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The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit: Trinitarian Pneumatology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.’ This is an ancient form of benediction very generally used in the Christian church. I should like to take it up here, asking what is meant by ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’? Does the divine Spirit enter into community with us human beings? Does he admit us into his ‘community’ with the Father and the Son? Why does the benediction not talk about divine sovereignty and absolute human dependence in connection with the Holy Spirit? Why does it so emphatically use the word ‘fellowship’ instead?
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1984
References
page 287 note 1 Moltmann, J., The Trinity and the Kingdom of God, trans. Kohl, Margarel (London: SCM Press; New York: Harper & Row, 1981). I am here developing further some ideas put forward there.Google Scholar
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page 293 note 6 This discussion is very well described in Krusche, W., Das Wirken des Heiligen Geistes nach Calvin (Göttingen, 1957), pp. 33ff.Google Scholar
page 292 note 7 Quoted in Krusche, op. cit., p. 41.
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page 293 note 10 On the concept of the charismatic church cf. Eichholz, G., ‘Charismatische Gemeinde’ ThEx 77 (1959)Google Scholar; Moltmann, J., The Church in the Power of the Spirit, trans. Kohl, Margaret (London: SCM Press; New York: Harper & Row, 1975)Google Scholar. In eucumenical discussions it is always only the mutual recognition of ministries which is talked about as condition for the church's unity. Why is the fellowship of the congregations not also brought into the discussion as a condition for unity?
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