The Lord and Giver of Life: The person and work of the Holy Spirit in the trinitarian theology of Colin E Gunton
01 Jan 2008-
About: The article was published on 2008-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 47 citations till now.
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197 citations
01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: The fourth book in Jurgen Moltmann's systematic theology is a full-scale theology of the Spirit that also marks a personal religious quest as mentioned in this paper, where the author brings his characteristic audacity to this traditional topic and cuts to the heart of the matter with a simple identification.
Abstract: 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 toconscience: The one indispensable element for human survival, he asserts, is an "unconditional affirmation of life" quickened by the Spirit.
158 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: The trinitarian culture and corporate Worship practices of Canadian Pentecostals: A Contribution from the Theology of Colin Gunton as discussed by the authors is an analysis of an important corporate worship practice among the Pentechal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), the largest Evangelical denomination in Canada.
Abstract: The Trinitarian Culture and Corporate Worship Practices of Canadian Pentecostals: A Contribution from the Theology of Colin Gunton Michael A. Tapper Thesis advisor: Catherine E. Clifford This thesis represents a unique analysis of the trinitarian impulses of an important corporate worship practice among the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), the largest Evangelical denomination in Canada. It considers whether an inconsistency exists between the PAOC’s trinitarian statement of faith and formative expressions of this denomination’s belief conveyed in 82 of the most commonly used contemporary worship songs from April 2007 to March 2013. Lyrical music, it is defended, represents a forming, measurable, and confirming indicator among the PAOC of contemporary religious understanding. In order to assess the trinitarian dispositions of the PAOC music lyrics, Colin Gunton’s theology is utilized as a framework for this evaluation. Gunton was a leading figure in the advancement of trinitarian theology before his untimely death in 2003. His balanced integration of the notions of relationality, particularity, and perichoresis provides the rationale for eight qualitative content analyses that are original to this project and intended to verify the trinitarian views in the PAOC lyrics. This analysis is oriented around three major areas of trinitarian assessment: the doctrine of God, human personhood, and cosmology. The data from these content analyses are compiled, presented, and carefully analysed. Then, returning to the trinitarian work of Gunton, implications and considerations for the PAOC are offered. This study shows that Gunton’s trinitarian theology provides a resource to identify and correct the trinitarian deficit and individualistic and cosmologically dualistic orientation of PAOC commonly used songs. Ultimately, this thesis proposes that Gunton, in accordance with several key Pentecostal and worship studies interlocutors, can serve as a helpful theological source for the dynamic practice of a trinitarian faith among the PAOC. DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners.
63 citations
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TL;DR: In the mid-1990s, airwaves across North America were monopolized by Canadian pop diva Alanis Morissette's "All I Really Want" song as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the mid-1990s, airwaves across North America were monopolized by Canadian pop diva Alanis Morissette's \"All I Really Want.\" The lyrics ramble through a hodgepodge of seemingly disconnected preferences and competing desires that the singer finds present within and around her. Morissette bemoans life in a world populated by superficial people, and she desperately yearns for a soul mate, a kindred spirit, someone who truly understands. Like many others of her generation, sixteen-year-old Aminah McKinnie of Madison, Miss., spends much of her non-school waking hours on the Internet. She lives in a strangely paradoxical realm in which the opinions of peers and relationships are crucial, and yet social groups are fluid, friendships change over a period of months or even weeks, and the possibility of lifelong \"best friends\" is not even on the radar screen! The fluidity characteristic of the contemporary ethos is epitomized by the Internet chat room. Here participants are able to be whomever they want, to try on new identities with '
13 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the renewal of interest in trinitarian theology amongst systematic theologians in the West which followed their familiarization with the social conceptions of the Orthodox churches.
Abstract: The question which I am ultimately trying to address in this article is: what does the Trinity have to do with human individuality? My question reflects the renewal of interest in trinitarian theology amongst systematic theologians in the West which followed their familiarization with the social conceptions of the Orthodox churches.' But why should the availability of social and relational frames of reference for the Trinity have proved so reinvigorating for systematics in the West? There are two reasons, I think. The first is that the social understanding of the Trinity seems to offer a way of taking conventional Christian doctrine seriously whilst avoiding the obscurity and mystification of metaphysical conceptions. The second is that it provides an immediate and obvious connection with theological anthropology, and hence with practical theology in general and with political theology in particular. For in using social terms to conceptualize the Trinity, one is bound to formulate a conception of
12 citations
01 Jan 2003
12 citations
TL;DR: The question of what are we speaking when we speak of the Holy Spirit has not received an answer widely accepted in the theology of the twentieth century as discussed by the authors, which is the most fundamental of all the questions asked in the field of pneumatology.
Abstract: Of what are we speaking when we speak of the Holy Spirit? This most fundamental of all the questions asked in the field of Pneumatology has not received an answer widely accepted in the theology of the twentieth century. Karl Barth could write that the ‘Holy Spirit is nothing else than a certain relation of the Word to man’; while to Rudolph Bultmann, the Spirit was ‘the power of futurity,’ and was to be counted among the mythological forms of New Testament speech. Heribert Muhlen, on the other hand, interpreting the Latin pneumatological tradition in terms of the personalism of Ebner and Bubner, calls the Spirit ‘we,’ the unity of T and ‘thou.’ And David Gelpi reflects current feminist concerns when he designates God's Spirit as ‘The Divine Mother,’ the feminine in God. Finally, most recendy, Michael Welker has adopted the language of the natural sciences mediated through process thought and calls the Holy Spirit a ‘force field,’ while Jurgen Moltmann terms God's Spirit ‘the Spirit of Life’; a notion echoed in Mark Wallace's thesis that the Spirit is ‘the power of life-giving breath (r¨ah) within the cosmos who continually works to transform and renew all forms of life—both human and nonhuman.‘
12 citations