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the Trinity is seen as a model for
human community. Since God can
only be God as long the relationships
between Father, Son, and Spirit are
maintained, so humans, made in
God’s image, can only be truly
human as they maintain meaningful
relationships with God and others.
The Trinity and the Spirit
The Spirit often seems like the
forgotten person of the Trinity.
Perhaps this is because the debates
of the 4th century CE were primarily
about the relationship between
Jesus, Son of God, and God the
Father, so the Spirit received only a
brief mention in the creeds. It might
also be because the Spirit seems the
most difficult of the three persons
to comprehend, a situation made
more confusing by the use of the
older English term Holy Ghost—
from the word gast, meaning “spirit.”
According to the Gospel of
John, Jesus told his followers that
he would send God’s Spirit to be
with them after he had left them
and ascended into heaven. Because
the Spirit was supposed to transform
the lives of God’s followers from the
inside out, so that they would live
the kind of holy lives that God
wanted them to, the Spirit then
became known as the Holy Spirit.
While Christians of different
denominations understand the
Holy Spirit in different ways,
the Pentecostal movement of the
20th century did much to raise
the public profile of the Spirit.
The movement was named after
the day of Pentecost, when Jesus
sent the Spirit to his disciples. On
that day, the Spirit is said to have
appeared as a flame above the heads
of the disciples, who were filled with
the Holy Spirit. This enabled them
to preach in languages that had
been previously unknown to them.
The idea of the Holy Spirit’s
transformative power is central
to Pentecostal Christians. They
believe that believers may be taken
over by the Holy Spirit in the way
in which the Spirit took hold of the
disciples. This very intense, personal
experience is called a baptism by
the Holy Spirit, and worshippers
actively seek this spiritual renewal
over and above their normal
Christian life.Charismatic Christianity
Since the 1960s, the charismatic
movement has introduced the
Pentecostal enthusiasm for the
Spirit into other denominations.
The word charismatic comes from
charismata (Greek for “gift of
grace”) and refers to the spiritual
gifts which are evidence of the
Spirit’s activity among Christians,
including gifts such as healing,
prophesying, and speaking in
tongues (or other languages).
The pronounced role of the Spirit
in the Pentecostal and charismatic
movements has prompted the Church
to think through its understanding of
all three persons of the Trinity, if it is
not to inadvertently sideline one or
more. The idea of the Trinity remains
as vital now as ever, informing how
Christians speak about the God they
believe and worship. ■CHRISTIANITY
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Many spiritual gifts are
recognized in the Christian
Church. For believers, these
gifts are given by God to the
Church to help it do the work
of God’s kingdom in the world.
The gifts are for three main
purposes: ministry, motivation,
and manifestation.
Christians maintain that
the Spirit enables some people
to perform special roles within
the Church. These ministry
gifts include full-time callings
to be a pastor or an evangelist.
Motivational gifts are practical
gifts that encourage the work
of the church: these include
prophecy, teaching, giving,
leading, or showing mercy.
Sometimes, the Spirit’s
activity is seen in a special
way, such as in tongues
(speaking with unlearned
words in order to praise God),
healing, or other miracles.
These gifts are called
manifestations, which show
the Spirit is at work.
The Bible says that the
Spirit helps to produce good
fruit in the lives of Christians:
Christians grow into “love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control”
(Galatians 5:22–23).The name of Father, Son,
and Spirit means that
God is the one God
in threefold repetition...
Karl Barth