Introduction

Pneumatology is the systematic study of person and work of the Holy Spirit who happens to be
the third person in the holy trinity. This entails Pneumatology is referred to the study of doctrine
of God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity. It answers numerous questions about the
Holy Spirit. Many scholars have propounded on the spirit especially the Holy Spirit and have
written extensively on this. Among the scholars who have written books on the Holy Spirit are
Karl Barth and Jurgen Moltmann. Therefore, in this paper, I will endeavor to compare and
contrast the barthean and moltmanist pneumatologies and show their relevance for the Zambian
church. The paper will be discussed under the following headings;

 Compare and contrast the Barthean and Moltmannist Pneumatologies and

 Show their relevance for the Zambian church.

Comparing and contrasting between Moltmanist and Barthean pneumatologies

Barthean pneumatology reveals the Holy Spirit as the hidden power of God. Theological
assertions hold that it is the real power hidden, unattainable, and unavailable not only to the
environment but also to the very theory which serves the Community. Barth (1963:51) asserts
that theological affirmations testify that this is power present and active, in history of salvation
and revelation, biblical language, the being of the community and its acts and the work of
theology. It entails power hidden, present, active and potent. Thus it sustains and activates the
whole creation history and God’s Trinitarian activity. Barth holds that, the hidden power is not
dormant, it is active and prevents and forbids the slightest attempt to construct treacherous
presuppositions. Most of it excludes the presumption that theology can vindicate itself. This
hidden power makes all subjective presuppositions superfluous, because its productivity replaces
all safeguards stemming from other sources and it provides security. It is also effective that
because, it cannot be exploited and we cannot control it but be controlled by it. It has therefore
influence on the people’s thought and speech, activity and the entire history is controlled by it.
The operation of this power demonstrates its sovereignty as hidden power of theological
statements that describe and explain all this.

Barth (1963:52) further highlights that, the Biblical name of this sovereign effective power is
ruach or pneuma. These terms refer to moving air, breath, wind, also probably a storm and in

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this sense, spirit. In the Latin spiritus and also in the French esprit. In English the word should
certainly not be reproduced by “Ghost” with its frightening proximity to “spooks”. Our use of the
term will be taken from Biblical axiom; “where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2
Corinthians 3:17). This freedom is God’s freedom to disclose himself to men, to make men
accessible to himself, and so to make them on their part free for him. The freedom is brought
about to make people free for God.

It is worth noting that none of these are that sovereign power of which we speak- they must all
be tested for the direction of their current, for their source from above or below. Barth (1963:54)
points out that in the creed the spirit is called “the Holy one, the Lord, the giver of life, who
proceeds from the father and from the son, who together with the father and the son is adored as
glorified”. That is to say the spirit is God himself- the same one God who is also the father and
the son, he acts both as creator and reconciler, as the Lord of the covenant.

Barth (1949:137) points out that when men belong to Jesus in such a way that they have freedom
to recognize his word as addressed also to them, the message about him is also their task. In the
creed, “I believe” puts man to belong to the creed. There is a faith in man as this man freely and
actively participates in the work of God. This actually takes place in the work of the Holy Spirit,
the work of God on earth which has its analogue in that hidden work of God, the outgoing of the
spirit from the father and the son. When we speak of the Holy Spirit we are not speaking about
all men- but we have to do with men who belong to Christ in a special way that they have the
freedom to recognize his word, his work in definite way and also to hope on their part the best of
all me.

Barth says according to the biblical saga of Creation, God breathed into man “the breath of life”,
man’s own spirit. The spirit was the origin of the existence of the son in the world of men – the
son who was conceptus de spiritusancto (conceived of the spirit). SpritusSanctas is the power by
which Christianity exist- the spirit calls into being the existence of every single Christian as a
believing loving hoping witness of the word of God. Anyone who does not have the spirit,
according to (Romans 8:9) does not belong to God.

