Holy Spirit (Islam) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
In
Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In
Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the
Trinity. In
Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as an agent of divine action or communication. In the
Baha’i Faith, the Holy Spirit is seen as the intermediary between God and man and "the outpouring grace of God and the effulgent rays that emanate from His Manifestation".
Comparative religion
The
Hebrew Bible contains the term "
spirit of God" (''ruach hakodesh'') which by Jews is interpreted in the sense of the might of a unitary
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
. This interpretation is different from the
Christian conception of the
Holy Spirit as one person of the
Trinity.
The Christian concept tends to emphasize the
moral aspect of the Holy Spirit more than
Judaism, evident in the epithet Spirit that appeared in Jewish religious writings only relatively late but was a common expression in the Christian New Testament. Based on the Old Testament, the book of Acts emphasizes the power of ministry aspect of the Holy Spirit.
According to
theologian Rudolf Bultmann
Rudolf Karl Bultmann (; 20 August 1884 – 30 July 1976) was a German Lutheran theologian and professor of the New Testament at the University of Marburg. He was one of the major figures of early-20th-century biblical studies. A prominent criti ...
, there are two ways to think about the Holy Spirit: "animistic" and "dynamistic". In animistic thinking, it is "an independent agent, a personal power which like a demon can fall upon a man and take possession of him, enabling him or compelling him to perform manifestations of power" while in dynamistic thought it "appears as an impersonal force which fills a man like a fluid". Both kinds of thought appear in Jewish and Christian scripture, but animistic is more typical of the Old Testament whereas dynamistic is more common in the New Testament. The distinction coincides with the Holy Spirit as either a temporary or permanent gift. In the Old Testament and Jewish thought, it is primarily temporary with a specific situation or task in mind, whereas in the Christian concept the gift resides in persons permanently.
On the surface, the Holy Spirit appears to have an equivalent in non-Abrahamic
Hellenistic mystery religions. These religions included a distinction between the
spirit
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
and
psyche
Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή).
Psyche may also refer to:
Psychology
* Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious
* ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...
, which is also seen in the
Pauline epistles. According to proponents of the
History of religions school
The history of religions school (German: ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'') is a term applied to a group of German Protestant theologians associated with the University of Göttingen in the 1890s.
Ideas
The ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'' use ...
, the Christian concept of the Holy Spirit cannot be explained from Jewish ideas alone without reference to the Hellenistic religions. And according to theologian Erik Konsmo, the views "are so dissimilar that the only legitimate connection one can make is with the Greek term πνεῦμα
'pneuma'',_Spirit.html"_;"title="pneuma.html"_;"title="'pneuma">'pneuma'',_Spirit">pneuma.html"_;"title="'pneuma">'pneuma'',_Spirititself".
Another_link_with_ancient_Greek_thought_is_the_Stoicism.html" "title="pneuma">'pneuma'',_Spirit.html" ;"title="pneuma.html" ;"title="'pneuma">'pneuma'', Spirit">pneuma.html" ;"title="'pneuma">'pneuma'', Spirititself".
Another link with ancient Greek thought is the Stoicism">Stoic
Stoic may refer to:
* An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy
* STOIC, a programming language
* ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll
* ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain
* ...
idea of the spirit as ''anima mundi –'' or world soul – that unites all people. Some believe that this can be seen in Paul's formulation of the concept of the Holy Spirit that unites
Christians in Jesus Christ (title), Christ and love for one another, but Konsmo again thinks that this position is difficult to maintain. In his Introduction to the 1964 book ''
Meditations'', the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth wrote:
Another Stoic concept which offered inspiration to the Church was that of "divine Spirit". Cleanthes, wishing to give more explicit meaning to Zeno's "creative fire", had been the first to hit upon the term ''pneuma'', or "spirit", to describe it. Like fire, this intelligent "spirit" was imagined as a tenuous substance akin to a current of air or breath, but essentially possessing the quality of warmth; it was immanent in the universe as God, and in man as the soul and life-giving principle. Clearly it is not a long step from this to the "Holy Spirit" of Christian theology, the "Lord and Giver of life", visibly manifested as tongues of fire at Pentecost and ever since associated – in the Christian as in the Stoic mind – with the ideas of vital fire and beneficent warmth.
