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The work of practical theologian James E. Loder, Jr. (19312001) deserves a wider
audience. For over forty years he developed and exercised an interdisciplinary
methodology that identified patterns of correlation in the fields of psychology,
educational theory, phenomenology, epistemology, and physics, portraying a
compelling theological vision that centers on the person and work of the Holy
Spirit encountering and transforming human life. At his untimely death in
November 2001, Loder was the Mary D. Synnott Professor of the Philosophy of
Christian Education at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey,
where he lectured primarily in the areas of human development and the philosophy
of education.
My objective here is to introduce and examine, explore and untangle the
complexity of Loders thought in order that it might become more accessible to a
broader theological audience. Simply stated, I hope to demonstrate that Loders
work, particularly his pneumatology, is of inestimable value to theologians engaged
in the ongoing renewal of the church. At the core of Loders work is what I
characterize as a relational phenomenological pneumatology. The Christian life is
preeminently relational, distinguished by a relationship with God that is constituted
by Jesus Christ and sustained by the Holy Spirit. The relation, Loder claims, takes
place in and through the life of the Holy Spirit, who operates within a
complementary relationship with the human spirit. This he describes as an analogia
spiritus: an intimate, transformational interrelation of the Holy Spirit and the human
spirit. The Holy Spirit, intimately connected to the person and work of Christ, takes
up and extends the work begun in the incarnation by enfleshing the presence of
Christ in the life of an individual in ways that are transformationally
Christomorphic. Loder is distinctive in the way he articulates a theology of the Holy
Spirit that takes into account how the self participates in the relationship and the
way the self, through the relationship, comes to have a fuller knowledge of itself,
the world, and God. The logic of this dynamic, I will argue, has extraordinary
implications for the way we talk about Christian experience. Loders relational
phenomenological pneumatology contains rich and yet largely unrecognized
resources for framing an understanding of the Christian life.
Intrinsic to every Christian life, asserts Loder, are experiences of metanoia.
These are moments of conviction, moments of transformation, sometimes of
revolutionary proportions, when a new knowledge comes upon us, arriving from
beyond the limited confines of the knower, such that knowing itself yields to a
higher intelligibility as mediated by the Holy Spirit.1 A particular Augenblick or
moment can be experienced as swiftly as the blinking of the eye; or the duration
of the moment can be stretched over the length of ones lifetime, which, when

INTRODUCTION

compared to the age of the universe, is equally swift. Either way, the Holy Spirit
actively engages the human spirit, and through an interpersonal experience that
operates deeper than the defensive structures of the ego, graciously transfigures
reality in a process that Loder calls intensification, whereby reality itself is
reconstituted by the Spirit who is the bearer of all truth (John 16:13). A convictional
encounter with the Spirit of Christ always yields a higher order of knowing.2 By
higher, Loder does not mean up and out, for such knowledge does not take us
out of the world. Instead, he refers to the way the Spirit reframes the way we view
ourselves and our reality and puts us into reality in completely new ways. Because
the pattern is incarnational, it puts us down and into the world, as is revealed to us
anew by the Spirit. The Spirit embeds us into space and time (or more correctly in a
post-Einsteinian world, space-time), and yields both a more passionate engagement
with the world and a deeper apprehension of the meaning and importance of
human life in the eyes of God.
More specifically, Loders elemental premise is that the Christian message
concerns healing, restoration, and renewalin a word, transformation. Those who
first encountered Jesus Christ and became his followers experienced personal
transformation, moments of conviction that radically altered their understanding of
God, themselves and others, gave them new life and put them in a new social
relationship with the world. The early church was called out from ordinary life to
testify to what it saw and heard, and in its preaching invited women and men to
participate in that new reality, to live into the ongoing life of the Holy Spirit
transforming individuals and societies after the pattern of Christ. The Christian
scriptures contend that this is a timeless pattern: people in any age may come to see
that the Holy Spirit continues to desire and work to transform human life. Loder
writes that the Spiritual Presence of God in Jesus Christ [is] at work to restore an
anguished creation to its Creator.3 His writings attempt to articulate the how or the
structure of conviction. Convictional experiences do not belong only to those who
have them, Loder contends, but to anyone who is willing to wrestle through to a
dawning of the new sense of reality they disclose.4 He holds out the possibility of
conviction to anyone willing to open themselves up to the work of the Holy Spirit.
To say that Loders theology provides new frameworks for living the Christian
life obviously acknowledges that there are already frameworks in place. To speak of
the need for new ones, however, suggests their present inadequacy. There is a deep
crisis of meaning for many within the Christian experience; and there is something
desperately wrong with the church, especially in Europe and North America. The
church is in distress, with the membership, attendance, and involvement of most
denominations declining year after year. Yes, there are individual congregations
which are thriving, but for the most part, the church is in trouble. I believe the
church is in trouble because its people are in trouble and the church appears, for the
most part, powerless to help. For too long the church has exerted itself toward the
goal of institutional self-preservation, often at the expense of the needs of its
people. Jungian analyst James Hollis astutely notes that if religious institutions were
really helping people connect with the numinous, there would be more evidence of

