Revelation and the Spirit

by Watts, Graham J.

• ISBN13: 9781597527705
• ISBN10: 159752770X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-01
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

The theme of this study is the relationship between the doctrine of revelation and pneumatology. How can we conceive of the relation between the self-revelation of God and our knowledge of that self-revelation? This is an important question given the postmodern abandonment of any normative understanding of truth and the mushrooming of alternative forms of spirituality. The task of Christian mission in the context of popular pluralism raises the question of the relationship between truth and experience.The focus of the work is a critical comparison between two contemporary Lutheran theologians, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Eberhard Jÿngel. By contrasting these influential writers clear distinctions are drawn between an approach based on metaphor and metaphysic. Both approaches are deemed to be deficient in their construction and it is argued that some of these problems emerge from a common Lutheran heritage. It is further argued that Trinitarian pneumatology might be better advanced by giving greater weight to the concepts of participation and communion. In doing so, some contribution is made towards long-standing pneumatological questions, including the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the distinction between God as Spirit and the Holy Spirit.

Author Biography

Graham Watts is minister at Albany Road Baptist Church Cardiff

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
The Advent of God: The Theology of Eberhard Jungel
Being and Becoming: The Self-revelation of God	p. 3
Introduction	p. 3
Revelation as God's Self-interpretation	p. 4
God's Self-revelation as Event	p. 6
The Being of God in Becoming	p. 13
The Triune God as the Mystery of the World	p. 21
Being and Becoming: The Speakability of God	p. 23
Critical Discussion	p. 27
Presence and Possibility: Eberhard Jungel's Theology of the Spirit	p. 35
Introduction	p. 35
The Presence of God and the Death of Christ	p. 36
The Word of Address: The Presence of God and the Being of Humanity	p. 43
The Priority of the Possible	p. 53
The Death and Resurrection of Christ: The Presence of God in the Perishable	p. 58
Jungel's Ontology and its Implications for a Doctrine of the Spirit: A Critical Assessment	p. 64
The Presence of the Infinite God: The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg
The Revelation of the Triune God: The Doctrine of God in the Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg	p. 77
Introduction	p. 77
The Doctrine of Revelation: Historical Process and the Person of Christ	p. 78
The Doctrine of the Trinity: The Threeness of the One God	p. 89
The Doctrine of the Trinity: The Unity of the Divine Essence	p. 99
Critical Discussion	p. 111
Pannenberg's Doctrine of the Spirit and the Infinity of God	p. 123
Introduction	p. 123
The Divine Essence as a Dynamic Field of Force	p. 124
The Ontology of the Future: Anticipation and the Temporal Structure of Being	p. 136
The Love of God: Person and Relation	p. 143
Critical Discussion	p. 148
Summary	p. 162
Revelation and the Spirit
A Comparative Appraisal: Jungel and Pannenberg on the Self-Revelation of God and the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit	p. 167
Introduction	p. 167
The Doctrine of Revelation	p. 167
The Doctrine of Creation	p. 174
The Person of Christ	p. 178
God and Humanity in Communion: The Spirit and the Nature of Faith	p. 183
The Person of the Holy Spirit	p. 188
Participation in God	p. 201
Introduction	p. 201
Revelation and Communion	p. 203
God the Spirit: Participation and Public Personality	p. 204
Inspiration and Trinitarian Pneumatology	p. 209
Spirit of Life, Spirit of Truth	p. 213
Conclusion	p. 215
Bibliography	p. 217
Index of Names	p. 225
Subject Index	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.