Editorial Note
Links to other media and further information regarding this topic can be found in the German version of this article.
1. The work of the spirit: overcoming, liberating, uplifting
In biblical texts relating to the time of the “judges” and “charismatic leaders in Israel” (1200–1000 BC), we find for the first time a “fixed, clearly defined and abundantly attested use of the word ruach, ‘spirit’.”1Westermann, Claus, Geist im Alten Testament, in: Evangelische Theologie 41 (1981), 223–30, 225, translation by Michael Welter. Several similar stories speak of a “descent” of the Spirit of God and of “being overcome” by the Spirit and of a liberation from a life afflicted by guilt and suffering (“sin”). They already show some remarkable similarities with the statements of the Apostles’ Creed. (e.g. Judges 3:7–11; 6:34–35; 11:29; 1 Samuel 11:6–7).
The Spirit of God is seen at work in the rescue of a community (the Israelites) from great distress, which hardly knows what is happening to it. This is preceded by the fact that the community had distanced and alienated itself from God. The Israelites had forgotten God and served the Baals. God gave them into the hands of their enemies (“Israel did what was evil in the eyes of God”: Judges 3:7; 6:1; 10:6). Oppression by another people or inferiority in battle trigger deep despair, but also the awareness of one’s own transgressions. (“Then Israel cried out to God” Judges 3:9; 6:6; 10:10).
Sin is not to be understood simply as moral wickedness or even as self-centeredness, but as a complex interrelationship of guilt and suffering, as becomes clear in the book of Judges, for example. It is a threat from within – triggered by the community’s adaptation to the gods of the nations, under which it is scattered – and from without – by the superiority of the other nations. Israel is freed from this entanglement by God’s Spirit. And not in a numinous way, but through those “overcome” by the Spirit, who raise up the people and their life forces. These “charismatics” are not particularly exquisite, religiously and morally excellent people. They are all portrayed in biblical tradition as somewhat unsympathetic or even dubious. However, these people who have been overcome by God’s spirit succeed in restoring courage and the ability to act among the people.
The people can now not only free themselves from the desperate situation, they also experience a long-term restoration of the endangered and doomed common life. The charismatics become political leaders and “judges,” and “the land had rest for forty years” (Judges 3:11; 8:28). The texts do not yet speak of the “resurrection of the dead” and “eternal life,” but they do speak of liberation from dangerous entanglement, of the resurrection of a life consecrated to death and of the beginning of a long period of peace.2Cf. Welker, Michael, Gottes Geist. Theologie des Heiligen Geistes, Göttingen 72022, 58–71.
The Spirit of God is thus discovered as a power of liberation from entanglement and, as a power of blessing, creates lasting conditions conducive to life. He creates solidarity, loyalty and the ability to act together, the strength to defend oneself and to reorganize in a people that is alienated from God, broken within itself and threatened from the outside. A good, life-enhancing spirit that can also be identified ethically, legally and religiously wins people over and uplifts them. But how can this good spirit not only be experienced as a surprise? How can it be clearly recognized? Here, too, texts from the Old Testament can help. They speak of the “resting” of God’s spirit on one chosen by God and make references to the biblical law with its sources of power.
2. The dormant Spirit of God leads to justice, to the protection of the poor and disadvantaged and to a common knowledge of God
The stories of the “resting of the Spirit” on the “servant of God” or on the one whom God has chosen also speak of saving and liberating interventions by the Spirit of God (Isaiah 11; 42:1–9; 61). Compared to the war stories associated with the early charismatics, these texts do not arouse ambivalent feelings. The “bearer of the Spirit” – often identified with Jesus Christ in the New Testament (e. g. Matthew 12:15–21; Luke 3:22; John 1:32–34) – will establish justice, mercy and the universal knowledge of God in Israel and even among the Gentiles. Achieving justice, mercy and the knowledge of God are the central concerns of God’s law. In the New Testament, Matthew 23:23 refers to this and mentions the establishment of “justice, mercy and faith” as the “weighty matters of the law.”