Abrahamic religions
Judaism
The
Hebrew language phrase ''ruach ha-kodesh'' (
Hebrew: רוח הקודש, "holy spirit" also transliterated ''ruaḥ ha-qodesh'') is used in the
Hebrew Bible and Jewish writings to refer to the spirit of
YHWH (רוח יהוה). The Hebrew terms ''ruacḥ qodshəka'', "thy holy spirit" (רוּחַ קָדְשְׁךָ), and ''ruacḥ qodshō'', "his holy spirit" (רוּחַ קָדְשׁוֹ), also occur (when a possessive suffix is added the
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
''ha'' is dropped).
The Holy Spirit in Judaism generally refers to the divine aspect of prophecy and wisdom. It also refers to the divine force, quality, and influence of the Most High God, over the universe or over his creatures, in given contexts.
[Alan Unterman and Rivka Horowitz, Ruah ha-Kodesh, Encyclopaedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition, Jerusalem: Judaica Multimedia/Keter, 1997).]
Christianity
For the large majority of
Christians, the Holy Spirit (or
Holy Ghost
For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third person of the Trinity, a Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each entity itself being God.Gru ...
, from Old English ''gast'', "spirit") is the third
person of the
Trinity: The "Triune God" manifested as
Father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
,
Son, and Holy Spirit; each Person being God.
[Grudem, Wayne A. (1994). ''Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine.'' Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press; Grand Rapids, MI: ]Zondervan
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). They are a part of HarperCollins Christian Publ ...
. p. 226. Two symbols from the New Testament canon are associated with the Holy Spirit in Christian
iconography: a winged dove, and tongues of fire.
[''Bible'', Luke 3:22, NIV] Each depiction of the Holy Spirit arose from different accounts in the
Gospel narratives; the first being at the
baptism of Jesus in the
Jordan River where the Holy Spirit was said to descend in the form of a dove as the voice of God the Father spoke as described in
Matthew,
Mark, and
Luke;
the second being from the day of
Pentecost, fifty days after
Easter where the descent of the Holy Spirit came upon the
Apostles and other followers of
Jesus Christ, as tongues of fire as described in the
Acts of the Apostles, as promised by Jesus in his farewell discourse.
Called "the unveiled
epiphany of God", the Holy Spirit is the One who empowers the followers of Jesus with spiritual gifts and power that enables the proclamation of Jesus Christ, and the power that brings conviction of faith.
File:Rom, Vatikan, Basilika St. Peter, Die Taube des Heiligen Geistes (Cathedra Petri, Bernini).jpg, Depiction of the Christian Holy Spirit as a dove, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in the apse of Saint Peter's Basilica
File:Shield-Trinity-Scutum-Fidei-English.svg, A depiction of the Trinity consisting of God the Holy Spirit along with God the Father and God the Son
File:Абраз "Сашэсце Святога Духа".JPG, Pentecost icon depicting the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary in the form of tongues of flame above their heads
Islam
The Holy Spirit (
Arabic: روح القدس ''
Ruh al-Qudus'', "the Spirit of Holiness") is mentioned four times in the
Qur'an, where it acts as an agent of divine action or communication. The
Muslim interpretation of the Holy Spirit is generally consistent with other interpretations based upon the Old and the New Testaments. On the basis of narrations in certain
Hadith some Muslims identify it with the angel
Gabriel (Arabic ''Jibrāʾīl''). The Spirit (الروح ''al-Ruh'', without the adjective "holy" or "exalted") is described, among other things, as the creative spirit from God by which God enlivened
Adam, and which inspired in various ways God's messengers and prophets, including
Jesus and
Abraham. The belief in a "Holy Trinity", according to the Qur'an, is forbidden and deemed to be
blasphemy. The same prohibition applies to any idea of the
duality of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
(
Allah).
Baháʼí Faith
The
Baháʼí Faith has the concept of the ''Most Great Spirit'', seen as the bounty of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
.
It is usually used to describe the descent of the Spirit of God upon the
messengers/prophets of God who include, among others, Jesus,
Muhammad and
Bahá'u'lláh.
