Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 713-726:
Bonting attempts to bring the various activities ascribed to the Spirit (Hebrew ruach, Greek pneuma) under one heading, the transmission of information.[1]
Scripture speaks more about the function than about the nature of the Spirit.[2] In the OT the Spirit appears to be seen as God’s presence and intervention but not as a person.[3] In the OT writings the Spirit is pictured as the giver of biological life (breath of God).
It can be said that the Spirit was the moving power behind every activity of Jesus.[4] The Spirit guides the church and inspires all within it. The Spirit is the lifegiver in marking the beginning of the Christian life (Acts 8:14–17; Galatians 3:2f.; John 3:3–8; 6:63), which looks toward fulfillment in the resurrection on the last day (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13f.).[5] Five functions of the Spirit can thus be distinguished: (1) life giver; (2) unifier; (3) revealer; (4) sanctifier; (5) advocate. Bonting suggests that the term communicator could cover all five functions: communicating biological, spiritual, and eschatological life; communicating unity and love from God to creatures; communicating God’s message in prophecy and scripture; communicating sanctity to human creatures; and communicating as counselor between the Godhead and humans.[6] The Spirit, then, functions as a transmitter of information—from God to us and from us to God. Jürgen Moltmann gives the Spirit a near monopoly in creation. Actually, he is speaking of the lifegiving action of the Spirit, since he bases his claim on Psalm 104:30, “When you send forth your spirit [ruach], they [the animals] are created” (NRSV). From this text Moltmann concludes: “This presupposes that God always creates through and in the power of his Spirit. . . ”[7] The Spirit as God’s energeia, through which God the Father calls all aspects of creation into being, fits very well with modern cosmological theory.[8] However, we need to ever recollect Irenaeus’ dictum that “[t]he Son and the Spirit are the two hands of God by which he created all things.”[9] In reference to the Big Bang, the Spirit brings in the information needed to transform the explosion into an orderly process of cosmic evolution.[10] Moreover, the Spirit is immanently active in communicating the information needed for the initial creation, continuing creation, and eschatological teleological fulfillment of all things.[11]
In Genesis 1:2b, Peterson claims, the word ruach means “wind” rather than “spirit”, and the term ruach elohim means “mighty wind”, which means that the translation then becomes “a mighty
wind swept over the face of the waters.”[12] I DO NOT THINK I AGREE WITH PETERSON’S EXEGESIS HERE, NOTE.
Though Christ is active through the Spirit (Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6; Philippians 1:19), Paul also makes a distinction between Christ and Spirit (Romans 5:1–5). Jesus is now present to the believer only in and through the Spirit, as he was also at the original creation of heaven and earth. The Spirit brings sanctification, according to Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Gregory of Nazianzus (380 C.E.) described the inner life of the Trinity as a perichoresis, a moving around within the Trinity, while the Cappadocian fathers spoke about a “relational quality.” Didymus (d. 398 C.E.) claimed that the functions specific to the Spirit establish his divinity. If the Spirit is responsible for creating, renewing, and sanctifying God’s creatures, Didymus reasoned, the Spirit could not be a creature and must share in the divine nature.
[1] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 713.
[2] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 714.
[3] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 715.
[4] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 715.
[5] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 715.
[6] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 718.
[7] Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation, (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 9.
[8] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 721.
[9] Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 4.20.1.
[10] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 723.
[11] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 724.
[12] Sjoerd L. Bonting, Spirit and Creation, Zygon 41, no. 3, 718.