Paper presentation

Topic: Feminist Pneumatology

1. Understanding the nature and work of Holy Spirit
2. Personification of Holy Spirit
Lecturer: Mrs Tonchingsangla
Presenters: Atokito, Aloino, Ezrami, Lungbale and Thanring
Respondents: Nujen, Prejit, Panger, Sangki, Tsugnumeren and Wanshizenla

Introduction
The term Pneumatology comes from the Greek words, namely, Pneuma “win,” “breath,” or
“spirit” and logos meaning “word,” “matter,” or “things.” As it is used in the Christian
system theology, Pneumatology refers to the study of the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
Generally this includes such topics as the personification of the spirit and the nature and the
work of the spirit throughout the scripture.

1. Understanding the nature and work of Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is called Paraclete in the original Greek, which literally means “one called
alongside to help.” Some have wrongly assumed that the Spirit is more of a spirit than a
person. That is probably due in part to descriptions of Holy Spirit in scripture as being like
the wind or a fire, or as coming on Jesus in the form of a dove. Yet, this must be balanced
with the rest of the scripture. In the scripture we find Jesus telling us that the Spirit that God
gives us as a gift is a counsellor, comforter, advocate and helper. John shows that having the
Spirit is what identifies us as having God in us. Paul shows God’s spirit is a spirit of power,
love and sound mindedness. When one looks at the many references to the Spirit of God in
the scripture, it becomes apparent that God’s spirit is an expression and manifestation of what
God is. God is life and impart to us through Holy Spirit. God is love and imparts love and the
ability to love through His Spirit. God is power and through Holy Spirit will manifest His
power through us as He wills. God’s spirit is counsellor, comforter, advocate, helper and
truth.1
The work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament differed somewhat from His work in the
New Testament. The possession of the Holy Spirit by the believers was not permanent in
every case. The Spirit had a ministry of restraining sin and in the creation of the world. The
Holy Spirit plays a major role in the application of salvation to the individual. Holy Spirit
unites the believers with Christ and place Spirit in the body of Christ.2

a. The spirit of promise: The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit of promise in Eph.1:
13 “in whom ye also, having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation,-in
whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”. The
Holy Spirit is the God’s great all-inclusive promise for the present dispensation; the
one thing for which Jesus bade the disciples wait after His ascension before they
undertook His work was “the promise of the Father,” that is the Holy Spirit.
b. The spirit of judgement: the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of judgement in Isaiah 4:4
“when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall
1
http://theologicalperspectives.com/the-nature-of -the-holy-spirit 6/2/2020, 8PM.
2
https://bible.org/seriespage/4-pneumatology-holy-spirit6/7/2020, 8PM

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 have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of judgment,
and by the spirit of burning. When the Holy Spirit comes to us the first thing that He
does is to open our eyes to see our sins as God sees them. He judges our sin
c. The spirit of burning: this name is used in the passage just quoted above. This name
emphasizes His searching, refining, illuminating and energizing work. Teh Holy
Spirit is like a fire in the heart in which He dwells; and as fire tests and refines and
consumes and illuminates and warms and energizes, so does the Spirit.
d. The spirit of truth: in John 14:17, “even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot
receive, because it seeth Him not, but knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He
dwelled with you, and shall be in you”. The Holy Spirit is called the spirit of truth
because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to communicate truth, to impart truth, to
those who receive Him
e. The spirit of wisdom and understanding: Isaiah 10:2, “and the spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” The significance of the
name is so plain as to need no explanation. It is evident both from the words used and
from the context that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart wisdom and
understanding to those who receive Him.
f. The spirit of life: the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of life because it is His work to
impart life (Rom 8:2, John. 6:63). Paul draws a contrast between the law of Moses
outside a man, holy and just and good, it is true, but impotent, and the living spirit of
God in the heart, imparting spiritual and moral life to the believer and dwelling in the
heart enables him to do, so that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.3

2. Personification of Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit, especially since the fourth century, has been acknowledged by the main stream
of the Christian Church as the third person of the Trinitarian God. This “Trinitarian”
understanding of God is indeed a theological necessity and is well-founded in the scripture.
At the same time, theologians have had difficulty in accepting the Holy Spirit as part of the
Trinity on equal terms with the “Father” and the “Son.” They have pointed out a two-fold
anomaly here. First, there is the difficulty of recognizing the Holy Spirit in “personal” terms
in the same way as the Father and the Son are recognised. The ideas associate with the very
term “Spirit,” which in Hebrew is Ruach, are all ideas of a non-personal nature. The meaning
of Ruach is “breath” or “moving air” or “wind”. Hence the spirit is easier to understand as the
all-pervading presence and the moving force of God. Here again it is easier to understand the
spirit in terms of the “presence” or the “personal influence” or Christ.4
Traditional way Holy Spirit is presented as a male person, does not at all fit in with the
“Father-son” combination. When there is a “Father” and a “Son,” one tends to think naturally
of a “Mother”, so as to complete the symbolism of the unity of a family but such symbolism
is not intended in the doctrine of a trinity, the answer is that the very use of the term “Father”
and “Son” implies it or else these term also should have been avoided.
3
R.A. Torrey, The Person and Work of Holy Spirit: As Revealed in the Scripture and in Personal
Experience (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1910), 40-43.
4
Leelamma Athyaal, “Pneumatology and Women”, A Reader in Feminist Theology, edited by Prasanna
Kumari (Madras: A Gurukul Publication, 1993), 80-81.