I may submit that for Barth theology becomes unspiritual when it lets itself be enticed or evicted
from the freshly flowing air of the spirit of the Lord in which it alone can prosper. The spirit

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departs when theology enters rooms whose stagnant air automatically prevents it from being and
doing what it can. This entails that the spirit leaves where it is not conducive. It therefore departs
in two ways- that is; when theology does not submit itself fearlessly and unreservedly to the
illumination and consolation of the spirit- it refuses to permit itself to be led by him into all truth,
and when theology fails to acknowledge the vitality and sovereignty of this power which defiles
all domestications

This of course generates a lot of interesting debates concerning the Holy Spirit. If the Holy spirit
as Barth asserts cannot be controlled but it can control us, where then do we put it when we look
at what some Charismatic Pentecostal men of God portray him, where they go to an extent
commanding the holy spirit to take charge of the situation? Looking at Barth’s assertion that the
spirit cannot be controlled. I see a replica of what the Israelites believed in the Old Testament
that God only lives in Jerusalem – which meant that they could easily contain him.

Moltmann looks at pnematology from a broad perspective and Central in Moltmann's

pneumatology is the insistence that 'holistic pneumatology must account for the experience of the
spirit in all spheres of life, not only in the holy spheres. The spirit is the spirit of life. This is why
he writes about the spirit from the Trinitarian point of view and the sanctification of life because
the spirit gives life. Moltmann’s effort to view the Spirit holistically spills over into his
pneumatological examination of Christian soteriology. Moltmann (1992:161) points out that
every life is born and wants to grow, the life which is ‘born again from Gods eternal spirit also
wants to grow. Moltmann holistic pneumatology asserts that the spirit is the spirit of life and is in
all nature, in tress, animals, air, water and in tiny animals. This is why according to Moltmann,
humanity must look after the environment well ensuring that there is proper control of pollution
of every type including the stopping of environmental degradation such as deforestation.

Barth (1963:54) points out that in the creed the spirit is called “the Holy one, the Lord, the giver
of life, who proceeds from the father and from the son, who together with the father and the son
is adored as glorified”. That is to say the spirit is God himself- the same one God who is also the
father and the son, he acts both as creator and reconciler, as the Lord of the covenant who is the
source of our life and being. The concept of pneumatology can be traced from the beginning of
all things, in the creation story of Genesis 1. This is to say that we see the spirit of God from the
very beginning and out of the spirit of God all things came into being, seen and unseen. From the

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very beginning, the word was with God and the word was God and all things created were
created by the word. It happens that the word incarnated into the person of Jesus. This in itself
means that all things were created through Jesus. If the word was with God and the word was
God, then it means Jesus is spirit as well, for the spirit of God. Therefore, the history of Christ as
Moltmann (1977:53) puts it “is interpreted in the light of its origin.” The gospel relates the
history of Jesus as the history of the Messiah sent from God into the world for the purpose of
salvation and anointed with the spirit of the new creation.

The sending of Jesus begins before the foundation of the world in the eternity of the father.
Moltmann (1977:55) further says that “The history of the spirit as a whole is understood in light
of its origin. This is why here too theological reflection must inquire about the origin of this
sending of the spirit.” from the concept of the history of Christ in the light of sending to the
eternal generation of the son by the father within the trinity, Moltmann’s pneumatology should
be understood from the point of view of the triune God. Barth (1949:137) agrees with Moltmann
concerning the origin of the spirit as from God in the beginning. Barth further says that “God
breathed into man “the breathing of life,” man's own spirit. The spirit was the origin of the
existence of the son in the world of men – the son who was conceptus de spiritu Sancto. The
spirit calls into being the existence of every single Christian as a believing loving hoping witness
of the word of God. Anyone who does not have the spirit, according to Romans 8:9, does not
belong to God. This is why the spirit, according to Moltmann is God himself.

If the Holy Spirit is God, then it is holy. Moltmann (1997:45) points out that the Holy Spirit is
holy God himself, the spirit is not one of God's attributes either. The spirit is God himself in
person, no less than God the Father, and God the son. This is why in the Nicene Creed, the Holy
Spirit together with the Father and the Son are worshipped and glorified. Through the sending of
the spirit the history of the trinity is opened for the history of the gathering, uniting and
glorifying of the world in God and of God in the world. Moltmann further says that when we
speak about the sending and the glorification, we are talking about a highly concentrated way
about the triune God. While Barth understands the Holy Spirit as the hidden power present,
productive and active, Moltmann on the other hand goes further by saying that the Holy Spirit is
God himself who reveals or become visible in the person of Jesus Christ working and living with

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humans. This suggests that when one had the attributes of Christ, then the fruits of the Holy
Spirit are appreciated in such a one.

