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“Praying in the Holy Spirit” Spirituality and Pneumatology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Etienne Vetö
Etienne Vetö*
Affiliation:
Pontifical Gregorian University, Via dei Gozzadini, 36, 00165, Roma, Italy
*
etienne.veto@unigre.it
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Abstract

While “praying in the Spirit” may evoke “charismatic” prayer, this paper argues that from a scriptural point of view it defines all Christian prayer as having the Holy Spirit as main subject, who leads us to pray and prays in us, by showing us to whom, how and for what we should pray. This has implications for spirituality and pneumatology. On the one hand, prayer is to be understood as much more than the extension of our human desire towards God: it means entering into the divine will, the divine life, and the relations between Father, Son and Spirit – and relating to each in a different way. This actually helps to catch the essence of charismatic prayer as well, which is precisely letting the Spirit pray in us: charisms and “enthusiasm” are an expression of this and are in their right place when they are referred to it. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit manifests itself as a unique type of divine person, which acts and speaks in and through others. The paper contends that this economical specificity needs to be re-elaborated on the level of the immanent Trinity in a novel way: the divine names of Ruah and Pneuma allow us to conceive the Spirit as the most intimate Breath which the Father breathes (spires) into the depths of the Son.

Type
Catholic Theological Association 2015 Conference Papers
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 97 , Issue 1068 , March 2016 , pp. 157 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 The Dominican Council. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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References

1 To “cry out” has this meaning in the Old Testament: “I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me” (Ps 3.4); see also Ex 22.23; Ps 17.6; 18.6; 30.2; 34.17; 88.2,9; 107.13 (see Fitzmyer, J. A., The Anchor Bible, 33, Romans, Doubleday, New York-London-Toronto-Sydney-Auckland, 1993, p.501Google Scholar).

2 The reflection in this section is based on the following commentaries: J. A. Fitzmyer, The Anchor Bible, Romans; J. D. G. Dunn, Word Biblical Commentary, 38, Romans 1-8, Word Books, Waco, 1988; R. J. Bauckham, Word Biblical Commentary, 50, Jude, 2 Peter, Word Books, Waco, 1983; M. Barth, The Anchor Bible, Ephesians 1-3, Doubleday, New York, 1974; R. E. Brown, The Anchor Bible, The Gospel According to John (i-xii), Doubleday, New York, 1966, pp.180-181; F. Lestang, “Paul et l'Esprit-Saint”, unpublished lectures.

3 See Chrysostomos, Ioannes, The homilies of S. John Chrysostom … on the epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans, Parker, Oxford, 1841, 251-252Google Scholar; Landes, P. F. (ed), Augustine on Romans, Propositions from the Epistle to the Romans, Unfinished Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Scholar Press, Chico, 1982, p.27Google Scholar; Th. Aquinas, Super Epist. Ad Romanos, VIII, lectio 5; Torrance, D. W., Torrance, F. Th. (ed), Calvin's New Testament Commentaries, The Epistles of Paul to the Romans and Thessalonians, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1980 2, pp.177-178Google Scholar.

4 See Th. Aquinas, Super Epist. Ad Romanos, VIII, lectio 5.

5 See Chevallier, M. A., Souffle de Dieu, Le Saint-Esprit dans le Nouveau Testament, II, Beauchesne, Paris, 1990, pp.375-376Google Scholar.

6 See Origen, De oratione, 4 (PG 11, 45, 428); In Ep. Ad Roman., 7, 6 (PG 14, 1120). This is a widespread position, held by Pentecostal, Catholic Charismatic and mainstream authors alike: see Fee, G., God's Empowering Presence, The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, Hendrickson, Peabody, 2009, pp.581-586Google Scholar; F. Lestang, “Paul et l'Esprit-Saint”, unpublished lectures, 6 ; J. A. Fitzmyer, The Anchor Bible, Romans, p.519.

7 See J. A. Fitzmyer, The Anchor Bible, Romans, 518-519 ; The Anchor Bible, First Corinthians, pp.515-519.

8 See Dunn, J. D. G., Jesus and the Spirit, A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus and the First Christians as Reflected in the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Mich., Eerdmans, 1997 2, pp.245-246Google Scholar.

9 John Chrysostom, Sermons on Pentecost, 1, 4 (quoted by Coakley, S., “Church of England Doctrine Commission, ‘Charismatic Experience’” in Rogers, E. F. (ed), The Holy Spirit, Classical and Contemporary Readings, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2009, p.79Google Scholar).

