The Spirit of Burning

PNEUMA: The journal of the society for Pentecostal studies Volume 42, issue 3–4, 2020

A collaborative effort by the faculty of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, The Holy Spirit: Setting the World on Fire reflects on the person and work of the Holy Spirit from various fields of study including scripture, theology, history, ethics, ministry, and spirituality. The authors hope "that their work will help readers to appreciate anew the rich presence of the Spirit in their lives and respond ever more ardently" (xvii). Comprised of sixteen essays, the book is divided into three parts. In part one, "Experiencing the Holy Spirit", Colleen M. Griffith (chapter 1) explores the Holy Spirit as an experiential reality to be lived. Grounding her essay in St. Paul's metaphor of the "body" (1Corinthians 6:19) and emphasizing the communal, individuals are expected to enact a "body ethic" where the Spirit fosters edification, the charismata, fellowship, interdependence, and divine initiatives. The works of Ruusbroec, Edwards, and Johnson inform Griffith's view of the vivifying work of the Spirit, whose goals are that of present recreation and eschatological consummation. Brian Dunkle (chapter 2) explores the ancient dynamic of deification as found in the theologies of Irenaeus, Augustine, and Origen. Here, the Holy Spirit enables participation in the divine life of the Trinity thereby making us "gods" by grace and enabling divine holiness, which moves us in a spiritual pilgrimage toward deification. Franklin T. Harkins (chapter 3) explores the medieval cults of the saints and relics through the lens of 1 Corinthians 6:14-19 to illustrate the Catholic understanding of the Spirit's work in and through matter to inspire life and faith. Via the Incarnation and mediated by the Eucharist, Harkins asserts that the Spirit and the Eucharist enable the faithful to commune with dead saints who are temples and organs of the Spirit capable of mediating divine blessings as channels of grace. John F. Baldovin's essay (chapter 4) highlights the liturgical recovery of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist Prayers of the Roman rite since Vatican ii. Such a recovery has produced a renewed appreciation of the Spirit among Catholics; creating a more ecumenical and theologically balanced church where the Holy Spirit is included in the consecration and transformation of the Eucharistic elements. Richard Lennan and Nancy Pindea-Madrid (chapter 5) underscore the teaching of Vatican ii on the Holy Spirit's significance in the daily life, identity, and purpose of the church as a "pilgrim" where the Spirit leads the church in its relationship with Christ, mission, and affects unity and equipping. The authors also highlight the theological work of Condina and Johnson who note the underdevelopment of pneumatological thought and practice related

A review of J. Webb Mealy's popular-level work developed from his monograph on the biblical themes of Hell and eternal torment.

The image-paradigm of the Fire of God in the Bible and in the Christian tradition. In: Hierotopy of Light and Fire in the Culture of the Byzantine World, ed. Alexei Lidov, Moscow, Theoria, 2013, p. 45-81, 2013

The main themes of fire in the Bible can be united around the concept of the Fire of God. This is in the first place the fire of Judgement which burns out sin, but spares the righteous. Fire is naturally associated with the Divine because it causes a similar attitude: love mixed with fear. The image-paradigm of the Fire of God pervades the Christian tradition. It is associated in particular with liturgical fire. According to Dionisius Areopagite, fire is a visible image of ineffable Divine qualities. It is not only “God’s servant” but also the symbol of his eternal life and of the deification of man. The Fire of God is experienced by mystics as the “fire of love” which destroys the “otherness” of the soul and unites it with God. In the Byzantine iconography of the Theotokos of the Burning Bush, the Incarnation is presented as a fiery theophany where the Virgin receives the Fire of God within her human nature. The image of fire also has an important liturgical aspect: the Holy Communion in the Eastern Church is understood as partaking of the Fire of God. This is a 5-page English summary of a full paper published in Russian. The full paper contains a complete table of Biblical references to fire (around 400)

