Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series IVA, Central and Eastern European Philosophical Studies, Volume 49 Series VIII, Christian Philosophical Studies, Volume 9 General Editor George F. McLean THE SPIRIT: THE CRY OF THE WORLD Polish Philosophical Studies, XII Chrsitian Philosophical Studies, IX by Waclaw Hryniewicz The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2014 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Box 261 Cardinal Station Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Hryniewicz, Waclaw. The Spirit : the cry of the world / by Waclaw Hryniewicz. -- first edition. pages cm. -- (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series IVA, Central and Eastern European philosophical studies ; Volume 49) (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series VIII, Christian philosophical studies ; Volume 9) (Polish philosophical studies ; XII) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Incarnation. 2. God (Christianity) 3. Holy Spirit. I. Title. BT220.H79 2014 2014012762 231'.7--dc23 CIP ISBN 978-1-56518-294-3 (pbk.) TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword: Kenotic Challenges Today vii Chapter I. We Believe in the Holy Spirit 1 Faith Means Confidence in God Our Faith as Cry of Trust in God Pentecost as Event Turned Towards the Future A Discrete Formula on the Divinity of the Holy Spirit The Lord, the Giver of Life The Pedagogy of the Spirit The Revealer of the Divine Beauty, Tenderness and Wisdom The Spirit “Who Spoke through the Prophets” God’s Spirit Speaking also through an “Alien” Diviner The Hidden Prophets among the “Outsiders” The Spirit’s Presence in Human Culture Invoking the Spirit Chapter II. In Search for a Vision of the Kenotic God 25 The “Second Naivety” Is Belief in One God a Source of Violence? Violence and Injustice Cry out to Heaven Toward a Vision of God Who Remains Open to Self-limitation The Divine Ruah and Logos in the History of the World God’s Images and Cosmic Evolution God’s Presence in the World Open to the Future Divine Kenosis and Human Freedom God as Pain in Our Kenotic Existence God as Pain and the Pain of Atheism: Human Cry for Transfiguration and Salvation More Exodus than Comfortable Stability God in a Gentle Whisper The Moment is God’s Kenotic Garment God Is More than only Force, Power or Energy Chapter III. Existential Significance of the Concept of a Kenotic God 61 God in the Condition of a Slave? Belief in the Kenotic God Is an Imperative of Life The Silence of God and the Loudest Cry in Human History To Hear God’s Silence When God Seems to Absent Himself Silence and Expectation – the Lesson of Holy Saturday iv Table of Contents The Terrifying God and Modern Atheism Kenotic Wisdom of Divine Pedagogy The Kenotic God as a Challenge to Our Theological Thinking The Kenotic God and Vulnerable People Patience with God Let Us not Be Afraid of Atheism! Our Knowledge of God Is Only Partial Pope Francis in Dialogue with a Non-Believer Everyone Has His Own Narrative Chapter IV. The Kenotic Spirit of God in Human History 97 The Kenosis of the Holy Spirit in the Created World The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament God’s Spirit and the World of Gentiles The Holy Spirit in the Annunciation and in Jesus’ Kenotic Ministry What Happened in the Post-Paschal Pentecost? The Dyadic Relationship between the Son and the Spirit The Spirit with No Concrete Human Face Specific Features of the Kenosis of the Holy Spirit Are There Any Limits to the Transforming Energy of Pentecost? The Continuing Pentecost in the History of Humankind When Will the Kenosis of the Spirit End? Pentecost in Eschatological Events The Holy Spirit and the Salvation of the Devil Chapter V. The Spirit and the Cry in the Church 131 The Church Gathered Together by the Holy Spirit Ubi Spiritus – ibi Ecclesia The Attributes of the Church: a Task to be Fulfilled with the Help of the Spirit Epiclesis as Cry of Church and World The Two Faces of Kenosis in the Church A Necessary Return to a Kenotic Ethos Kenotic Ethos and the Question of Universal Primacy The Spirit Urges Crossing Boundaries Kenotic Challenges of Women in the Church Today The Cry of Women Continues Christian Aporetics and Paschal Spirituality of Hope The Spirit of Pentecost: The Good News for All The Joys and the Hopes, the Griefs and the Anxieties of the Followers of Christ Chapter VI. Cry of the Spirit and the Crisis in the Church: Some Theological and Ecumenical Reflections 179 The Church is no Goal in Herself The Basic Source of Our Difficulties The Spirit: The Cry of the World v In Search for Ways to Overcome the Crisis In the Captivity of Doctrines