Date

12-4-2025

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)

Chair

Jacob Boyd

Keywords

The Spirit, The Holy Spirit, The Soul, Discipleship, Spiritual Formation, Sanctification

Disciplines

Religion

Abstract

Statement of Problem

A knowledge and awareness of the Holy Spirit tends to be the missing from the church today, although his power, presence, and role is not only needed, but is necessary to fulfill the last commandment given by Christ. Though silent, he and his work are – and should be – evident among, to, and through believers, both corporately and individually.

Research Question

What do the Great Commission passages in the Gospels and the book of Acts reveal about the mission of the Holy Spirit for the church today?

Thesis Statement

This dissertation argues that, according to the Great Commission passages, the Holy Spirit builds the church by affecting the soul – convicting the conscience, illuminating the intellect, and sanctifying the affections – through discipleship thereby forming believers into faithful disciples of Christ.

Scholarly Contribution

This dissertation contributes to contemporary pneumatology and ecclesiology by demonstrating that the Holy Spirit fulfills the Great Commission not merely by empowering external mission but by transforming the conscience, intellect, and affections of believers through the practices of discipleship in the local church. It reframes spiritual formation itself as the Spirit’s missional work, thereby uniting interior sanctification and outward mission in a single theological framework. What is new in this dissertation is that it brings these elements together into a single coherent argument: That the Holy Spirit fulfills the Great Commission by transforming the conscience, intellect, and affections through the practices of discipleship in the local church, such that spiritual formation is itself the primary mode of mission.

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