Editing Holy Spirit (section)

== Comparative religion ==
The [[Hebrew Bible]] contains the term "[[Holy Spirit in Judaism|spirit of God]]" (''{{Transliteration|he|ruach elochim}}'') which by Jews is interpreted in the sense of the might of a unitary [[God in Judaism|God]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} This interpretation is different from the Nicene [[Christianity|Christian]] conception of the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]] as one person of the [[Trinity]].<ref>{{cite book |last = Espín |first = Orlando O. |editor-last1 = Espín |editor-first1 = Orlando O. |editor-last2 = Nickoloff |editor-first2 = James B. |title = An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k85JKr1OXcQC&pg=PA576 |year = 2007 |publisher = Liturgical Press |location = Collegeville |isbn = 978-0-8146-5856-7 |page = 576 |chapter = Holy Spirit }}</ref>

The Christian concept tends to emphasize the [[morality|moral]] aspect of the Holy Spirit as a common expression in the Christian New Testament.<ref>{{cite book |last = Dunn |first = James D. G. |editor-last = Welker |editor-first = Michael |title = The Work of the Spirit: Pneumatology and Pentecostalism |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VsN-bkOLvjMC&pg=PA3 |year = 2006 |publisher = Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |location = Grand Rapids |isbn = 978-0-8028-0387-0 |page = 3 |chapter = Towards the Spirit of Christ: The Emergence of the Distinctive Features of Christian Pneumatology }}</ref> Based on the Old Testament, the book of Acts emphasizes the power of ministry aspect of the Holy Spirit.<ref>Menzies, William W. and Robert P. "Spirit and Power." Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000.</ref>

In general, Jews reject any conception of a co-equal, multi-person godhead; anything but an absolute monotheism is contrary to the [[Shema Yisrael|Shema]]. They do not consider the Hebrew word for "one" (Hebrew: אחד, ''ekhad'') as meaning anything other than a simple numerical ''one''.<ref name="i345">{{cite web | last=Zukeran | first=Dr. Patrick | title=Judaism Viewed from a Christian Perspective | website=Probe Ministries | date=2005-06-14 | url=https://probe.org/judaism/ | access-date=2024-09-04}}</ref><ref>[http://allfaith.com/Religions/Noahide/trinity.html The Trinity and Deity of Jesus: What the Bible Really Teaches] – Retrieved 21 June 2013.</ref> The rabbinical understanding of the Holy Spirit has a certain degree of [[personification]], but it remains, "a quality belonging to God, one of his attributes".<ref>Joseph Abelson,''The Immanence of God in Rabbinical Literature'' (London:Macmillan and Co., 1912).</ref> The idea of God as a [[Binitarianism|duality]] or [[trinity]] is considered ''[[shituf]]'' (or "not purely monotheistic").

According to [[Theology|theologian]] [[Rudolf Bultmann]], there are two ways to think about the Holy Spirit: "animistic" and "dynamistic". In animistic thinking, he is "an independent agent, a personal power which (...) can fall upon a man and take possession of him, enabling him or compelling him to perform manifestations of power" while in dynamistic thought it "appears as an impersonal force which fills a man like a fluid".{{sfn|Bultmann|2007|p=155}} Both kinds of thought appear in Jewish and Christian scripture, but animistic is more typical of the Old Testament whereas dynamistic is more common in the New Testament.{{sfn|Bultmann|2007|pp=156–157}} The distinction coincides with the Holy Spirit as either a temporary or permanent gift. In the Old Testament and Jewish thought, it is primarily temporary with a specific situation or task in mind, whereas in the Christian concept the gift resides in persons permanently.{{sfn|Bultmann|2007|pp=157}}

On the surface, the Holy Spirit appears to have an equivalent in non-Abrahamic [[Greco-Roman mysteries|Hellenistic mystery religions]]. These religions included a distinction between the [[Vitalism|spirit]] and [[Soul in the Bible|psyche]], which is also seen in the [[Pauline epistles]]. According to proponents{{who|date=January 2023}} of the [[History of religions school]], the Christian concept of the Holy Spirit cannot be explained from Jewish ideas alone without reference to the Hellenistic religions.{{sfn|Konsmo|2010|p=2}} But according to theologian Erik Konsmo, the views "are so dissimilar that the only legitimate connection one can make is with the Greek term πνεῦμα [''[[pneuma]]'', Spirit] itself".{{sfn|Konsmo|2010|p=5}}

Another link with ancient Greek thought is the [[Stoicism|Stoic]] idea of the spirit as ''[[anima mundi]] –'' or world soul – that unites all people.{{sfn|Konsmo|2010|p=5}} Some{{By whom|date=January 2023}} believe that this can be seen in Paul's formulation of the concept of the Holy Spirit that unites [[Christians]] in [[Jesus]] [[Christ (title)|Christ]] and love for one another, but Konsmo again thinks that this position is difficult to maintain.{{sfn|Konsmo|2010|p=6}} In his Introduction to the 1964 book ''[[Meditations]]'', the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth wrote:
<blockquote>
Another Stoic concept which offered inspiration to the Church was that of "divine Spirit". Cleanthes, wishing to give more explicit meaning to Zeno's "creative fire", had been the first to hit upon the term ''pneuma'', or "spirit", to describe it. Like fire, this intelligent "spirit" was imagined as a tenuous substance akin to a current of air or breath, but essentially possessing the quality of warmth; it was immanent in the universe as God, and in man as the soul and life-giving principle. Clearly it is not a long step from this to the "Holy Spirit" of Christian theology, the "Lord and Giver of life", visibly manifested as tongues of fire at Pentecost and ever since associated – in the Christian as in the Stoic mind – with the ideas of vital fire and beneficent warmth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aurelius |first=Marcus |author-link=Marcus Aurelius| title=Meditations |url=https://archive.org/details/meditations0000marc_m9z0 |url-access=registration |year=1964 |location=London |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/meditations0000marc_m9z0/page/25 25] |isbn=0-14044140-9}}</ref></blockquote>