Key texts from the Old Testament are:
Isaiah 11:1–4.9f:
A rice will emerge from Isai’s stump and a shoot sprouts from its roots.
And God’s spirit will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and insight, the spirit of planning and strength. He does not judge by appearances and does not decide on the basis of mere rumors. Rather, with justice he helps the helpless to justice and will stand up for the poor in the land […]. Nothing evil or corruptive will be done on all my holy mountain, for the land will be filled with the knowledge of God as the sea is filled with water. And in that day the nations will turn to the womb of Jesse, which will stand as a standard for the nations. And his resting place will be glory. [emphasis added]Isaiah 42:1–3.6f.:
Here is my servant, my chosen one. I have put my spirit upon him! He brings the judgment to the nations. He does not shout or make a noise, nor does he let his voice be heard in the streets. He does not break the bruised reed or extinguish the smoldering wick. Yes, he really does bring the legal decision […]. I, Yahweh, have called you out of righteousness. And I have made you a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open blind eyes, to free the prisoners from the dungeon, to free those who sit in darkness. [emphasis added]3On Isa 11 and 40ff. see Schüle, Andreas, Das Jesajabuch heute lesen, Zürich 2023, 137–143.153–162; but also Congar, Yves, Der Heilige Geist, Freiburg/Basel/Wien 1982, 24–26.Isaiah 61:1.6.8:
The Spirit of God is upon me because God has anointed me. To bring good news to the poor […]. To call for the release of the captives and the opening of the prisoners […]. But you will be called ‘priests of Yahweh’; you will be called ‘servants of our God’[…]. For I, Yahweh, love justice […]. [emphasis added]4Cf. Welker, Geist, 109–123.
The connections between just justice, protection of the poor and disadvantaged and true knowledge of God are not only highly significant in religious terms. They are also indispensable for a secular ethos that seeks to uphold the connections between efforts for just justice, humane morality and a religious or secular search for truth.5Cf. Welker, Michael, Theologie und Recht, in: Der Staat 49 (4/2010), 573–585; Welker, Michael, Gesetz und Recht – Recht und Gerechtigkeit. Recht und Religion in biblischen Perspektiven, in: Welker, Michael/Schmid, Konrad (Eds.), Recht und Religion. Jahrbuch für Biblische Theologie 37 (2022), Göttingen 2024, 39–53. The realism of the working of the spirit is illustrated by the continuity with the intentions of the law. A third group of texts from the Old and New Testaments deepen the insights into its power.
3. The revolutionary outpouring of the divine spirit
The metaphor of the “outpouring of the Spirit” is found in the prophecy of Joel 3:1–3, but also in Isaiah 32:15 and Zechariah 12:10. The Pentecost account in the New Testament quotes Joel at length:
Acts 2:17–21:
now what was spoken through the prophet Joel is happening:In the last days it shall come to pass, thus says God: I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall be prophets, your young men shall have visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. I will also pour out of my Spirit on my servants and on my handmaids in those days, and they will be prophets.
The Pentecost account adds that the resurrected and exalted Jesus Christ, having received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father, “poured him out” (Acts 2:33). God’s Spirit therefore “rests” on Jesus Christ, and he is the one who gives the Spirit, who pours it out on people.
In his great Reformation dogmatics, John Calvin 
emphasizes that the Holy Spirit “was not given to Jesus Christ for himself alone (privatim), but he is to make his fullness overflow to the hungry and thirsty!”6Calvin, Johannes, Unterricht in der christlichen Religion – Institutio Christianae Religionis, Göttingen 42022; Institutio II, 15,5 vgl. II, 15,2, translation by Michael Welker; a brief overview of pneumatology in Calvin and Luther is provided by Alasdair Heron, The Holy Spirit, Philadelphia 1983, 99–117. This great sharing of the divine Spirit takes place through the outpouring of the Spirit, also known as the “baptism of the Spirit.”