The Need for Doctrinal Corrections The Word of God Accessible only in a Variety of Interpretations A Culture of Dialogue is a Culture of Honesty The Culture of Contention in the Church The Cry of the Spirit and Ecumenical Impatience Today What Does the Spirit Say to the Churches Today? How to Overcome the Hermeneutics of Suspicion? Love and Benevolence in Dialogue Are Good Teachers Ecumenism – an Attitude of the Spirit Chapter VII. The Kenotic Spirit of God and the Cry of Nature 217 Christianity and the World of Nature: Our Collective Amnesia In Search for a New Attitude towards the World of Nature A Critical Moment in Earth's History and the Call for the Holy Spirit Patriarch Bartholomew I in Defense of the Goodness and Beauty of Creation The Missionary Oblates’ Response to the Call for Integrity of Creation To Allow Nature to Teach Us Humility The Whole of Creation Groans and Suffers Birth-Pains Together Kenosis and Epiclesis of All Creatures The Cosmos as Prisoner-King on the Icon of Pentecost To Hear the Cry of the Earth The Energies of the Holy Spirit in the Whole of Creation The Kenosis of God’s Spirit in the Cosmos Can We Speak about the Redemption of the Cosmos? Natura spirat resurrectionem The Holy Spirit and the Earth Our Mother Chapter VIII. The Parousía as the End of the Kenosis of the Spirit 253 The Cry of the World Already Heard: Easter and Pentecost as the Beginning of the Universal Transfiguration This World in Its Present Form Is Passing Away The Parousía of Christ and of the Holy Spirit God’s Spirit Will Bring Human Culture into the Kingdom of Heaven The Biblical Description of the Parousía as an Image of Hope Eschatological Imagination Inspired by Hope Epilogue: The Holy Spirit as Kenotic Guide on Our Pilgrimage 265 It is not Easy to Speak about God Our Faith, Hope and Love Are in the Waiting Ecumenism as a School of New Thinking and Therapy vi Table of Contents We Are All Disciples Global Unity and Diversity The Cry for Justice and Peace Kenosis Implies Epiclesis About the Author 275 Index 281 FOREWORD KENOTIC CHALLENGES TODAY In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus: His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave… (Ph 2:5-7)1 There are in the New Testament no other words which would speak about the self-emptying and self-limitation of Jesus Christ in a more simple, profound and moving way. Let me begin with a personal recollection. It was given to me to hear those words again on September 28, 1994 during a pilgrimage celebration of the Eucharist in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Calvary Tomb of Jesus. One of the readings was taken then from St. Paul’s letter to Philippians about the kenosis and glorification of Christ (Ph 2:5-11). The words so well known resounded anew at that holy place in my ears with unusual strength and depth of their meaning. I accepted them with gratitude as an unexpected and challenging gift. They come again and again to my memory, disclosing their rich connotations and implications, not only christological but also pneumatological. The kenosis of Christ is closely connected with the kenosis of the Holy Spirit. Writing to a beloved community of Philippians the Apostle adopted, and perhaps modified an ancient, already existing hymn in praise of Christ. He made it a part of his own reflection on the mystery of the cross and resurrection. In this book I will be constantly returning to this biblical idea of Christ’s kenosis, applied and extended also to the person of God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the kenotic Guide for a pilgrim people of God. Thus one can combine the two leading insights of kenosis and epiclesis. They will become guidelines in my research and will direct our reflections as the twofold central principle: the one kenotic, the other one epicletic. Kenosis means self-limitation and self resignation. Epiclesis is the invocation of the Holy Spirit to come down and transform our life. Therefore it is the eloquent expression of human cry for help, 1 Unless otherwise indicated the Holy Scripture of the New Testament is quoted from The Jerusalem Bible (JB, 1967) and the Old/First Testament from The Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSVCE, 1966). Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (1998), and those marked NEB from The New English Bible, New Testament (1961). viii Foreword enlightenment and transfiguration. The Christian hope finds in this way its support in the person of the divine Paráklētos, the Counselor and Comforter. Some countries neighboring Israel developed various mythologies which tried to explain the existence of evil in human history.