the rending of the church
Episcopal theologian Ephraim Radner ruffled ecumenical feathers with his 1998 book The End of the Church, the approach of which Stephen Noll summarized as follows:
Radner understands the Western church since the Reformation (and indeed the whole Christian church since the East-West Schism) as a type of Israel in exile. The rending of the visible church, he believes, was a historic act of disobedience incurring God’s judgment and the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit (in some sense) from the Church. He goes so far as to interpret the secular history of the West as an outworking of this judgment.
Has the Holy Spirit, in any sense, left the church?
- Carl's blog
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2nd try, bad connection
If we are speaking of the institutional church, than the questions is was the Holy Spirit ever there?
Haha ha!
Nope, the Holy Spirit cannot work through institutions. As soon as a church has a building and a bank account, the Spirit leaves.
Can Elvis ever really leave the building?
In my observations the spirit tends to seep away / evaporate from the institutional, not simply leave.
There is no such thing as pure institution, neither is there "pure spirit". The way of creation is such that we are in a liminal space betwixt the solid and the fluid, being oxymoronic "creative creatures of habit".
It's always somewhere in between. There is always a remnant somewhere.
god is moody...
I think that the Spirit, who is everywhere, manifests in and out of church. "Churches" consist of some inhabited by the Spirit and some not (yes its true...). However, I think that the Spirit has continued to be in and out of church and that the Constantine thing is not as bad as sometimes make out.
Envoy
Fascinating
This is a fascinating concept - should definately see if I can get the book.
I don't think the Spirit leaves the Church in as much as we leave the Spirit. I know that sounds cliche, but yeah - once institutions arrive - the Spirit leaves because we probably chase Him out.
www.ryanpeterwrites.com
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