This outpouring of the spirit is a revolutionary event because it affects men and women – and it happens in patriarchal societies. It affects the old and the young – and it happens in gerontocratic societies in which the old are in charge. Finally, it also affects servants and maidservants – in slave-owning societies, which were taken for granted in antiquity.
The outpouring of the Spirit is associated with a miracle of tongues, or more precisely a miracle of understanding, because people from “all over the world” – eighteen countries or regions of the world are listed – understand the message of “God’s great deeds” conveyed by the outpouring (Acts 2:9–11). The outpouring of the Spirit constitutes a differentiated and multi-colored community. It forces us to break out of the usual two-sided thinking in relations and to place elementary multi-digit relationships before the mind’s eye. It is not a two-digit relationship with God that is created, but a multi-digit network of relationships. Not only mono-hierarchical, patriarchal, gerontocratic and class-social relationships are called into question, but also nationalist, chauvinist and xenophobic ideologies and forms of power.
With his outpouring, the Holy Spirit creates a powerful force field. Inspired by Niklas Luhmann’s use of the concept of resonance, I already stated in 1988: “The Holy Spirit is the resonance field of Christ […]. It is to be understood as the multifaceted unity of perspectives on Jesus Christ, in which we participate, which we can help to constitute.”7Welker, Michael, Der Heilige Geist. Münsteraner Antrittsvorlesung vom 29.04.1988, in: Evangelische Theologie 49/2 (1989), 126–141, 140, translation by Michael Welker; Welker, Gottes Geist, 286–290; Luhmann, Niklas, Ökologische Kommunikation. Kann die moderne Gesellschaft sich auf ökologische Gefährdungen einstellen?, Opladen 1986, 40–50. 30 years later, the word “resonance” became a philosophical, sociological and political buzzword thanks to Hartmut Rosa’s book Resonanz. Eine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung, Frankfurt 2019. The constitution of a differentiated plural community through the outpouring of the Spirit, which is characterized by justice, mercy and true knowledge of God, gains a share in the even richer powers of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and thus in his life, which reaches beyond the earthly conditions of life. We will explore this in the following sections, which also focus on the present radiance of the effects of the divine Spirit.
4. Moved and filled by the Spirit of God: the greatest devotional movement in human history
The eminent English New Testament scholar James Dunn has emphasized in numerous publications the fact that even early Christianity was electrified by the realization that Jesus Christ was not only filled with God’s Spirit, but that the Risen and Exalted One pours out this Spirit on his own. This focus on the force field of the outpouring of the Spirit, on the polyphony of the gifts of the Spirit and the lively interactions between people seized and filled with God’s Spirit led to the greatest piety movement in human history – in the 20th century! – has led to this. The outpouring of the Spirit is a central element in the theologies and spiritual practice of Pentecostal churches and charismatic movements.8Cf. Dunn, James, Toward the Spirit of Christ. The Emergence of the Distinctive Features of Christian Pneumatology, in: Welker, Michael (Ed.), The Work of the Spirit. Pneumatology and Pentecostalism, Grand Rapids 2006, 3–26; Dunn, James, The Christ and the Spirit, Vol. 2 Pneumatology, Grand Rapids 1998; Frank D. Macchia , one of the leading theologians of the Pentecostal churches, calls the baptism in the Spirit the “crown jewel” of the Pentecostal churches and Pentecostal theology, indeed of Christian experience in general: Macchia, Frank D., Baptized in the Spirit. A Global Pentecostal Theology, Grand Rapids 2006, esp. 20–33; Macchia, Frank D., The Kingdom and the Power. Spirit Baptism in Pentecostal and Ecumenical Perspective, in: Welker, Michael (Ed.), The Work of the Spirit. Pneumatology and Pentecostalism, Grand Rapids 2006, 109–125; Hollenweger, Walter, Charismatisch-pfingstliches Christentum. Herkunft, Situation, Ökumenische Chancen, Göttingen 2002; Zimmerling, Peter, Charismatische Bewegungen, Göttingen 22018. The “Pentecostal movement” is currently estimated to have 615 million followers – a quarter of all Christians. Its congregations are growing fastest in Asia, South America and Africa.
