{"id":13289,"date":"2026-06-17T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=13289"},"modified":"2026-06-20T22:02:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T22:02:57","slug":"naming-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/naming-the-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming the Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"1781665136\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

The Spirit At Work<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Artists, scholars, and theologians explore the Holy Spirit\u2019s distinctive presence in the interplay of art and theology.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Review by Joy Moore<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The Holy Spirit is the least discussed person of the Trinity, in part because Scripture\u2019s records of the Spirit are complex, elusive, and surprising. Even so, it is to our detriment to shy away from the Spirit\u2019s enigmatic nature, for the Spirit\u2019s abounding activity and presence flow forth from the Godhead in myriad ways. The sixteen essayists featured in Naming the Spirit<\/em> don\u2019t shy away in the least; they labor to identify specific aspects of the Holy Spirit in order to see how the Spirit is alive in art and artmaking. None of these writers nor the collection\u2019s editors waste time justifying their project. Instead, they simply “get on with the business” of studying theology through art and art through theology, contributing to the rich interplay of the two.<\/p>

With some variation, each essay in the collection accomplishes two tasks: it first names and discusses a specific aspect of the Holy Spirit\u2019s life and work, then explores how such activity connects with, is illumined by, or is manifested within a work of art. These artworks include, among others, an early Syrian Christian illuminated manuscript, contemporary installation work by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, the films of Terrence Malick, Native art, African American spirituals, a poem by Ross Gay, and landscape art. In a refreshing approach, the artworks are not mere illustrations but centers of conversation in the relationship between art and theology. Encountering a theology of the Holy Spirit in conversation with particular works allows readers to concretely engage with the movements and person of the Spirit.<\/p>

The collection opens with Steve Guthrie\u2019s discussion of the Holy Spirit as Pneuma,<\/em> saying, \u201cAll that lives [lives] by the Breath of God.\u201d This everywhere, all-encompassing God is the God of \u201cmystery and <\/em>knowledge,\u201d Guthrie says, preparing readers for the revelation and limitations that come in attempting to understand the Spirit. Notably, this essay introduces the theme of reciprocity: the Spirit gives breath and the capacity to breathe, and we exhale in worship and in \u201canswering breath.\u201d In the life of the Spirit, this involves \u201callowing breath to become shared dwelling,\u201d a theme developed with insight and artistic sensitivity in a subsequent piece. Fittingly, that chapter is followed by one exploring the Holy Spirit\u2019s gift of breadth<\/em>, of wide spaces in which to move freely and in community.<\/p>

Indeed, freedom is <\/em>communal, several writers posit, and defined by respect for others and by interdependency, rather than a singular will to act for one\u2019s own self. To wit, Jennifer A. Craft and W. David O. Taylor, in considering landscape architecture and healthy ecosystems of diverse plants, offer that \u201cmaking a space for particularity to flourish . . . is intimately tied up in the expression of diversity . . . that impose[s] limits on freedom even as it empowers the expression of one\u2019s own particularity.\u201d As several authors note, this respect for otherness arises from the Holy Spirit\u2019s own activity. One\u2019s selfhood is not lost in one\u2019s yes<\/em> to God, Chelle Stearns says, for \u201cthe Spirit . . . honors the capacity of human flesh and material existence to participate in and with God in an unexpected mutuality.\u201d<\/p>

This presents a contradictory tension: as one becomes more particular, shouldn\u2019t one be less <\/em>uniform? Here again, however, several writers find that the Spirit refuses such simple oppositions. Instead, they present examples in Scripture (such as Pentecost) and in artworks wherein multiple identities are connected and bonds forged without losing their distinctiveness. In the conjoining, a new, third reality is made. Take, for instance, Amy Whisenand Krall\u2019s reveling in the song, \u201cHope for Resolution,\u201d which braids together \u201cOf the Father\u2019s Love Begotten,\u201d an ancient plainsong chant, and \u201cThula Sizwe,\u201d a South African protest song. Each retains its characteristics of style, language, and recognizable music, even as their integration creates something new. The ability of a listener to hear this work as two distinct pieces in a cohesive, surprising unity animates one\u2019s understanding of the work the Spirit does among us. The Spirit, Craft and Taylor identify, \u201cfrees the many to be in right relationship to each other,\u201d as \u201cparticularity is never an end in itself [but] for the sake of an ecology of right relatedness.\u201d Agreeing with this vision of the Spirit\u2019s work, Erin Shaw and Taylor Worley offer insight into the interconnectedness of things, advancing a view of shalom as, \u201c\u2018communal, holistic, and tangible. There is no private or partial shalom. All must have shalom or no one has shalom.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