Kim (2007:7) points out that since the Holy Spirit can be understood as a “Cipher for the realm
of moral and spiritual values, the spirit is understood primarily in relation to the human
consciousness and the spirit of God tends to be domesticated in the highest human religio –
eternal ideals of the kingdom of God and the brotherhood of man. This could also mean that the
spirit is love and the concept of not hurting others comes in. This again is one of the attributes of
God and Jesus and that is his nature – love. Scripture supports this in John 3:16.

Moltmann (1992:61) argues that “Jesus had his special experience of the spirit, and that through
this he perceived his own calling and mission.” Moltmann suggests that the Holy Spirit may be
understood as a mission initiator. The indwelling of the spirit brings the divine energies of life in
Jesus to rapturous and overflowing fullness. The infilling of the spirit in Jesus at his baptism
(John 3:34) marked the beginning of the kingdom of God and the new creation of all things. The
spirit makes the kingdom of God in person, for in the power of the spirit, Jesus drives out
demons and heals sick; in the power of the Holy Spirit he receives sinners and brings the
kingdom of God to the poor. Barth (1963:54) points out that it is worth nothing that there are
other spirits as well, those created by god also demonic, erring and disruptive spirits which
defense nothing but driven out. The Holy Spirit of God is different from these evil spirits and this
is why Moltmann insists that the Holy Spirit is the holy God himself. Barth (1963:54) further
says that in the creed the spirit is called “the Holy one, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds
from the father and from the son, who together with the father and the son is adored and
glorified.

Arising from the pneumatologies both Barth and Moltman identify the Spirit as the breath of life
both maintain a strict monotheism while affirming the importance of the Father, Son and the
Holy Spirit. However, Barth explains the seeming inconsistence by claiming that God is revealed
to humanity through repetition of God’s nature. Such repetition is “grounded in his Godhead,
hence in such a way that it signifies no alteration in his Godhead; but also in such a way that only
in repetition is he the one God” while Moltman (1977:29) argues that the Holy Spirit has been
present and active throughout history of God’s redemptive plan.

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Moltmann looks at Pnematology from a broad perspective or from historical understanding and
Central in Moltmann's Pneumatology is the insistence that holistic Pneumatology must account
for the experience of the spirit in all spheres of life, not only in the spiritual spheres. Moltmann
(1992:161) points out that every life is born and wants to grow, the life which is ‘born again
from Gods eternal spirit also wants to grow. Moltmann holistic Pneumatology asserts that the
spirit is the spirit of life and is in all creation. While Barth developed the understanding of
Pnematology mainly from time when God became man (God’s Incarnate in Christ) in Christ and
when the Church received the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost day or just through revelation.

Moltmann further says that when we speak about the sending and the glorification, we are
talking about a highly concentrated way about the triune God While Barth understands the Holy
Spirit as the hidden power present, productive and active. Moltmann on the other hand goes
further by saying that the Holy Spirit is God himself who reveals or become visible in the person
of Jesus Christ working and living with humans.

For Moltmann, the Holy Spirit is the source of all life while Barth (1949:137) says that the spirit
was the origin of the existence of the son in the world of men; the son who was conceived of the
spirit. Barth understands Pneumatology mainly in spiritual circle. Unlike Moltimann, Barth
doesn’t incorporate theological and philosophical works in his understanding of Pneumatology.
This repetition is not a post Pentecostal event, Moltman and Barth defend the clause in the
Nicene Creed by claiming, the procession of the spirit from the father and the son is not limited
to the giving of the spirit in the time of Pentecost, but expresses an eternal relationship within the
being of God. So it may be concluded that the work of Jesus on earth was equally and
simultaneously the work of God as well as the Holy Spirit, as the work of the spirit in our lives
today is equally the work of Jesus and God.

Though Barth (1963:54) continually affirms the universality of the promise of Christ to all
humanity, he distinguishes Christians by those who are breathed upon,’ by Christ’s breath, which
is the spirit. Therefore, the spirit is the very word of God breathed upon the life of humanity, the
very revealedness of God. Barth describes the functions of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as
the revealer, revelation, and revealedness in order to show that revelation itself is what creates
such tension and difficulty of being three-in one. However, for Moltman the Spirit is the third
person Holy Trinity, one and present and futuristic.

