The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation

Description

The fourth book in Jurgen Moltmann's systematic theology is a full-scale theology of the Spirit that also marks a personal religious quest. Moltmann, "the foremost Protestant theologian in the world" (Church Times), brings his characteristic audacity to this traditional topic and cuts to the heart of the matter with a simple identification: What we experience every day as the spirit of life is the spirit of God. Such considerations give Moltmann's treatment of the different aspects of life in Spirit a verve and vitality that are concrete and existential: "When I love God I love the beauty of bodies, the rhythm of movements, the shining of eyes, the embraces, the feelings, the scents, the sounds of all this protean creation . . . The experience of God deepens the experiences of life . . . It awakens the unconditional Yes to life." Part One probes "Experiences of the Spirit" in daily life as well as in biblical and theological traditions. In Part Two Moltmann takes up the roles of the Spirit in the order of salvation under the aegis "Life in the Spirit". And Part Three concludes the volume with discussions of "The Fellowship and Person of the Spirit". Veteran readers of Moltmann will find here a rich and subtle extension of his trinitarian and christological works, even as he makes bold use of key insights from feminist and ecological theologies, from recent stress on embodiment, and from charismatic movements. Newer readers will find a fascinating entree into the heart of Moltmann's work: the transformative potential of the future. In an age of planetary peril, in a culture often hostile to human, animal, and plant life, Moltmann's emphatic insistence on the Spirit is a clear call to conscience: The one indispensable element for human survival, he asserts, is an "unconditional affirmation of life" quickened by the Spirit. Cover Publication Data Contents Preface Abbreviations and Translator's Note Introduction: Approaches in Pneumatology Today 1. The Ecumenical and Pentecostal Invitation to the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit 2. Overcoming the False Alternative between Divine Revelation and Human Experience of the Holy Spirit 3. The Discovery of the Cosmic Breadth of the Divine Spirit 4. The Question about the Personhood of the Holy Spirit Part One: Experiences of the Spirit I. Experience of Life - Experience of God 1. Dimesions of Experience 2. Experience Subjectified and Methodologized in Modern Times: God in the Determining Subject 3. Immanent Transcendence: God in All Things II. Historical Experience of the Spirit 1. Spirit - The Divine Energy of Life 2. God's Presence in the Spirit Among His People 3. God's Spirit and His Shekinah 4. Messianic Expectations of the Spirit 1. The Messiah of the Spirit 2. The Rebirth of the Messianic People from the Spirit III. Trinitarian Experience of the Spirit 1. The Christ of the Spirit: The Spirituality of Jesus 2. The Spirit of Christ: The Spirituality of the Community of His People 3. Trinitarian Mutuality between God's Spirit and His Son 4. The Expectation of the Spirit in Hoping and Lamenting 1. The Positive Dimension 2. The Negative Dimension Part Two: Life in the Spirit Minor Preface IV. The Spirit of Life 1. Spirituality or Vitality? 2. The Conflict between the 'Spirit' and the 'Flesh' 3. The Gnostic Misunderstanding of the Apocalyptic Conflict 4. New Vitality: Life against Death V. The Liberation for Life 1. Experience of God as Experience of Liberation: Exodus and Resurrection 2. The Modern Alternative: God or Freedom? 1. The Revolutionary Principle of Freedom 2. Latin American Liberation Theology 3. Spirit that Liberates for Life 1. Liberating Faith: Freedom as Subjectivity 2. Liberating Love: Freedom as Sociality 3. Liberating Hope: Freedom as Future 4. The Experience of Freedom as Experience of God: The Lord is the Spirit VI. The Justification of Life 1. The Justification of Sinners: General or Specific? 2. The Righteousness and Justice of God which Creates Justice for Victims 3. The Justifying Righteousness and Justice of God for the Perpetrators 4. The Rectifying Righteousness and Justice of God for Structures 5. The Spirit as Judge VII. The Rebirth to Life 1. Biblical Interpretations 2. The Discussion in Systematic Theology 1. Regeneration Complements Justification 2. Justification is Regeneration 3. The Regeneration of Men and Women Took Place on Golgotha 4. Those Who Have Been Born Again Live From What Comes to Meet Them 5. Regeneration Makes Christ's Resurrection Present and is the Opening of Eternal Life 3. Personal Experience in Regeneration: Incipit Vita Nova 4. The Experience of God in Regeneration: The Spirit as the Mother of Life VIII. The Sanctification of Life 1. Justification and Sanctification in Luther and Wesley 2. Sanctification Today 3. The Sanctifying God 4. The Holy Life 5. The Holy Spirit as the Power of Life and the Space for Living IX. The Charismatic Powers of Life 1. The Charismatic Vitality of the New Life 2. Speaking with Tongues 3. The Awakening of Charismatic Experience 4. The Healing of the Sick 5. The Charisma of the Handicapped Life 6. Everyone According to His Abilities, Everyone According to His Needs 7. The Holy Spirit as Source of Energy and Field of Force X. Theology of Mystical Experience 1. Action and Meditation 2. Meditation and Contemplation 3. Contemplation and Mysticism 4. Mysticism and Martyrdom 5. The Vision of the World in God Part Three: The Fellowship and Person of the Spirit XI. The Fellowship of the Spirit 1. Experience of the Spirit - Experience of Fellowship 1. The Trinitarian Concept of Fellowship 2. The Unitarian Concept of Fellowship 3. Fellowship as Process 4. The Spirit of Life and the Consciousness 2. Christianity in the Fellowship of the Spirit 1. Spirit and Word 2. The Community of the Generations 3. Community between Women and Men' 4. Action Groups 5. Self-Help Groups 6. Social Forms of the Church 3. The Theology of Social Experience of God 1. Neighbourly Love and Self-Love in the Love of God 2. Ego-mania and Self-Dispersion in Society 3. Open Friendship 4. Experiences of Love 5. The Body Language of Social Experience of God XII. The Personhood of the Spirit 1. Metaphors for the Experiences of the Spirit 1. Personal Metaphors: Lord - Mother - Judge 2. Formative Metaphors: Energy - Space - Gestalt 3. Movement Metaphors: Tempest - Fire - Love 4. Mystical Metaphors: Light - Water - Fertility 2. The Streaming Personhood of the Divine Spirit 3. The Trinitarian Personhood of the Holy Spirit 1. The Monarchical Concept of the Trinity 2. The Historical Concept of the Trinity 3. The Eucharistic Concept of the Trinity 4. The Trinitarian Doxology 5. Is the Filioque Addition to the Nicene Creed Necessary or Superfluous Veni Creator Spiritus Notes Introduction I. Experience of Life - Experience of God II. Historical Experience of the Spirit III. Trinitarian Experience of the Spirit IV. The Spirit of Life V. The Liberation for Life VI. The Justification of Life VII. The Rebirth of Life VIII. The Sanctification of Life IX. The Charismatic Powers of Life X. Theology of Mystical Experience XI. The Fellowship of the Spirit XII. The Personhood of the Spirit Index Index of Names Index of Confessions, Creeds and Other Documents Index of Biblical References