory, but this presupposes at least a medieval, if not a modern, distinction between natural (erotic) and supernatural (agapic) love. Augustine does not draw on eros to the exclusion of agape but rather sees in eros the inclusion of agape. That is, our natural love (eros) for God is always enabled by God's supernatural love (agape) for us.
The Holy Spirit in Mission Ma, Julie
Dialog : a journal of theology,
06/2015, Volume:
54, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
God initiated mission and intends to achieve it by work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, mission—which God commands his church to accomplish—belongs to God, not to human agency. Prior to ascending to ...heaven, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his disciples, and asked them to wait in Jerusalem. This Holy Spirit is given to enable them to be witnesses of Jesus from Jerusalem to the end of the world. This implies that the church has to partner with the Holy Spirit to fulfil this mission. Missionaries need to consciously work together with Spirit and be directed and guided by the Spirit.
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