The Spirit in Worship and

Worship in the Spirit Presenter

Dr. Simon Jones

Biography:
The Reverend Dr. Simon Jones is Chaplain and Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford. He teaches liturgy in the Theology Faculty of the University of Oxford and at St Stephen’s House, Oxford. His doctoral dissertation investigated the liturgical implications of the doctrine of the Spirit for the Syrian baptismal tradition. More recently, he has written the introduction to the 60th anniversary edition of Gregory Dix’s, The Shape of the Liturgy and edited a collection of some of Dix’s unpublished works.

Title:
Wombs of the Spirit: incarnational pneumatology in the Syrian baptismal tradition

Abstract:
This paper identifies the incarnational image of the womb as the principal symbolic focus for the activity of the Holy Spirit in the Syrian baptismal tradition and traces its use from the Odes of Solomon to the formation of the baptismal ordines.