Power and the Spirit of God : Toward an Experience-Based Pneumatology

## Abstract Both the Hebrew Bible and Christian scriptures equate the Spirit of God with power. Power is a diverse phenomenon in human experience; several instances of power are examined here with the help of social scientific and psychological analysis. The book then relates the divine Spirit power to each of these instances of power: force and violence, fear, official and religious authority, law, wealth, images and symbols, language, teaching, sexuality, friendship and love. Finally, as a synthesizing metaphor to help gain insight into the divine outreach, i.e. the Spirit of God, the author uses the experience of a human embrace, examining this with a phenomenological hermeneutic and correlating it to the various forms of power studied. "In this book Roman Catholic theologian Bernard Cooke reassesses the long-standing Christian description of divine power. The word power evokes the spheres of economic, political, and social life. Cooke suggests, however, that the deepest questions about conflicting powers are theological and concern what Christians have traditionally referred to as "the Holy Spirit" and "salvation." He believes that the twentieth-century reappraisal of the theological view of power may represent the most radical paradigm shift to touch Christianity in eighteen hundred years."--Jacket

In this book the distinguished Roman Catholic theologian Bernard Cooke reassesses the long-standing Christian description of divine power. The word power evokes the spheres of economic, political, and social life. Cooke suggests, however, that the deepest questions about conflicting powers are theological and concern what Christians have traditionally referred to as the Holy Spirit and salvation.

Power takes many forms, and so the divine involvement with power is a multi-faceted reality.