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Susan
Smith, RNDM
There is an emerging trend in some contemporary Church documents and missiological writings to emphasize the agency of the Spirit in mission. Pope John Paul II in his 1990 Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio refers to the Holy Spirit as "the principal agent of mission" (n. 30). There are at least three reasons for this emergence of a renewed interest in the Spirit and mission. First, there is a growing awareness and appreciation that the work of the Spirit has priority in time and place over and beyond any ecclesial activity. The mission of the Spirit precedes the mission of the church. Because the Holy Spirit is present in all creation, in all cultures, this can encourage a movement toward dialogue as a preferred way of being missionary. To enter into dialogue with another suggests that both have something important to bring to the conversation. It implies that neither party has a monopoly of the truth. This permits movement beyond a monologic model that emphasizes the proclamation of the word but that both have a partial truth that they wish to share with the other. To accent dialogue allows for a critique of an ecclesiocentrism that either understands mission as proclamation leading to Church expansion and growth, or a Christocentrism that involves an uncritical espousal of the unique salvation offered through Christ. Second, the theology of the Spirit of some Christian feminists can encourage a search for alternative approaches to mission that are free from androcentric biases. American theologian Elizabeth Johnson, as we shall see later, offers a theology of the Spirit that has important implications for missiology (Johnson 1992). English feminist theologian Anna Primavesi attempts to articulate a more inclusive theology of God that emphasizes God’s immanence. She writes: "the Spirit of God is not only the crown of the world tree, but also its root. It fills both daughters and sons of God with power and the earth with knowledge of divine" (Primavesi 1991:140). Third, concern about the environment, and the criticism that Christianity is partly responsible for today’s environmental degradation has alerted Christians to identify theological positions that enable them to address contemporary environmental issues. To appreciate the immanence of the Spirit in creation can provide a theological rationale for Christians to involve themselves in care of creation. Some Contemporary Theological Writing on the Holy Spirit and Mission A number of theologians, concerned to advance our understanding of the relationship between the Spirit and mission, hone our understanding of the Spirit as the principal agent of mission. In particular, I wish to examine the approaches to pneumatology of Elizabeth Johnson, Stephen Bevans, Robert Schreiter, Jacques Dupuis, Leonardo Boff, José Comblin, and Jürgen Moltmann, all of whose theological explorations allow us to appreciate some of the missiological implications of understanding the Spirit as the "principal agent of mission". Johnson’s emphasis on God’s Spirit immanent in all creation opens up possibilities regarding our understanding of the universal presence of the Spirit, while her exposure of the androcentric nature of much traditional theology as a significant cause of oppression, is important. Bevans and Schreiter explore the need for a theology of mission that can respond adequately to some of the missiological questions raised in the contemporary Church, particularly those relating to interreligious dialogue. Dupuis is concerned about culturally appropriate and theologically sensitive ways of approaching interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism. Comblin and Boff engage in retrieving the biblical understanding of the Spirit active in human history on behalf of the poor. Moltmann believes that a pneumatology that directs attention toward the Spirit present in creation can offer a theological foundation for developing eco-theologies. Elizabeth Johnson’s Pneumatology and Its Possibilities for New Missiological Understandings Johnson suggests that to use pneumatological categories is a privileged way of understanding God’s presence in the world, because our first experience of God is that of the Spirit. The universal reality of the Spirit’s presence reaches into all creation. There are three ways through which we can experience the Spirit’s presence in creation: first, the Spirit immanent in nature; second, the Spirit’s absence and presence in relationships; and, third, the Spirit’s absence and presence in societal systems and structures. I will now examine these three dimensions of the Spirit’s presence in more detail. The Spirit Immanent and Present in Nature Johnson’s most significant work to date concerning the Spirit and creation is Women, Earth and Creator Spirit. Here she draws attention to the presence of the Spirit in nature (Johnson 1993). This presence is important for two reasons. First, it alerts us to the creative agency of the Spirit (see Gn l:l; Wis 7:22 and 8:1), allowing us to understand the revelatory capacity of nature (see Rom 1:20). Second, the presence of God’s Spirit in creation is an invitation to us to "extend moral consideration to species beyond our own, and moral standing to ecological systems as a whole" (Johnson 1992: 66-67). Johnson’s ecological theology is helpful for those seeking to identify the parameters of an environmental ethic. She relies on a liberationist analysis to critique patterns of domination and exploitation to uncover the causal nature of the depletion of natural resources. This depletion constitutes a critical justice problem, particularly for those who are already economically diminished. Her analysis suggests that patriarchal culture permits nature, like women, to become the "other", to be exploited, tamed and controlled by males. As Johnson observes: "Women, whose bodies mediate physical existence to humanity thus become symbolically the oldest archetype of the connection between social domination and the dominion of nature" (Johnson 1993:13), for both nature and women are vulnerable to patriarchal patterns of domination. Therefore women, as victims of patriarchal culture, can be significant protagonists on behalf of exploited nature, also the victim of patriarchal domination. But a critique of patriarchal culture, and the oppression of women and nature that it tolerates, is insufficient to resolve problems of exploitation and domination. However, if we can appreciate the Spirit as the principle of inclusivity and mutuality, drawing us into non-exploitative relationships with Creation, then we have identified one important way of redeeming environmental abuse. Acceptance of a theological position that emphasizes the immanence of the Spirit in all creation, challenges humankind to shift from an anthropocentric view of the world to an eco-centric view, grounded in belief in the presence of the Spirit in creation. This presence makes it difficult to hold fast to a position that understands creation as hierarchically ordered, for a hierarchical order often legitimates exploitation and domination of those considered to be inferior in the order of creation. The Spirit of the transcendent God, immanent in all creation, should encourage in the human person a respectful love for creation that goes far beyond appreciating its therapeutic values for humankind. It invites us to acknowledge that humankind is but one expression of God’s creative power, united to all other expressions of God’s creativity. An awareness of this religious kinship should encourage women and men to cherish and seek "intelligently to preserve bio-diversity, for when a species becomes extinct we have lost a manifestation of the goodness of God" (ibid.: 39). Overtaken by a divine passion for liberation, women and men denounce what hides the Spirit. They readily and creatively engage in alerting others to the presence of God’s Spirit within all creation. They believe that the truth of this kinship must inform human attitudes and behaviour toward creation, in this way enabling them to reframe their relationship to creation, conscious of their common origins and their common goal of reconciliation in the eschaton (see Eph 1:13-14). Johnson