The Holy Spirit and Worship
Transformation and Truth in the Theologies of John Owen and John Zizioulas
- Theology
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2020
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Publisher's Description
The Holy Spirit has become a greater focus for attention in Trinitarian theology and in the life of the western church since the rise of Pentecostalism at the beginning of the twentieth century. Different understandings of the Holy Spirit have impacted worship in a variety of ways. This book looks at look at surprising overlaps in the thinking about relationship between the Holy Spirit and worship between two radically different traditions of the church, represented by John Owen, from the seventeenth century in England, and John Zizioulas, from the twentieth/twenty-first century in Greece. Four threads of argument are identified, flowing from the unexpected overlap between these two thinkers, that are of value for the church today. The first is the personal and relational nature of the Triune God, drawing the human person into a deeper sense of relational identity. The second is the immediacy of the encounter with God through the Holy Spirit in worship. The third is the way in which the Holy Spirit leads people into truth. The fourth is the transformative nature of the encounter with God in worship, which draws people into sharing God's purpose for the transformation of the world.
Endorsements (5)
“This timely and scholarly book deepens ecumenical thinking about the connection between the Holy Spirit and the church’s worship. Elizabeth Welch reveals unexpected convergences between John Owen (Reformed) and John Zizioulas (Orthodox), widely separated in time and in ecclesial tradition, in her dynamic, relational, and transformative theology of the Holy Spirit in worship. Both liturgy and theology will be enriched by the study of this book.”
“Throughout this book, Elizabeth Welch makes fresh and stimulating connections. She writes persuasively about the meeting of Christian West and Christian East in the rich theology of the Holy Spirit and of worship developed by the seventeenth-century Puritan John Owen and the contemporary Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas. Through this sharply focused study, she illuminates central ecclesiological themes common to East and West. This is an original, thought-provoking, and profoundly irenic book.”
“What connects a seventeenth-century English Puritan with a twenty-first-century Greek Orthodox theologian? The Holy Spirit! Elizabeth Welch’s analysis of pneumatology in John Owen and John Zizioulas reveals unexpected convergence between the two thinkers. Insightful and stimulating, there is much here which promotes the quest to renew Christian worship and reinvigorate ecumenical dialogue.”
“In a post-denominational era, where the momentum of the church seems to have shifted to the ‘new’ and ‘pentecostal’ churches, Dr. Welch’s book is an important contribution to the contemporary ecumenical discussion about the place and work of the Holy Spirit in the worship of the church and a reminder of the significance of the historic discussions to that debate.”
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