A 2021 study by the Chamber of the Evangelical Church in Germany summed up the long-standing difficulties between Pentecostalism and charismatic movements on the one hand and Protestant churches on the other: “Pentecostal churches had been regarded as ‘sects’ for a long time by the historical Protestant churches. ‘Pentecostals’ were pejoratively labelled ‘enthusiastic Christians’. From the Pentecostal side, Protestant national churches were described as institutionalised and ‘dead’ Christianity, in which the Holy Spirit was no longer present.”9Chamber of the EKD for Worldwide Ecumenism, Pentecostal Movement and Charismatization. Approaches –Suggestions – Perspectives, translated by Neville Williamson, Leipzig 2022 (https://www.ekd.de/ekd_en/ds_doc/pentecostal_EVA_2022.pdf), accessed on 03.02.2026, 18. As the Pentecostal movement is characterized by “a unique pace of growth,” the aim is to examine its history, theological “commonalities, differences and […] incompatibilities,” its “social and political practices” and to make “practical recommendations” for the common ecumenical path.10EKD, Pentecostal Movement, 21–23.25.
Despite helpful overviews, despite the warnings against “sweeping judgments” and “generalising patterns of recognition” and despite the call to “recognising […] misjudgments on both sides,”11EKD, Pentecostal Movement, 158.203. the “study document” fails to gain access to the foundations and developmental dynamics of Pentecostal theology and piety. It remains stuck in the captivity of bipolar thinking. Her presentation of Pentecostal theology is more akin to pietistic and neo-Protestant thought patterns (search for certainty, direct personal experience of God).12EKD, Pentecostal Movement, 63, 65, 71, 124. One searches in vain for a deepening of biblical and Reformation education and for an improvement in the systematic forms of thought that would allow a shift from the bipolar patterns of thought to a fundamental appreciation of the multipolar force field of the Spirit corresponding to the outpouring of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit.13Cf. Welker, Michael, Pneumatologische Defizite. Ein Kommentar zur Orientierungshilfe der Kammer der EKD, in: Kirche und Migration im 20. Jahrhundert, KZG 34/1 (2021), 191–197.
Without an adequate pneumatological orientation, the Pentecostal church’s focus on the exalted present Christ is viewed with skepticism and confronted in an unfavorable way with the emphasis on the relevance of the earthly Jesus.14Cf. EKD, Pentecostal Movement, 83–84; Berkhof, Hendrikus, Theologie des Heiligen Geistes, Neukirchen 1968, 14–33; Lampe, Geoffrey, God as Spirit, Oxford 1977, 95–119. Instead of attempting to think from a Spirit-filled polyphonic environment towards the individual believer, the study remains stuck in such dull assurances as “that the biblical texts can in every case be seen as an expression of faith by people who have had personal experiences of God whose effect goes beyond the individual.”15EKD, Pentecostal Movement, 76–77. These difficulties of perception are repeated with regard to creation theology, where simple cosmogonic approaches and eschatological redemptive theological approaches are unfruitfully contrasted.16Cf. EKD, Pentecostal Movement, 77ff. German church theology and Pentecostal theology move in different worlds of thought and experience.
5. “Spirit-forgotten and spirit-obsessed”? Difficulties of thought and cognition with a biblically based and realistic theology of the spirit
The Spirit of God does not constitute an isolated, self-assured individual who then enters into all kinds of relationships, but rather the Spirit constitutes a spiritual network of relationships in which people enter into lively, differentiated self-relationships and social relationships. From the very beginning, it is about complex relationships in which many people, events and impulses interact “emergently.” These polyphonic relationships of influence on one another, in which bipolar “relations” and monistic “self-relations” also take place, are worked by the mind. Instead of being blinded by intellectual construction and reduction processes, one should rather think of real relationships in families, friendship circles, educational processes or religious communication processes if one wants to deal with the topic of God’s spirit in a meaningful way.
