Spiritual power is human and transcendentChristian spirituality holds that the invisible and "unbodily" power that it involves is personal and transcendent, though much effort must be expended to explain exactly what that means. In a spirituality conceived in terms of transcendent personality, there are two sides to be observed: (1) On the human side, the individual takes action toward the spiritual realm by addressing it, invoking it, developing ways of understanding it, and finding ways of participating in its activities. One can fall into "spiritual engineering" in the process. But that need not be the case. In fact, one is usually warned against it. (2) On the transcendent side, the Holy Spirit is treated as a person who is in charge of the world, who works to bring about what is good, who is involved in human affairs for that purpose, but who leaves room for human beings to reject him, choose evil, and go their own way. Matthew Arnold's description of God as "a force working for righteousness in human history" does fairly well, if we understand the "force" in personalistic terms. From Renewing the Christian Mind: Essays, Interviews, and Talks. Copyright © 2016 by Willard Family Trust. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. |
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