Pneumatology

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pneumatology reflects on the Holy Spirit and his role in Christian doctrine

Pneumatology ( Greek πνεῦμα pneûma , breath, breath 'and λόγος lógos , speech, meaning') describes within the dogmatics of Christian theology the doctrine of and reflection on the Holy Spirit , the third person of the Trinity . In addition, the term also describes the teaching of spiritual beings in spiritism .

Pneumatology in the Bible

With regard to the Bible , the Old Testament, Johannine and Pauline pneumatology are discussed above all. In Johannine pneumatology, the view of the paraclete particularly stands out.

Pneumatology in the Old Church

The basis for pneumatology is, among other things, the third and last part of the Apostles' Creed . This confession text of the old church comes from the 5th century AD. The third article has the following wording:

Latin German (ecumenical version)

Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,
sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam,
Sanctorum communionem,
remissionem peccatorum,
carnis resurrectionem,
vitam aeternam.
Amen.

Text version from the Missale Romanum from 1970.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic (Christian / General) Church ,
communion of saints ,
forgiveness of sins ,
resurrection of the dead
and eternal life .
Amen .

Translation published on 15./16. December 1970 was adopted by the working group for liturgical texts of the churches of the German-speaking area.

Belief in the Holy Spirit

Pneumatology in occidental iconography: The triangle symbol in the upper image field signals that the Christian Trinity is being discussed. God, the Holy Spirit (in the symbol of a white dove) is found here exactly in the middle between God the Father and God the Son, who suffers as Christ on the cross. The illustration shows an Alpine procession flag from the 18th century.

Already the ancient Roman creed , the Romanum , which is dated by some to the period between 125 and 135 AD, contains a similar reference to the Holy Spirit when it emphasizes this spirit as an object of faith:

"(Πιστεύω οὖν) καὶ εἰς τò ἅγιον πνεῦμα"

"(I believe) in the Holy Spirit."

This creed is one of the first traditional Christian creeds outside of the New Testament, from which both the Nicano-Constantinopolitanum and the Apostolic Creed later developed. All three confessions have in common that the Holy Spirit is thematized in a third section.

In these confessions, both the church and the community of saints are closely associated with the Holy Spirit . This favors the misunderstanding that the Spirit, like the Church and the communion of saints, are placed on a common plane. However, the Church does not say " I believe in ... ". The word an (Latin in , Greek εἰς ) is missing from the church. Wolfhart Pannenberg observes after analyzing these linguistic details:

"The Christian does not believe in the Church, just as he believes in God in his threefold reality as Father, Son and Spirit,
but he professes the Church as the field of activity of the Spirit of Christ in spite of its faults and defects."

A distinction is therefore made between the object of belief in the sense of the reason for belief and the object of belief in the sense of the content of belief . The Holy Spirit is an object of faith in a different way than the Church.

The confession of the divinity of the Holy Spirit

Even in the early church there were disputes in the attempt to clarify the relationship between the Holy Spirit and God, the Father and Jesus Christ. The Pneumatomachen contested the deity of the Holy Spirit in the fourth century. The filioque controversy ignited about it .

At the First Council of Constantinople , which was convened in 381, the direction prevailed in the Church which advocated an express confession of the divinity of the Holy Spirit . The third article of the Nicene Creed was supplemented in the Latin version by the addition of “ and the Son ”:

"... to the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life,
who emerges from the Father and the Son
and is simultaneously adored and glorified with the Father and the Son,
who spoke through the prophets."

Here the Holy Spirit is also described as spiritus vivificans , as the giver of life, as a quickener who “is a spirit that animates creation”.

Norbert Scholl interprets the time after the council as a phase of theological speculation:

“The following centuries, with regard to the talk of the Spirit of God, are characterized by the fact that - as in Christology - more and more the spectation of the 'essence' of the spirit came to the fore and less and less of the experiences of its saving work, of his ability to do great things and to be brave. The question was no longer: Where does the spirit work and how do I experience it? But rather: Who is the spirit and what is its relationship to God the Father and to Jesus the Son, the Christ? "

Pneumatology in the understanding of the Reformation

In pneumatology, the Reformation in the 16th century initially took up the confessions of the early church, but then ascribed specific effects on the Holy Spirit with regard to the emergence and awakening of faith.

