The Spirit of Freedom: A Theological Imagining

George Pratt, Contributing Writer

In “Nothing Personal,” Prophet Laureate James Baldwin reminds humankind that “nothing is fixed forever, the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing.” Just as language evolves, so do communal concepts of God or the divine expand to reflect a people’s conditions and collective consciousness. In this “light,” oppressed people must creatively discover new ways to reimagine and reframe their concept of God, reconciling their struggles and suffering that existence yields with a faith that allows them to “look” to the future “with a steadfast hope.”

Contextual theologian, Dwight Hopkins, offers a liberatory conceptualization of God as the “Spirit of Freedom” that “works with the oppressed” global “community for their full humanity.” Humankind’s greatest need is the spirit of freedom. It is the intangible and noumenal lifegiving force that summons its agents to champion the causes of those who are the least and lowly of the masses, marginalized and minoritized groups living at the margins of society. This spirit can also be understood as a personification of order,

The Renewal of the Spirit

Dr. Herman O. Kelly, Columnist

divine law, justice, and righteousness that works on behalf of those silenced by various forms of inequality and inequity. It enables human beings to see the essence existing within everyone, being made by God according to Du Bois, “of one blood all nations that on Earth do dwell.”

The spirit of freedom will prompt countries and governments to consider how they inflict violence upon others and how they will repent and reconcile for their actions. When communing with the spirit of freedom, one is forced to contemplate the various ways disenfranchised populations across the globe navigate interlocking oppressions. When communicating with the spirit, communities can systematically engage in spirit-talk, developing praxes that focus on freeing oppressed people worldwide who are subjected to inhumanity and injustice.

God as the spirit of freedom is a source of consciousness that the world community must conjure or call upon to break the shackles of the various forms of bondages that confine oppressed peoples to captivity. Freedom’s spirit is an energy one must invoke by becoming the agent through which it lives.

In the Christian tradition, this spirit “became flesh and dwelt among us,” embodied in the personhood of Christ as the ultimate symbol of resistance and signifier of liberation. Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Suzanne Sanité Bélair, Harriet Tubman, and other ancestors were willing vessels for freedom’s cause embody this same spirit of freedom.

The spirit of freedom allows individuals to experience what mother bells hooks identifies as the sacred in everyday life, “allowing us to maintain a connection to the natural world and engaging in practices that honor life-sustaining ecosystems.” This spirit reminds humanity that God is wholly and completely freedom. When one attunes their ear to the spirit’s call, they hear freedom’s songs, joining her in singing peace, love, and harmony throughout all creation. ❏ ❏ ❏

We live in two realms of existence, the spirit and the physical. We can see and touch the physical realm, but the spiritual realm of our existence is not ours to control. We need a renewal of the spirit. I remember as a youth at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida, we would see the elder members get under the influence of the spirit in worship service. I would see our sainted mother begin to clap her hands rapidly, and we did not understand what was going on; in fact, it was entertainment for us. As I matured as a Christian, I began to understand the movement of the spirit. My theological foundation was being formed at this Zion. Where is that kind of spirit that would make our mother clap with excitement and enthusiasm or it would make Brother Gipson shout at the top of his voice? Where is that kind of spirit that would make the church go up in fire? We need to renew and rekindle that kind of spirit.

First, the spirit is not under our control. God controls the movement of the spirit. The organ cannot call up the spirit, the choir cannot make the spirit come, and the preacher can not pull it down from heaven. The organ can enhance but not control, the choir can participate but not orchestrate the spirit, and the preacher can be under the unction of the spirit, but it does not belong to the preacher.

1. The sacred is not under our control.

2. The spirit is always distinctive in the movement.

3. The spirit is always diverse.

My Introduction to Religion course discusses the sacred and how the sacred spirit moves in the physical realm. The point of the argument, we do not control the sacred.

Secondly, as we call for a renewal of the spirit, we must ask God for direction. “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me; the Lord turned to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1 (NLT)). We must acknowledge that God is the author of the spirit, and the spirit moves as God dictates. In the process of renewal and rekindling of the spirit, we must solicit God in prayer to move in the Spirit.

Lastly, we need a renewal of the spirit in our Zion, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Our Zion has lasted centuries, not based on politics and social awareness. It was the holy God who was merciful to our Zion. “David said to God, “‘I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for God’s mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands’” (2 Samuel 24:14 (KJV)). Continue to give us mercy and forgiveness. Unfortunately, we have not always handled our sacred treasure as we should have. We have been self-serving; we have been politically motivated at a cost.

“Lord, forgive us and shower us with your grace.”

The renewal of the spirit calls for us to pray and seek the Lord’s face. We must call for the same spirit that made our mother clap her hand until they were red, and Sister Dixon of The Old St. Paul shout, “Just give him power,” and Brother Gipson shout at the top of his lungs. Where is that kind of spirit? Can it be renewed? Can it be rekindled? Yes! God can restore the spirit we once knew. The spirit which saved me in my senior year in high school, and the same spirit that sustains me in the evening of my ministry. We can renew the spirit with God in control. ❏ ❏ ❏