The Holy Spirit and Worship: Transformation and Truth in the Theologies of John Owen and John Zizioulas

The Holy Spirit has become a greater focus for attention in Trinitarian theology and in the life of the western church since the rise of Pentecostalism at the beginning of the twentieth century. Different understandings of the Holy Spirit have impacted worship in a variety of ways. This book looks at look at surprising overlaps in the thinking about relationship between the Holy Spirit and worship between two radically different traditions of the church represented by John Owen from the seventeenth century in England and John Zizioulas from the twentieth/twenty-first century in Greece. Four threads of argument are identified flowing from the unexpected overlap between these two thinkers that are of value for the church today. The first is the personal and relational nature of the Triune God drawing the human person into a deeper sense of relational identity. The second is the immediacy of the encounter with God through the Holy Spirit in worship. The third is the way in which the Holy Spirit leads people into truth. The fourth is the transformative nature of the encounter with God in worship which draws people into sharing Gods purpose for the transformation of the world.