INTRODUCTION

this.5 The church and its pastors and theologians have failed to speak a compelling
word of hope and healing to the existential crises of the human conditionand so
the people have left.
What do we mean by new frameworks? Loder is not trying to rework the
Christian faith to make it more palatable to the secularized masses. He is not really
interested in apologetics; he has no desire to prove Christian truth claims.
Neither is he trying to identify what can be rationally retained and reformulated
with intellectual sophistication. He is much more concerned with the how of the
Christian life than with the what. His frameworks are new in the sense that what
he offers are things that have been forgotten, ignored, or distorted by philosophical
and theological frameworks over the two thousand-year history of the church.
The Christian life is not set apart from ordinary life, but is the renewing of
ordinary life by Christ himself. It is the eschatological recreation of the creature
overcoming its inherent alienation from the Creator (2 Cor. 5:19). Loder reminds us
that the how of the Christian life entails a relationship of profound intimacy
between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit and in that relationship one comes to
have a new understanding of what life looks like for the human being claimed by
Christ. His theology calls us to a renewed appreciation for the ascriptive worth of
human beings wrestling throughout their lives with two fundamental questions:
What is a lifetime? and Why do I live it? These are questions of the human
spirit struggling to find meaning and love in a world that often appears devoid of
both. If Christian theology and the church that it serves are going to speak to the
contemporary crisis within Western Christianity, then it needs to speak directly to
these integral questions of human life. This is the value of Loders work: helping us
to see more profoundly how the Holy Spirit is deep at work transforming human
life, encountering and addressing the human spirit with the liberating presence of
Christ at precisely the point of greatest need. I believe that Loders pneumatology
has the ability to speak a new and creative word of hope to the troubled state of the
church in the West.6
Summary of the Chapters
In both his public classroom lectures and individual counseling sessions in the
privacy of his office it was not uncommon to hear Loder urging his listeners: Be
faithful to what you know. This injunction often came to mind throughout the
writing of this book. Through my analysis of his writings and what I have come to
know about Loders personal history, I suspect that much of his adult life was spent
trying to be faithful to what he had come to know through faith, specifically from
his profound moments of conviction. I view his writings, in their totality, as a
gracious expression of faithfulness; that is, with the strength of his intellect,
combined with deep humility and a spirit of gratitude, Loder sought to be faithful
to what he had come to know.

