Foundations for Christian Mission: Pneumato-Creational Perspectives

and the natural domains are interrelated; and that the pneumatological and the creational are interconnected. But how might pneumatological theology inform Christian mission? In the following section, I explore how this theology is the foundation of what might be called an environmental or ecological missiology.

Foundations for Christian Mission: Pneumato-Creational Perspectives

The connection between theology of creation and missiology here is pneumatology: the Spirit of creation is also the Spirit that empowers Christian mission. The following discussion unfolds such a pneumatological theology of creational mission in three steps: by following out the salvation historical drama from creation through redemption to eschatological glorification. This will set us up to think about missiological praxis (the final section at the end) in the light of such a pneumatological theology of creation.

Missio Spiritus – The Doctrine of Creation

In thinking about pneumatology, pneumatological theology, and pneumatology of mission, we should begin with the doctrine of creation. This not only helps us to ground pneumatological reflection in the doctrine of God, but it also establishes the cosmic, creational and global scope of the work of the Spirit. Both points are important. Without a link with the doctrine of God as creator, the Spirit may turn out to be less than ‘holy,’ perhaps not even related to the God of Judeo-Christian faith at all, much less to monotheistic or even theistic sensibilities.332 There are many spirits indeed, so Christian thinking about pneumatology must be defined, at least initially, as the Spirit of the God who created the heavens and the earth. And without relation to the latter, cosmic compass of the Spirit’s work, then we may be tempted to merely interiorise or subjectivise the Spirit’s presence and activity.

The role of the Spirit in the Christian doctrine of creation has gradually been recognised.333 In my own work, I have attempted what I have called a

332. There are also possibilities for thinking about the Spirit of God in relationship to monotheistic traditions more generally and to Islam in particular. I undertake a dialogue with the latter in my The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh, chap. 6. 333. The major text so far is Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation (trans. Margaret Kohl; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1992).

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pneumatological reading of the Genesis narratives.334 This begins with the observation that while ‘the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep,’ the author of the creation account notes that ‘a wind from God [ruach Elohim] swept over the face of the waters’ (Gen. 1:2). So while traditional creation theologies have highlighted the creation of the world through the word of God, the word of God is uttered through the divine breath and the ‘history’ of the world is ‘blown’ or swept along by the presence and activity of the ruach Elohim. The partitioning of the waters from land, the emergence of vegetation, the evolution of life itself – each of these can be understood from this pneumatological vantage point as being propelled by the breath of God that transcendentally hovered over the primordial creation.

But the divine breath is not only transcendent over the creation but also immanent within it. This is because all living creatures have been constituted by Elohim’s ‘breath of life’ (Gen. 1:30), and in particular, human beings, who are essentially constituted by the divine breath (Gen. 2:7). As it is said later in the Hebrew Bible, ‘If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and all mortals return to dust’ (Job 34:14-15). Beyond this, however, the Psalmist indicates that the divine breath not only gives life to creatures, but also that through it, the face of the ground is renewed (Ps. 104:29-30), and the prophet Isaiah proclaims that when ‘a spirit from on high is poured out on us, [then] the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest’ (Is. 32:15). This suggests that the rhythms of creation itself beats to the drumming of the creator Spirit.335

It is important to note the missiological implications of a pneumatological theology of creation. If a Logos theology emphasises that the Word became flesh and, as the true light, ‘enlightens everyone’ in the world (John 1:9), then the doctrine of creator Spiritus suggests that such lights are intertwined through the infusion of the divine breath. Thus, as the ancient poets recognised, ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28), and

334. See Amos Yong, ‘Ruach, the Primordial Waters, and the Breath of Life: Emergence Theory and the Creation Narratives in Pneumatological Perspective,’ in Michael Welker (ed), The Work of the Spirit: Pneumatology and Pentecostalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), 183-204. 335. See also Scott A. Ellington, ‘The Face of God as His Creating Spirit: The Interplay of Yahweh’s panim and ruach in Psalm 104:29-30,’ in Amos Yong (ed), The Spirit Renews the Face of the Earth: Pentecostal Forays in Science and Theology of Creation (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2009), 17-29.

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