ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author begins with pneumatology in part for pedagogical reasons which prefer argument from the concrete to the abstract, and in part because of his own theological background, locatedness, orientation and intuitions. He proposes not just pneumatology in general—although what follows will certainly be abstract enough for many readers—but a Christian, and, more specifically, biblical pneumatology. The author aims to read the pneumatological narratives in Scripture through three basic categories: that of relationality, rationality, and dunamis or power of life and community. He argues that these are legitimately pneumatological categories which emerge out of engagement with the text. The Spirit enables the reconciliation between God and humankind; the Spirit empowers the new relationship established through Jesus Christ; the Spirit is the relational medium that makes possible the incarnational and paschal mysteries. The Spirit's presence is made remarkably manifest in the bodily form of a dove at the baptism of Jesus.