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We know that God in essence is neither male nor female. Yet when using a pronoun for God,
it employ the terms “he,” “him”, or “his”. This is certainly because of the way the traditional
male-dominated theology has always preferred to use the term masculine pronouns for God.
Unfortunately, there is no pronoun in the third person singular which could be used with
reference to both male and female. At the same time, our understanding of the “personhood”
demands that we think of the “personal” God as either as “he” or a “she”, and not an “it.”

The least problematic solution is to try to apprehend the reality of God in terms of a
“community-in-partnership.” God is ultimately triune; if God is “one” it is because God’s
community of person is one. God is one-in-three and three-in-one. The closest kind of such a
relationship of humans is male-female partnership. A truly unitive vision of a community of
person is obtained only when it involves a male-female partnership. The bible goes to the
extent of saying that the male-female confluence is so firm that the “two” may be referred to
as “one-flesh”. The male is different from the female, and yet there is embedded in this
difference a mystery that makes both one and so it becomes most useful in understanding the
nature of Trinity The feminist remind that since the metaphor of a “father” (male) has already
been used for centuries in relation to one of the persons in the Trinity, it is quite legitimate to
introduce a corresponding metaphor (female) in relation to another person of the Trinity so as
to express the mystery of their unity in the possible way. And such possibility is kept open to
feminist in the case of “Holy Spirit”. They picked up a term that is feminine in gender,
namely, Ruach. So they refer to the Holy Spirit as the “mother”, introducing the most fitting
symbol that goes naturally with the “father” and the “son”, and consider HER as the one who
perfects and fulfils their “community-in-partnership”.5

Rosemary Ruether has raised against the concept of the Trinity that consists of two male and
one female “person”. According to her, “such a concept of God falls easily into andocentric
or male-dominant perspective. The female side of God then becomes subordinate to a
principle underneath the dominant image of male divine sovereignty.” The logic of the male-
female partnership works quite different than what Ruether seems to think. So, to those who
can obtain a unitive vision of Trinity, the fact that two persons are referred as male and only
one as female, presents no problem.6

But it would be completely wrong to state that the image of Holy Spirit as a woman and
mother is simply caused by the fact that the Hebrew, Aramaic and Syrian words for ‘spirit’
are (nearly) always feminine. But it should be remarked that, still, we are dealing with
metaphorical language. Religious language is inherently metaphorical, that is, bound to
images and similes. By its very nature it cannot define God’s essence. All ancients were
aware of the fact that this essence of the Divine remains a holy mystery and is nature
ineffable.

The central biblical metaphors for the Spirit – rauh, shekinah, and hokmah oe Sophia- are
either female or gender non-specific, offering support for the notion of a feminise Spirit
which though largely repressed in Christian tradition, has nevertheless persisted, and re-
5
Leelamma Athyaal, “Pneumatology and Women”, A Reader in Feminist Theology, edited by Prasanna
Kumari (Madras: A Gurukul Publication, 1993), 82-83.
6
Leelamma Athyaal, “Pneumatology and Women”, A Reader in Feminist Theology, edited by Prasanna
Kumari (Madras: A Gurukul Publication, 1993), 83-84.

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emerged in our own time in a renewed debate about the appropriateness of naming the Spirit
in explicitly female terms. The neglect of the Spirit seems to bear some direct relation to the
repression and marginalisation of women themselves in Christian tradition. The hiddenness,
anonymity, and invisibility of women is mirrored and reflected in the facelessness and
namelessness of the Spirit in Christian worship, theology, and life.7

Conclusion
We can see that the Holy Spirit is central to our having a relationship with God. New
understanding of person and work of the Spirit are being forged by feminist theologian. Some
feminists have welcomed and embrace an approach shared with a number of contemporary
male theologians of speaking of the Spirit as the feminine dimension in God and naming this
approach has ancient roots in early Semitic and Syrian traditions.

Work Cited
Athyaal, Leelamma. “Pneumatology and Women”, A Reader in Feminist Theology, edited by
Prasanna Kumari. Madras: A Gurukul Publication, 1993.
Slee, Nicola “The Holy Spirit and Spirituality,”The Feminist Theology, edited by Susan
Frank Parsons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Torrey, R.A. The Person and Work of Holy Spirit: As Revealed in the Scripture and in
Personal Experience. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 191o.

http://theologicalperspectives.com/the-nature-of -the-holy-spirit 6/2/2020, 8PM.

https://bible.org/seriespage/4-pneumatology-holy-spirit6/7/2020, 8PM

7
Nicola Slee, “The Holy Spirit and Spiritaulity,” The Feminist Theology, edited by Susan Frank
Parsons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 172.