spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

whether the Christological focus in Barth’s pneumatology leaves room for the distinctiveness of
the Holy Spirit. Robert Jenson (1993:296-304) for example, has come to the conclusion that
Barth’s pneumatology should be characterized as binitarian rather than as Trinitarian. The Holy
Spirit, the vinculum between the Father and the Son, affirms that the Spirit is a divine mode of
being, but it is difficult to ascertain an autonomous and even soteriological identity of the Spirit’s
work. According to Jenson, Barth sidelines the Holy Spirit in God’s salvific work ad extra.
Eugene Rogers Jr. (2005:19-23) also contends that in Barth’s pneumatology the Spirit does not
count as a relatively independent being or person in God’s act of revelation. The subordinated
Spirit disappears from Barth’s Trinitarian theology when She is supposed to appear “as someone
with capacities, rather than as sheer capacity” (Rogers 2005:20, see also Jenson 1993:304).
Hunsinger, however, emphasizes the Trinitarian nature of Barth’s pneumatology, and indicates
that Barth’s Augustinian approach of the person of the Spirit is rather ‘textured and complex’,
which makes both ‘agential and non-agential language’ indispensable in order to gain
understanding of the Holy Spirit. Hunsinger is of the opinion that criticism of Barth’s alleged
subordinationism is not constructive if the themes of revelation, reconciliation and redemption
are not perceived as a set of subtle, flexible and complex relationships in Barth’s theology
(Hunsinger 2000:178-180).
The Holy Spirit establishes communion between God and human life by preparing the soul for
being receptive to divine revelation. Barth calls this work of the Spirit: operatio mirabilis, the
continuous miracle of grace. Without this activity of the Spirit, communion with Christ and new
life for man would not be possible (Hunsinger 2000:183). This miraculous work of the Spirit
also suggests that there is absolutely no human involvement in God’s communication of grace.
Divine grace rather contradicts and overrules human nature in the mysterious operation of the
Spirit. God graciously reconciles with man by revealing himself in Christ through the Spirit.
Consequently, the work of the Spirit in establishing communion between God and mankind is
disruptive, and it defies systematic coordination (Hunsinger 2000:185).
The salvific work of the Spirit links the already established salvation with the still to be realized
salvation. The reconciliation of God with man through Christ will be completed in the
redemption, an event in the future. Barth does not only perceive the Spirit’s work as the relation
between the already and the not-yet, but he also refers to ‘redemption’ as the distinctive work of
the Spirit. The peculiar and proper work of the Spirit points to the absolute future, the
completion of communion between God and man, the consummation of all things, and eternal
life (Hunsinger 2000:178). The salvific work of the Spirit and the salvific work of Christ include
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