The purpose of this essay is to reexamine the long-standing practice of finding in Did. 16:5 an implicit reference to the saving activity of the crucified Christ as understood by Paul. The saving activity of the Father envisioned by the Didache communities was principally eschatological and entirely silent respecting any Pauline theology of the cross. Once Pauline interpretations are viewed as foreign to the internal logic of the text itself, Did. 16:5 can then be reconstructed within an alternative horizon of understanding. Accordingly, this essay will explore the dual functioning of eschatological fire within Jewish prophetic writings and early Christian apocalyptic literature as providing a way to recover an authentic understanding of the Didache freed from Pauline overlays. The exposition will proceed in three phases. First, the narrative flow and linguistic structure of the apocalyptic ending of the Didache will be examined. Second, the traditional interpretations of Did. 16:5 will be critiqued. Third, the dual functioning of eschatological fire will be illustrated from select prophetic and apocalyptic texts by way of exploring a fresh understanding of Did. 16:5.

Leviticus 10:1-7 (NASB) 1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. 4 Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp." 5 So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the LORD has brought about. 7 "You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the LORD'S anointing oil is upon you." So they did according to the word of Moses.

Theophany in the Greek Old Testament and with reference to the Revelation of John. Fire imagery frequently serves as a Leitmotif for God's revelatory presence. It is established that God's presence through fire imagery is closely connected with his message as part of divine revelation. Furthermore, this motif developed in one of two directions: sometimes with negative implications to humanity during God's wrath and judgement, i.e. during the process of the purification of his creation. At other times it developed with positive implications to humanity during God's mediation of his message of involvement and care, i.e. during the process of his glorification. It can be concluded that the connection between fire imagery and prophecy can be clearly observed in the Old Testament literature and that this connection is carried through into the Revelation of John. The fact of this connection could even be summarized in the statement that the mere presence of fire often functions as the revelatory presence of God and that this in itself serves as prophecyeither as a message of purification or of glorification. In this sense, "fire as revelation" might be understood to be "fire as prophecy".

Journal of Biblical Literature, 2013

Though recent years have seen a plethora of research on divine representation, little attention has been paid to one of the Hebrew Bible’s most common depictions of the Almighty, that of divine fire. Of the many texts about divine fire in the Hebrew Bible, one of the oldest (Deut 33:2) is also one of the most difficult. This article supports two studies of Deut 33:2 by Richard C. Steiner (the most recent coauthored with Sid Z. Leiman) by addressing additional relevant texts and iconography. The resulting analysis unpacks how fire was used symbolically to represent preternatural forces that attended the divine. Methodologically, the present study challenges future scholars to incorporate iconographic analysis into one’s philology—even when trying to understand abstract ideas.

2018

This thesis contends that the image of fire is a multivalent and theologically valuable image for application in British Christian communities. My research offers an original contribution by contextualising the image of fire for Christian practice in Britain, and combining critical observation of several contemporary fire rites with theological analysis. In addition, I conduct original case studies of three Scottish fire rituals: the Stonehaven Fireball Ceremony, the Beltane Fire Festival, and Up-Helly-Aa in Lerwick, Shetland. The potential contribution of fire imagery to Christian practice has been overlooked by modern theological scholarship, social anthropologists, and Christian practitioners. Since the multivalence of the image has not been fully recognised, fire imagery has often been reduced to a binary of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ associations. Through my study of non-faith fire rituals and existing Christian fire practices, I explore the interplay between multivalence, multi...

2021

Early followers of Jesus and later rabbinical Jews, two divergent branches of Judaism emerging respectively from the Second Temple and Post-Second Temple eras, both drew upon the cultural memory of Sinai to establish their identity. This article examines how the author of Acts used the Sinai imagery of theophanic fire in the Pentecost narrative of Acts 2 to reinforce a continu­ation of Judaism and offer an inclusive expansion of it to gentile believers. Then it looks at how later rabbinic sources used Sinai images of fire and multiple languages to reinforce the authority of the Torah and their exclusive identity within the Sinai relationship.