Confessio Augustana

In the Confessio Augustana (1530), in Article I ( Of God ), the Trinitarian image of God according to the early church confessions, and thus the understanding of the Holy Spirit in the traditional sense, is retained:

“... that there is a single divine being who is
called God and is truly God,
and that there are three persons in this one divine being,
all three equally powerful, equally eternal:
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
All three are one divine being,
eternal, indivisible, infinite,
of immeasurable power, wisdom and goodness,
a creator and sustainer of all things visible and invisible. "

The Reformation basically adheres to the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Predications that are stated about God the Father also apply equally and undiminished to God the Holy Spirit. The Reformation thus moves in the traditional theology of the Trinity and consciously seeks connection to the doctrinal decisions of the early church and its great ecumenical councils .

In Article V. ( On the Ministry of Preaching ) of the Confessio Augustana the power of the Holy Spirit working in faith is described, who in all freedom "where and when he wants", instigates faith:

“God instituted the ministry and gave the gospel and sacraments to gain such faith.
By these means he gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith where and when he wills in those who hear the gospel. "

Martin Luther

In his Small Catechism (1529), Martin Luther also assigns the task of imparting the faith to the Holy Spirit :

“I believe that I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him out of my own reason;
But the Holy Spirit called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and sustained me in the right faith,
just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and preserves with Jesus Christ all of Christianity on earth. "

Faith is therefore neither a matter of one's own ability to make decisions nor the result of one's own intellectual effort. Faith is not placed in the availability of man. Rather, Reformation theology sees the Holy Spirit at work in the ability to believe and the ability to love. At the same time the Holy Spirit constitutes the community and church by "calling, gathering and enlightening Christianity".

Heidelberg Catechism

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) as a condensed expression of Reformed theology and at the same time the most widespread catechism of the Reformed Church explicitly deals with the Holy Spirit in question 53:

“ What do you think of the Holy Spirit?

First:

The Holy Spirit is like eternal God with the Father and the Son.

Secondly:

He has also been given to me and gives me a share in Christ and all his benefits through true faith.
He comforts me and will stay with me forever. "

Here, too, the divinity of the Holy Spirit is established and here, too, the spirit is expressly part of a Trinitarian image of God. The Holy Spirit mediates the benefits that Christ give to people. The biblical thought of consolation is added; the Holy Spirit carries the divine perspective of eternity into the experience of temporality.

Pneumatology in Fundamental Theology and Systematic Theology

Catholic theology

According to the Catholic understanding, ecclesiology is related to pneumatology. Therefore, in the classical form of Catholic dogmatics, pneumatology has traditionally not been further elaborated as a separate treatise. However, the Holy Spirit is indispensable for the presentation of the doctrine of God and the doctrine of the Trinity - even from the early church confessions. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are also taught.

For Hans Küng , the Spirit of God must not take on a life of its own in pneumatology:

“In no case… should the Holy Spirit be understood as a third thing, as a thing between God and man.
No, by spirit is meant the personal closeness of God himself to people, as little to separate from God as the sunbeam from the sun. "

Evangelical theology

The teaching of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology) is an important part of the Christian doctrine of faith ( dogmatics ). This doctrine is often starting from the third article of the Apostles' Creed ( Credo ), formulated and deployed. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit "is one of the central themes of dogmatics".

However, according to Wolfhart Pannenberg, “the talk of the Holy Spirit has become particularly incomprehensible for the present”, with the result that pneumatology is “left to rest”. Also Horst Georg Pöhlmann states a "neglect of Pneumatology in Lutheranism ." The Holy Spirit is largely the unknown God today . Pneumatology seems to have "emigrated to the free churches and sects". Wilfried Härle similarly states that pneumatology "for most (western) Christians, unless they belong to a Pentecostal church or are close to the charismatic movement, is more on the edge than in the center of their interest".

Classification in dogmatics in the 20th and 21st centuries

The classification of pneumatology in the canon of Christian dogmatics and in the whole of systematic theology does not take place uniformly in the drafts. In principle, several models and locations can also be identified. Of course, pneumatological focuses can still be identified.

Pneumatology as part of the doctrine of God

Pneumatology belongs to the beginning of dogmatics and is treated within the doctrine of God . Especially with regard to the Trinity of God, in the doctrine of the Trinity , one should speak of the divinity of the spirit and at the same time of the third person of the Trinity. Pneumatology already has this position on the part of the early church and its classical confessions.

Pneumatology in the doctrine of creation

The Holy Spirit is described in the Nicano-Constantinopolitanum as a quickening, life-giving force, as "Dominum et vivificantem", as the spirit that "is Lord and gives life". This begins with creation , but at Pentecost it also leads to the creation of the church and the enabling of the Christian community. Mostly it is referred to the fact that the spirit was present as God's creative power when the world was created: “the spirit of God floated on the water” (Luther translation 1545) and “ above the water” (Luther translation 2017; Genesis 1,2  LUT ).