identifies three possible ways that humankind can relate to creation, each of which should provoke reflection and action. First, Johnson describes the kingship model based on hierarchical dualism, which understands humankind as separate from and superior to the rest of creation. This model legitimates human exploitation of the earth’s resources. It is this model that has been so detrimental for creation particularly in the industrialized sectors of the world. A second model is the stewardship model, which has the potential to modify radically the kingship model. However, it is still predicated on an anthropocentric understanding, finding its theological justification in Gn 1-2. It still tolerates a hierarchical structure in which humans are to be stewards of the earth’s resources rather than exploiters. Despite its anthropocentric character, the stewardship model should not be dismissed. An important missionary task could be to encourage society’s economic and political institutions to allow the stewardship model to inform their decision-making. A third model, the kinship model, recognizes the organic unity between humankind and nature, and does not postulate different ontological levels within the order of creation. Destruction of any particular species by humankind has profound influences on the rest of creation given the interconnectedness of all creation. This is a far more radical option. While it is the goal toward which human beings should aspire, it would involve significant theological and cultural shifts. But if some Christians were to make such "an option for creation", it would have a certain witness value for the wider community (ibid.: 29-40). The Spirit is Present in Personal and Interpersonal Relations A privileged revelation of the Spirit occurs in the love of human persons for each other. The wish to reach out to another in love is an experience of transcendence that can alert us to the experience of the source of all love. To experience the love of another is life-giving for both the giver and recipient. Johnson writes: "We seek and are found by the Spirit in the person-creating give and take of loving relationships, in each fresh, particular discovery of the other’s beauty in the strength of ongoing fidelity" (Johnson 1992:125). In the same way, the absence of that love in human life is an experience of the absence of God’s Spirit. Such painful absences are best resolved by waiting for the movement of the compassionate Spirit urging us to action despite the darkness and ambiguity of the situations in which we may find ourselves. Painful experiences of absence "can motivate critical resistance to evil; the willingness to utter the prophetic word" (Johnson 1992:126). It is such experiences that can motivate us to be concerned about unjust social structures. The Presence and Absence of the Spirit Are Experienced in Social Structures The Spirit is experienced as present when such structures serve human love through the birthing and nurturing of systems which ensure justice for all, particularly for those marginalized by political and economic élites. The absence of God’s Spirit is experienced most acutely when social structures are dehumanizing, when difference becomes a reason for discrimination, not for celebration. Johnson believes that those who seek to subvert racist, sexist, economic and militaristic structures that operate in favour of a privileged few are signs of the Spirit at work in the world. The Importance of a New Language for Discourse about the Presence of the Spirit To appreciate the liberating agency of the Spirit in creation requires a non-androcentric Spirit-language that "presses a strong critique against traditional speech about God" (ibid.:18). Traditional God-talk is oppressive for women because its emphasis on the centrality of God imaged as male has been damaging for women and for creation. Christian theology, influenced by Greek philosophy, has tolerated a dualism that legitimates the domination of women and the exploitation of nature. This is why there is a need to unmask patriarchal language about God that legitimates a patriarchal culture that excludes women and exploits nature. Attempts, therefore, to redress androcentric biases in theological language offer an important missionary focus to those who wish to liberate sectors of human society from the restrictions that patriarchal ideology imposes on them. Johnson believes "Christian feminist liberation theology is reflection on religious mystery from a stance which makes an a priori option for the human flourishing of women" (ibid.: 17). The goal of this option is not to encourage a reverse sexism whereby women become the dominant group. "Instead the goal is the flourishing of all beings in their uniqueness and interrelation — both sexes, all races and social groups, all creatures in the universe" (ibid.:32). Patricia Fox notes that Johnson’s task is to "retrieve the symbol of God as a God of intrinsic relationality and communion" (Fox 1994:283). A retrieved Spirit-language that understands the Spirit as God’s salvific presence in creation can chart a way out of the impasse that androcentric theologies have caused for women and creation. Johnson’s pneumatology invites us to understand and appreciate the Spirit of God dwelling among us, immanent in all creation, awakening us to reach out for kinship with all that is marginalized, and thereby welcoming the other into the dance of life. This happens because the Spirit is the source of relationality, a "relationality [which] is intrinsic to her very being as love, gift and friend both to the world and within the holy mystery of God" (Johnson 1992:148). Johnson’s emphasis on understanding the Spirit as the principle of relationality requires humankind to come to grips with the oppression of women, the reality of the poor and with environmental degradation, for the presence of the Spirit urges humankind to let justice reign down on the whole earth. Johnson’s contribution to those seeking to appreciate the agency of the Spirit in mission is significant. However, the contemporary reader, while acknowledging Johnson’s contribution, does need to keep in mind the following provisos. First, her work is a work in process,1 and the reader needs to be aware of the provisional nature of work in process. Second, Johnson is perhaps somewhat romantic in her understanding of creation. Certainly she realizes and accepts the apparent disarray of creation, but she seems to suggest that the presence of the Spirit in creation endows nature with a benevolence that perhaps borders on a certain unfounded optimism. In other words, Johnson has yet to address in a systematic way humankind’s experiential knowledge and awareness of the reality of suffering in creation, and what this says about the Spirit’s presence in creation. Stephen Bevans and a Missionary Theology of the Holy Spirit The importance of Johnson’s pneumatology is recognized and developed by Catholic missiologist Stephen Bevans, who endorses Johnson’s perception of the universal presence of the Spirit. In his reflections on the Spirit’s agency in mission, he makes four points that are pertinent to our discussion. First, he explores the shape of a missionary theology of the Holy Spirit (Bevans 1998a:102-105), which could profoundly affect the way in which Christians understand their relationship with the world and with other religions. Bevans invites us to think of God as transcending immanence, a concept that understands God’s Spirit as involved in the world and in its history. Or, as Bevans defines it, "[t]he Spirit is God so involved in the world (immanence) that we need constantly to be amazed and challenged by God’s presence (transcendence)" (ibid.:105). It is this transcending immanence in which all mission should be grounded. Bevans agrees with Johnson that there is no part of creation that is untouched by the presence of God’s Spirit. This awareness of the universality of the Spirit’s presence, a presence that extends to cultures and peoples formerly thought to be pagan and in need of salvation ought to encourage a commitment to inculturation and interreligious dialogue rooted in the belief of the presence of the Spirit in the other. Second, support for this position is found in certain synoptic