Holy Ghost!
Yes, He can be scary.
Since I might not be posting much for a few weeks, I thought I treat you to something written for Pentecost by my good friend Fr. Gregory Wilcox of St. Joseph Anglican Church, New Braunfels, a small but excellent Anglo-Catholic parish. By the way, he has been known to kidnap me into assisting with the liturgy when I visit.
Fr. Wilcox discusses the use of “Holy Ghost” and “Holy Spirit” through the centuries then concludes:
Is it better to think about God as a spooky ghost than an increasingly impersonal symbol of the Divine? Neither seems perfect, but the scales tip for me on the side of Holy Ghost, not only because of the venerable antiquity of the Name, but because with its associations, it’s much more striking and less easy to dismiss. I began by noting that people ask me “why ‘Holy Ghost’?” That’s why! It stops us. It makes us think. It’s a Name with fear tinged around its edges, and that’s much lacking nowadays when people talk about God. We should be scared!
St Thomas Aquinas reminds us of the utter impossibility of using human language to describe God. “Our language is always inadequate” he warns us. But it’s all we’ve got, and it’s one of His greatest gifts to us. He knows that, however exalted our words, they are none of them adequate to speak of God. We say the words we’ve been given, but behind the words there is power. Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit? For those of us who live in His grace, He is the Lord and Giver of life, your life and mine, here and now. He’s with us when we pray, He nurtures us in the Sacraments and is among us, binding us into one as the Common Heart of His faithful people. This Sunday, on the fire-colored feast of Whitsunday, we celebrate BOTH His coming to the Church 1990 years ago and His continual ghostly Presence with us today.
Agreed! And may you indeed have an excellent Pentecost Sunday.
An additional argument for "Ghost" may be that progressives tend to talk about the Spirit without the Holy part, and without the Scriptures as well.
I agree with your friend. "Holy Ghost" has a personality to it which "Holy Spirit" lacks. I don't know koine Greek, so it may be that "Spirit" is a better translation than "Ghost." But in our culture, "Spirit" has an abstract quality which is near - fatal, while "Ghost" ( especially this One ) has nothing if not personality.