Spirit, Word, Community

Book excerpt: The main thesis of 'Spirit-Word-Community' is that Christian theological reflection in a postmodern world starts with the experience of the Holy Spirit, but is at the same time post-foundationalist in terms of being formed by the word and being adjudicated by various communities of interpretation. Yet the book's hermeneutical and methodological proposals are not merely prolegomena to theology but already involve and assume theologically substantive claims derived from a pneumatological point of view. Hence, this is a pneumatological theology which illuminates the hermeneutical process precisely by showing how the Holy Spirit engages the human imagination to empower liberative practices in a world that remains graced by her presence and activity. 'Spirit-Word-Community' is meant in each of these senses to be a contribution to the formulation of a comprehensive theology of the Third Article for the twenty-first century.