The Göttingen-based New Testament scholar Reinhard Feldmeier has presented an instructive and failed attempt to mediate between these worlds of thought on a biblical-theological basis in his book “The Spirit of God.” It makes the laudable claim of “holding up the critical mirror of the biblical testimonies both to the Spirit-forgetfulness of the churches of the Northern Hemisphere and to the overemphasis of some churches in the Global South. The result, I hope, will be to spark further theological reflection among all interested parties.”17Feldmeier, Reinhard, The Spirit of God. Biblical Pneumatology in its Religious-Historical Context, translated by Travis Robert Niles, Paderborn 2022, Preface to the German Edition. The fifth part of this book deals very illuminatingly with spiritual theology in Mark, Paul, Luke and John. However, even the pale and fragmentary explanations of the Old Testament traditions on the Spirit and the work of the Spirit in the second part of the book are disappointing. Even the pneumatologically immensely important figure of the outpouring of the Spirit and its impulses of knowledge, which are so important for theology and piety in the Pentecostal churches and charismatic movements, remain as good as hidden in two or three notes. Therefore, the book is far from a “critical mirror of the biblical testimonies” with regard to God’s Spirit.
Apart from the comments on the Gospels and Paul in the fifth part, the book is devoid of any biblical-pneumatological education. The numerous theological efforts in the northern hemisphere to gain insights into God’s Spirit and the work of the Spirit, with their strengths and weaknesses, are completely ignored, as are the differentiated developments in Pentecostal theology. The author is greatly impressed by his limited experience in Brazil, where the “Universal Church of the Kingdom of God” “commands over 76 radio stations, 20 television stations, participates in more than 100 additional media enterprises and takes in more than roughly 1.4 billion US-Dollars annually in Brazil alone.”18Feldmeier, Spirit, 1.
The fact that the founder of this church, the self-proclaimed “bishop” Edir Macedo, amassed a private fortune of over $1 billion, that he advocated rigid patriarchal sexism and racism and supported the unscrupulous President Jair Bolsonaro with his influential media, is noted by Feldmeier under the heading “ambivalence” and balanced with the recommendation of “self-critical openness,” particularly with regard to “people experience a liveliness in these communities.”19Feldmeier, Spirit, 3–4. In contrast, the Chamber of the EKD clearly warned against the instrumentalization of the Christian faith for political goals and the commercialization of religion and therefore also against striving for ecumenical partnership with churches affected by this.20Cf. EKD, Pentecostal Movement, 172–175.
The book contributes to an “involuntary promotion of the theological ‘forgetfulness of the spirit’ in the West”21Welker, Michael,Rezension: Reinhard Feldmeier, Gottes Geist. Die biblische Rede vom Geist im Kontext der antiken Welt, in: Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen 275 (2022), 1–9, 7, translation by Michael Welker. by drawing attention to concepts of the spirit that are distant from the Bible in two long sections entitled “The workings of world reason – Greco-Roman philosophy” and the contributions on Stoic influence in Hellenistic Judaism. It thus draws attention to theories of mind that for centuries have been fixated on metaphysical and subjectivity-theoretical concepts of mind. The vague references to the fact that “the Hellenization of the biblical faith always challenged its representatives to clarify and to assert the peculiarity of the biblical understanding of the Spirit whenever they appropriated philosophical concepts of pneuma”22Feldmeier, Spirit, 64. conceal the dramatic displacement processes for Christian theology, churches and piety with regard to a biblically oriented and at the same time realistic doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
These deficits also had far-reaching consequences for the development of a convincing doctrine of God and Christology. The influential Pentecostal theologian Frank Macchia aptly formulates: “In relation to God the Creator and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Spirit draws creation polyphonically into the eternal life of God. […] Simple one-on-one-relations and monohierarchical forms of social interactions are implicitly resisted in favor of a participation in the multicontextual and polyphonic work of the Spirit.”23Macchia, Kingdom, 125.