texts (see Mk 1:10, 12; Mt 1:18; 4:1; Lk 1:35; 2:25-26; 4:1,14) that point to the Spirit’s prior agency in mission, active in the world prior to the public ministry of the historical Jesus. Bevans suggests that we need to work from the parameters of a Christology that understands Jesus as "the face of the Spirit; in his concreteness we encounter mystery, but we never fully grasp it" (ibid.:104). Because the mission of God through the Spirit enjoys chronological priority over the mission of the historical Jesus, we diminish that truth when we concentrate on the mission of the historical Jesus as the privileged and foundational entry point for subsequent missionary endeavours. Such a narrow Christocentrism may foster a Christology that does not augur well for interreligious dialogue grounded in an understanding of Spirit whose presence is universal. It can ensnare the missionary into prioritizing proclamation over other forms of missionary endeavour. For example, an emphasis on Christology that is concerned primarily with an explanation of the Christ event in rational and dogmatic categories suggests one is able to control the message. Not that a pneumatological emphasis should minimize the importance of Christology. The Christology that is now required urges us to understand Jesus as the "face of the Spirit" (ibid.:104), "the human concretization of that Spirit in human history, the one who gave God’s ‘anonymous’ presence a human face" (Bevans 1998b:108). Third, Bevans is aware that his affirmation of the Spirit as the principal, prior and universal agent of mission, may suggest a dichotomy between the work of the Spirit and the work of Jesus. He rejects such a dichotomy, and refers to Jesuit theologian Frederick Crowe’s explanation of the relationship between the Spirit and Jesus. Crowe asks if perhaps we need to reverse the order in which we commonly think of the Son and Spirit in the world: Commonly we think of God first sending the Son, and of the Spirit being sent in that context, to bring to completion the work of the Son. On the contrary, God first sent the Spirit, and then sent the Son in the context of the Spirit’s mission, to bring to completion — perhaps not precisely the work of the Spirit, but the work of God conceived as one work to be executed in two steps of the twofold mission of first the Spirit and then the Son (Crowe 1985:8). To emphasize God’s first sending of the Spirit does not mean subverting the Trinitarian foundations of Christianity. If we think of the mission of the Spirit as invisible, while the mission of the Son is revealed to humankind in a privileged moment in human history, in the visible mission of Jesus of Nazareth, the relationship of the Spirit to the Son is easier to grasp. We need to acknowledge that what is visible "must be first in the cognitional order of discovery" (ibid.:11). If we are to think ontologically rather than cognitionally, then we may reverse that order, thereby acknowledging the universal and prior mission of the Spirit. At the beginning of time, God gifted creation with the Spirit, and in the fullness of time, God gifted creation with the Son, sent "not in opposition, but in unity, not in subordination, but in complementarity" (ibid.:11). In this perspective, both Spirit and Son continue the work of God, as do those in whom the Spirit of God dwells. The time between Easter and the end-time is indeed the time of the Spirit whose presence ensures that individuals and communities remain faithfully creative to the mission of God. Crowe’s perspective is helpful because it dismisses the possibility of a dichotomy between the work of the Spirit and the work of Jesus. The mystery of the Spirit’s universal presence in the world and the gift of the Spirit from the Risen Jesus to his disciples oblige us to hold two seemingly contradictory positions. On the one hand "Christ sent the Holy Spirit from the Father" (Ad gentes, n. 4), and on the other, "the Holy Spirit was already at work in the world before Christ was glorified" (ibid.). What must never be overlooked is that there is one divine economy, in which the functions of the Spirit and Son are complementary. The Incarnation, at the centre of salvation history, is actualized in history through the action of the Holy Spirit (see Lk 1:35; Mt 1:18). Fourth, accepting the Spirit as transcending immanence has implications for the Church’s exercise of mission. It suggests that the Church is one instrument through which the Spirit acts in creation, rather than the Spirit being given to the Church for the sake of the Church’s mission. The disciple is to be "the ‘face’ of God’s Holy Mystery in history and to give concrete shape and focus to the creative, life-giving, challenging, renewing, uniting power of the Spirit that has always been loose in the world" (Bevans 1998a:103). This implies that the Church has a privileged role, but not a solo role, in the exercise of the mission. In this perspective, the Church "is rather to point beyond itself to be a community that preaches, serves and witnesses to the Reign of God" (Bevans and Schroeder 1999:200). As Bevans writes, "thinking missiologically about the Holy Spirit can turn the Church inside out, perhaps making it more responsive to where God is really leading it in today’s world"(Bevans 1998a:105). Robert Schreiter: Trinity and Mission Today Catholic theologian Robert Schreiter is another whose theology advances discourse and understanding about the Spirit’s agency in God’s mission (Schreiter, 1990). He asks how God is present in other religions and how salvation can occur without the explicit mediation of Christ. There are Christian missionaries who affirm that knowledge of and belief in the salvific mediation of Christ are essential aspects of mission work. However, such an explicitly Christocentric approach can run the risk of collapsing into christomonism.2 Concern about the inappropriateness of Christocentric and christomonistic approaches can generate a reaction in the form of a theocentric approach to mission, which argues that salvation is possible by a name other than that of Christ, because all religious traditions are talking about the one reality, though in different names. Some hold that such a position may be more conducive to inter-religious dialogue.3 However, caution should be exercised before setting aside a Christocentric approach in favour of a "theocentric" one, given the New Testament’s emphasis on the primacy of Jesus’ role in God’s mission (see Acts 4:12). A perceived major difficulty with Christocentrism, however, is that it fails to explore satisfactorily the question of how God might be working in other religious traditions. One way of addressing the problem is to revisit and reframe traditional Western articulations of the trinitarian origins of mission in order to appreciate better the agency of the Spirit. The Latin insistence that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son accounts for the strong Christocentrism characteristic of Western missionary practice and this has as its corollary an under-developed theology of the Spirit. The traditional Western reliance on the "high" Pauline and Johannine Christologies has tended to encourage an excessively Christocentric approach to mission. On the other hand, the "lower" christologies of the synoptic Gospels allow us to understand the Spirit as empowering Jesus for his mission (see Lk 1:35; 3:21; 4:1; 4:18-19). An approach to mission that highlights the role of the Spirit could serve "as a safeguard to refrain from making our solus Christus a replacement for a [pre-Vatican II] sola ecclesia" (ibid.:435). The contemporary shift toward understanding Jesus as empowered by the Spirit for mission does not mean sacrificing Christology, or espousing a theocentrism that requires a non-normative Christology. It means reclaiming the trinitarian origin of mission, and appreciating that a greater emphasis on the agency of the three persons of the economic Trinity can lead to a better understanding of the work of the Spirit in history. Such twentieth century trinitarian developments are important for mission studies for three reasons. First, the emphasis on the economic Trinity and the particular role of the Spirit invites us to "reshape our understanding of the missio