In Baháʼí belief, the Holy Spirit is the
conduit
Conduit may refer to:
Engineering systems
* Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids
* Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables
* Conduit curre ...
through which the wisdom of God becomes directly associated with his messenger, and it has been described variously in different religions such as the
burning bush
The burning bush (or the unburnt bush) refers to an event recorded in the Jewish Torah (as also in the biblical Old Testament). It is described in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus as having occurred on Mount Horeb. According to the ...
to Moses, the
sacred fire to Zoroaster,
the dove to Jesus, the angel Gabriel to Muhammad, and the
Maid of Heaven
A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...
to Bahá'u'lláh (founder of the Baháʼí Faith).
The Baháʼí view rejects the idea that the Holy Spirit is a partner to God in the Godhead, but rather is the pure essence of God's attributes.
Other religions
Hinduism
The
Hindu concept of
Advaita is linked to the Trinity and has been briefly explained by
Raimon Panikkar
Raimon Panikkar Alemany, also known as Raimundo Panikkar and Raymond Panikkar (November 2, 1918 – August 26, 2010), was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and a proponent of Interfaith dialogue. As a scholar, he specialized in comparative reli ...
. He states that the Holy Spirit, as one of the Three Persons of the Trinity of "father, Logos and Holy Spirit", is a bridge-builder between Christianity and Hinduism. He explains that: "The meeting of spiritualistic can take place in the Spirit. No new 'system' has primarily to come of this encounter, but a new and yet old spirit must emerge."
''
Atman'' is
Vedic terminology elaborated in
Hindu scriptures
Hindu texts are manuscripts and voluminous historical literature which are related to any of the diverse traditions within Hinduism. A few of these texts are shared across these traditions and they are broadly considered Hindu scriptures. These ...
such as
Upanishads and
Vedanta signifies the
Ultimate Reality and
Absolute.
Zoroastrianism
In
Zoroastrianism, the Holy Spirit, also known as
Spenta Mainyu
In Zoroastrianism, the Amesha Spenta ( ae, , Aməša Spəṇta—literally "Immortal (which is) holy/bounteous/furthering") are a class of seven divine entities emanating from Ahura Mazda, the highest divinity of the religion. Later Middle Persian ...
, is a
hypostasis of
Ahura Mazda, the supreme Creator God of Zoroastrianism; the Holy Spirit is seen as the source of all goodness in the universe, the spark of all life within humanity, and is the ultimate guide for humanity to righteousness and communion with God. The Holy Spirit is put in direct opposition to its eternal dual counterpart,
Angra Mainyu
Angra Mainyu (; Avestan: 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 ''Aŋra Mainiiu'') is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostasis of the "destructive/evil spirit" and the main adversary in Zoroastrianism either of th ...
, who is the source of all wickedness and who leads humanity astray.
Gnosticism
The ancient
Gnostic text known as the
Secret Book of John refers to the supreme female principle
Barbelo
Barbēlō (Greek: Βαρβηλώ)Iren., Epiph., Philast., ''Pist. Soph''., Hier.; -ρώ Epiph. as an alternative, 92 A, and similarly the Epitome, p. 354 Dind.; -λ, Epit. ''l. c. bis;'' -λώθ Theodoret. refers to the first emanation of Go ...
as the Holy Spirit.
See also
*
Avatar
*
Baptism with the Holy Spirit
In Christian theology, baptism with the Holy Spirit, also called baptism in the Holy Spirit or baptism in the Holy Ghost, has been interpreted by different Christian denominations and traditions in a variety of ways due to differences in the doct ...
*
Barakah
*
Chaplet of the Holy Spirit and His Seven Gifts
*
Cult of the Holy Spirit
The Cult of the Holy Spirit ( pt, Culto do Divino Espírito Santo), also known as the Cult of the Empire of the Holy Spirit (''Culto do Império do Divino Espírito Santo''), is a religious sub-culture, inspired by Christian millenarian mystics, ...
*
Deity
*
Gender of the Holy Spirit
*
God in Abrahamic religions
*
Great Spirit
The Great Spirit is the concept of a life force, a Supreme Being or god known more specifically as Wakan Tanka in Lakota,Ostler, Jeffry. ''The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee''. Cambridge University Pres ...
*
Intercession of the Spirit
*
Parable of the Leaven
*
Pneumatology
Further reading
*
*
*
*
References
Works cited
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Conceptions of God
Knowledge deities
Names of God
Theology
Wisdom deities
Knowledge gods