Journal of Pentecostal Theology 18 (2009) 263–284
brill.nl/pent
An Emerging Pneumatology: Jürgen Moltmann and the Emerging Church in Conversation* Patrick Oden** PO Box 2333, Lake Arrowhead, CA 92352, USA patrickoden@fuller.edu
Abstract The emerging church has recently gained attention in regards to its liturgical innovation and postmodern methodology. Viewed through the lens of Jürgen Moltmann’s theology, however, the emerging church is not merely another church growth movement but is in fact reflecting key pneumatological principles, emphasizing and exhibiting a more holistic perspective on the broad work of the Holy Spirit in the church and in this world. Keywords pneumatology, Jürgen Moltmann, emerging church, Holy Spirit
I. Introduction By placing Jürgen Moltmann and various leaders of the emerging church movement in conversation, a new holistic perspective on pneumatology in the church begins to take shape that allows experience and reason to both contribute to a holistic theology. This perspective understands the kingdom of God as a pneumatological reality emphasizing relationship rather than power, politics, or territory. In this relational kingdom, the Spirit works to increasingly bring the world into the perichoretic fellowship of the triune
* This paper was previously presented at the Joint Meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society & the Society for Pentecostal Studies with the Wesleyan Philosophical Society and the Society for the Study of Psychology and Wesleyan Theology, Duke University, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, March 14, 2008. ** Patrick Oden (MDiv, Fuller Theological Seminary) is a writer based in Lake Arrowhead, CA and a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009
0001091376.INDD 263
DOI 10.1163/096673609X12469601162150
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