dei, which is at the heart of so many mission theologies" (Schreiter 1996:89). Second, the emphasis on relationality, on personhood, encourages giving a higher profile to the Spirit in conversations on mission. If the Holy Spirit is given more of a profile as a person, and not simply understood as the Spirit of the Risen Jesus, then it is easier to understand the Spirit as "a presence of God’s saving grace in cultures and religions beyond Christianity" (ibid.). Such belief in the Spirit can affect our more traditional understandings of mission. Third, the movement in Western theology to emphasize relationality in the immanent and economic Trinity means that we might move from "a monist metaphysics to a more pluralist one. This would have tremendous implications for Christian self-understanding and therefore for Christian understanding of mission" (ibid.). A strong Christocentric bias that encourages christomonism and ties the Spirit so closely to the Son "that all of the Father’s activity is manifested through the Son" (Schreiter 1990:434) would be avoided. This would allow us to more readily accept the Spirit as the principal agent of mission. It still would mean that the entry point into contemporary missiological discourse is the Trinity, but if the relationality of the Trinity were emphasized rather than a "monist metaphysics" then the goal of mission can be more properly understood as the building of relationships that in some measure reflect trinitarian relationships in their emphasis on inclusivity, mutuality and participation, thereby complementing redemption and Church growth as the only entry points into contemporary discussions on mission. Jacques Dupuis: Religious Pluralism and Mission Belgian theologian Jacques Dupuis’ ministry as an academic theologian in Asia and in Europe has led him to try and identify theological bases that are helpful for those involved in interreligious dialogue and in understanding religious pluralism. Given the unique significance of Jesus in God’s salvific plan, how are we to understand that salvation is mediated through other religious traditions? Perhaps, he proposes, through emphasizing that the universal action of the Spirit occurs before, during and after the Christ event (Dupuis, 1999). Therefore, it is important to identify the parameters of a missionary model that is an alternative to a Christocentric model. Though the Catholic Church affirms the salvific presence of the Spirit outside the "visible confines of the Mystical Body" (Redemptor Hominis, n. 6), Dupuis believes that the salvific presence of the Holy Spirit in other religious traditions is not accorded the significance it warrants. These traditions are salvific because the Holy Spirit is present and active "in members of other religions, and in the religious traditions themselves" (Dupuis 1999:28). But an acceptance that the "universal action of the Spirit in human history and in the world surpasses the Christ event" (ibid.:27), and challenges the contemporary theologian to hold in creative tension belief in the definitive revelation of the historical event of Jesus Christ and the universal and salvific action of the Spirit of God in the one divine economy. Second, this raises the question as to the appropriate entry point into interreligious dialogue. Should it be the historical particularity of Jesus, or the universal presence of the Spirit? The "historical particularly of Jesus undeniably puts limits on the Christ event" (ibid.: 28) because we understand that event through the historical particularity of Jesus. While the trans-historical Christ can never be separated from the historical Jesus, the manner in which the historical Jesus and the Christ-event have been proclaimed has not always respected the religious sensibilities of others. Because the Spirit is not located historically in the same way as Jesus, the universal presence of the Spirit may offer a more sensitive entry point into interreligious dialogue. Dupuis writes that the work of the Spirit and the work of the Son represent different but not competing aspects of the one mission of God. "The Word and the Spirit — the "two hands of God" (Irenaeus) — are joined by their universal action to endow with truth and grace the religious life of human beings, and to mark with ‘salutary values’ the religious traditions to which these individuals belong" (ibid.: 30). Dupuis believes that a trinitarian theology which asserts that the work of the Spirit and the Logos cannot be restricted to the historical ministry of Jesus and the Church offers an alternative to exclusivist, pluralist and inclusivist positions. It implies that Hindus and Buddhists be acknowledged as "covenant peoples [who] deserve to be called ‘peoples of God"’ (Dupuis 1997:226), guided and directed by the Spirit. Christians should remember that though the revelation of Jesus is privileged over other revelations of God’s salvific actions in history and in creation, it does not exhaust the revelation of the Spirit and the Logos, for "the religious traditions of the world convey different insights into the mystery of Ultimate Reality" (ibid.: 279). In interreligious dialogue the Spirit is gifted to both parties even if only the Christian can articulate the mystery of this gift in trinitarian categories. In dialogue, both parties can discover previously unrecognized movements of the Spirit that make community and communion possible. Dupuis’ major contribution is in providing a trinitarian framework for Christian dialogue with the great world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam. He pays little attention to indigenous religions, though by extension his belief that the Spirit and the Logos are implicitly active in world religions assumes that they are likewise active in indigenous religions. Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism is indeed a masterly summation of contemporary Catholic thought on religious pluralism grounded in traditional trinitarian doctrine. José Comblin: The Spirit and Liberation Belgian liberation theologian José Comblin’s particular contribution to the present investigation is to explore the relationship between the Spirit and mission understood as liberation. He is one of the few writing theologically on God’s Spirit, liberation, and work for justice as essential aspects of mission.4 Comblin writes: Latin American theology, we must acknowledge, has not developed a specific theology of the Holy Spirit. Until now, theology on our continent has been in the debt of the theology of the Latin Church, which, instead of developing a theology of the Holy Spirit, has only repeated what it has received from the patristic era. So far, Latin American theology — like all Latin tradition theology, both Protestant and Catholic — operates under the sign of a "christomonism" (Comblin 1993:146). One helpful way of moving beyond christomonism in mission is to emphasize the role of the Holy Spirit in the work of liberation, a role that historically has been overlooked because the Spirit’s role is frequently anonymous, though always present, in those historical actions of the poor in their search for liberation. Throughout history, the Holy Spirit has been active in history on behalf of the poor. Within the Judaeo-Christian tradition, people have been challenged by the problem of poverty. Throughout history, a variety of responses to the problem of poverty and its dehumanizing effects are discernible: the denunciations of the Old Testament prophets, the teachings of Jesus and the first Christian communities, the inheritors of that prophetic tradition, the voluntary poverty embraced by various religious movements, almsgiving and charitable works carried out on behalf of the poor. Such responses to the reality of poverty reflect the movement of the Spirit in the hearts and minds of humankind. Today that same Spirit calls people to struggle against injustices that marginalize people. The Spirit encourages new forms of community to bring "life and leads history to life on this earth ... for the sake of transformation of the world, through the liberation of the poor and oppressed" (Comblin 1989:76). It is the Spirit’s creative and energizing power, which can motivate communities of the poor to become agents of their own freedom, and to