The Spirit of Synergy and Indwelling
The Holy Spirit is the active presence of God in creation and human experience. If grace is the interaction that attenuates life’s oppressive outcomes, the Spirit is the balancing force that works within and through measurable variables to produce outcomes that exceed what the variables alone would predict.
The Spirit’s work is inherently dynamic, for among other things, the Spirit is the messenger of Grace. Tanner (2005) argued that grace “operates within and through social and economic systems” and is “not an exception to natural or social laws but a force that reconfigures their operation” (Tanner, 2005, p. 78). The Spirit is the agent of this reconfiguration, the power that transforms systemic disadvantage into sites of resilience and creativity.
Diana Eck (1993) described the Spirit as “as intimate and abiding as our breath, as elusive as the wind, as powerful and consuming as fire, and as surprising and mysterious as a sudden sense of presence” (Eck, 1993, p. 47). The Spirit is both universal and particular, active in all creation yet intimately present to each wounded soul. For the Black person of faith, the Spirit has been experienced as the consummate teacher and comforter who intercedes with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26) and reveals the very mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-13).
This understanding of the Spirit draws deeply on African traditional religious frameworks. John Mbiti (1969) observed that in African traditional religions, “there is no formal distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the religious and the non-religious, between the spiritual and the material areas of life” (Mbiti, 1969, p. 2). The Spirit bridges these false dichotomies, uniting the natural and the supernatural in a comprehensive system in which all elements of being are interconnected. Lee Butler (2006) noted that “African American spirituality has influenced the consciousness, directed the relational existence, and promoted African American survival for generations” (Butler, 2006, p. 31). The Spirit is the essence connecting individuals to a “transcendently extended family with members linked to one another by adoption through the Spirit of God” (Butler, 2006, p. 33).
