Hill Road Journal

“To Spread Scriptural Holiness to All Lands”: John Wesley on the Work of the Holy Spirit

PETER KH LEE

“To reform the nation, especially the Church, and to spread scriptural holiness to all lands.” This has been a classic statement of the mission of “the people called Methodists” (The Larger Minutes, the Methodist Conference, 1780). Taking off From this statement, especially the words, "to spread scriptural holiness to all the lands," this paper seeks to discuss John Wesley's thoughts on the work of the Holy Spirit.

What is called “scriptural holiness” should be placed in the perspective of the full range of salvation as Wesley conceived it. The process of salvation, according to Wesley, includes pre-awakening, justification, assurance, the new birth, sanctification, and holiness (or perfection or “entire sanctification”). Grace (prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying) runs through the whole gamut of God’s salvation for humankind. Scriptural holiness, based on scriptural teachings, is the hallmark of salvation and it is inseparable from the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Wesleyan Movement started as a revivalist-evangelistic movement in England and then, joining with other forces in North America, later flourished as a missionary movement that spread to many lands. A distinctive feature of the Wesleyan Movement remains its emphasis on scriptural holiness, which is always accompanied by the work of the Holy Spirit. In the course of history, the concept of “holiness” (and “perfection” too) has been subject to so much misunderstanding and abuse that separatist movements have occurred.

How does the work of the Holy Spirit make its impact felt? (1) On the individual believer: as forgiving love, as restoring power, as witness of the Spirit, as fruit of the Spirit. (2) From person to person: in the Christian community (not only the larger ecclesia but the smaller ecclesiola), through means of grace (both the “instituted” sacraments and “prudential” means, like hymn singing, special worship services, and the Methodist “conferences”). (3 ) To all the lands: in mission, in social and educational work, and in social transformation.

The distinctive Wesleyan teachings on the universality of grace and “synergism” (borrowed from Eastern Orthodoxy, concerning human responsibility working together with divine grace) are worth noting in any study of Wesleyan praxis (thought and practice in interaction) on the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Pneumatology of Karl Barth

Kevin SK CHENG

This is an introductory paper on the pneumatology of Karl Barth. Barth's pneumatology penetrates into each and every part of his theological loci. Since he was not able to write volume V of his Church Dogmatics, which was supposedly to contain pneumatology as a locus, this study will summarize his pneumatology from his various theological loci. This includes his doctrines of Christology, revelation, trinity, creation, and ecclesiology. The thesis of the paper is that Barth's pneumatology is Christ -centered, and that he conceives of the Holy Spirit as both the One who mediates and the One who binds together.

As Barth's pneumatology is Christ-centered, the paper begins with an exposition of the intimate relationship between Christ and the Spirit. The Spirit not only bears witness to Christ but, more so, the content of the activity of the Spirit is Christ himself. This naturally leads to the question of Barth's epistemological basis—revelation. Barth's position is that the Spirit possibility constitutes the subjective reality and of revelation. The revealing God is engaged in creation centering on the human being, in whom the Spirit has an indispensable role in constituting the human person. Besides creation, the revealing God is also involved in reconciliation, in which the Holy Spirit is responsible for the gathering, upbuilding and sending of the Christian community. As such the being and act of the church do not hinge upon believers, but is totally dependent on the action of the Holy Spirit, making and remaking it, preserving and binding believers together for communion, and sending it out to mediate the gospel to the world.

Wolfhart Pannenberg: Spirit of Life, Spirit of God

Lindsay ROBERTSON

Pannenberg's doctrine of the Spirit is difficult, philosophically informed and comprehensive. He presents a doctrine of the nature and activity of the Spirit that combines an understanding of the Spirit in creation and the processes of creation, in the human person and in God in a united and parallel way. We find that in all these areas, the Spirit is viewed in a two-fold way: as a more general 'field' and also as a more specified particularity of the field as 'person' or agent. The Spirit's nature is found in the flux between these two concepts.

This paper examines this dynamic interplay between the two aspects of the Spirit's nature in two areas.

1) Person formation where the Spirit is the element of openness and eschatological directedness. The Spirit, the power of the future, is the Spirit of the whole who unites, opens and leads people and creation to the eschaton.