work toward a renewed and just society. That is why Comblin insists that in "today’s liberation movements among the peoples, the Spirit of God is at work" (Comblin 1993:155). He writes that it is the Spirit: who gathers the poor together so as to make them a new people who challenge all the powers of the earth. The Spirit is the strength of the people of the poor, the strength of those who are weak…. The church is this people of the poor crying out for its liberation and rising up against oppressing powers (Comblin 1989:115). Comblin suggests that the Church is "profoundly different from human societies and profoundly human" (ibid.: 116). It is different from other human institutions because it proceeds from the Spirit who is present in all its members empowering them to transform cultures and societies that do not reflect God’s justice and love. It is likewise profoundly human precisely because the Spirit’s prophetic action in society is mediated through those who respond to the Spirit’s movements. Comblin is opposed to reducing the Spirit "to the sphere of interiority [for this] is to project upon the Christian scriptures a restriction of meaning that will later appear in the established church" (Comblin 1993:154). Because the Church is "profoundly human", it is "totally historical; it comes from history and changes history" (Comblin 1989:119). Within the context of Latin America, liberation theology suggests that the task of changing and transforming history belongs to the poor, particularly those who are gathered in the Basic Christian Communities. Yet, it is not their task alone. It is a task that belongs to other local Churches, and the Churches of the non-poor have a particularly important role in conscientizing the societies in which they live concerning the structural nature of the deprivation experienced by so many. Comblin’s theology of the Spirit and mission provides the first systematic treatment of the Holy Spirit from a liberation perspective and is important because it seeks to name the action of the Spirit in the lives of the poor, in the history of oppressed peoples. However, it could be argued Comblin’s ecclesiology invalidates his argument concerning the universal presence of the Spirit for he seems to suggest that the Church differs from society precisely because it proceeds from the Spirit (ibid.:118-120). Christians believe that it was the action of the Spirit that brought the Church into being at the first Pentecost, but that is different from asserting that the Church is different from society because of the presence of the Spirit. Leonardo Boff and the Action of the Holy Spirit in History Brazilian Leonardo Boff is another liberation theologian who explores the action of the Holy Spirit in history (see Boff 1988:189-212; 1993:77; 1991:6). He is concerned about a pneumatology that restricts the Spirit’s work to an inner quest in the individual. He writes: There is a religion of God the Holy Spirit, found particularly among charismatic groups, whether in popular milieus or among the social elite. Its hallmarks are enthusiasm, spiritual creativity, and respect for the intimate meaning found by each individual in an inner quest. In this experience, valid as it is in itself, interiority prevails to the detriment of the historical dimension and to the neglect of a crucial concern for the impoverished and their concrete, integral liberation (Boff 1993:77). To counteract reductionist understandings of the role of the Spirit, Boff identifies characteristics of the Spirit he believes are important for theologians seeking to develop a liberation pneumatology. First, the Spirit is a renewing energy that empowers one for the sake of the Reign of God (Boff 1988:192). Both the Old Testament and the New Testament attribute creative powers to the Spirit (see Gn 1:2; Lk 1:35; Mt 1:18-20; Acts 2:1-4). Creativity is different from evolution, and so when we talk of the Spirit as a creative force, this suggests a disjunction with what has gone before. The presence of the Spirit presents a challenge to institutions for it looks to the possibility of radical change to those institutions, including the Church, that can regard themselves as finished realities. Second, "the Spirit in the New Testament is the memory of Jesus’ deeds and words" (Boff 1988:193). The New Testament reveals Jesus as the definitive revelation of the Father through his life, death and resurrection. In his ministry as servant and prophet, Jesus is indeed the way for others to follow. It is through the Spirit that such discipleship is possible, and keeps the dangerous memory of Jesus alive, as a sign of hope for the poor and marginalized. Third, "the Spirit’s mission is to liberate from the oppressions brought into being by our sinful state" (ibid.:194). In the context of liberation theology, these oppressions are the historical conditions of political, economic, racist and gender discrimination. Paul teaches that the Spirit empowered human beings to free themselves from the confines of legalism (see Gal 4:6-7). Today, the same Spirit continues to empower humankind to free itself from oppressive structures. Fourth, the Spirit is "the principle that creates differences and communion" (Boff 1988:194). The Spirit’s presence in the believing community is manifested in the different ministries and gifts of a particular community, of a particular local Church, ministries and gifts that are used for the sake of the reign of God. To the extent that such ministries and gifts are there for the building up of the reign of God, they are signs of the Spirit at work in the community. Therefore the Spirit as the principle of living transcendence, empowers human beings to transcend situations of diminishment and to reach out toward communion with one another. Fifth, it is the presence of the Spirit in all cultures and in all places that allows inculturation to occur, preventing the Gospel from reduction to a single expression. The Spirit can liberate from cultural domination that hinders the birth of an Amerindian Church. Boff concludes: "The Spirit is the divine imagination. It will not be hemmed in. It is the mobility of the church, its ongoing distillation, its dissatisfaction with itself, stimulating it to ever new efforts along the pathways of all peoples" (Boff 1991:86). Sixth, the Spirit is a Spirit of freedom for the oppressed. The Spirit is to be seen as the "Pater pauperum, ‘father of the poor’ and oppressed who suffer in captivity and who long for liberty" (ibid.:85). The Spirit, who has traditionally empowered prophets to denounce injustice, empowers contemporary Christians and Christian communities to continue that prophetic ministry. It could be argued that Comblin and Boff, in speaking of the action of the Spirit in the lives and history of the poor are simply substituting the action of the Spirit for the action of God. However, to speak of the Spirit is to be faithful to that Old Testament trajectory that understands the Spirit as the creative, salvific and prophetic presence of the transcendent God in creation. Furthermore, it is faithful to those trinitarian positions that emphasize the relational quality of the Trinity. Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of the Spirit and Care of Creation German Protestant theologian Jürgen Moltmann’s pneumatology is an important contribution to Christian conversations about care of creation (see Moltmann 1985). Moltmann recognizes that an adequate Christian theology of care for creation must take seriously the role of the Spirit. We are meant to understand the Spirit as creative, life giving, and redemptive. He writes: ... creation in the Spirit is the theological concept, which corresponds best to the ecological doctrine of creation, which we are looking for and need today. With this concept we are cutting loose the theological doctrine of creation from the age of subjectivity and mechanistic domination of the world and are leading it in the direction in which we have to look for the future of an ecological world-community (ibid.:12). Moltmann distinguishes three stages in creation: creatio originalis, creatio continua, and creatio nova (ibid.:55). Creatio originalis, or initial creation, is that divine creation which is a free act of God: the world is contingent. But this creation is not immutable or unchanging. Creatio continua is also creatio mutabilis (ibid.:207), open to history and open to change. Such change is not unfocused or non-directed, but is aimed at a creatio nova, which has as its goal "[t]he eschatological creation of the kingdom of glory, [which] finally proceeds from the vanquishing of sin and death, that is to say, the annihilating Nothingness" (ibid.:90). The purpose of this eschatological transformation is that the world can become the home of God, in which God’s presence will be experienced in a new and more direct way. In order for this to happen, it is important to de-emphasize an understanding of divine transcendence that accounts for that "ruthless conquest and exploitation of nature which fascinated Europe during this period [modernity] and found its appropriate legitimation in that ancient distinction between God and the world" (ibid.:13-14). The work of the creation belongs to the Trinity — Father, Son and Spirit. Moltmann writes: The One who sends the Son and the Spirit is the Creator — the Father. The one who gathers the world under his liberating leadership, and redeems it, is the Word of creation — the Son. The one who gives life to the world and allows it to participate in God’s eternal life is the creative Energy — the Spirit. The Father is the creating origin of creation, the Son its shaping origin, and the Spirit its life-giving origin. Creation exists in the Spirit, is moulded by the Son, and is created by the Father. It is therefore from God, through God and in God (ibid.:97-98). It is this trinitarian concept of creation that holds together the transcendence and immanence of God. In particular, the contemporary ecological crisis means Christians need to reaffirm the immanence of God’s Spirit in creation. If Christians fail to recognize the Spirit’s presence in all creation, they fail to recognize their kinship with the rest of creation, and so are likely to continue those patterns of behaviour that ignore the presence of the Spirit who sustains all creation in a holy fellowship (Moltmann 1992:9-10). Moltmann’s pneumatology means he understands the Spirit in a number of ways. First the Spirit is the creative energy and life force that permeates all creation. He writes "the Spirit is the creative energy and the vital energy of everything that lives" (Moltmann 1989:91). Second, he argues that we need to understand "every created reality in terms of energy, grasping it as the realized potentiality of the divine Spirit" (Mottmann 1985:9). Third, Moltmann, aware of the risk inherent in understanding the Spirit only as energy and potentiality, counters such a possibility by insisting on the subjectivity and divine agency of the Spirit. Fourth, Moltmann’s emphasis on the social and relational reality of the Trinity leads him to identify the Spirit’s mission as one that encourages right relationships. Just as the inner life of God is relational, communal and loving, then so too is God’s relationship to the world, seen in the activity of the Spirit who renews, energizes and reconciles, enabling all creation to realize its eschatological goal of a new creation. As Moltmann describes it: "In the gift and through the powers of the Holy Spirit a new divine presence is experienced in creation. God the Creator takes up his dwelling in his creation and makes it his home" (ibid.:96). Moltmann’s theology emphasizes that the story of humanity cannot be divorced from the rest of the creation story. Both stories originate in God, and both are oriented to God. For Moltmann, Christian hope is not about redemption from the world but redemption of the world. Are We Witnessing the Emergence of a New Missionary Paradigm? To seek to understand the Spirit as the principal agent of mission represents an important development in contemporary missiology. Our brief survey of some contemporary theological writing on the Spirit and mission suggests that there are signs of the emergence of a new missionary paradigm that may provide alternatives to ecclesiocentric and christomonistic paradigms. First, a movement towards a pneumatological paradigm requires a reassessment of those Christological perspectives that encourage a certain type of triumphalism that is inappropriate in a pluralistic world where interreligious dialogue is prioritized as an important missionary task. Christologies, which assert the unique role of Jesus Christ in salvation, may hinder dialogue developing as conversation between two equal partners. Second, an awareness of the universal presence of the Spirit invites the contemporary Christian to redraw the parameters of mission so that it is no longer restricted by those institutionally defined parameters that prioritize missio ad gentes. To suggest this is not to imply a dichotomy between the Spirit’s presence in creation and the Spirit’s presence in the Church. Rather it is to warn against a truncated and reductionist understanding of the mystery of the Spirit. There is no clear solution as to how to live with the mystery of the particularity of the Spirit present within the Church, and present in non-Christian traditions and cultures. If the presence of the Spirit is not spatially or temporally restricted, then individuals and groups can experience the mysterious presence of the Spirit in ways not always recognized or acknowledged by the Church. Third, understanding the Spirit as the principal agent of mission encourages a critique of the dominant ecclesiocentric missionary paradigm. It challenges that perspective which emphasizes the presence of the Spirit in the Church as the guarantor of its teaching or as the agent of personal conversion. Such a paradigm can pay little attention to the presence of the Spirit active in history and cultures outside of the Church. Fourth, an appreciation of the Spirit’s universal and active presence encourages an inductive approach to mission. The task of the missionary is not to bring God to those who do not have God. Rather it is to discern with others the action of the Spirit within a particular context and culture. This permits the emergence of contextual missiologies. An emphasis on culture and context as an entry point into mission can allow a more secular meaning to attach itself to traditional understandings of mission. The importance of these inductive methodologies, "based on the analysis of social conditions and the issues raised by culture" (Schreiter, 1997:ix) characteristic of liberation, feminist and creation theologies on the contemporary understanding of mission should not be under-estimated. Fifth, the universal presence of the Spirit suggests that mission can be entrusted to the local community, and not simply directed from the centre. As the Latin American experience of liberation theology suggests, a local community is well placed to identify an effective missionary praxis. This should not lead the contemporary missiologist to prioritize "localism" over "universalism". If that were to happen, local theologies shaped exclusively by the local context would run the risk of being reduced to "a crude contextualization ... simply a product of its surroundings"(Schreiter 1997:3), and just as dangerous as universalist theologies that deny the local. An awareness of the universal presence of the Spirit ought to encourage dialogue and networking between different communities. Such global networking differs from bureaucratic communication that seeks to control from the centre, for global networking respects the insights and activities of the local. This allows the local community to understand its story and to critique its praxis against the wider story. This global networking can challenge the belief that universal and authoritative significance belongs to one voice only. These global conversations can be appropriately described as "antisystemic global movements" (ibid.:16), intended to counteract the power of those centralized economic, political and religious systems that are alienating and impersonal. Pertinent examples of such global networking include the general chapters or international gatherings of Catholic religious women and men, and theological gatherings such as the IAMS assemblies. Such gatherings help facilitate global conversations, allowing for authentic