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Barth like Moltman here holds that God seems to act as all the three in one. Therefore, in trying
to understand the humanity’s relationship with the Holy Spirit, the theology of Barth firmly
establishes the deity of the Holy Spirit. For both therefore, it is imperative to recognize the way
in which the Holy Spirit relates to and interacts with humanity demonstrated through not only the
historical event of Jesus coming into the fallen world, but also the personal encounter or the
subjective realization of atonement which is the point of justification in each individual’s life.

According to the two pneumatologies atonement is the divine act of God in Jesus; this is an
objective reality. But atonement has both subjective and objective reality in so far as it is both a
divine act and offer and also an active human participation in it. This subjective realization is the
active human response of the divine reconciling work of the Holy Spirit. It is subjective because
it is personal. Though it is personal, it is never self attained; the work of the Holy Spirit has
everything to do with such a realization. Atonement does not occur by human initiative.
Therefore, in order for humanity to be reconciled with God, God must provide a reconciliatory
gift of God’s own freewill. Therefore, “God in this particular address and gift, God in this
awakening power, God as the creator of this other man, is the Holy Spirit. Humanity has no
natural point of contact with God to humanity in Spirit.

For Barth, the subjective reality is the awakening power of the Holy Spirit in one’s own life
which testifies to the word of God while Moltman (1977:33) argues that the history of Christ is
to God the Father to the son in the Holy Spirit. Further Moltman Barth hold that it is not a self-
proclaimed idea or theology, but an awareness of the miracle of Jesus having justified you. The
Spirit is God’s revelation, as the third and the final facet of His being and as the accomplishing
goal of his self-disclosure, guarantees the Christian admission to true knowledge of the
intradivine life. Such self disclosure creates in man, response and obedience. Therefore by
providing a subjective means of receiving the awareness of the knowledge of God’s grace, the
Christians is called into a life response. This aspect makes Moltmanist and Barth’s pneumatology
participatory by definition. Faith, hope and love are the goals that the Spirit calls and quickens
the Christian to participate in. ethics are the stuff of life which enables dialogue and criticism to
shape the participation of the Christian towards more of what the Spirit has revealed in him or
her.

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According to Barth (1963:53) the objective reality of the awakening power is that such
awakening power produces evidences which are observable, public, human responses. Such
public responses are place where church happens. The Holy Spirit is likewise observable because
he is evidenced in the community which has responded to him. The receiving of the Holy Spirit
which makes the community a Christian and human’s, a Christian will work itself out to receive
him and where he is really expected, where there is a desire to receive him, that is the work
which he has already begun, in the unfailing sign of his presence. Moltman (1977:33) holds that,
Christ and church’s fellowship is in the Spirit. Therefore the church is the eschatological creation
of the Spirit.

On the other hand Moltmanist pneumatology takes the holistic, according to (Moltmann
1997:28) pneumatology is centered in an historical understanding of theology unlike Barth's
Trinitarian Christology which was authoritarian-based in a concept of revelation "from above"
without any rational or affective basis other than mere faith in God's self-disclosure. Barth's
autocratic concept of revelation created the sense that theology after all was an irrational affair
and that God was nothing more than a projection of our human ego. But with Moltmann, the
revelation of God is not a private affair, subjectively imagined to happen in a non-historical
moment of self-disclosure. Barth had one major problem with this expectation regarding
Moltmann. Moltmann had made eschatology the dominating principle of his theology. Barth
rightly perceived this new orientation to be a radical departure from his Church Dogmatics.
Barth hoped that Moltmann's subsequent writings would bring about a realignment with Barth's
supematuralistic model which sharply distinguished between the immanent and economic
trinity.5 This would not be forthcoming because Moltmann developed an.

Relevance for the Zambian church

Pneumatology is very relevant to the Zambian Church and even to the universal one. The Church
is belt or born out of the Holy Spirit. The Church must therefore, be the source of hope, help and
compassion to all. Moltmann (1977:65) asserts that “the Church participates in glorifying of God
in creating liberation.” The true Church is the one which is led by the spirit. This means that the
whole being of the church as marked by participation in the history of God's dealings with the
world. The Holy Spirit sanctifies and gives the Church new life especially now in Zambia where
there is rapid rise in the quest and zest for spiritual growth. But the question that one may

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struggle with is; which spirit most churches in Zambia today claim to have or preach about. A
number of preachings have attributed to the Holy Spirit by many men and women of God in
Zambia today. Such preaching makes the Holy Spirit as being controlled by humans. However
the spirit cannot be controlled man as Barth puts it, but it controls us. Nevertheless we see in the
church today is something else. Preachers reach the extent of commanding the Holy Spirit to
liberate people instead of calling up to him for deliverance.