INTRODUCTION

The first chapter will provide an overview of Loders life, survey his early
writings, and identify the significant influences upon his thought. His theology may
be more fully appreciated and perhaps more easily grasped when placed within the
broader context of his life and some awareness of his own personal, existential
struggles. To be sure, the value of Loders contributions to practical theology is not
contingent upon our ability to grasp the meaning of his life, as if this were even
possible. Life and work must not be conflated. And, yet, neither can his experience
be ignored or discounted. To completely sever Loders thought from his life would
seriously distort the meaning and significance of his contribution to practical
theology. Loder himself was intent upon claiming a human factor in
epistemology by acknowledging and including the knower in what is known.7 The
self is always implicated in what is known. Understanding something of Loder-asknower is invaluable as we proceed to examine his thought.
Therefore, we will explore the context of two convictional experiences that
shaped the direction of his life and helped to provoke his theological imagination
up through 1970. It seems to me that Loders academic contributions, beginning
with his doctoral dissertation, emanate from a need to come to terms with these
two experiences that cracked opened the structure of his reality and redefined his
life. They compelled him to question his own preconceived notions of what is real
and possible, obliged him to reform many of his theological views, and shaped his
understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Chapter two is an excursus through the personalist-relational tradition in
theology, represented by the writings of Hans Hofmann (19232007) who, as we
will see, had an enormous impact upon Loders personal and intellectual life.
Hofmann studied with Emil Brunner (18891966), a theologian who asserted that
personalism and relationalism were situated at the center of Christian experience.
Identifying the personalist-relational elements in both Hofmann and Brunner can
help us to recognize more clearly many of the deep themes and strong emphases
that also surface in Loders theology and help us to place his thought into the
broader context of twentieth-century Protestant theology. Ideally, this discussion
would be placed in the first chapter, just prior to our consideration of Loders
Harvard years. But this would make for an exceedingly long chapter, and so the
excursus stands on its own. One might wish to interrupt the reading of chapter one,
however, by jumping ahead to chapter two and then returning to complete the first
chapter.
In the third chapter we turn to the heart of Loders work, with a detailed
examination of themes that cluster around what I have termed a relational
phenomenological pneumatology. We will focus upon his publications from 1970
through 2002. Instead of approaching them sequentially, I will look at them as a
whole, thereby highlighting the generative center of Loders thought and its wider
applications. The year 1970 marks a major turning in both his life and thought as he
takes up pneumatological considerations after a near-fatal car accident. He begins to
construct a theology of the Holy Spirit that is firmly grounded in the Reformed
theological tradition, yet informed by his own insights into the dynamics of human

INTRODUCTION

transformation and experiences of conviction. During this period, we see Loder

becoming a theologian of conviction: for more than thirty years after his second
significant experience of conviction, he developed and creatively employed a unique
psycho-spiritual, epistemological framework that articulates a vision of the Christian
life primarily as an experience of conviction by the Spiritual Presence of Christ.
The major themes and terms of Loders convictional theology are addressed in
this one chapter. After an overview of the principal publications of this period
The Transforming Moment (1981, 1989); The Knights Move: The Relational Logic of the
Spirit in Theology and Science (1992, coauthored with physicist W. Jim Neidhardt); and
The Logic of the Spirit: Human Development in Theological Perspective (1998)we will turn
to a critical analysis of the main components of and influences upon Loders
thought. His writings have been critiqued for being consistently taxing. As an
interdisciplinarian pulling adeptly from a wide range of fields and sources, he has
been notoriously difficult to fathom. Categorizing the center of his thought as a
relational phenomenological pneumatology attempts to offer an interpretative
framework to gain better access to Loders theology. Because it is my intent to
introduce Loder to a wider audience, I have been generous with the number of
quotations from his works. Though his prose is complex and dense, sometimes
regrettably so, it is also inherently rich. Language is pushed to its extremes in an
attempt to articulate the inarticulable.
Chapter four takes up themes that are implicit to Loders theology, but which
have not previously been made explicit elsewhere. He is interested in the nature of
reality and the way realities are constructed by the human knower. His ultimate
concern, however, is not reality itself, but the degree to which the construction of
reality allows for a human being to develop a present connection or intimacy with the
person Jesus Christ. The paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould (19412002), observed
that, The more important the subject and the closer it cuts to the bone of our
hopes and needs, the more we are likely to err in establishing a framework for
analysis.8 For the Christian, there is no more important subject that cuts to the bone
of humanitys hopes and needs than the person Jesus Christ. And yet this subject, it
must be admitted, remains ever elusive; for many, even those who bear his name,
Christ remains distant. In this chapter I will argue that the possibility of a present
connection with Christ has been consistently hampered by the way many
theologians have made use of history and thought about human historicity. If we
take up Loders epistemological, psycho-spiritual interpretative framework and
bring it to bear upon the ways we approach the complex relationship of history and
faith, we see that life in the Spirit radically reorients reality and our relationship in
and with the structures of space and time. The Christian life is grounded in the
pneumatological mediation of Christ who is not relegated and limited to a distant
past but is rather encountered in the present. Loder brings us to a theological
consideration of the nature of historical existence as a relational reality. The present,
then, becomes a relational field of encounter created by the Holy Spirit, who is
continually at work in the redemption of people through the power of Christ.