crosscultural dialogue that is mutually enriching and makes possible effective networking structures. Sixth, understanding mission in pneumatological categories widens, deepens, and broadens contemporary understanding of mission. Being aware of the Spirit’s universal presence makes it possible for the contemporary missionary to move beyond institutionally set boundaries. An appreciation of the universal and salvific effect of the Spirit can reduce the divisions between believer and non-believer, between the spiritual and the material, between clerical and lay missionaries. Seventh, the pneumatological approaches to mission cited do not entail a rejection of the traditional trinitarian and Christological dimensions of mission but they are redrawn so as to prioritize the work of the Spirit in a substantial way. This movement toward understanding mission in pneumatological categories is not concerned with subverting the ontological foundations of the economy of salvation. Rather, it is concerned with plumbing the depths of what missio Dei can mean for a fractured and divisive world. Eighth, Comblin’s and Boff’s contributions to our understanding of the relationship of the Spirit to mission understood as justice is to be acknowledged. Their theological reflections suggest that the Spirit’s presence empowers the poor to seek liberation. Similarly it is the presence of the Spirit that encourages some of the non-poor Christians to denounce the inertia of institutions, challenging them to commit themselves to the cause of the poor. The Spirit invites the non-poor to make "an option for the poor" thereby allowing them to identify themselves as partners of the poor in their struggle for liberation. Ninth, it is possible to extrapolate some important implications for mission understood as care of creation from the pneumatological theologies of Johnson and Moltmann. A close relationship between Spirit and creation should contribute toward collapsing dualistic theologies that tolerate human estrangement from the rest of creation. Christianity, as the heir of classical neo-Platonism and apocalyptic Judaism, sometimes encouraged a dichotomy between nature and the Spirit that allowed for a debased view of nature. This led to understanding redemption as an inner and higher spiritual reality whereby one was redeemed from a material and sinful world. However, to recognize the salvific and active presence of the Spirit in history and in creation suggests that redemption is a this-worldly reality. A retrieval of the Spirit’s immanence in creation means that humankind will value its connectedness and kinship with the rest of creation. Tenth, to value the interdependency of all life forms links an understanding of mission as care of creation to mission as liberation and work for justice. All too often, the poor are those who live in the broken places of existence, in ecologically diminished urban and rural areas. In such environs, they experience the totality of inadequate social structures and environmentally threatened living space. Eleventh, it is important that women and men recognize that their dwelling place is also God’s. The ecclesiocentric model privileged the presence of Christ in the Church, in the Christian community, and in the case of the Catholic tradition, particularly in the Eucharist. Liberation theology invited us to recognize Christ above all in women and men diminished by the reality of poverty (see Mt 25:31-46). When we believe that the Spirit is immanent in all creation, then creation too is in fact the privileged dwelling place of God. This invalidates disparaging attitudes toward the material world. The world is God’s home, and ours, and so we have a key role in sustaining it. When we appreciate God’s Spirit as present in all creation, we more readily understand that God’s presence is not restricted to special sacred places or people, and absent from so-called profane spaces. There is a long tradition, rooted in the New Testament, of referring to the church as the body of Christ, and to our bodies as temples of the Spirit. Now we are asked to understand not only our bodies but also the world as the dwelling place of the Spirit. Twelfth, the radical significance of contemporary efforts to reframe the relationship between the Spirit and creation should not be underestimated. As recently as 1964, Gaudium et Spes taught that "[m]en and women strive to subdue (italics mine) the earth by their knowledge and labour" (n. 53). Therefore the contemporary movement toward a pneumatological theology which emphasizes the presence of the Spirit in all creation, and sees this as involving humankind in relationships of inclusivity and mutuality with all creation is not simply an academic retrieval and revisioning of traditional theology. It is also an important theological imperative for Christians committed to addressing the ecological crisis. Concluding Comments It is not possible to be more than tentative in discerning the possible emergence of a pneumatological missionary paradigm. We have already commented on the rediscovery of the presence and power of the Spirit by the Western Churches. In the Catholic Church, this was most obviously seen after Vatican II in the appearance of the charismatic renewal movement, in the various theological writings that appeared on the Spirit, in the Christian feminist impulse to move toward pneumatology as a way of redressing androcentric theologies, and more recently, in conversation about mission and the Spirit. However, the relationship between mission and Spirit raises some important issues. First, when we talk of the Spirit as the principal agent of mission in the economy of salvation, we are required to redefine our understanding of the relationship of the Spirit to the historical Jesus. Perhaps the most appropriate response is to see the historical Jesus in his exercise of mission as a privileged and unique revelation of the Spirit’s salvific presence in the world. As the missionary activity of God does not begin with the redemptive activity of Jesus, but with the activity of the Spirit at the beginning of creation, this provides a valued alternative by which to explore further the relationship of the Spirit to the historical Jesus. Second, it may be necessary to redefine our understanding of the relationship between the work of the Spirit and the work of the Word. If the first expression of mission in the economy of salvation is God’s act of creation, then as Gn 1 attests, the Spirit and the Word are active in giving expression to the plan of God. The Scriptures bear witness to the mission of the Spirit throughout history. Prophecy, freedom, liberation, and creativity seem to be the characteristics of the Spirit. The incarnation of the Word focuses our attention on the historical Jesus who gives a particular concrete expression to the mission of God. But the actions of Jesus in history acquire a cosmic significance precisely because he is the Incarnate Word indicated in the "high" Christologies of John and Paul (see Jn 1:1-14; Phil 2:6-11). The pre-existent Word becomes flesh in order to carry forward God’s saving action in a new historical way. In the Western Churches, this perception of the Word historically has tended to lead to a diminishment of the role of the Spirit. That is why it is necessary to reframe the relationship between the Spirit and the Word so that the agency of the Spirit is reaffirmed. Third, the belief in the universal and salvific presence of the Spirit raises questions concerning the relation of the leadership of centralized and hierarchical Churches to the local Christian communities. On the one hand, the institutional Church can no longer presume that the Spirit dwells within it as the guarantor of orthodoxy. On the other, it is required to understand that the presence of the Spirit in marginalized communities may encourage the expression of a prophetic dimension not readily recognized by the institution. The freedom from institutional structures may alert such communities to new missionary tasks that further the mission of God. Fourth, to believe in the universal presence of the Spirit helps overcome some of the divisions between the secular and sacred. Perhaps it removes the need to emphasize missio ad gentes whereby the fruits