The Holy Spirit, Inspiration, and the Cultures of Antiquity: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 5)

Early Christian claims to the Holy Spirit arose in a vibrant cultural matrix that included Stoicism, Jewish mysticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Greco-Roman medicine, and the perspectives of Plutarch. In a range of articles, this multidisciplinary volume discovers in these texts rich cultural connections related to inspiration and the Holy Spirit. Essential reading for scholars of Judaism and the New Testament, as well as classicists and theologians.--Publisher's description "Art is often viewed as being inherently spiritual. But what does it mean to describe an experience of art or beauty as spiritual? Is there a relationship between the spiritual experience a person has in the presence of a work of art and the Holy Spirit of Christian faith? Theologian, musician, and educator Steven Guthrie examines particular areas of overlap between spirituality, human creativity, and the arts with the goal of sharpening and refining how we speak and think about the Holy Spirit. Through his exploration of the many different connections between art and spirituality, Guthrie uses the arts as a creative lens for exploring the Holy Spirit and offers a unique introduction to pneumatology. He also introduces an important idea from the early church that is now unfamiliar to many Christians: the Holy Spirit is the humanizing Spirit, whose work is to remake our humanity after the image of the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ.This clear, engaging theology of the arts will be of interest to professors and students in theology and the arts, pneumatology, and systematic theology courses as well as thoughtful lay readers, Christian artists, worship leaders, and pastors" -- Publisher description Preface 5 Table of Contents 7 Abbreviations 9 The Origins of Early Christian Pneumatology: On the Rediscovery and Reshaping of the History of Religions Quest 17 The Spirit of Stoicism 55 Plutarch and Pentecost: An Exploration in Interdisciplinary Collaboration 79 “Even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit”–Luke 1:15 in the Spectrum of Theological and Medical Discourses of Early Christianity 111 The Infusion of the Spirit: The Meaning of ἐμφυσάω in John 20:22–23 135 Ruaḥ and the Beholding of God– From Ezekiel’s Vision of the Divine Chariot to Merkaba Mysticism 169 Historical Origins of the Early Christian Concept of the Holy Spirit 183 Speech and Spirit: Paul and the Maskil as Inspired Interpreters of Scripture 257 Philo of Alexandria’s Understanding of πνεῦμα in Deus 33–50 281 Pneuma and the Beholding of God: Reading Paul in the Context of Philonic Mystical Traditions 309 Spirit in Relationship–Pneumatology in the Gospel of John 347 How did the Spirit become a Person? 359 Index: Ancient Texts 389 Index: Modern Authors 411 Index of Subjects and Ancient Names 419

This series will publish monographs and collected essays on topics concerning religious experience in antiquity. Volumes in this series will address a diverse array of religious experiences and movements, and particular expressions of religious experience, such as ecstatic trances, magic, healing, prophecy, divination, and dreams, as well as other phenomena that contribute to the scholarly exploration of religious experience. Methods will range widely, encompassing contemporary sociological, anthropological, and psychological approaches to religious experience, as well as historical analysis of textual, archaeological, and artistic evidence.