Fire from Heaven: Epiclesis and the Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit - Adoremus

Fire is one of the most common symbols in human mythological, literary, and religious history. It is literally elemental. Fire is fundamental to human existence, and not just in reference to human survival. It has been argued that fire was that which humanized our ancestors. According to Richard Wrangham, in Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, it was the regular eating of cooked food that led to our increase in relative brain size, allowing for cognitive development. Cooked food resulted in better energy production and safer eating habits. Humans could live longer and healthier, which allowed our ancestors to focus on higher-level needs than mere survival. Alongside the physical transformation was a relational development. Polly Wiessner, in Embers of Society, argues that it was sitting around fires, face-to-face, that we developed our ability for abstract language. This would include the language required for mythology, philosophy, and theology. Fire, then, is not only transformative …