of missionary activity tend to be measured primarily in terms of the growth of local Churches with their own involved lay and ordained ministers. Rather, missionary activity should be directed to bringing about the Reign of God which has as its goal the transformation of human history so that humankind is liberated "from evil in all its forms" (Redemptoris Missio, n. 15). In this perspective, the world becomes the new arena for all missionary activity. Fifth, there may be a danger that some will disconnect the Spirit from its trinitarian foundations if the Spirit is emphasized as the principal agent of mission. Perhaps a minority of feminists, reacting against androcentric trinitarian theologies, may now find that "their God may no longer be the God of Jesus Christ, but a non-personal, benevolent cosmic energy holding reality together in some mysterious way" (Schneiders 1998:22). There is evidence in my own country, New Zealand, that some have moved away from belief in a trinitarian God to understanding God as Spirit, as a cosmic force, as divine energy (see Webster, 1992). However, these positions are in the minority, and should not deter Christians from reclaiming the Spirit as the principal agent of mission. To appreciate this fully involves us in an almost Copernican revolution in our understanding of mission that may at times lead some to suspect the separation of the Spirit from the trinitarian communion. However, through reclaiming the Trinitarian origins of all mission we begin to understand the agency of the Spirit in mission. Mission is an activity of the triune God and to emphasize the agency of the Spirit is to reclaim that Trinitarian reality and to bid farewell to those ecclesiocentric and Christocentric perceptions that diminished not only creation, women and the poor, but also diminished the Trinity. Missionary activity begins with the creative agency of the Spirit through whom God is active in human and cosmic history, and not with the redemptive ministry of the historical Jesus. Notes 1 Johnson writes: "I am in mid-stream now, and feel that there are miles to go before I sleep. I would like to begin by stating the obvious, namely, that theologically I am a work in progress". See Elizabeth A. Johnson, "Forging Theology: A Conversation with Colleagues", in Things New and Old: Essays on the Theology of Elizabeth A. Johnson, ed. Phyllis Zagono and Terrence W. Tilley (New York: Crossroad, 1999), 91-92. 2 Richard P. McBrien defines christomonism as "a kind of ‘unitarianism’ of the Second Person in which God as Creator and Judge, and God as Reconciler and Sanctifier are effectively replaced by God who is at our side in the service of the neighbour as the ‘man for others’. Christomonism has diminished our understanding of the Church and the Christian life. How else to explain the recent extraordinary discovery of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit by the West, if not as an acute reaction to the practical exclusion of the Spirit from Latin Christian consciousness, devotion and even theology?", Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism, vol. 1 (East Malvern: Dove Communications, 1980), 345. 3 Although Schreiter does not cite particular theologians who suggest that theocentrism is a legitimate response to Christocentrism, Catholic missiologist Paul Knitter, is an example. Knitter suggests that we consider a movement toward "theocentric Christology", whereby God is the key to the theological interpretation of Christ, rather than Jesus being the revealer of God. See Paul Knitter, No Other Name? (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1985). Knitter uses the expression "theocentric" to describe the attempt "to establish a dialogue with other religions on the basis of a non-normative christology", (ibid.:146). Dupuis writes that a theocentric perspective is one according "to which Jesus Christ and his saving mystery no longer stand at the centre of God’s saving design for humankind. That place belongs to God alone towards whom all the religious traditions, Christianity included, tend as to their end". Jacques Dupuis, "Religious Plurality and the Christological Debate", Focus, 15/2-3 (1995): 4. 4 José Comblin, The Holy Spirit and Liberation, Theology and Liberation Series, trans. Paul Burns (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1989), appears to be the most comprehensive treatment available at present. Comblin writes that "the experience of God found in the new Christian communities of Latin America can properly be called experience of the Holy Spirit. Most of the Christians who make up these communities do not know that this is their experience; because of their religious upbringing, the Holy Spirit is still the great unknown to them" (p. xi). Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, Theology and Liberation Series, trans. Paul Burns, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1988, 189-212, also offers a liberation theologian’s reflection on the Holy Spirit and liberation, particularly Chapter XI. References Cited Abbott, Walter M., ed. 1966, The Documents of Vatican II, London-Dublin: Geoffrey Chapman. Bevans, Stephen B., 1998a, "God Inside Out: Toward a Missionary Theology of the Holy Spirit", International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 22. 3: 102-105. 1998b "Jesus, Face of the Spirit: Reply to Dale Bruner", International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 22. 3: 108-109. Bevans, Stephen B. and Roger Schroeder, 1999, "Missionary by its Very Nature: A Reading of the Acts of the Apostles", Verbum SVD, 41. 2: 199-238. Boff, Leonardo, 1988, Trinity and Society, Paul Burns, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 1991, New Evangelization: Good News to the Poor, Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 1993 "Trinity", in Sobrino and Ellacuría, eds. 1993, pp. 75-89. Comblin, Josh, 1989, The Holy Spirit and Liberation, Paul Burns, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 1993 "The Holy Spirit", in Sobrino and Ellacuría, eds. 1993, pp. 146-164. Crowe, Frederick E., 1985, "Son of God, Holy Spirit and World Religions: The Contribution of Bernard Lonergan to the Wider Ecumenism. Chancellor’s Address II", Toronto: Regis College. Dupuis, Jacques, 1997, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997. 1999 "The Spirit, Basis for Interreligious Dialogue", Theology Digest, 46. 1:27-31. Fox, Patricia, 1994, "The Trinity as Transforming Symbol: Exploring the Trinitarian Theology of Two Roman Catholic Feminist Theologians", Pacifica 7. 3: 273-294. John Paul II, "Redemptoris Missio", L’Osservatore Romano, 4 (28 January 1991): 5-20. Johnson, Elizabeth A., 1992, She Who is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse, New York: Crossroad. 1993, Women, Earth and Creator Spirit, Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality, New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press. Moltmann, Jürgen, 1985 God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God, San Francisco: Harper and Row. 1989 The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions, Margaret Kohl, trans. San Francisco: Harper Collins. 1992 The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, translated by Margaret Kohl, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Primavesi, Anne, 1991 From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity, Tunbridge Wells: Burns & Oates. Schneiders, Sandra M., 1998 "Congregational Leadership and Spirituality in the Postmodern Era", Review for Religious, 57. 1: 6-33. Schreiter, Robert J., 1990 "Jesus Christ and Mission: The Cruciality of Christology", Missiology: An International Review, XVIII. 4: 429-437. 1996 "Cutting Edges in Theology and Their Bearings on Mission Studies", Missiology: An International Review, XXIV. 1: 83-92. 1997 The New Catholicity: Theology Between the Local and the Global, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Sobrino, J. and Ellacuría, eds. 1993 Systematic Theology: Perspectives from Liberation Theology (Readings from Mysterium Liberationis), Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Ref.: Mission Studies, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, 36, 2001, pp. 87-112.
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