6. The multimodal spirit of justice, freedom, truth, charity and peace: a powerhouse of goodness
A highly impressive example of a realistic outpouring of the spirit in the 20th century has come down to us from Poland. In 1979, eight months after his election as Pope, Karol Wojtyla visited his home country and celebrated a mass on Victory Square in Warsaw. He ends it with a prayer and an invocation to God:
And I cry – I who am a Son of the land of Poland and who am also Pope John Paul II – I cry from all the depths of this Millennium, I cry on the vigil of Pentecost: Let your Spirit descend. Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land.24John Paul II., Holy Mass, 02.06.1979 (https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/de/homilies/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19790602_polonia-varsavia.html), accessed on 03.02.2026.
The following year, strikes broke out in the country, which led to the founding of the Solidarity trade union and to many liberal social and political transformations in Poland and other countries. Two decades later, on his eighth and penultimate trip to Poland, John Paul II spoke again at the site of his legendary 1979 address:
Is not all that happened at that time in Europe and the world, beginning with our own homeland, God’s response? Before our eyes, changes of political, social and economic systems have taken place, enabling individuals and nations to see anew the splendour of their own dignity. Truth and justice are recovering their proper value, becoming a challenge for all those who are able to appreciate the gift of freedom.25John Paul II., Eucharistic Celebration, 13.06.1999 (https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/de/homilies/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19990613_beatification.html), accessed on 03.02.2026.
The themes of justice, truth and freedom mentioned in the speech – alongside peace and love – have moved people since time immemorial. They are also central concerns in the Bible. For Paul and other biblical traditions, they are explicitly linked to the work of the divine spirit. God’s spirit is a spirit of righteousness (Romans 8:10). He is a Spirit of truth (2 Thess 2:23 and John passim). He is a Spirit of freedom (2 Cor 3:17). He is a spirit of philanthropy, of love of neighbor and thus an advocate of human dignity. I have therefore proposed to understand the divine Spirit as a “multimodal and multipolar power.”26Welker, Michael, Zum Bild Gottes. Eine Anthropologie des Geistes, Gifford Lectures 2019/20, Leipzig 22021, 29–33, translation by Michael Welker.
Unfortunately, the Pope does not acknowledge the biblical emphasis on the outpouring of the Spirit on women and the young. The associated problematizations of patriarchal and gerontocratic structures would probably have overtaxed the potential of ecclesial self-criticism. But these challenges become undeniable if we take seriously the realization that the Holy Spirit for Christians is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that he is poured out by him and that he is to give people a share in his Spirit.
In the light of Jesus’ pre-Easter ministry, this spirit has a strong diaconal power: the care for people who are specifically afflicted and suffering in acceptance, comfort and healing, in their edification through proclamation and liberating teaching. The “royal work” of Jesus Christ and his spirit does not take place in a monarchical display of power, but in the strength of a brother and friend who has also experienced the fate of a despised and outcast. This corresponds to the great modesty of the “priestly work,” which is revealed through the resurrection testimonies and in view of “eternal life.” The Risen One reveals himself in the greeting of peace, in the prayer of thanksgiving over the bread, in the breaking of bread, in the opening up of the mystery of the Messiah in Scripture, in the gathering and mission of people who want to follow him – in continuity and discontinuity with the pre-Easter Jesus.27The Emmaus story, Luke 24:13–35, illustrates this particularly impressively. See also Eckstein, Hans-Joachim/Welker, Michael (Eds.), Die Wirklichkeit der Auferstehung, Göttingen, 52019; Peters, Ted/Russell, Robert John/Welker, Michael (Eds.), Resurrection. Theological and Scientific Asssessments, Grand Rapids 2002.
