Abstract
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the kingdoms of this world and of God. This pneumatological understanding of the cities of this world provides an alternative to Augustinian visions that divide the Spirit’s work between two cities and two kingdoms. Cultural production, the life of the city, can not only emerge from the Spirit’s creative-redemptive work but also be redeemed in the new creation. The corrupt way of Babylon fades away, but the Spirit of Pentecost is at work in Babylon bringing the renewal of the new creation and laying the foundations of the New Jerusalem. Continuity between life in this world and the one to come triumphs over discontinuity. That continuity is the foundation of a Pentecostal political theology, a pneumatological realism that sees the life of the city arising from the Holy Spirit.
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Notes
- 1.
Jonathan R. Wilson also argues that biblical theology integrates creation and redemption. Where Wilson draws on Christology, I mine the biblical narrative of God’s Spirit for a unified theology of creation and redemption. See Wilson, God’s Good World: Reclaiming the Doctrine of Creation (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2013), ix–x and 49–70.
- 2.
For an earlier work that also moved toward the unity of creation in redemption on the basis of pneumatology, see John V. Taylor, The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission (London: SCM, 1972).
- 3.
Although discussing the Chaoskampf in Ezekiel and its relation to the dominant imperial powers of Babylon and Egypt in the sixth century (i.e., Babylon is Yahweh’s agent for establishing order against the chaos generated by Egypt), C. A. Strine and C. L. Crouch provide excellent orientation to its connection with ancient Near East royal theology and its use in the Old Testament. See Strine and Crouch, “Yhwh’s Battle against Chaos in Ezekiel: The Transformation of Judahite Mythology for a New Situation,” Journal of Biblical Literature 132 (2013): 883–903.
- 4.
For a detailed investigation of the relationship between the Genesis 1 and 2 creation stories and alternative ancient near eastern ones, see David Toshio Tsumura, The Earth and the Waters in Genesis 1 and 2: A Linguistic Investigation (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 1989).
- 5.
Richard J. Clifford makes this argument in respect to Psalm 74, 77, and 136 among others, “The Hebrew Scriptures and the Theology of Creation,” Theological Studies 46 (1985): 512–16.
- 6.
John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology; Volume One: Israel’s Gospel (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 44.
- 7.
Job 24:12–13 also incorporates pneumatological imagery and elements of ancient near eastern cosmological beginnings. The use of ruach/breath in the passage correlates with the ruach’s activity at creation and the receding waters of the flood—ruach brings order to chaos.
- 8.
John D. W. Watts, Isaiah 34–66 (Waco: Word, 1987), 211.
- 9.
Brevard S. Childs notes the connection between Yahweh in Isaiah 42 and the “creator God” in Genesis 1; see Isaiah (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 326. The development of biblical pneumatology in the context of exile has a possible point of correspondence with the experience of many early Pentecostals in North America and of many around the world today. The early Pentecostals and many contemporary ones are “exiled” people; they do not operate in the centers of cultural and ecclesiastical power, but on the political, social, economic, and religious margins.
- 10.
In From Pentecost to the Triune God: A Pentecostal Trinitarian Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2102), I characterize the Spirit’s creative-redemptive work as liminal, constitutional, and eschatological. From the creation of the world to the redemption of Israel from exile, being born again in Christ, and the liberation of creation from its bondage to decay, the Spirit is the agent who facilitates (constitutional) the transition from chaos (liminal) to the realization of the God’s purposes (eschatological).
- 11.
For understanding “Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2 as God’s Spirit,” see John W. Rogerson, “Genesis 1–11,” in John W. Rogerson, R. W. L. Moberly, and William Johnstone, Genesis and Exodus, with an introduction by John Goldingay (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 76.
- 12.
For additional Pentecostal interpretations of the Genesis creation accounts, see Paul Elbert, “Genesis 1 and the Spirit: A Narrative-Rhetorical Ancient Near Eastern Reading in Light of Modern Science,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 15 (2006): 23–72 and Amos Yong, The Spirit of Creation: Modern Science and Divine Action in the Pentecostal-Charismatic Imagination (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), esp. 151–72.
- 13.
