So far in this survey of how the Old Testament speaks about the Holy Spirit, we’ve looked at the examples where the Spirit is given as a particular gift to a particular person. In the Torah and Deuteronomistic History, we found a consistent pattern of gifts of practical wisdom and communication for the purpose of … Continue reading The Spirit and the theology of Creation
Last week, in the first post of three looking at what the Old Testament has to say about the Spirit of God, we saw the emergence, throughout the Law and Historical books, of a general pattern of the Spirit setting apart and empowering individuals for effective leadership, including both good judgment and decision-making and prophetic … Continue reading The Spirit in the Prophets
One of the most striking things about the post-Resurrection stories in the New Testament is how they go out of their way to show just how radical, and radically different, of a community the earliest Church sought to be. The clear fact that, by and large, Christians have completely failed to live that out over … Continue reading No More Rivals: A Reflection on John 20.19-31 and Acts 4.32-35
Today we start our look at the development of the concept of the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God, by tracing how the idea was used in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). As I mentioned in my introductory post, I feel this is a helpful thing to do because so many Christians have little … Continue reading The Spirit in the Law & Deuteronomistic History
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Here we are in Easter Week, also known as Bright Week, the start of what has traditionally been a fifty-day period of celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. But this Easter season is, paradoxically, not an end in itself, but is leading us headlong into another feast that should be of … Continue reading Awaiting the Spirit: Introduction
Matthew Root 