In the light of the cross, the spirit of Christ and his “prophetic work” in liberation from the power of sin takes on an oppressive drama.28Cf. Welker, Michael, Gottes Offenbarung. Christologie, Göttingen 42000, 229–233.257–291. Jesus Christ is crucified in the name of the political world power Rome, even if its political representative states: “I find no fault in him!” (John 18:38; 19:6; Mt 27:24; Mk 15:14). He is crucified in the name of the ruling religion and under the pressure of public morality and opinion manipulated by the religious leaders. Roman and Jewish law are also involved. All the forces that should actually protect human life – politics, religion, law, public morality and opinion – work together against the innocent condemned man. Revealed on the cross is the world “under the power of sin” – the most complex interrelationships of the entanglement of suffering and guilt. Only in suffering and in the “surrender” of his spirit (Mk 15:37; Mt 27:50; Lk 23:46; Jn 19:30) can the Crucified reveal himself.
7. The discernment of spirits – theologically and philosophically – in truth-seeking communities
The Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth whose powers are at work beyond the earthly conditions of life. He reaches out beyond the indispensable powers of self-preservation and self-assertion in natural earthly living conditions. These powers of self-preservation and self-assertion are emphasized by a theory of the Spirit that offers an alternative to the theology of the Holy Spirit with an extremely powerful and highly impressive tradition.
The great concept of the mind in Aristotle’s Metaphysics Book XII, 7 is perhaps its most important document. This mind – an ancestor of the modern “I think” – is the power that thinks itself, insofar as it participates in and is given a share in what is thought. The spirit is the power that does not lose itself in relation to others, but rather gains and maintains itself in the thinking relationship. In the mind, the thinking and the thought become identical. This making-itself-representable and becoming-itself-representable of the active mind in relation to thought is regarded by Aristotle as “the divine.” In concrete terms, Aristotle envisions an ascent of thought in self-development and world-development.29Cf. Aristoteles, Metaphysik XII, Frankfurt 52004; Bordt, Michael, Aristoteles‘ „Metaphsik XII“, Freiburg 2006; on the person of the Holy Spirit see Oberdorfer, Bernd, The Holy Spirit – A Person? Reflection on the Spirit’s Trinitarian Identity, in: Welker, Michael (Ed.), The Work of the Spirit. Pneumatology and Pentecostalism, Grand Rapids 2006, 27–46.
The philosopher Hegel admired Aristotle and at the same time saw the task of philosophy and the achievement of his own philosophy in remedying a significant deficit in Aristotle’s theory. The central focus on thinking was insufficient. The mind must also be understood as a real material power of self-producing and self-thematicizing, with countless self-relationships in a historical world.30Cf. Welker, Bild, 43–44.
With this view, Hegel was able to appreciate the forces of religion, law, art and politics. He could not prevent the enormous dominance of self-preservation, self-development and self-assertion in the theories of spirit, whether only intellectual or also material-cultural. The multimodal spirit of Jesus Christ, but also the multimodal spirit of justice, freedom, truth, humanity and peace is a force field for the unfolding of a non-self-referential person. John Polkinghorne has suggested that the personhood of the Holy Spirit should be seen in its context sensitivity, in its empathy, not in its self-centeredness. This corresponds to John’s talk of the “Spirit of truth”: “He will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak from himself – but what he will hear he will speak, and what is to come he will declare to you.” (John 16:13)31Cf. Polkinghorne, John/Welker, Michael, Faith in the Living God. A Dialogue, Eugene 22019, 48.76f.81.138–143.
The powers of the divine spirit all point beyond earthly living conditions. By working to establish justice, freedom, truth, love and peace in a world suffering from many forms of injustice, lack of freedom, untruth and lies, hatred and peacelessness, they point to divine life, to which all hopes for a redeemed and eternal life are directed. God’s spirit is revealed in the liberation from suffering and guilt and in a power that goes beyond the indispensable earthly efforts of self-preservation and self-assertion: the spirit of Jesus Christ, the multimodal spirit of justice, freedom, truth, human kindness and peace. The Apostles’ Creed speaks of this Spirit.