An unpublished academic paper. This study explores Buchman’s religious experiences and ideas, specifically focussing on his thinking about the Holy Spirit, which it presents as giving an underlying spiritual unity to his thinking. Noting that his spirituality was derived from Lutheranism, the Keswick movement and the American YMCA, the article shows how his ideas about the Holy Spirit shaped his approaches to God’s guidance, personal evangelism, theological and religious questions, strategy and politics. Over the course of half a century, his underlying vision changed little, but his perspective expanded and his vocabulary changed, as he sought to forge a world philosophy that could speak to different religious and cultural traditions, and the politics of his time.
English