Pneumatology can be relevant in that the Church in Zambia today is looking forward to preach
messages through the power of the spirit which gives life to all creation. The spirit sanctifies and
by sanctification it means the rediscovering the holiness of life and the divine mystery in all
created things, and defending it against the arbitrary manipulations of life and the destruction of
the earth through personal and institutionalized acts of violence (Moltman 1997:48-49). The
creative divine spirit is alive and He sanctifies the all cosmos. Life is sanctified when we
encounter the Holy Spirit and live with reverence before God. The earth is the Lord's and all that
dwells in it. The Church, therefore, must carry the message of good stewardship and take care of
the earth. Church should be involved in ecological work. Moltmann’s understanding of
Pneumatology is that humans must move from a domesticated Pneumatology to a universalized
Pneumatology for the whole creation. Domesticated Pneumatology leads humanity into all sorts
of problems. The Holy Spirit is for the whole world and is found in all things of our world.
Moltmann brings out the issue of sanctification which means that life is valued and so is the
environment where humans dwell. The church in Zambia is sanctified and is set apart from the
world to be God’s holy people.” This entails that when one is sanctified, such a one begins to
reflect God’s glory and this is exactly what God wants. God does this by the process of the
power of the Holy Spirit.

The pneumatologies of Moltman Barth bring about holistic understanding of theology as life
affirmation, resistance against forces of destructions and death perpetuated by humans. Holy
Spirit is the power by which Christianity exist, the spirit calls into being the existence of every
single Christian as a believing loving hoping witness of the word of God. The Church therefore
exists because of the spirit and all it does must embrace the spirit. Through the spirit, God is very
near to the church and without it, the church has no direction.

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The other relevance of Moltmann’s and Barthean’s pneumatologies for the Zambian Church is
that the spirit creates new possibilities. The Spirit is the principle of evolution. The newness of
birth experienced by his creatures and the church is the same creative work that drives the course
of biological evolution which has brought rise to the present condition of Earth. God’s Spirit is
also the holistic principle such that at every evolutionary stage, he creates interactions and
therefore a life of co-operation and community. The church learns to co-operate with themselves
and nature, valuing everything that God has created and utilizing them properly.

Moltmann’s and Barth’s pneumatologies bring the hope to the church in Zambia that liberation is
possible; Liberation of people from all manners of oppression and even to give hope to those
who may have lost hope. For Barth one cannot control the spirit and even Moltmann ascertain
that. Moltmann brings to light the dangers of quenching the spirit as a way of making the spirit to
depart from us, leaving room to evil spirits which brings destruction, death and dissolution. The
spirit of God who redeems is none other than the spirit who makes us live.

Moltmann’s and Barthean’s Pneumatology helps the Zambian church to distinguish between the
true and the false spirit. We have of late heard of cases of people who claim to be prophets but
involved in many shameful and ungodly practices. It is time for the church to realize that God
gave it spirit to preach against wrong doctrines.

CONCLUSION

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit cannot be fully contented, but the subject itself is cardinal one in
the life of every Christian and the church at large. In as much as different scholars have written
about Pneumatology, the writing of Moltmann and Barth unveils a lot of things that the church
ought to utilize. Furthermore, the Church can embrace any teaching about the Holy Spirit so
long it is in line with the scripture, the Apostolic or Nicene Creed. Therefore, both Moltman and
Barth understand Holy Spirit in the line of triune God and they only differ in terms of words but
with same view.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barth, K. 1949. Dogmatics in Outline. London: SCM Press.

Barth, K. 1963. Evangelical Theology : An Introduction.USA: Eerdmans Publishers.

Kim, G.J. 2011. The Holy Spirit, Chi and Others: A Model of Global and Intercultural
Pneumatology. Britain: Macmillan.

Kinnamon. 1991. WCC Signs of the Spirit: Official Report Seventh Assembly.Switzerland: WCC
Publications.

Moltmann. J. 1992, The Spirit of Life – A Universal Affirmation, First Fortress Press, USA.

Moltmann. J. 1997, The Source of Life – The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life, Fortress Press,
USA.

O’Donovan, W 1992, Biblical Christianity in African Perspective: New Life Literature, Sri
Lanka.

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