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Pneumatology and process theology

  • H. F. Woodhouse
Extract

This article attempts to take some ideas from process theology which may enlighten and help us to develop a deeper understanding of pneumatology. Pneumatology is the theological area where fresh thinking and new presentation is most justified because, as Berdyaev remarked, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the most undeveloped part of Christian doctrine. It may be impossible to provide an exact precise formulation. We might frame ‘an open-ended’ doctrine, yet there is need to clarify our beliefs and our knowledge of the operation of the Spirit more fully. It has been remarked that even back in the New Testament St. Paul put forward ‘ideas which do not fully harmonise’. Gregory of Nazianzus, writing in the fifth century, said that people were very confused about the Spirit. He also said we live in an age of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Can ‘process theology’ help?

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page 383 note 1 Richardson, C. C., The Doctrine of the Trinity (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1958), p. 51.

page 384 note 1 Whitehead's ‘Philosophy of Orginism’, 2nd ed., 1966 (Macmillan).

page 384 note 2 Macmillan 1935, reprint, p. 259.

page 384 note 3 Hartshorne, C., The Divine Relativity (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, U.S.A. 1948), p. 1.

page 385 note 1 C. Hartshorne, op. cit. passim, e.g. pp. 43, 52, 57 and 82f. Hamilton, , The Living God (Hodder and Stoughton, 1967), p. 31. St. John 3.16.

page 385 note 2 Overmann, R. H., Evolution and the Christian Doctrine of Creation (Westminister Press, 1967), p. 277.

page 385 note 3 On this see Ferré, N., The Universal Word (Westminster Press, U.S.A., 1969), especially ch. 5; Come, A., Human Spirit and Holy Spirit (Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1959).

page 385 note 4 op. cit., p. 259.

page 386 note 1 See Principles of Systematic Theology (S.C.M., 1966) passim.

page 386 note 2 e.g. 1 Cor. 12.31 and Gal. 5.22.

page 386 note 3 e.g. Rom. 8 passim and Gal. 5.22ff.

page 386 note 4 Whitehead, , Process and Reality (Harper, New York, 1957), pp. 520, 525.

page 386 note 5 Acts 7.51; Eph. 4.30; Thess. 5.19.

page 386 note 6 See Quick, O. C., Doctrines of the Creed (1954 impression), pp. 122ff and 184ff.

page 387 note 1 Williams, D. D., The Spirit and the Forms of Love (Nisbet, 1968), e.g. pp. 138 and 141.

page 387 note 2 Robinson, Wheeler, The Christian Experience of the Holy Spirit (Nisbet, 1940, reissue), p. 87.

page 387 note 3 Rust, E. C., Evolutionary Philosophies and Contemporary Theology (Westminster Press, 1969), p. 224.

page 387 note 4 e.g. Luke 9.57 ff; Gal. 3–5 passim; Rom. 8.1–16 passim.

page 387 note 5 Oman, J., Grace and Personality (4th ed., 1931), passim.

page 387 note 6 See his Grace and Personality.

page 388 note 1 Quoted P. N. Hamilton, op. cit., p. 235, and see ch. 3 passim.

page 388 note 2 See The Divine Relativity, passim.

page 388 note 3 op. cit., chs. 5 and 6.

page 389 note 1 Rom. 8.23ff.

page 389 note 2 Hartshorne, , The Divine Relativity, pp. 48 and 53.

page 390 note 1 E. C. Rust, op. cit., p. 220.

page 391 note 1 Exod. 31.3 and Isa. 45.17.

page 391 note 2 Isa. 28.23 and Num. 11.

page 391 note 3 Institutes, 2.2.15.

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Scottish Journal of Theology
  • ISSN: 0036-9306
  • EISSN: 1475-3065
  • URL: /core/journals/scottish-journal-of-theology
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