Pneumatology as a generic term for all items of faith mentioned in the third article

Pneumatology can be used as a generic term for soteriology , ecclesiology, and eschatology . This superordinate position in the sense of a generic term is derived, among other things, from the third article of the Apostles' Creed and can then be observed right down to the systematic drafts of Eberhard Jüngel and others.

However, whether the testimony of the resurrection and eternal life should be seen as the work of the Holy Spirit, or "merely added as a concluding statement of faith to the third article, that is a special question in the history of symbols," says Gerhard Ebeling .

Pneumatology as part of soteriology

Pneumatology can, however, also be subordinate to or classified under the doctrine of grace. This in turn can be observed with Horst Georg Pöhlmann . This treatment of pneumatology has its roots in occidental scholasticism . Pneumatology appears there primarily in the form of the doctrine of grace and describes in the context of a differentiated psychology the inner human effects of divine grace as so-called theological virtues.

Pneumatology versus Christology

Horst Georg Pöhlmann warns against playing pneumatology against christology or constructing a contrast between christocentrism and pneumatocentrism. This becomes impossible when one considers that in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is identified with Christ. “The Lord is the Spirit,” says 2 Corinthians 3:17. The Holy Spirit is the Christ praesens , the Christ present, the Christ present.

In this context the statements of Jesus' farewell speech to his disciples in John's Gospel are important (John 14-17). The gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12) play a prominent role in the practice of faith in Pentecostal churches and charismatic communities. “It is part of the inaccessibility of the spirit that its work cannot be read off in the world and history, but that it is mediated solely in the revelation of Christ”. “Salvation is bestowed on the individual through the Holy Spirit sola gratia , sola fide , solo Christo”.

The Holy Spirit as the spirit of freedom and as the spirit of Jesus Christ

Karl Barth's pneumatology is marked Christocentrically . At the same time, Karl Barth is interested in the correspondence between spirit and freedom:

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. If one wants to paraphrase the mystery of the Holy Spirit, it is best to choose this term.
Receiving the spirit, having the spirit, living in the spirit, that means being liberated and being allowed to live in freedom. ... The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. ...
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is about a movement - pneuma means wind - from Christ to man. "

Theology of the Spirit in Response to Christocentrism

The strong effects of the Holy Spirit can be experienced in the services of Pentecostal churches : Ecstasy , glossolalia , exorcism , spiritual healing and prophecy are phenomena that are traced back to the divine dynamics of the Holy Spirit. These spiritual effects, which are extraordinary from a contemporary European point of view, belong to the usual repertoire of experience both in the early church and in today's Pentecostal churches.

The Reformed Swiss theologian Emil Brunner stated in 1951 that the Holy Spirit was "always more or less a stepchild of theology and the dynamism of the spirit a specter for theologians".

According to Otto Alexander Dilschneider, Christian theology suffers from an “acute forgetfulness of the spirit”. For centuries, theology has been so “caught up in a Christ-centered theology of the second article” that “the Pentecost event as a salvation fact has been forgotten”. Dilschneider argues for a theology of the spirit .

Holy Spirit as the spirit of life

Jürgen Moltmann's Pneumatology sees itself as “an invitation to open up to the experiences of the quickening spirit and to affirmation of life, to overcome the threats to life and to rebirth.” Moltmann tries, among other things, to find the “alternative between divine revelation and the human experience of the Holy Spirit ”. He programmatically understands the Holy Spirit as the spirit of life .

Pneumatology in Spiritism

Spiritualism is about the question of the reality of the spirit world. Baron Johann Ludwig von Güldenstubbe (1817–1873) used the term as part of his necromancy in his work Positive Pneumatology. 194 death letters from all times and in various languages .

Pneumatology in Medicine

Jean N. Demarquay introduced the term into medicine in 1867 as a collective term for studies on gases.

