Intelligentia Spiritualis and The Dawning of Spiritual Understanding

“In the Calabrian abbot's vision, he saw that in the Coming of the Holy Spirit, the deeper meaning of the scriptures would be revealed. A spiritual, as opposed to literal, interpretation of the Scriptures would result from a new relationship between the Holy Spirit and humanity. This new relationship was to begin with the bestowal of a special gift of the Holy Spirit that Joachim called intelligentia spiritualis. Professor McGinn states that, "The predominant characteristic of the third status of history, the fundamental dynamic behind all its manifestations, is the fullness of the intelligentia spiritualis (spiritual intelligence) that will be given by the Holy Spirit." According to Professor McGinn, Joachim interpreted the miracle in which Jesus changes water into wine as an analogy of the manner in which the gospel as interpreted by the spiritual intelligence sent by the Holy Spirit would be changed into the intoxicating wine of spiritual understanding and Divine contemplation.

Joachim openly criticized those who were guilty of what McGinn describes as "the intellectual error of the persistence of the literal interpretations of the Scriptures." In his writings Joachim says, "And if the preachers of the Gospel according to the letter were preferred to the Jewish doctors who preached Moses' law, they are still far below those who have spiritual knowledge of that Gospel and who walk in no way according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." The abbot prophesied that as the third dispensation approached, the conflict between spirit-directed and literalist Christian theologians and churches would become more intense and, ultimately, the "pagans and heretics will outlaw the dissemination of the spiritual understanding."

Reading between the lines, the inferences of the abbot suggests that a conspiracy based on the intentional misinterpretation of the Scriptures originated early in the history of the Church. The abbot describes the nature of the conspiracy by saying, "The external evil they did was a sign of the greater evil they conceived within, that is, to snuff out the spiritual understanding and bury it in the belly of the letter so that its voice might be heard no more in their streets nor have any further place in their possessions."

Theologians, past and present, have accused Abbot Joachim of abandoning the centrality of Jesus in salvation history. Joachim believed Jesus to be central to the progressive revelation of the will of God. But the abbot's revelatory experiences had brought him to an understanding of Jesus' role in history that was unique. For Joachim, the Christ-centered interpretation of the bible fails to take into account Jesus' extensive references to the Holy Spirit. When Jesus articulates the coming of the Holy Spirit as an extension of his own work, the inference is that the Holy Spirit is to complete what he began. Joachim was the first in history to assign to Jesus five great works, where other theologians saw only four. In addition to the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Joachim added the Sending of the Holy Spirit.

This fifth great work of Jesus, the Sending of the Holy Spirit was thought of as having two separate phases in history. The first was the Pentecost, and the second would take place at the beginning of the third dispensation/status. The second outpouring of the Holy Spirit would culminate in the perfect spiritualization of the saved. Professor McGinn says that, "Joachim had no intention of creating a new theology of history: such a notion would have been abhorrent to him. He was convinced that everything he had to say was clearly revealed in the Scriptures to those who had been granted the intelligentia spiritualis and that he was doing nothing more than pointing to something already under our noses." Those who failed to grasp the message, failed simply because they lacked the spirit-directed understanding that revealed the inner significance of the letter.

In placing the coming age of the Holy Spirit at the center of his theology, Joachim reversed the conventional wisdom that all perfection was found in the past, in some golden age such as the time of the primitive Church, which later ages could only hope to revive in imperfect fashion. The Holy Spirit revealed that the age of perfection lay ahead. Joachim prophesied the coming of a new stage of history, established by a group of powerful spiritual beings, in which human beings would consciously participate in the revelation of the Divine numen described as "that which leaves the flesh completely behind and passes over into the spirit."

In this revelation of the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the
Scriptures, Joachim inferred that fresh, even contemporary meaning would be imparted through texts whose meaning, theologians insisted, were already complete. By placing the magnet of reform in the future rather than the past, the abbot broke with previous theologies of history in a manner that has continued to be a source of inspiration for many, and a bone of contention for others. In the third status, or dispensation, Joachim describes a future event in which a full understanding of the Scriptures will introduce true peace and ecstatic prayer on earth. An event which will usher in an age in which harmony and spiritual insight will bring to completion all that is spiritual in human history...the Age of the Holy Spirit.”

Revelator Harvey Martin, Intelligentia Spiritualis and The Dawning of Spiritual Understanding