After the Spirit: A Constructive Pneumatology from Resources Outside the Modern West (Radical Traditions

by Eugene F Rogers Jr

"To think about the Spirit it will not do to think 'spiritually': to think about the Spirit you have to think materially," claims Eugene F. Rogers. The Holy Spirit, who in classical Christian discourse "pours out on all flesh," has tended in modern theology and worship to float free of bodies. The result of such disembodiment, contends Rogers, is that our talk about the Spirit has become flat and uninspiring. In After the Spirit Rogers diagnoses a related gap in the revival of trinitarian theology, a mentality that "there's nothing the Spirit can do that the Son can't do better." The Eastern Christian tradition, by contrast, has usually linked the Holy Spirit with holy places, holy people, and holy things. Weaving together a rich tapestry of sources from this tradition, Rogers locates the Spirit in the Gospel stories of the annunciation, Jesus' baptism, the transfiguration, and the resurrection. These stories offer illuminating glimpses into both the Spirit's connection with the tangible world and the Spirit's distinctive place in relation to the other persons of the Trinity. Eight gorgeous color plates complement Rogers's witty and passionate prose.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction

263 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jonathan Platter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eugene Rogers has written a beautiful, compelling, and adventurous book in pneumatology. The goal of his book is quite simple, though the fruits of his research are complex and multi-faceted. His goal is to develop insights into pneumatology from sources beyond those traditionally consulted in the West. He especially draws on early Church thinkers from the Orthodox, Coptic, and Syrian traditions, pulling in insights from mystics and liturgists as well.

The continuous thread in After the Spirit is the conviction that the Spirit befriends matter. This conviction allows Rogers to go beyond common dualisms which pit the "spiritual" against the material or bodily. Consequently, Rogers is able to conceptual positive theological views of human embodiment, gender, and sexuality from both ecclessiological and pneumatological perspectives.

Let me offer one theme that illustrates how this works for Rogers: the image of the marriage feast. Rogers consistently draws out biblical and historical metaphors for the love between the Father and Son as a "marriage" or nuptial union. In this metaphor, the Spirit is both the bond of love between them -- the immanent, intra-trinitarian witness who celebrates the union of Father and Son -- and the one who sanctifies human persons in Christ to join in the celebration as witnesses to and partakers of the nuptial union within the Trinity.

This book has much to offer to expand the Western conception of the Holy Spirit. It draws on sources beyond the West and then brings them into constructive dialogue with Augustine, Aquinas, and Barth. Well worth the read.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

For one who has seen this book cited repeatedly in the scholarly literature, it was almost a given that I would read this book. Some may skeptically ask, "how can this really contribute to the ever growing study of the Holy Spirit?" My answer: much and in every way. Rogers, pushing against the Western tendency to subordinate the Holy Spirit to Christ, engages with traditions not normally consulted to construct a more full picture of the Spirit's role, theologically speaking. While not all will agree with the positions he takes (I found the idea of us 'penetrating' God a bit unnerving), there is not question that this is one of the serious and sophisticating attempts at pneumatology that cannot be ignored. The only strong reservation I have is his gentle plugs for the validity of same-sex erotic love but this does not undermine the overall useful of the book.

[Aeisele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting look at how to think about the Holy Spirit in more substantial terms. Arguing that one must take a fully narrative theological approach (a la Riceour), Rogers takes us through the main places where the Holy Spirit is spoken of in Jesus' life: the Annunciation, Baptism (he includes the temptation here), Transfiguration (so at least tradition has it), Resurrection (which is what he starts with, and guides his entire discussion), and Ascension and Pentecost. He does a nice job arguing from these narrative places toward a general point about the Spirit: that the Spirit "rests" on matter, "befriends" the body, as it were, and thus is not opposed to the material (as in the dualism "Spirit/body", or "material/spiritual," etc).
His main two points are backed by looking at various non-Western theologians - whether they are 20th century Eastern Orthodox theologians (Florensky, Bulgakov), Syrians (Ephraim the Syrian, Romanos the Melodist), or the "Eastern Fathers" (Gregories Nazianzus and Nyssa, Basel of Caeserea, etc). I found it compelling to look to these resources (especially the hymns of Ephraim), but certainly there is very little "argument" here. He spends more time laying about (or asserting) the position, not really defending it. That's fine, because it seems this is more of a suggestion - let's try to look at it this way, and see what we come up with. I liked what he came up with.