Significations et usages de pneumatology

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

This article or section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (March 2011)

Pneumatology is the study of spiritual beings and phenomena, especially the interactions between humans and God. Pneuma (πνεῦμα) is Greek for "breath", which metaphorically describes a non-material being or influence.

  In Christian theology

In Christian theology pneumatology refers to the study of the Holy Spirit. The English word comes from two Greek words: πνευμα (pneuma, spirit) and λογος (logos, teaching about). Pneumatology would normally include study of the person of the Holy Spirit, and the works of the Holy Spirit. This latter category would normally include Christian teachings on new birth, spiritual gifts (charismata), Spirit-baptism, sanctification, the inspiration of prophets, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity (which in itself covers many different aspects). Different Christian denominations have different theological approaches.

Church history contains four critical discussions that have served to progressively define Christian pneumatology:

1. Patristic period. The early Church engaged in a debate over the divinity of the Holy Spirit, with Arius asserting that the Son is a "creature" or "angel" and Athanasius countering that the Son possesses divine attributes (such as immutability, transcendence, ability to sanctify, and involvement in creation). Although the debate is not pneumatological in nature, it led to a very similar debate between the Pneumatomachians and the Capadocian Fathers.

2. Medieval period. In this period ensued a debate regarding the relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Church asserted that the Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father alone (as stated in the original Nicene Creed), while Augustine of Hippo and the medieval Catholic Church added the "filioque" clause to the Creed (the Spirit proceeds from the Father "and the Son").

3. Reformation and Counter-reformation. Here the relationship between the Spirit and the Scriptures is re-examined. Martin Luther and John Calvin hold that the Spirit has a certain "interpretive authority" to "illuminate" scripture, while Counter-reformation theologians respond that the Spirit has authorized the Church to serve as authoritative interpreter of Scripture.

Philipp Melanchthon (February 16, 1497 – April 19, 1560), born Philipp Schwartzerdt, was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems. He stands next to Luther and Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and molder of Protestantism. As much as Luther, he is the primary founder of Lutheranism. The scholarly work of Professor Philipp Melanchthon of the University of Wittenberg played a crucial role in the Protestant Reformation. He was a theologian, a student of the classics, a German reformer and collaborator of Martin Luther. As an expert in Hebrew and Greek, he helped Luther translate the Bible into German. Based on theology, he laid the foundation of pneumatology—the mother of psychology.^[1]

4. Contemporary era. The contemporary church understands a distinctive relationship between the Spirit and the Church community. Various contemporary theologians grant the Spirit as authority to govern the church, to liberate oppressed communities, and to create experiences associated with faith. Contemporary pneumatology is often marked by the Pentecostal Movement.

Notable contemporary pneumatologists include Jürgen Moltmann, Kilian McDonnell, Yves Congar and James D. G. Dunn.^[2]

  Further reading

• Linton M. Smith Jr. "Not By Might Nor By Power: The Bible Believer's Guide to the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit" (DayStar Publishing; Miamitown, OH 1995)
• John McIntyre, The shape of pneumatology: studies in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997)
• Graham A. Cole, He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007)
• G. James Olsen, "Why Angels Have Wings: A Pneumatological Assay of Beings from the Spirit Realms" (Chicago, IL: Eschaton, 1997)

  Notes

Christian theology Outline of Christian theology Systematic Scripture Inspiration · Canonics · Biblical studies · Exegesis · Law and Gospel · Hermeneutics Of God Attributes · Christology · Pneumatology · Trinity · Father · Son (Hypostatic union · Incarnation · Jesus · Logos · Christocentric) · Holy Spirit · Theocentricism · Immutability · Impassibility Cosmology Creation · Angels · Angelic hierarchy · Humanity · Fallen angels · Satan · Theodicy Soteriology Absolution · Adoption · Assurance · Atonement · Baptism · Conversion · Eternal life · Faith · Forgiveness · Glorification · Grace · Irresistible grace · Imputation · Justification · Lapsarianism · Means of grace · Mortification · Ordo Salutis · Predestination · Reconciliation · Redemption · Regeneration · Repentance · Resurrection · Salvation · Sanctification · Theosis · Union with Christ Hamartiology Adam · Anthropology · The Fall · Incurvatus in se · Original sin · Sin · Theodicy · Total depravity Ecclesiology Sacrament · Missiology · Polity (Congregational · Episcopal · Presbyterian) · Synod · Conciliarity Eschatology Summary of differences · Historicism · Idealism · Dispensationalism · Futurism · Preterism · Millenarianism (Pre-/ Post-/ A-) · Adventism · Antichrist · Apocalypse · Apocalypticism · Covenant/New Covenant theology · End times · Heaven · Hell · Last Judgment · Millennialism · New Jerusalem · Rapture · Second Coming · Soul sleep · Tribulation · War in Heaven Historical History of Christian theology · Calvinist–Arminian debate · Apostolic Age · Canon · Patristics · Caesaropapism · Semipelagianism · Iconoclasm · Scholasticism · Thomism · Conciliarism · Renaissance · Protestant Reformation · Counter-Reformation · Pietism · Great Awakenings Practical Apologetics · Biblical law · Education · Ethics · Homiletics · Liturgics · Missiology · Moral · Pastoral · Polemics · Political By Tradition Eastern Orthodox theology Apophatic theology · Cataphatic theology · Economy · Essence–Energies · Filioque · Gnomic will · Metousiosis · Phronema · Phyletism · Proskynesis · Sobornost · Symphonia · Tabor light · Theoria · Theosis · Theotokos Roman Catholic theology Absolution · Apostolic succession · Assumption of Mary · Traditionalism · Ecumenical Councils · Icon veneration · Immaculate conception · Indulgences · Infant baptism · Josephology · Liturgy · Mariology · Mass · Modernism · Natural Law · Papal infallibility · Priesthood · Purgatory · Quartodecimanism · Real presence · Sacerdotalism · Sacrament · Sainthood · Thomism · Transubstantiation · Ultramontanism Protestant theology Widely held Protestant theology Adiaphora · Assurance · Believer's baptism · Priesthood of the believer Anglican Anglo-Catholicism · Evangelical Catholic · High church · Latitudinarian · Low church Arminian / Wesleyan Christian perfection · Conditional preservation of the saints · Imparted righteousness · Lordship salvation · Prevenient grace Lutheran Two kingdoms · Loci Theologici · Theology of the Cross · Confessional Lutheran · Haugean · Lutheran Orthodoxy · Lutheran scholasticism · Neo-Lutheranism Reformed Christian Reconstructionism · Covenantalism · Free Grace theology · Monergism · Predestination · Five solas (Sola fide · Sola gratia · Sola scriptura · Soli Deo gloria · Solus Christus) · Supersessionism · Total depravity · TULIP Pentecostalism Baptism with the Holy Spirit · Faith healing · Fivefold ministry · Glossolalia Other Traditions Adventistism · Anabaptism · Dispensationalism · Evangelicalism · Fundamentalism · Messianic Judaism · Pietism · Prosperity theology · Restorationism Christianity Portal

This Christian theology article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.