See also

literature

Old church

Roman Catholic representations

  • Walter Kasper : Presence of the Spirit. Aspects of Pneumatology , Freiburg 1979.
  • Christian Schütz : Introduction to Pneumatology , Darmstadt 1985.
  • Bernd Jochen Hilberath : Pneumatology. In: Theodor Schneider (Ed.): Handbuch der Dogmatik. Vol. 1: Prolegomena, doctrine of God, doctrine of creation, christology, pneumatology. Düsseldorf 1992 (and other editions), pp. 445–552.
  • Gerhard Ludwig Müller : The Holy Spirit. Pneumatology , Graz 1993.
  • Bernd Jochen Hilberath: Pneumatology , Düsseldorf 1994.
  • Wolfgang Beinert : Approaches to Faith. Vol. 3. Pneumatology - The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit , Paderborn 1995.
  • Josef Freitag: Forgetting the Spirit - Remembering the Spirit. Vladimir Lossky's Pneumatology as a Challenge to Western Theology , Würzburg 1995.
  • Michael Böhnke : Church in crisis of faith. A pneumatological sketch on ecclesiology and at the same time a theological foundation of canon law. Freiburg 2013.
  • Michael Böhnke: God's spirit in the actions of people. Practical Pneumatology , Freiburg – Basel – Vienna 2017.

Evangelical representations

Ecumenical representations

  • Daniel Munteanu: The comforting spirit of love. On an ecumenical teaching of the Holy Spirit on the Trinitarian theologies of J. Moltmann and D. Staniloaes . Neukirchen-Vluyn 2003

Web links

Wiktionary: Pneumatology  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For historical reasons and to avoid confusion with the Roman Catholic Church , churches of the Reformation tradition transfer “Catholic Church” with “Christian Church” or “general church”.
  2. ↑ On translation: Resolutions regarding the translation of the article “Carnis resurrectionem” of the Apostles' Creed . Holy Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , December 14, 1983, accessed February 6, 2016.
  3. ↑ Wolfhart Pannenberg , The Creed. Designed and responsible for the questions of the present . Gütersloher Taschenbücher Siebenstern 1292. 5th edition, Gütersloher Verlagshaus Mohn, Gütersloh 1990, p. 180f, ISBN 3-579-01292-4
  4. ↑ Wilfried Härle , Dogmatik , 4th edition, Berlin 2012, p. 377, ISBN 978-3-11-027275-8
  5. ↑ Norbert Scholl , The great topics of the Christian faith , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2002, p. 177, ISBN 978-3-534-26257-1
  6. ↑ Confession Augustana, Article I., in: Confessional writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church , Göttingen 1979, ISBN 3-525-52101-4 , here linguistically slightly adapted, p. 50
  7. ↑ Confession Augustana, Article V., in: Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church , linguistically slightly adapted, p. 58
  8. ↑ Martin Luther, Small Catechism, including in the confessional writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church , p. 511.512
  9. ↑ Heidelberg Catechism on the Internet, accessed on May 3, 2017
  10. ↑ Hans Küng , Credo. The Apostolic Creed - Contemporaries explained , Munich - Zurich 1992, 2nd edition, p. 167, ISBN 3-492-03009-2
  11. ↑ Wilfried Härle , Dogmatik , 4th edition, Berlin 2012, p. 366, ISBN 978-3-11-027275-8
  12. ↑ Wolfhart Pannenberg, The Creed. Developed and responsible for the questions of the present , Hamburg 1974, 2nd edition, page 136
  13. ↑ Horst Georg Pöhlmann , Abriß der Dogmatik , 3rd edition, Gütersloh 1980, p. 259; ISBN 3-579-00051-9
  14. ↑ Wilfried Härle , Dogmatik , 4th edition, Berlin 2012, p. 363; ISBN 978-3-11-027275-8
  15. ^ Gerhard Ebeling , Dogmatics of the Christian Faith. Faith in God the Perfector of the World , Volume III, Tübingen, 2nd edition 1982, p. 4; ISBN 3-16-144613-5
  16. ^ Gerhard Ebeling , Dogmatics of the Christian Faith. Faith in God the Perfector of the World , Volume III, Tübingen, 2nd edition 1982, p. 11; ISBN 3-16-144613-5
  17. ↑ Horst Georg Pöhlmann , Abriß der Dogmatik , 3rd edition Gütersloh 1980, pp. 259f ISBN 3-579-00051-9
  18. ^ Karl Barth, Dogmatik im Grundriß , Zurich 1983, 6th edition, p. 161.162, ISBN 3-290-11030-3
  19. ^ Emil Brunner, The misunderstanding of the church , Göttingen 1951, p. 55, ISBN 978-3-290-10021-6
  20. ↑ Otto Alexander Dilschneider, The Spirit Leads to Truth , Evangelical Commentaries, 1973, Issue 6, p. 333
  21. ↑ Jürgen Moltmann , The Spirit of Life: A holistic Pneumatology , Gütersloh 1991; ISBN 978-3-579-08228-8