See From Pentecost to the Triune God (87–100) for the pneumatological and trinitarian case for integrating Spirit Christology and pneumatology.
- 14.
For a discussion of Pentecost in terms of Joel and the covenant of creation, see Margaret Barker, Creation: A Biblical Vision for the Environment (New York: T & T Clark, 2010), 183.
- 15.
On the relationship between Pauline literature and Luke-Acts (i.e., didactic verse narrative) in Pentecostal scholarship, see Roger Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1984) and his later work The Prophethood of All Believers: A Study in Luke’s Charismatic Theology (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 1999) and Robert P. Menzies, The Development of Early Christian Pneumatology with Special Reference to Luke-Acts (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 1991). Some Pentecostal scholars accept the evangelical hermeneutical principle that narrative and Luke should be subordinate to epistolary texts in formulating theology: e.g., Gordon D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), and more recently, Keith Warrington, Pentecostal Theology: A Theology of Encounter (New York: T & T Clark, 2008), 127.
- 16.
Dale Moody, The Word of Truth: A Summary of Christian Doctrine Based on Biblical Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 135.
- 17.
Although not discussed above, Paul’s vision for the liberation of creation bears the influence of the resurrection theology found in Ezekiel 36–37. See John W. Yates, The Spirit and Creation in Paul (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 143–51.
- 18.
The key figure in contemporary theology for the development of the principle—the “‘economic’ Trinity is the ‘immanent’ Trinity and the ‘immanent’ Trinity is the ‘economic’ Trinity”—is Karl Rahner in The Trinity, trans. Joseph Donceel, intro. Catherine Mowry LaCugna (1970; reprint, New York: Crossroad, 1988), 22.
- 19.
For a full development of this pneumatological trinitarian theology, see my From Pentecost to the Triune God, Chap. 2.
- 20.
Sigurd Bergman draws a similar conclusion from Gregory of Nazianzus’ theology in Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 142 and 155.
- 21.
Along Christological lines, Jonathan Wilson maintains that “creation and redemption may be known by faith to be one in their ‘end’ in the new creation. By end here, I mean the telos, the purpose for which they exist” (Wilson, God’s Good World, 53).
- 22.
My focus here is the interiority of the Spirit to human life and cultural production. I agree, however, with Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of the Spirit as the immanent transcendence—“every experience of a creation of the Spirit is hence also an experience of the Spirit.” See Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 34–35.
- 23.
Al Wolters make a similar point, using the same term, in respect to the relationship between nature and grace. See Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview, second edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 71.
- 24.
Steven M. Studebaker and Lee Beach, “Emerging Churches in Post-Christian Canada,” Religions 3 (2012): 874.
- 25.
Philip Sheldrake, The Spiritual City: Theology, Spirituality, and the Urban (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), 117–34.
- 26.
Daniela C. Augustine, Pentecost, Hospitality, and Transfiguration: Toward a Spirit-Inspired Vision of Social Transformation (Cleveland, TN: CPT, 2012), 134–35.
- 27.
Ronald J. Sider also maintains that the fundamental continuity between this life and the everlasting kingdom gives eschatological significance to work in the world. See The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why are Christians missing the Chance to really Change the World? (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 74.
- 28.
James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdoms: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2009), 92 and 93–112.
- 29.
J. Richard Middleton makes the link between Isaiah’s and New Testament eschatology in A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2014), 24.
- 30.
For the pastoral-urban conflict as the origin of warfare, see Robert L. O’Connell, Ride of the Second Horsemen: The Birth and Death of War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 105–29.
- 31.
Middleton, A New Heaven and a New Earth, 189–200. Barbara R. Rossing sees 2 Peter as nihilistic eschatology. Discounting Peter’s affirmation of the new heaven and new earth, she argues Petrine eschatology’s annihilation of the world is out of step with the wider teaching of New Testament eschatology. See Rossing, “‘Hastening the Day’ When the Earth Will Burn? Global Warming, Revelation, and 2 Peter 3 (Advent 2, year B),” Currents in Theology and Mission 36 (2008): 365–70. I sympathize with the anti-environmental attitude that the “it’s all going to burn” hermeneutic can flame among conservative Christians, but the problem resides in the hermeneutic, not Peter. Purifying fire burns away the dross of evil, but in doing so does not destroy the world, just as the floodwaters did not annihilate the earth, but the sin that had infected it. The purpose of the flood was not annihilation, but restoration. For a detailed argument for the restorative nature of Peter’s eschatological fire, see Matthew Y. Emerson, “Does God own a Death Star?: The Destruction of the Cosmos in 2 Peter 3:1–3,” Southwestern Journal of Theology 57 (2015): 281–93.
