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Gregory Baum on the Revelatory Work of the Holy Spirit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Abstract
This article explores Gregory Baum's notion of how the Holy Spirit leads the church to a new understanding of Jesus as the Christ. It begins by examining Baum's interpretation of the doctrinal development at Vatican II, then analyzes the innovative understanding Baum has developed based on how the Spirit works to reformulate the church's message through a process of cultural conversion. It relates Baum's theory to preceding reflection on the development of dogma, then takes up Rosemary Ruether's criticism that Baum's position deprives Scripture of its transcendence. It concludes by developing a way of relating Word and Spirit that combines Baum's openness to the spirit with Ruether's concern for the transcendence of Scripture.
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References
1 Davis, Charles, A Question of Conscience (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1967), 28, 64.Google Scholar
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54 Anne Carr argues that the feminist drive for emancipation forms a Spirit-created Word which demands a reform in Christian praxis precisely on the basis of the horizon of expectation established by “the enduring mystery of Christ” (Carr, Anne, Transforming Grace: Christian Tradition and Women's Experience San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988], 25, 38Google Scholar). The revelation of God in Jesus forms a “transcendent horizon” which enables the church to overcome its teachings when they are challenged by this Spirit created Word in history (Ibid., 178). Elizabeth Johnson sees feminist concerns interacting with “the liberating impulse of the gospel” to demand the revision of anthropocentric understandings of the Gospel (Johnson, Elizabeth, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse [New York: Crossroad, 1993], 154, 78–79Google Scholar).
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56 According to Jürgen Moltmann, the identity of Christian faith lies in “that moment of hope inherent in it,” which “enters, actualizing itself, into every new situation and, at the same time, still reaches out beyond every situation” (Moltmann, Jürgen, Hope and Planning[London: SCM Press, 1971], 87Google Scholar). Baum's analysis traces how the Spirit enables this to happen.
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