spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

charismata. According to Veenhof, the meaning of the charismatic movement for Reformed
church and theology is that the Reformed tradition is confronted with the question of whether the
Holy Spirit has more to offer than is assumed by Reformed believers.
Veenhof’s emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit is related to the time he was a lecturer in
Switzerland, where he came under the influence of pietism. This experience also explains
Veenhof’s openness to the meaning of the charismatic renewal movement. Hence, the purple
thread running through his pneumatology is an affirmation of basic elements in pietist and
charismatic thought: the work of the Spirit has a real effect in the believer’s daily life; this effect
is directly related to God’s salvation that can be experienced in the present. The inhabitation of
the Spirit in the human being is a guarantee of ultimate wholeness and salvation that will be
imparted one day (Veenhof 1977:56, 2005:219). In other words, the Spirit is the One who fills
the present with divine power, and who presents Gods salvation in this everyday life. Amidst sin
and destruction, salvation is already present and effective. Veenhof emphasizes that the
perfectum of Christ’s work is not to be referred to the eschaton or that the implications of the
perfectum are to be made relative, but that the Spirit represents the realization of salvation in
Christ in the present tense, whereby the renewing power of grace is stressed. It is also important
to understand that this renewing power of grace pertains to the human being in full: it entails a
person’s spirit, soul and body, and can thus be associated with the term ‘holistic’ (Veenhof
1987:4-6; 2005:241,264). Veenhof is positive about these perspectives of charismatic thought,
because they suggest retrieval of an ‘open’ world view, and allow for talk of salvation that can
be experienced in this earthly existence.
Veenhof develops his ideas about the Holy Spirit by understanding the Spirit as Pontifex
Maximus: the Spirit as the One who constructs a bridge between God and creation, and between
humans themselves. The Spirit as the communicator of relationships could be another
characterization of the person of the Spirit (Veenhof 1978:4-15; 2005:220ff). Veenhof is of the
opinion that the Spirit’s being is defined by her creating of relationships. The person of the Spirit
can be identified by her nature of connecting persons, within the Trinitarian Godhead but also in
the divine movement towards creation. The same kind of idea about the relational nature of the
Spirit’s work can be found in the theologies of Augustine, Calvin and Kuyper. Through the work
of the Spirit, believers are placed in a direct relationship with God, which also implies that they
are placed in a direct relationship with their fellow human beings. In a sense, one could say that
the experience of the Spirit is a social experience. Veenhof stresses that the experience of the
Spirit also involves the believer’s relationship to his or her own person, who is being healed
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