“And You Will Renew the Face of the Earth”: the Pneumatic Dynamism of Human Happiness

Abstract

This paper, through exploratory literature research and qualitative analysis of the bibliography, seeks to answer the following question: how to understand pneumatic dynamism in its relationship with human happiness? To do this, examine the forgetfulness of the Holy Spirit and its reflection in the understanding of the relationship between theology and the human desire for happiness. It also analyzes the scope of the concept of happiness proposed in contemporary society and its implications for the emptying of the word happiness. It discusses the experience of the Holy Spirit as a dynamic structure that allows the human being to be happy and, thus, demonstrates that, open to pneumatic dynamism, the human being is to transcend a symbolic existence that, founded on the life of Jesus of Nazareth, finds the happiness in fidelity to one’s personal vocation. In this way, he presents a happy being who, for being human, is not confined to eschatological promises, but is vivid in his openness to the Spirit who, in his dynamism, shapes the totality of living in the now of history.

Keywords: Holy Spirit. Happiness. Experience. Resonance. Symbolic Existence.