The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
Who is the Holy Spirit? What was His role throughout Scripture? How is He active now?| Go to another section | |
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The Holy Spirit, once forgotten, has been "rediscovered" in the twentieth century - or has he? Sinclair Ferguson believes we should rephrase this common assertion: "While his work has been recognised, the Spirit himself remains to many Christians an anonymous, faceless aspect of the divine being." In order to redress this balance, Ferguson seeks to recover the who of the Spirit fully as much as the what and how.
Ferguson's study is rooted and driven by the scriptural story of the Spirit in creation and redemption. Throughout he shows himself fully at home in the church's historical theology of the Spirit and conversant with the wide variety of contemporary Christians who have explored the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
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Many are asking amidst all the current controversy ‘what does the New Testament actually say about the Holy Spirit, his role and the use of “spiritual gifts”?’ This book is written to introduce the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, before going on to look at spiritual gifts.
Beginning with a look at how three major New Testament writers – Luke, John and Paul – took over and developed Old Testament and intertestamental ideas of the Spirit, Dr Turner then asks how the New Testament witness relates to aspects of contemporary theology and to experiences of ‘spiritual gifts’ today.
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Fee offers a fresh and in-depth exegesis of every Spirit text in the Pauline corpus. Part Two synthesizes the analysis presented in Part One into a coherent invitation to consider the Holy Spirit’s crucial role in Pauline theology.
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In what may be regarded as his magnum opus, Clark Pinnock here turns attention to the vital Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Writing out of wide learning and deep personal passion, he shows us the way to restore the oft-neglected Spirit to centrality in the life and witness of the church.
Pinnock explores the doctrine of the Spirit in relation to other key doctrines such as the Trinity, creation, Christology and the church. Never one to duck the difficult or sensitive questions, he also examines issues of the Spirit's universality, gender language for the Spirit, and charismatic gifts.
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Understanding the Spirit is a crucial task for Christian theology at all times; honouring the Spirit is a crucial task in Christian discipleship today.
Is the church in danger of overemphasizing or quenching the Spirit? What are today’s acts of the Holy Spirit? Is charismatic life something new or unique? Are modern spiritual gifts the same as those of the New Testament?
Dr Packer considers these questions in the lights of Scripture and Christian history, and issues a radical challenge to personal and corporate revival.
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One of the most exciting recent developments in theology has been an unprecedented interest in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Veli-Matti Karkkainen describes this phenomenon as a "pneumatological renaissance." But such discussion should be informed, he contends, by two overarching principles. First, we must acknowledge the variety of approaches to the experience of the Holy Spirit ecumenically: "No church can claim a monopoly on the Spirit, and no tradition is specifically 'spirited.'" Second, talk about the Spirit must always be contextual and therefore culture-specific: "The Spirit of God . . . indwells believers and creation in specific and tangible ways."
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Partisans on both sides of charismatic issues are challenged by the even-handed consideration of nuances in the Greek text in these three crucial chapters.
"An excellent book which could do much to bring together charismatics and noncharismatics in a common understanding and experience of the Spirit." (I. Howard Marshall in the Expository Times)
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In Gift and Giver, a substantial revision of his 3 Crucial Questions about the Holy Spirit, prolific author Craig Keener takes a probing look at the various evangelical understandings of the role of the Holy Spirit in the church. His desire is for Christians to "work for consensus, or at least for unity in God's work despite our differences on secondary matters."
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This book unpacks the biblical teaching about the Holy Spirit and the development of the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit in a clear, coherent and above all accessible way. It exposes the mindsets which we impose upon the scriptures and Christian doctrine and so distort our understanding and expectation of the Spirit.