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The Holy Spirit and Freedom of Conscience as a Conceptual Expression of Hussite Identity

Publication |
2015

Abstract

This article is an attempt to respond to the question concerning the identity of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church (CHC) and the specifics within the realm of its doctrine. The author is concerned with the narrowest possible delineation of this identity in clearly comprehensible concepts, which he considers to be the norm of the Spirit of Christ and the principle of freedom of conscience, which are closely bound together.

These concepts are reflected here within the context of tradition, the current teaching of the church and as a means of following on from Master Jan Hus, in which a more detailed analysis is based on the theology of Zdeněk Trtík, who provided the concept of freedom of conscience in the Spirit of Christ with its ultimate form. The Spirit of Christ is represented as a norm, which in its conception is defined both against dogmatic norm and against the norm of the mere Written Word.

The work also does not neglect to deal with the danger of the conflict between these principles and the valid teaching of the church, which ensues from the demand for freedom of conscience, thus freedom from all that is in conflict with the Spirit of Christ; however, the author attempts to view this conflict precisely as a positive element of Hussite theology. With regard to the discrepancy between the scope of the work and the breadth of this theme, however, this concerns only a rough outline of this problem, which undoubtedly merits more detailed processing.