10 See Th. Aquinas, Super Epist. Ad Romanos, VIII, lectio 5.

11 See J. A. Fitzmyer, The Anchor Bible, Romans, p.501.

12 Congar, Y., Je crois en l'Esprit-Saint, Cerf, Paris, 1995, p.383Google Scholar.

13 Sagne, J.-Cl., « Du besoin à la demande, ou la conversion du désir dans la prière », La Maison-Dieu, 109 (1972), pp.87-97Google Scholar; Y. Congar, Je crois en l'Esprit-Saint, p.384.

14 I am grateful for Professor Eamon Duffy's comments on this point, which have led me to offer a more realistic and in a way more humane conception of prayer than only conforming one's will to God's.

15 K. Barth, “Das Wort Gottes als Aufgabe der Theologie”, J. Moltmann (ed), Anfänge der dialektischen Theologie, I, München, 19662, p.207.

16 S. Coakley, “Living in the Mystery of the Holy Trinity: Trinity, Prayer and Sexuality” in E. F. Rogers (ed), The Holy Spirit, p.46.

17 Church of England Doctrine Commission, “Charismatic Experience” in E. F. Rogers (ed), The Holy Spirit, p.71.

18 On enthusiasm in Pauline literature, see also E. Käsemann, Commentary on Romans, Grand Rapids, Mich., Eerdmans, 1980, p.226; J. D. G. Dunn, Word Biblical Commentary, Romans 1-8, p.450.

19 See K. Rahner, The Trinity, Crossroad, New York, 1997, p.11 n.6; H. U. von Balthasar, Theo-Logic, Theological Logical Theory, II: Truth of God, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2004, p.148; III: The Spirit of Truth, 2005, pp.109-110; 115-116; 144; 174; 217-218; B. Sesboüé, “La personalità dello Spirito Santo nella testimonianza biblica, nella teologia trinitaria recente e nell'esperienza storica della Chiesa e degli uomini”, S. Tanzarella (ed), La personalità dello Spirito Santo, In dialogo con Bernard Sesboüé, San Paolo, Milano, 1998, pp.21-60.

20 See B. Sesboüé, “La personalità dello Spirito Santo”, pp.25, 38; H. U. von Balthasar, The Spirit of Truth, pp.110-111, 115.

21 See B. Sesboüé, “La personalità dello Spirito Santo”, pp.25-27; K. Barth, Church Dogmatics, I, The Doctrine of the Word of God, 1, T. & T. Clark, Edinburg, 1975, §12, p.453.

22 See S. Coakley, “Living in the Mystery of the Holy Trinity: Trinity, Prayer and Sexuality” in E. F. Rogers [ed], The Holy Spirit, p.50.

23 See K. Barth, Church Dogmatics, I, 1, §8, pp.339-340; §9, pp.372-373.

24 See Y. Congar, Je crois en l'Esprit-Saint, p.577 n.41.

25 See P. Beauchamp, J. Zumstein, A. Dettwiller, “Esprit Saint, A, Théologie biblique”, J.-Y. Lacoste (ed), Dictionnaire critique de théologie, pp.404-405; J. Guillet, “Spirito”, X. Léon-Dufour (ed), Dizionario di teologia biblica, Marietti, Casale Monferrato, 1976, pp.1229-1231Google Scholar. M.-A. Chevallier consistently prefers the name “Breath” to “Spirit” to translate Pneuma so as to avoid “semantic distortions” (Souffle de Dieu. Le Saint-Esprit dans le Nouveau Testament, I, Beauchesne, Paris, 1978, p.5)Google Scholar.

26 See Durand, E., “Le Père en sa relation constitutive au Fils selon saint Thomas d'Aquin”, Revue Thomist, 107 (2007), pp.47-72Google Scholar.

27 The name dunamis, although it is scriptural, was rarely taken into consideration by the Church Fathers precisely because it was too impersonal to ground the theology of a third divine person. Of the biblical names of the Spirit only the Johannine Paraklètos is strongly personal, but it would take a complete study to understand how to develop its meaning on an inner-Trinitarian level and its possible articulation with Ruah-Pneuma.

28 See Basil, Sur le Saint-Esprit, Paris, Cerf, SC 17 bis, 19682, pp.412-413.

29 For more on the differences and communion between the Trinitarian persons in our prayer, see Vetö, E., Du Christ à la Trinité, Penser les mystères du Christ après Thomas d'Aquin et Balthasar, “Cogitatio Fidei 283”, Cerf, Paris, 2012, p.454fGoogle Scholar.