INTRODUCTION

Finally, in chapter five we come to see the Christian life in the field of
encounter characterized as openness to the world. The convictional theology
explored in chapter three, combined with our consideration of historical existence
as a relational reality in chapter four, leads us to a fuller appreciation of Loders
understanding of the Holy Spirits work in the world. If the Spirit of Christ is
engaging the human spirit, then what is the Spirit trying to realize for us, as well as in
us and through us for the world? How do we know when the Spirit of Christ is at
work in our lives? What is the distinguishing lifestyle of the Holy Spirit? How can
we discern this Christomorphic pattern? Loders work raises our awareness to
suspect that what God did in his own life is not unlike what the Creator Spirit can
do and is doing with and for every human willing to risk intimacy with the Holy.
The transformational pattern of the Spirit is at work in peoples livesboth in and
beyond the church, and whether they know it or not. When this is acknowledged
and claimed, the church might be better equipped to assist individuals to discern
what God might be doing in their lives, to help them know that God has reached
out to them in Christ and reaches now through Christs Spirit with extraordinary
love.
In this chapter, I offer my own interpretation of Loders theology and state
what I see as the considerable value of his theology in helping us reframe how we
view the Christian life. As such, I detect a radical, even subversive element within
Loders thought. It is consistently provocative and challenges ecclesiastical
restrictions that appear to hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the
church is to preach, to teach, and to enflesh the Gospelpersonally, relationally
in the lives of people. The Spirit is not in service to the church, but is in service to
the Word, who, through the Spirit, is continuing the work of the incarnation by
enfleshing human life with the Spirit of God. This has enormous implications for
both the church and the world. The Spirit has no respect for the past or for
traditions per se and no respect for institutions as such, but is concerned for the
redemption of individual human lives and the reintegration of redeemed lives into
what Loder likes to call the koinonia. Trusting in the movement of the Holy Spirit
thus frees the church to be as revolutionary and as radical as the gospel itself.
Released to be authentically, creatively present, kinetically moving under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, the church might then be free to be present to the age
and thus free to speak a creative word of healing in a way that is contextual,
relevant, and meaningful. One of the motivating factors behind Loders decision to
write The Transforming Moment was his belief that his own convictional experiences
and what he had learned from them were for the church.9 Yet despite his aims,
for all intent and purposes Loders work is still largely unknown in the church and
remains inaccessible to both theologians and clergy. My hope is that this volume
will change this.
It would be helpful to mention how my own experiences have informed my
approach to Loders thought. I first read The Transforming Moment for a religion and
psychology class as an undergraduate at Rutgers College. I did not really understand
what I was reading at that time but I intuitively knew it was important. Although I

