The Logic of the Spirit in Human Thought and Experience: Exploring the Vision of James E. Loder Jr.

In March 2012 a small consultation convened on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, where James E. Loder Jr. had served for forty years as the Mary D. Synnott Professor of the Philosophy of Christian Education. Members from the Child Theology Movement had begun to read Loder's work and they wanted to go further. So they invited former students of Loder's to meet with them for conversations about things that really mattered to them and to Loder: human beings (and especially children), the church's witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and discerning the work of Spiritus Creator in the postmodern world. The conversations proved rich and rewarding and some would even say they took on a life of their own--serious scholarship set to the music of the Spirit's communion-creating artistry forming new relationships, inspiring new ideas, and sustaining all of it amid much laughter, joy, and hope. These essays, taken from the papers delivered at the consultation, are offered as a means of extending that conversation inspired by Loder's interdisciplinary practical theological science and his discernment of the ''logic of the Spirit.'' They are offered with confidence that the same Spirit continues to work in all persons who hope for the Spirit's redemptive transformation of all creation, beginning with children.