Atmospheric Rivers of Living Water and Tongues of Mega-Fire: Pneumatology in the Age of the Anthropocene

In Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is described as the Giver of Life. At the same time, in both anecdotal testimony and scriptural record, the Holy Spirit is associated with periods of Kairos. Its presence is felt in extremes of experience. A question arises for the twenty-first century theologian: as the earth enters a great extinction event and Homo sapiens sapiens faces the likelihood of perishing as a species, how do our various historical pneumatological configurations now serve us?  In this paper I will ask questions about the Holy Spirit’s role in the process of extinction. I will argue that to maintain a working pneumatology in the Kairos event of the sixth great extinction, the Giver of Life must also be read as inhabiting a paradoxical role as a Giver of Death, an advocate for the cyclical renewal of the Creation, for what is sustainable and “good,” human or otherwise.