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began my seminary education at Yale Divinity School, I had a strong yearning to

study with Loder and so transferred to Princeton Seminary after completing my
first semester. Over the next two and a half years, I took every class Loder offered,
including his seminar on Kierkegaard and two courses of independent directed
study my third year. I also engaged in psychotherapy/spiritual counseling with
Loder for more than two years. Loder spoke at my ordination in 1990. Reflecting
on Matthews account of the Transfiguration, he charged me, urged me to
remember that Jesus will transfigure our lives when we, Listen to him. Everything
depends upon the intimacy of this relationship. The deep conviction and happy
passion of Loders faith, his remarkable insights into the nature of human
existence before a gracious God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, and his
inexorable trust in the transforming work of the Holy Spirit have shaped both my
life and my ministry more than anyone else.
This work is an attempt to provide an overview and an introduction to his
writings. Although I might have a better grasp of Loders theology today than I had
as an undergraduate, it would be foolish of me to think that I have fully fathomed
the depths of his thought. I therefore take full responsibility for the errors and
shortcomings of what I offer. Regarding Jim Loder, I echo Dietrich Bonhoeffers
(19061945) tribute to Adolf von Harnack (18511930): That I was his student for
a time is but a passing thing, that I am his pupil remains always.
While I wrestled with many of Loders insights into the nature of the Christian
life, I also tested them in various congregational settings and found that they
resonate for many in a variety of ways. As a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the
Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.) for more than twenty years, I have served
congregations both in Scotland and in the United States. I tend to view myself as a
pastoral theologian, heeding Ellen T. Charrys call to revive the pastoral function
of theology, which requires theologians to think of themselves as pastors helping
people to find their identity in God.10 It is from my perspective as a pastoral
theologian that I offer this analysis of Loders thought, ultimately concerned about
its implications for parish ministry.
This work began as a dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland (UK), originally
under the tutelage of the late George Hall (19321995). From the start, George was
interested in my subject due to his own interest in theologys engagement with
questions relating to history and human existence. Except for a brief time when
Esther Reed served as my supervisor, the bulk of the writing and the direction of
the dissertation were under the guidance of Professor Trevor Hart. Trevors great
love for the ministry of the church, especially the way theology gives life to the
church, has helped to strengthen the effectiveness of my own ministry.
I am grateful to the saints of three very special congregations: St. Leonards and
Cameron Parish Churches, St. Andrews, Scotland; the First Presbyterian (Hilltop)
Church of Mendham, New Jersey; and Catonsville Presbyterian Church,
Catonsville, Maryland. These faithful communities provided me with time away to
write, as well as considerable intellectual stimulation, emotional support, and love.

INTRODUCTION

I will be forever indebted to Lawson Brown, former minister at St. Leonards

and Cameron, and his wife Sheila, and Robert and Margaret Murray; they opened
their homes and their hearts to me when I first arrived in St. Andrews in 1990 for
postgraduate work and to serve as Lawsons assistant minister. Their friendship
and love over these years have blessed me more they will ever know.
I am thankful for the friendship of Dana Wright and Thomas John Hastings
whose admiration of Loders work has greatly informed my own exploration of his
ideas.
I am deeply grateful to Iain Torrance for his ceaseless encouragement; to
Richard Osmer and Gordon Mikoski for including this work in this series; and to
editor Heidi Burns and production support staff at Peter Lang, notably Jackie
Pavlovic. The sharp eye and insightful mind of Kurt Pfund, my copy editor,
significantly improved the content and flow of the text.
Finally, words are inadequate to express the gratitude in my heart for the love
and support of family and dear friends throughout this journey, especially James
Mark Dunham whose deep kindness never ceases to amaze me.
Dickeyville, Maryland

Permission Acknowledgments
James E. Loder, The Logic of the Spirit: Human Development in Theological Perspective.
1998. Reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
James E. Loder, Religious Pathology and Christian Faith. 1966 WL Jenkins. Used by
permission of Westminster John Knox Press. www.wjkbooks.com.
Quotations from the Following Works are used by Permission
Copyright 1989, James E. Loder, The Transforming Moment, Second Edition
(Colorado Springs, CO: Helmers & Howard, Publishers).
Copyright 1992, James E. Loder and W. Jim Neidhardt, The Knights Move: The
Relational Logic of the Spirit in Theology and Science (Colorado Springs, CO: Helmers
& Howard, Publishers).