To disrupt for the sake of new sight\u2014to take away in order to give\u2014is another kind of reciprocity that fits the surprising movements of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Image of\u00a0<\/em>Beauty installation, from Eliasson’s website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Among the essays I most admired was Cristina Carnes Ananias\u2019s discussion of illumination as she sets Basil of Caesarea\u2019s text On the Holy Spirit<\/em><\/a> beside Olafur Eliasson\u2019s visual installation, Beauty<\/a>. <\/em>I love installation art, like Eliasson\u2019s, that shapes ordinary materials to evoke wonder, and I appreciated Ananias\u2019s guidance, helping us imagine light\u2019s absence and the transformation of its presence by situating the artwork in relation to Basil’s theology, Minimalism, and the Light and Space art movements. One cannot perceive without light: to perceive God, Basil says, requires the illumination of the Holy Spirit. And without the spotlight in Eliasson\u2019s Beauty<\/em>, one would feel only mist in the museum\u2019s dark room, and miss the rainbow formed when light is cast upon it. Such an artwork takes light and shadow out of a two-dimensional frame and into the viewer\u2019s surroundings, \u201cdisrupting normative experiences in order to bring new vision.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>

To disrupt for the sake of new sight\u2014to take away in order to give\u2014is another kind of reciprocity that fits the surprising movements of the Holy Spirit. So often in life and in art, we are unsettled, disrupted, confronted; and we are also comforted, tended, lightened. Because life holds experiences that take the ground out from under us, we need art that honors that shattering and art that admits the graces, too. Such art\u2014insofar as it is honest to suffering and to the persistence of life\u2014can signal the life of the Spirit\u2019s presence in this world amid violence and transgression, unanswered questions, and everyday irrepressible beauties.<\/p>

The editors acknowledge the \u201cprecarious territory\u201d of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, including our common nebulous usage of the words spirit <\/em>and spiritual<\/em>, and the Bible\u2019s own ambiguity about the Holy Spirit that has caused the church to struggle to articulate the Spirit\u2019s \u201cunique personhood\u201d and \u201cdistinctive agency.\u201d Further still, how were the writers to identify the work of the Holy Spirit in an artwork\u2014as inspiration, illumination, inherent in\u2014even if the artist had no intentional engagement with God?<\/p>

Yet these risks prove, to this reader, worth taking. They are generative for the ongoing conversations between theology and the arts. The writers gain a reader\u2019s trust through their close study of Scriptures and their close attention to the form and vision of an artwork without prescribing doctrinal interpretations. In doing so, they invite readers to seek with them and to extend this conversation. Indeed, my desire to share with others the insights discovered in this collection suggests the continued, outflowing work of the Holy Spirit. In being given, I want to give.<\/p>

Like any \u201ckaleidoscopic vision of the Spirit\u2019s comprehensive work in the world\u201d in which \u201cnothing is untouched by the Spirit\u2019s work,\u201d this collection offers theological and artistic prisms through which to attend to the everyday workings of the Spirit and to artworks made by other humans. Readers may find an increased longing for the new creations and healthy flourishing that come from individuality illumined within larger unity and from freedom that welcomes limits in order to see all live as themselves\u2014toward the shalom that is not private or partial, but is for all.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Joy Moore<\/strong> teaches undergraduate writing and interdisciplinary courses in Jackson, Tennessee. Her work has appeared in The Southern Review, Comment<\/em>, Best Spiritual Literature<\/em>, 32 Poems, Ecotone<\/em>, and Prairie Schooner<\/em>, where she won a Glenna Luschei Award.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Naming the Spirit<\/strong><\/em> edited by W. David O. Taylor and Daniel Train was published by InterVarsity Press on September 2, 2025. You can purchase your own copy here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artists, scholars, and theologians explore the Holy Spirit\u2019s distinctive presence in the interplay of art and theology. Review by Joy Moore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":13290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781665136.jpg?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13289"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13308,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13289\/revisions\/13308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}