The ‘Age of Spirit’

American theologian Harvey Cox wrote a book called The Future of Faith, in which he presents three major stages in church history. The first was the “Age of Faith,” when Christians focused on following the way of Jesus more than believing certain things about him. Around the third or fourth century the church entered the “Age of Belief,” when we defined faith as believing certain things as true. Now Cox suggests we are seeing the fall of the “Age of Belief” and transitioning into the “Age of Spirit.”

For approximately 1,600 years the church looked to finite words and people—Scripture, creeds, tenets, priests, theologians—as the arbiters of God’s truth. Yet Jesus did not send us the Bible, doctrine or clergy to teach and guide us into truth. Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit:

• “The Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
• “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things” (John 14:26).

Are we finally entering the “Age of Spirit”? I hope so.

For as long as I have attended church, Christian education has been synonymous with Bible study. I wonder what would happen if we gave as much time, energy and focus to being taught and guided by the Spirit as we do to studying the Bible? I believe the church would thrive again.

Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner writes, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all.” By mysticism, he does not mean some esoteric phenomenon, but a genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart of our existence. He believes the source of spiritual conviction comes not from theology, but from personal experience of God.

This has proved true in my own life. My lifelong study of Christian doctrine, theology and the Bible has probably done as much to deteriorate my faith as it has to nurture it. As Mark Twain humorously quipped, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” Modern scholasticism has poked so many holes in the Christian worldview it has become a herculean task to maintain faith with intellectual integrity and honesty.

I know the primary reason I’m still a Christian is my personal experience of the mystical reality of God. Once a person has tasted, glimpsed and partaken of the divine presence it is hard to ignore the “really real” and the soul’s longing for deeper communion with the Spirit of truth and love. I think Rahner is right that the Christians of the future will be people who have encountered God’s Spirit personally.

The Scriptures themselves point to the centrality of the Holy Spirit in Christian life. In my next few articles I will be highlighting some of these Bible passages.

Let’s start with how the gospels introduce the Messiah.

I was raised to believe the gospels taught Jesus’ primary mission was to die for our sins and conquer death by rising again. We have just celebrated Easter and, in my experience, most churches still treat the death and resurrection of Jesus as the epitome of the gospel message. Yet Easter is not the ultimate fulfillment of Christ’s mission. Pentecost is.

In all four gospels, John the Baptist, the forerunner—or one who announces the coming—of the Messiah, introduces Jesus as the Messiah in the same way:

• “I baptize you with water. . . . He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).
• “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).
• “I baptize you with water . . . but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16).
• “I didn’t know [Jesus] was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest on is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit’ ”
  (John 1:33).

According to John the Baptist, the Messiah came to baptize people with the Holy Spirit.

Reforming our understanding of Jesus’ mission as ultimately to baptize people in the Spirit will have profound implications on both our theology and practice. And if Cox is right about us entering the “Age of Spirit,” this should arouse in us great hope for the future of the church.

To be continued.

Troy Watson is spiritual life director of Quest, St. Catharines, Ont., and can be reached at troy@questcc.ca.