Abstract:
In the encounter between man and the
Holy, man reacts with the ambivalent emotion of fear and fascination. Man is confronted by
something incomprehensible. How will man know whether this is God? Any response by
man, even faith, might be a self-deception. This condition is called ‘bad faith’ by Sartre and
Berger. In an existential struggle with the numineuse, man constantly tries to get to know God
and his will. This struggle is faith. The Holy Spirit bestows the gift of faith on mankind. The
pneumatic moment is when congruency is established between on the one hand the human
identity arrived at in Christ and, on the other hand, the existential expression of the response
to the calling by God.
