Talk:Spiritual gift

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This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
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[edit] Easton's Bible Dictionary

The dictionary this article was based on is quite POV. Nonetheless here is the reference if anyone is interested. Colin MacLaurin 01:47, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question

Do some Christian groups limit the term "spiritual gifts" to just the miraculous gifts?

For example, Easton seems to limit "spiritual gifts" to only miraculous gifts in the early church - "They were the gifts of speaking with tongues, casting out devils, healing, etc." A Google search turned up a helpful article, which could be taken to imply a dual meaning where "spiritual gifts" could mean either the (outwardly) miraculous gifts or the entirety of gifts. Your opinions please! Colin MacLaurin 01:47, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps more to the point -- some do not. The Catholic Church classifies both the miraclous gifts and the gifts and fruits that stem from sanctifying grace as spiritual gifts, though making many distinctions between the types. Goldfritha 22:34, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
We might be talking about a three-way distinction now! The Bible talks about some truly miraculous gifts like healing, and some more mundane gifts like administration. Both types are given to particular people: not all are healers and not all are administrators. By contrast, the gifts of the HS that Goldfritha is talking about are something different still: they are seven in number and are given to all baptized Christians and perfected in confirmation. David Chiang 21:22, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merger

The articles Spiritual gift and Gifts of the Holy Spirit ought to be merged.

Colin MacLaurin 10:48, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Correction: Make that "Spiritual gift", because of the Wikipedia convention, "In general only create page titles that are in the singular..." (See here). Colin MacLaurin 07:54, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

  • However, in Catholic spiritual theology, Gifts of the Holy Spirit refers to two distinct phenomena as mentioned above. This article describes what are commonly called charisms or charismata in the Catholic tradition, and are normally meant for the edification of the community. There are also the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit which are normally meant for the sanctification of the person to whom they are given. When Catholics talk about the "gifts of the HS" they usually mean the latter. David Chiang 20:51, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
  • A Google search of "gifts of the holy spirit" turns up mostly Catholic pages talking about the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, where a search for "spiritual gift" turns up mostly evangelical/charismatic pages talking about charismata, e.g., speaking in tongues. Perhaps, then, common usage would call for two articles that cross-reference each other? David Chiang 21:44, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Broken

The bit at the end has some broken formatting! Peter 07:17, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Linking

I would really like to see the gifts linking to articles specifically on the spiritual gift, rather than the general term. (ie "faith" would link to "faith (spiritual gift)" 208.53.104.68 07:37, 21 May 2007 (UTC)amyanda2000

This seems like a great idea. There are a couple of articles out there, like "Gifts of healing". It seems more appropriate to title it "Healing (spiritual gift)". Triathematician (talk) 19:03, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

I removed the link from Robert L. Thomas, as the article it was linked to, I am fairly sure, is a different Robert Thomas than the one intended. Aanastasi 15:04, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reverted the removal of Gifts Testing

If you want to add "some argue gifts can not be tested" and provide a reference, fine; but don't blow-away the majority opinion & say it's not true.--LanceHaverkamp 04:56, 8 September 2007 (UTC) (Doctoral Student in Ministry)

[edit] Charismatic umbrella? Nine gifts?

Why is this article under the "charismatic" project? Many Christians in other denominations also believe in the spiritual gifts, and the practice of testing for spiritual gifts is not limited to charismatic churches.

Also, why does the introduction say "The teaching on there being nine gifts of the Spirit originated..." It's written as if the reader understands what the nine gifts are, but it hasn't yet been referred to. Triathematician (talk) 18:59, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Section on testing

I went ahead and changed "Charismatic churches" to "some Protestant churches" since this practice is not limited to Charismatic churches. Also, is the level of detail in this section really warranted? Do we really need to know that 0 usually means "Never" and 4 means "Always"?? Also, it wouldn't hurt to emphasize more in the section that a Test does not say exactly which spiritual gifts one has, but is a tool one can use to gain more information about what spiritual gifts one might have. The comment on "some argue that spiritual gifts cannot be tested" may have meant that tests cannot provide 100% accurate information.

Perhaps the section should be changed and expanded to something like "Ways to discover spiritual gifts" or something of the sort? Triathematician (talk) 19:11, 27 January 2008 (UTC)