The Lord Is the Spirit. John A. Studebaker
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Название: The Lord Is the Spirit

Автор: John A. Studebaker

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Религия: прочее

Серия: Evangelical Theological Society Monograph Series

isbn: 9781630876852

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ Luther’s theology, the Spirit’s work continues in the Christo-centric theme of Western medieval theology, but takes on a new role—that of securing or mediating the incorporation of the believer into Christ through the Word of God. This Word reaches the heart and leads the believer to genuine faith through the inward work of the Spirit. As the instrument of the Spirit, the Word is connected to the Spirit through the resurrection of Christ. How does this occur? By placing the power of the resurrection into the context of the gospel, the Spirit causes the risen Christ to live His risen life in our midst through the message of the Word. Luther thereby holds that the work of the Holy Spirit is always a logical outworking of the Filioque clause, in that the Spirit serves as a mediator of the experience of Christ, and thus “reveals every relation to Christ which is not experience, which does not rest on the mediating, real and redeeming presence of Christ.”100 All other talk about the presence of Christ outside this sphere is either spiritualistic mysticism or moralistic imitation of Christ. Indeed, the only Spirit Luther knows is the Spirit of Christ. Luther tells us that the main work of the Spirit is not to authorize or justify the actions of the magisterium, but rather to create faith within those who believe—and specifically, faith in the historical Christ.

      Calvin illustrates the nature of this discremin when arguing that the Spirit is only being consistent with himself when he uses that Word which he has previously revealed:

      The Roman Catholic Magisterium

      The authority of the Spirit, according to the counter-Reformation, is evident in the “infallibility” of the Roman Catholic Church. According to Congar,

      The Catholic Church’s faithfulness, according to counter-reformation Catholic theologians, was radically and yet erroneously questioned by the Reformers. John Fisher exemplifies this attitude by arguing that the promise of the Spirit was not made simply to the apostles but to the Church until the end of the age. As a result, the Spirit provides the hermeneutical principle for determining truth.

      Such an “interpretive authority” was made an institutional standard via the Council of Trent. Catholic theologians at Trent appealed to the continual activity of the Spirit throughout the Church age as a primary justification for the handing down of the apostolic traditions and for the trust that should be placed in those traditions. This, however, is not distinguished from the trust we are to have in the canonical Scriptures. What the Reformers attributed to the Holy Spirit (that is, the authentic interpretation of the Scriptures) the theologians of Trent ascribed to “the Church,” the body of Christ where the Spirit was living in the form of a living gospel.