spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

quenched, and rejoices when creation rejoices (Moltmann 1992:51). Romans 8:22-26
emphasizes that the vulnerability of the Spirit is closely connected with the Spirit’s indwelling in
creation. She bonds with creation, and shares the vulnerable condition in the sense that she
groans with us and helps us in our weakness. Eugene Rogers Jr. (2005:60) contends that “the
Spirit is a Person with an affinity for material things. The Spirit characteristically befriends the
body”. Without the concrete issues and concerns of everyday life, the connection with God’s
Spirit can only be vaguely general and disembodied, leaving the human being out of the process
of living according to his or her purpose. God’s Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, who became body,
and who suffered from his physicality. So the Spirit of God is associated with divine orientation
to creaturely life, in order to affirm the goodness of creation amidst suffering and destruction.
Moltmann (1992:95) emphasizes that the Spirit’s orientation to vulnerable and physical life is
not about drawing the soul away from the body, nor about the soul hastening towards heaven,
away from this earth; instead, the work of the Spirit “places the whole earthly and bodily person
in the daybreak colours of the new earth”. The Spirit’s efficacies embrace the complex
relationship of the suffering and the flourishing of cosmic life.
In his Adem van God (1987), Van de Beek focuses on the creation activities of the Spirit, which
he understands in a much wider sense than the origin of cosmic life. According to him, the
Spirit’s creation efficacies refer to creation as cosmos as well as to creation as the history of the
world. Van de Beek’s perception of the creative presence of the Spirit is in line with what in
classic theology is meant by divine providence (cf. Reitsma 1997:44). Van de Beek stresses that
the Holy Spirit is to be identified as the Spirit of Christ, because if the Holy Spirit is
disconnected from the salvation history (which has its climax in Christ) then She becomes the
cosmic Spirit. The cosmic Spirit is present and active in the world, though not necessarily in a
benevolent way. The cosmic Spirit also bears responsibility for that which is not harmonious:
accidents, diseases and suffering are to be linked with the work of the Spirit (Van de Beek
1987:213). Only when the cosmic Spirit is identified with the Spirit of Christ, is it possible to
experience the benevolent efficacies of the Spirit. Van de Beek locates the cosmic presence of
the Spirit in a wider framework, trying to do justice to the tension between the common work
and redemptive work of the Spirit. There is a constant tension between the chaos-creating Spirit
and the particular Spirit of Christ, who is focused on the kingdom of God. This tension between
chaos and wholeness under the reign of the Spirit is very similar to the tension between
vulnerability as susceptibility to damage and vulnerability as susceptibility to glory.
Under the reign of the Spirit it comes to light that God’s creation is existentially a good yet
vulnerable creation (cf. Reitsma 1997:165). In his contribution on the hidden works of the Spirit
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