Holy Spirit in Luke - Acts
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Date
2004
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
The Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father through his Son Jesus Christ to
all the believers, but often forgotten by them in their daily lives. In comparison to
the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit has been rather neglected. The notion of the
Holy Spirit itself is vague in its usage. It is difficult to give a clear cut definition to it
and some find no proper vocabulary to explain it.
The Holy Spirit is the divine principle. !Through him God acts in us and in
the whole of creation. The presence of this divine principle is evident in God's
words and deeds. It exists in the life of the holy people in the Old Testament. It
continues to be present in the New Testament, most specially. in the life of Jesus. Its
presence was evident in the Church from its very beginning. Its dynamic reality
appears in individual members and in the Church at large.
The New Testament makes a numerous references to the I loly Spirit. In his
Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke has presented the Holy Spirit as a great
initiator. In the Gospel, the Spirit acts as God's creative power and as the Spirit of
prophecy.
Today, it is the same Spirit who guides the Church as a community and its
individual members. The Spirit works in and through individuals in order to bring
the community to its fulfilment. This dynamic presence of the Spirit is the
foundation of the Catholic Charismatic Movement. The Christians involved in this
movement witness to the world that the Holy Spirit is alive and active among us today. He continues to guide us through his unfailing gifts that Ile has granted us
during our Baptism.
This thesis demonstrates the actRe presence of the Holy Spirit as it is
presented in the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. It also shows the Spirit
existence in the Catholic Charismatic Mcwement.
For the better understanding of this research paper. we have divided it into
three chapters. The first chapter examines the role of the I loly Spirit in the Gospel of
Luke. It is done according to the four major themes: Spirit and Prophecy, holy Spirit
as the Creative Power of God, the Spirit and Prayer and the Holy Spirit and Witness.
In the second chapter, we deal with the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the
Apostles. We investigate there, the same major themes as we have done it in the
Gospel.
In the concluding chapter, the centre of attention is mainly on how we may
apply today what we have discovered in the first two chapters. Therefore, in the
beginning of the chapter there is a short history of the Catholic Charismatic
Movement. In this way, we demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is still actively present
in the community of the Church and in the individuals as the principle divine force.
In order to achieve the above objectives and materialize the theoretical
framework, we have mainly followed library based research work, whereby the
relevant material on the topic of the thesis has been collected from the available
printed sources.
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Keywords
Holy Spirit, Acts, Holy Spirit in Luke, Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles, Holy Spirit Today