The Spirit of Hope
Pneumatology and eschatology likely to be the presenting theological issues of the 21st Century.
a) Pneumatology. Western Christian missionaries promoted: self government, self support and self propagation; but did not bargain for self interpretation.
Much contemporary Christian growth is attributed to the Holy Spirit rather than to temporal leaders, reflected in the close relationship between worship and theology. The theology of the Holy Spirit is being developed to situate contemporary Christianity in the same way that early Christians accommodated paganism.
Synthesis: The relevance of the Spirit: connecting believers with Gospel in different cultures; to situate the Gospel in culture; the bond of love that makes unity possible in a diverse global Christian witness.
The uncontrollable problem of The spirit; from as early as 1 Corinthians, separating speaking in tongues from prophesy a move away from the charismatic to the doctrinally deliberative; the importance of apostolic succession; the shift in the 4th Century from gifts of office to status of office, a shift from gifts to function; the doctrine of the Spirit long limited to its participation in Sacraments.
Those who innovate in the power of the Spirit are opposed by those who deny their claim. There is a paradox in being acrimonious about the spirit who is the bond of love between Father and Son.
Synthesis: the Spirit is not 'inferior' to other members of Trinity; secondly: "... because there is only one God, there is only one purpose ... expressed in the continuity between creation and redemption. In the case of the Spirit, it will be expressed in terms of the continuity between creation, redemption, and sanctification. It will be expressed in terms of the inspiring action of the Spirit, not only upon the original writers of Scripture, but also upon the reading community of the faithful. It will be expressed in self-emptying love, for the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and Christ offered himself to be crucified out of love"; third, the work of the Spirit will always be of love; the Spirit is the Spirit of hope."
b) Eschatology. The eschatological emphasis of Jesus divided Jews and Christians, not about a new place but a new order. The new Kingdom and the new City collaterally subverted the state; after Constantine the Revelation anti Romanism transmuted into the hope of the soul going to heaven which fitted Hellenist philosophy and was action in the Middle Ages; the Reformation only contested mechanics, not outcome. Anabaptists recaptured the essence of new order but their anarchism discredited it. Today oppressed people all over the world look to a new order.
Synthesis: The continuity between creation and redemption; hope not programmatic; not about the way to bring about the reign of God (liberals through justice, conservatives through standards); it cannot be calculated but is certain; it is active hope.
The Holy Spirit is the guarantor of hope.