The Passing of Greatness

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 1 January 2014 2 Comments
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Question

I was brought up Pentecostal. Of course, my church believes in "speaking in tongues." Of course, I hear that an interpreter must be present. Please tell me your thoughts on your "interpretation" of what the "holy spirit" means to you. My thoughts of the holy spirit means the spirit of humanity and anything that takes away that "holy" spirit of life, no matter what that life is to me is considered not "god-infused."

Answer

Dear Brian,

I wish doing theology in the public arena was as easy as you suggest. You want me to interpret what you call the Holy Spirit in a brief question and answer format. You have stated your own conclusion, formed quite obviously out of both your early Pentecostal experience and your later revision of and perhaps even revulsion at that earlier concept. You have stated a human limit on the Holy Spirit. It is for you "The Spirit of Humanity" and that anything that takes away or diminishes that humanity is not to be considered "God-infused," though I get the idea that you actively think such a removal would be demonic. You assume definitions of God, which are not spoken, so that I can only surmise what they are. You appear ready to defend your conclusion and you ask me to state my opinion so that it might contend with yours. The subject of the Holy Spirit or even what you call the human spirit does not lend itself to the debate format.

Let me pose some questions for your consideration: Is there a difference between the human and the divine? Or is the divine simply the depth dimension of the human, something into which the human enters at the fullness of humanity? Does the presence of the Holy Spirit alter or challenge the human spirit? Do our convictions about God make us more religious or more holy, even more human?

The primary meaning of Spirit, or Holy Spirit, in the Bible is life-giver. In the Christian creeds, we refer to the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost as “The Lord and Giver of life.” The Fourth Gospel spells out the purpose of Jesus as being that of giving to all people the gift of abundant life. So I don’t oppose human spirit with holy spirit, but I see them as two aspects of the same thing. This means that when a person is God-infused, they are simply more deeply and fully human.

I hope this brief analysis will move the discussion forward for you.

John Shelby Spong

 

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