 2) In God, the Spirit is both God-as-Spirit and the Holy Spirit. Here Pannenberg's distinctive view of the Spirit is as a field of force as an explanation of the Trinitarian essence is important. Also discussed is how the Spirit functions within the Trinity especially as a catalyst or opener of relations, and who unites the Trinity in fellowship, providing the outward dynamic of God to the world. Pannenberg links this to the concept of love and identifies the Spirit especially as love and the determining component of divine personality.

A Comment on the Contemporary Pentecostal Pneumatology

Benedict HB KWOK

This article consists of four main parts: 1) A dialogue between two Pentecostal scholars – Roger Stronstad, Robert P. Menzies – and James DG Dunn; 2) A dialogue between some Pentecostal scholars and Max Turner; 3) A discussion of whether Pauline Pneumatology is exclusively soteriological in nature; 4) A discussion of how the Holy Spirit works in the spiritual life of Christians.

The aim of this article is to examine contemporary Pentecostal Pneumatology from an ecumenical perspective. Roger Stronstad and Robert Menzies argue that Pentecostal Pneumatology is based on the Spirit of Prophecy in Luke-Acts. This Spirit of Prophecy empowers the church for mission but does not have soteriological implication. James DG Dunn and Max Turner agree that the main focus of the Pneumatology in Luke-Acts is the Spirit of Prophecy. However, they challenge the notion that this Spirit of Prophecy has no soteriological dimension. Max Turner points out that both the Spirit of Prophecy and the Soteriological Spirit in the Pauline Epistles refer to the same Spirit. In agreement with such a balanced understanding of Pauline Pneumatology, the author proposes an analysis of the functions of the Holy Spirit in three areas: 1) The Holy Spirit works through the sacred Word; 2) The Holy Spirit works through the sacraments; 3) The Holy Spirit works through the union of Christians with God. In conclusion, such an ecumenical perspective enables us to better appreciate Pentecostal Pneumatology and deepens our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jürgen Moltmann's Trinitarian-Eschatological Pneumatology: An Understanding in the Sino-context

Andres S. TANG

This paper aims to understand J. Moltmann's Pneumatolgy in contrast to the natural philosophy of The Commentary of I-Ching by focusing on the condition of life. Both Moltmann and The Commentary of I-Ching understand nature as an open system which gets its life through two principles: the principle of sympathy and the principle of evolution. The former is expressed among various individuals or systems that mutually interact with one another to create possibilities for improvement. The latter is manifested in the continuous changing process from the status of actuality to that of possibility in which the individual or system is open to the future with possibility. Both Moltmann and The Commentary of I-Ching agree that the latter is possible only with the former as its basis. However, the openness understood by The Commentary of I-Ching is a kind of immanent transcendence, not the real transcendence. Moltmann's critique of E. Bloch's “not-yet-being” also agrees with the position of The Commentary of I-Ching. That is, without the real transcendence, how can nature get its possibility for renewal? According to Moltmann, this real transcendence is understood as God of the possibility of life which is the condition for mutual interpenetration and self-transcending. The Holy Spirit is the economic indwelling and unifying activity of the triune God upon creation. It is only the Spirit who creates life from death and can overcome the power of Nothingness. Accordingly, The Commentary of I-Ching, just as Bloch, does not really guarantee the future of nature while facing the threat of Nothingness because “not-yet-being” might be annihilated by “no-longer-being”. Moltmann's Trinitarian-eschatological Pneumatology goes even further to affirm the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the radical openness of the triune perichoresis as the condition for eternal life, which is going to be fulfilled eschatologically by annihilating the power of Nothingness. Until that time God is in the world and the world is in God so that the world will be living in the eternal time and eternal history without transient, past, and death, but with change, future, and life.

Watchman Nee's Pneumatology

King-tak IP

Watchman Nee is probably the best known Chinese Christian in the western world. This paper is an attempt to elucidate Nee's theology of the Holy Spirit. What Nee stresses in his theology is the function of the Holy Spirit in nurturing believers into spiritual Christians. In order for believers to become mature, they need to go through four stages. This paper will examine how the Holy Spirit helps the believers become mature. Nee believes that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that makes rebirth possible. The Holy Spirit works both inside and outside the believers so as to help them grow spiritually. His understanding of the fullness of the Spirit, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Spirit, the control and discipline of the Spirit, the pouring and anointment of the Spirit will be scrutinized. Finally, a critical reflection will be given in the concluding remarks.