- 32.
Logos Christology, based especially on the Gospel of John, has been the default approach to the doctrine of Christ. Spirit Christology emerged in the past few decades and is an effort to recognize the role of the Holy Spirit not only in the life of Jesus, but also in the Incarnation of the Son. For more on Spirit Christology and the Spirit’s constitutive role in Christology, see Studebaker, From Pentecost to the Triune God, 78–87.
- 33.
For biblical scholarship that recognizes the Spirit’s role in the resurrection of Christ, see Robert Jewett, Romans: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 106–7 and 492; Grant R. Osborne, Romans (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 32 and 201; and Peter Stuhlmacher, Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1994), 122. Douglas J. Moo and Gordon Fee reject that these passages attribute the resurrection to the Spirit. See Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, 553 and 484 and Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 493.
- 34.
James D. G. Dunn also makes this connection in Romans 9–16 (Dallas: Word, 1988), 760.
- 35.
Graham Ward, The Politics of Discipleship: Becoming Postmaterial Citizens (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2009), 289.
- 36.
Ibid., 289.
- 37.
Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), 153–54, and Bruce A. Demarest, General Revelation: Historical Views and Contemporary Issues (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982), 13–14, 228, 233, and 250.
- 38.
For example, even though Terrance L. Tiessen sees both common and special grace as benefits of Christ’s atoning work, he still maintains that common grace is non-salvific. See Tiessen, Who Can Be Saved? Reassessing Salvation in Christ and World Religions (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 100–101, 396–400, 416, 418, and 422–23.
- 39.
Demarest, General Revelation, 247–53 and Erickson, Christian Theology, 153–54; Grudem, Systematic Theology, 658, 658–63. For Pentecostals endorsing this view, see John R. Higgins, “God’s Inspired Word,” in Systematic Theology, ed. Stanley M. Horton (1994; rev. ed. Springfield, MO: Logion, 1995), 75–76 and William W. Menzies and Stanley M. Horton, Bible Doctrines (Springfield, MO: Logion, 1993), 20–21.
- 40.
Elizabeth A. Johnson makes a similar observation in respect to the Western intellectual tradition in privileging the immaterial soul over the physical body and extends the problematic hierarchy to privileging masculine over feminine nature and the environment. See Johnson, Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit: 1993 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1993), 10–22.
- 41.
Johnson, Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit, 21.
- 42.
Oliver O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 137 and 147–49.
- 43.
Robert K. Johnston, God’s Wider Presence: Reconsidering General Revelation (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2014) endeavors to extend the scope and role of the Christian theology of general revelation. He effectively narrates ways movies in particular and culture and the natural world in general provide conduits for connecting with God and for personal transformation. But Johnston’s vision of grace is not wide enough. Recognizing that God’s grace operates in and through culture, he ultimately separates the work of the Spirit that operates in culture and creation and the saving work of Christ.
- 44.
Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1993), 124 and Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God (New York: Continuum, 2007), 161–62.
- 45.
Daniela Augustine makes a similar case based on Christology. The enculturated nature of the Incarnation means that God will redeem the good of human culture in the eschatological New Jerusalem. See Pentecost, Hospitality, and Transfiguration, 128–38.
- 46.
James K. A. Smith, “Reforming Public Theology: Two Kingdoms, or Two Cities?” Calvin Theological Journal 47 (2012): 133.
- 47.
Ibid., 133.
- 48.
Barack Obama, “President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address,” January 21, 2009, accessed February 19, 2016, https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/01/21/president-barack-obamas-inaugural-address.
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Studebaker, S.M. (2016). The Spirit and the Kingdoms. In: A Pentecostal Political Theology for American Renewal. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48016-3_6
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