The Charisms of the Holy Spirit in the Life of Churches
The affirmation and exercise of charisms has varied over time and been shaped by the prevailing theological assumptions about formal church structure and leadership of a given tradition. Theological assumptions are, as a matter of course, profoundly colored by the perspectives of the people developing them in the context of the current hegemonic cultural presuppositions. This is especially true of ecclesiology and pneumatology. Indeed, the ways in which different Christian traditions have come to counterbalance these two categories of Christian theology speaks volumes about their fundamental views of God and human salvation. The different intellectual categories which systematic theologians attempt to describe are all intertwined in people’s actual thought and practice. In churches with a traditional emphasis on the Episcopal model of leadership and ministry the focus of thought has been on the position and work of formal leaders. The ministry of laypersons was not emphasized becau