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Pneumatology: The Study of the Holy Spirit

Welcome to my pneumatology page! Here you will discover a slew of articles all about the precious Holy Spirit!

But before we dig, you might be asking this question…

What is Pneumatology?

Pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit. But it wasn’t always meaning that. In 1673, the word if first recorded as meaning, the study of spiritual beings or phenomena. This is a much broader meaning of the word, but it now commonly used in Christendom to mean the study of the Holy Spirit.

If we break up the word, we see that first word is pneuma. Which in the Greek means “wind, air, spirit

Pneuma (n) a word used in English in various sense from late 19c. (“breath;” “spirit;” “soul;” “a breathing;” also as a technical term), from Greek pneuma “a blowing, a wind, blast; breeze; influence; breathed air, breath; odor, scent; spirit of a person; inspiration, a spirit, ghost,” from pnein “to blow, to breathe,” from PIE root *pneu- “to breathe,” of imitative origin (compare Greek pnoe “breath,” pnoia “breathing;” Old English fnora “sneezing,” fnæran “to snort”). (source)

The second part we are more familiar with, ology. In a nutshell, this means the study of. For example, biology is the study of life or archaeology the study of past human activity.

Ology word-forming element indicating “branch of knowledge, science,” now the usual form of -logy. Originally used c. 1800 in nonce formations (commonsensology, etc.), it gained legitimacy by influence of the proper formation in geologymythology, etc., where the -o- is a stem vowel in the previous element. (source)

All about the Holy Spirit

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit