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Discernment of Spirits Santa Clara University Scholar Commons Jesuit School of Theology 3-1-1993 Discernment of Spirits Michael J. Buckley S.J. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/jst Part of the Religion Commons Copyright © 1993 Liturgical Press. Reprinted with permission. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Jesuit School of Theology by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 274 DISABILITY, THE DISABLED DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS The capacity for the discernment of spir­ its responds to a profound expectation and a pervasive temptation within Christian­ ity. All human beings who search for God want God to guide their lives, and Chris­ tians have been taught normatively to ex­ pect "to be guided by the Spirit" (Gal 5: 18; Rom 8: 14). Such expectations, both of a person and of the Church itself, tend to put great emphasis upon religious experience, upon an abiding interaction with God that engages affectivity and awareness, under­ standing and choice, prayer and action, in­ ti mate personal relationships, ecclesial sol­ idarity, and the entire way of life of the community. This emphasis becomes temp­ tation only under the persuasion that the intensity of experience absolves one from discretion, critical reflection, and the doc­ trinal content of Christian faith, giving ex­ perience a priority over the unspeakable Mystery that approaches human beings DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS 275 through experience and transferring the re­ Prophetic interpretation emerged in the ligious guidance of a single person or of an historical development of the chosen peo­ entire community to an unchallengeable ple to determine the presence and direc­ subjectivity, to sentimentality or supersti­ tion of God in the life of the community, tion or excited enthusiasms. and a corresponding set of criteria evolved This sense of ambiguity, of the tension among the people for recognizing the between longing and temptation, is found soundness of individual prophecy (Deut in both Pauline and Johannine theology. In 18:21 ff.). Prophets were to be judged by the earliest canonical document of the their own orthodoxy, the fulfillment of Church, Paul directs the Christian commu­ their prophecy, the contents of their proph­ nity: "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not de­ ecy, and the morality of their lives; the ac­ spise prophetic utterances. Test everything curate discrimination by the people would (panta dokimazete); retain what is good. depend upon the living faith of the com­ Refrain from every kind of evil" (I Thess munity, its fidelity to and sense of the cove­ 5: 19-22). The First Letter of John counsels: nant, and an openness to be guided and "Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test corrected by God (McNamara et al. , pp. the spirits (dokimazete ta pneumata) to see 3-13). whether they belong to God, because many In the Essene community at Qumran, false prophets have gone out into the during the second century before Christ, world" (1 Jn 4:1). Religious experience is discernment of spirits as such emerges in almost always an equivocal reality, inher­ the Manual ofDiscipline, the rule oflife for ently ambiguous. Even Christian freedom, this desert community: "For the instructor. for example, can be twisted into a pretext Let him instruct and teach all the sons of for evil (see Gal S: 13). All influences need light, concerning all the categories of men, to be tested prayerfully to determine their all the kinds of spirits found in them, and authenticity. To meet this need, the com­ their distinctive signs." These spirits are munity must be gifted with the discern­ two-those of "truth and perversity"­ ment of spirits. and recognizing this, the community deter­ This NT concern comes out of the expe­ mined "to examine their spirit and their rience of Israel. Although the Hebrew works each year in order to promote each Scriptures did not systematize a doctrine one according to his formation and the per­ or even frame a term for the discernment fection of his conduct, or to move him back of spirits, the practice of this religious dis­ according to his faults" (Manual of Disci­ crimination pervades the OT in the choices pline 3: 13-14; 3: 19; 5:24; see 5:20-21 ; 6: 16- that individuals and, indeed, the entire 17; 9: 14). This discernment is neither the community were called to make. God will OT prophetic interpretation of history nor guide the upright with divine counsels (Ps the community's discrimination among 73:24), but human beings are also liable to prophecies. It is done by another-either a be deceived under the appearance of great wise man or the entire community; its cri­ promise (Gen 3: 13). Good and evil spirits teria are the rules and good order of the were said to come upon a human being, community; its goal is the determination and while all spirits remained under the whether a candidate should be admitted sovereignty of Yahweh, they led in contra­ into the community and in what position. dictory directions ( 1 Sam 16: 14). The (See Guillet et al. , pp. 17-30.) hearts of human beings themselves were the source of enormous ambiguity: "More tortuous than all else is the human heart, New Testament Teaching beyond remedy; who can understand it?" The concern to test and discern the in­ (Jer 17:9-10). fluences that affected the Christian com- 276 DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS munity preoccupied the early Church. Paul ence of the Spirit; the guidance of the numbered among the important charis­ Spirit. mata given by the Spirit the discernment of The primitive and most basic criteria spirits (diakriseis pneumaton-1 Cor were those that indicated that one's actions 12: I 0). This gift responded immediately to were determined in the absence of the Spirit the need of the primitive Christian com­ and under the influence of the "flesh": munity to distinguish among the sources of "Now the works of the flesh are obvious: ecstatic or prophetic utterances-whether immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idola­ from the Spirit of God or demonic spirits. try, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, out­ As pastoral requirements indicated, how­ bursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissen­ ever, Paul formulated a basic criteriology sions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking by which one could distinguish among all bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I the agencies brought to bear upon the warned you before, that those who do such Church. On the one hand, there was the things will not inherit the kingdom of God" promised guidance from the Spirit of God, (Gal 5:19-21 ; cf. Rom 13:12). The criteria and one must come to recognize this divine are clear (phanera) enough. Whatever the initiative (Rom 8: 14; Gal 5: 18). On the intensity of one's religious emotions and other hand, the community had to be con­ awareness, or whatever the seemingly char­ cerned, as was the Matthean community, ismatic experiences of the community, to distinguish false prophecy from true (Mt these deeds or outbursts are evil and they 7: I 5-20; 12:22-35). indicate the presence of the evil by which Prophecy and leadership were singled one is guided. "While there is jealousy and out as especially demanding this testing be­ rivalry among you, are you not of the cause destructive temptations entered into flesh ... ?" (I Cor 3:3). the Christian community not so much The second level, the presence of the through the immediate attraction to evil as Spirit, is disclosed by the commitment to through the deception worked by the ap­ the mystery of God as disclosed in Jesus parently good. "Such people are false apos­ Christ. "Nobody speaking by the spirit of tles, deceitful workers, who masquerade as God says, 'Jesus be accursed.' And no one apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the holy Satan masquerades as an angel of light. So Spirit" (I Cor 12:3). The first Johannine it is not strange that his ministers also mas­ letter repeats this same doctrine: "This is querade as ministers of righteousness" (2 how you can know the Spirit of God: every Cor 11 : 13-15). For the early Church, the spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come prophetic and the charismatic were equiv­ in the flesh belongs to God, and every ocal experiences, either gift or deception, spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does but in no sense immediately self-justifying, not belong to God" (I Jn 4:2-3). Specifi­ for the demonic can enter a person's life as cally, this spirit is "of Christ" if it so con­ the apparently more intensely religious. It forms human beings to Christ that they, was imperative to determine how a dis­ like Jesus, are able to address God as crimination among these influences could "Abba, Father" (Rom 8: 12-17; Gal 4:6). be made. But to be renewed, to be "justified," In elaborating the criteria by which the through the presence of the transforming authentic influence of the Spirit of Christ Spirit is still only to "have begun with the could be differentiated from its counter­ Spirit" (see Gal 3:3). feit, Paul distinguished three relationships The third level of the gift of the Spirit is possible between Christians or a Christian the habitual direction by the Spirit, a guid­ community and the promised Spirit of ance which emerges organically from the God: the absence of the Spirit; the pres- second level and which draws to itself the DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS 277 whole Christian life and development: "If disclosed in Jesus Christ.
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