The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation

380 Pages·1992·31.349 MB·English

by  Jurgen Moltmann

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Moltmann
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A Universal
Affirmation

THE SPIRIT OF LIFE

JURGEN MOLTMANN
The Spirit of Life
A UNIVERSAL AFFIRMATION
FORTRESS PRESS MINNEAPOLIS
THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
A Universal Affirmation
First Fortress Press edition published 1992.
Translated by Margaret Kohl from the German Der Geist des
Lebens: Eine ganzheitliche Pneumatologie, published by Christian
Kaiser Verlag, Munich, 1991. English translation copyright © 1992
Margaret Kohl. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in
critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in
any manner without prior written permission from the publisher.
Write to: Permissions, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 426 S. Fifth St.,
Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.
Scripture quotations from the Revised Standard Version are copy-
right © 1946, 1952, and 1971 by the Division of Christian
Education of the National Council of Churches.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data available
ISBN 0—-8006—2737—7

Manufactured in Great Britain 1-2737
96 95 94 93 92 12 3 45 6 7 8 9 10
CONTENTS
Preface x
Abbreviations xiv
Translator’s Note xv
Introduction: Approaches in Pneumatology Today 1
1. The Ecumenical and Pentecostal Invitation to the
Fellowship of the Holy Spirit 3
. 2. Overcoming the False Alternative between
Divine Revelation and Human Experience of the
Holy Spirit 5
3. The Discovery of the Cosmic Breadth of the Divine
Spirit 8
4. The Question about the Personhood of the Holy
Spirit 10
PART ONE: EXPERIENCES OF THE SPIRIT
I Experience of Life — Experience of God 17
§1 Dimensions of Experience 18
§2 Experience Subjectified and Methodologized in
Modern Times: God in the Determining Subject 28
§3 Immanent Transcendence: God in All Things 31
II_ Historical Experience of the Spirit 39
§1 Spirit — the Divine Energy of Life 40
§2 God’s Presence in the Spirit Among His People 43
§3 God’s Spirit and His Shekinah 47
§4 Messianic Expectations of the Spirit 51
1. The Messiah of the Spirit 53
2. The Rebirth of the Messianic People from
the Spirit 54
vi Contents
Ill Trinitarian Experience of the Spirit 58
§1 The Christ of the Spirit: the Spirituality of Jesus 60
§2 The Spirit of Christ: the Spirituality of the
Community of his People 65
§3 Trinitarian Mutuality between God’s Spirit and
His Son 71
§4 The Expectation of the Spirit in Hoping and
73
Lamenting
1. The Positive Dimension 74
2. The Negative Dimension 75
PART TWO: LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
IV_ The Spirit of Life 83
§1
Spirituality or Vitality? 83
§2 The Conflict between the ‘Spirit’ and the ‘Flesh’ 86
§3 The Gnostic Misunderstanding of the Apocalyptic
Conflict 89
§4 New Vitality: Life against Death 94
V_ The Liberation for Life 99
§1 Experience of God as Experience of Liberation:
Exodus and Resurrection 99
§2 The Modern Alternative: God or Freedom? 105
1. The Revolutionary Principle of Freedom 106
2. Latin American Liberation Theology 109
§3 Spirit that Liberates for Life 114
1. Liberating Faith: Freedom as Subjectivity 114
2. Liberating Love: Freedom as Sociality 117
3. Liberating Hope: Freedom as Future 119
§4 The Experience of Freedom as Experience of God:
The Lord is the Spirit 120
VI The Justification of Life 123
§1 The Justification of Sinners: General or Specific? 124
§2 The Righteousness and Justice of God which
Creates Justice for Victims 129
§3 The Justifying Righteousness and Justice of God
for the Perpetrators 132
§4 The Rectifying Righteousness and Justice of God
for Structures 138
§5 The Spirit as Judge 142
Contents Vil
VII The Rebirth to Life 144
§1 Biblical Interpretations 145
§2 The Discussion in Systematic Theology 147
1. Regeneration Complements Justification 147
2. Justification is Regeneration 149
3. The Regeneration of Men and Women took
place on Golgatha 150
4. Those Who Have Been Born Again Live
From What Comes to Meet Them 151
5. Regeneration makes Christ’s Resurrection
Present and is the Opening of Eternal Life 152
§3 Personal Experience in Regeneration: incipit vita
nova 153
§4 The Experience of God in Regeneration: the Spirit
as the Mother of Life 157
VII The Sanctification of Life 161
§1
Justification and Sanctification in Luther and
Wesley 163
Sanctification Today 171
The Sanctifying God 174
The Holy Life 175
The Holy Spirit as the Power of Life and the Space
for Living 177
IX The Charismatic Powers of Life 180
The Charismatic Vitality of the New Life 181
Speaking with Tongues 185
The Awakening of Charismatic Experience 186
The Healing of the Sick 188
The Charisma of the Handicapped Life 192
Everyone according to his Abilities, Everyone
according to his Needs 193
The Holy Spirit as Source of Energy and Field of
Force 195
Theology of Mystical Experience 198
Action and Meditation 199
Meditation and Contemplation 202
Contemplation and Mysticism 205
Mysticism and Martyrdom 208
The Vision of the World in God 211
Vill Contents
PART THREE: THE FELLOWSHIP AND PERSON OF
THE SPIRIT
XI The Fellowship of the Spirit 217
§1 Experience of the Spirit — Experience of Fellow ship 217
1. The Trinitarian Concept of Fellowship 217
2. The Unitarian Concept of Fellowship 221
3. Fellowship as Process 225
4. The Spirit of Life and the Consciousness 228
§2 Christianity in the Fellowship of the Spirit 229
1. Spirit and Word 230
2. The Community of the Generations 236
3. Community between Women and Men 239
4. Action Groups 241
5. Self-Help Groups 243
6. Social Forms of the Church 245
§3 The Theology of the Social Experience of God 248
1. Neighbourly Love and Self-Love in the Love
of God 248
2 Ego-mania and Self-Dispersion in Society 251
3. Open Friendship 254
4. Experiences of Love 259
5 The Body Language of Social Experience of
God 263
XII The Personhood of the Spirit 268
§1 Metaphors for the Experience of the Spirit 269
1. Personal Metaphors: Lord— Mother— Judge 270
2. Formative Metaphors: Energy— Space—
Gestalt 274
3. Movement Metaphors: Tempest — Fire —
Love 278
4. Mystical Metaphors: Light — Water —
Fertility 281
§2 The Streaming Personhood of the Divine Spirit 285
§3 The Trinitarian Personhood of the Holy Spirit 289
The Monarchical Concept of the Trinity 290

The Historical Concept of the Trinity 295
e
The Eucharistic Concept of the Trinity 298
w
The Trinitarian Doxology 301
w Is the Filioque Addition to the Nicene Creed
Necessary or Superfluous? 306