Catching the Pentecost Spirit in the Quantum Age
A Process Theology view
Pentecost Sunday brings to the Christian a time to celebrate the reality of God as Spirit at work across history. The Lukan narrative about Pentecost describes a physical experience with a strong wind and “tongues of fire” coming upon the believers in Jerusalem.[1] Scientifically, it may be a description of St. Elmo’s Fire, an atmospheric phenomena of plasma becoming visible in an electrically charged atmosphere.[2] This was interpreted by the Apostles as the Spirit of God gifting the people with a greater spiritual power to spread the message of Jesus the Messiah. The events and testimonies amazed the crowd, according to the story by Luke. With this, the Glory of God which had been deemed absent by Ezekiel,[3] is restored to the living temple of each believer.
How did they understand this “Holy Spirit” and what can we make of it today?
“God is spirit,” said Jesus to the inquisitive Samaritan woman.[4] His teaching, as narrated by the Johannine editors, conveys a common view of the ancient world describing God’s existence with a different “substance” than the physical world. The word for “spirit” was used by Greeks for centuries before the time of Jesus. “Pneuma” was a basic substance of the world described by the Stoics.[5] God and spiritual creatures were made of an intangible, invisible, yet powerful element completely different than the physical universe. A similar meaning is found in 1 Corinthians 15:44, as Paul differentiates the spiritual body of the afterlife from a physical one. The ancient worldview of all Near Eastern societies held that God, angels, demons, and the resurrected Jesus exist in a different form and realm from all other creatures who are “flesh and blood.
The view of the ancient world in which believed spirits ruled earthly affairs has been rejected in the Quantum age. Science has supplied sufficient physical causes for events in the universe. There is no place for any spiritual substance or being which cannot be measured by scientific instruments. Autopsies reveal the natural causes for sudden deaths and animals can be stampeded by lightning. How can the ancient worldview of a spiritual world connect to the worldview of the Quantum Age?
Process Theology offers a Biblical, philosophical, and scientific perspective for the worldview of today. The core truth recognizes that God and all entities in the universe share a single reality of existence that may be viewed from two directions. Every entity in the universe has the capacity to experience events with two inseparable facets: an internal, non-sensory one and an external sensory one. All entities experience life in these twin dimensions as a sequence of occasions which continues moment-by-moment.
Process theologians teach that God is intimately related to every entity in this dipolar universe, sharing in both dimensions in every experience across the universe. Humans sense the work of God within the mind and call it “spiritual.” That is true, yet not the entire story of Reality. Every experience has an internal, “spiritual,” dimension which is intertwined with the brain and body. God’s communication infuses all entities and experiences in the internal, non-sensory dimension, invisible to the senses yet profoundly real.
The words of Jesus helped the Samaritan woman to understand that God was not only in Jerusalem or the temple in Samaria but intertwined with every place and every person. With this unified understanding encompassing every experience, we can say from our worldview now that worms live in a spiritual reality, dolphins live in a spiritual reality, humans live in a spiritual reality, and God is the ultimate Spiritual Reality, presenting input to every experience in the universe. “God is spirit” expresses the truth that all the universe and God are united in dynamic relationship which is both a sensory and non-sensory Reality.
For the believer, every moment can sense the possibilities offered by God, inviting our choice to follow and be transformed. Fear can give way to boldness, grievance can turn toward forgiveness, or a meditative moment morph into a divine vision. God is ever-active in the process of luring our mental constructs towards the best possibilities of the moment, giving us a choice to create the thoughts, words, and actions of our life. Every moment can be a Pentecostal encounter with the Spirit who is embodied in us “filling us” for new works with God!
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[1] Acts 2:1-4
[2] Julia Layton, “What is St. Elmo’s Fire?” How Stuff Works. https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/st-elmo-fire.htm
[3] Ezekiel 10:18-19
[4] John 4:24
[5] Colin Brown, Ed., Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol 3. Zondervan, 1978.