The Holy Spirit And Christian Origins

Anyone who is interested in the rigorous study of early Christianity and who has not engaged with the works of James D. G. Dunn is not really interested in the rigorous study of early Christianity. No one would dispute that Professor Dunn is one of the most prolific New Testament scholars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. And while a handful of scholars might have a list of publications to rival his own extensive publications list, none of them could claim to have set the agenda of scholarly study to the extent that Jimmy Dunn has done for a sustained period of time since the 1970s. The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins comprises a selection of original essays that explore a topic that has held a prominent and distinctive place in the majority of Professor Dunn's publications. Written by twenty-seven leading scholars, this singular volume probes deep into the nascent Christian communities and their writings and investigates the early Christians' convictions concerning the Holy Spirit. Ranging widely through Scripture and across early church history, many of these essays introduce groundbreaking research in biblical studies, and some engage directly with Dunn's work in the field. Presenting some of the best new work in New Testament studies as well as celebrating a respected career, The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins will help to stimulate further discussion and reflection in the theological academy and in the Christian church -- two sectors that Jimmy Dunn has consistently and passionately sought to straddle, nurture, and refresh. Contributors: Robert Banks John M. G. Barclay Richard Bauckham Peder Borgen David Catchpole Gordon D. Fee Victor Paul Furnish Beverly Roberts Gaventa Joel B. Green Morna D. Hooker Robert Jewett Hermann Lichtenberger Bruce W. Longenecker Ulrich Luz I. Howard Marshall Scot McKnight R. W. L. Moberly Robert Morgan J. Lionel North Graham N. Stanton Loren T. Stuckenbruck Peter Stuhlmacher Anthony C. Thiselton Marianne Meye Thompson Paul Trebilco Max Turner Alexander J. M. Wedderburn

Anyone who is interested in the rigorous study of early Christianity and who has not engaged with the works of James D. G. Dunn is not really interested in the rigorous study of early Christianity. No one would dispute that Professor Dunn is one of the most prolific New Testament scholars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. And while a handful of scholars might have a list of publications to rival his own extensive publications list, none of them could claim to have set the agenda of scholarly study to the extent that Jimmy Dunn has done for a sustained period of time since the 1970s. The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins comprises a selection of original essays that explore a topic that has held a prominent and distinctive place in the majority of Professor Dunn's publications. Written by twenty-seven leading scholars, this singular volume probes deep into the nascent Christian communities and their writings and investigates the early Christians' convictions concerning the Holy Spirit. Ranging widely through Scripture and across early church history, many of these essays introduce groundbreaking research in biblical studies, and some engage directly with Dunn's work in the field. Presenting some of the best new work in New Testament studies as well as celebrating a respected career, The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins will help to stimulate further discussion and reflection in the theological academy and in the Christian church -- two sectors that Jimmy Dunn has consistently and passionately sought to straddle, nurture, and refresh. Contributors Robert Banks John M. G. Barclay Richard Bauckham Peder Borgen David Catchpole Gordon D. Fee Victor Paul Furnish Beverly Roberts Gaventa Joel B. Green Morna D. Hooker Robert Jewett Hermann Lichtenberger Bruce W. Longenecker Ulrich Luz I. Howard Marshall Scot McKnight R. W. L. Moberly Robert Morgan J. Lionel North Graham N. Stanton Loren T. Stuckenbruck Peter Stuhlmacher Anthony C. Thiselton Marianne Meye Thompson Paul Trebilco Max Turner Alexander J. M. Wedderburn

Beginning with the Church Fathers and moving right through to the present day, The Holy Spirit offers a theologically informed, international collection of the most important texts relating to Christians' understanding of the Holy Spirit. A new volume of texts and readings offering a chronologically-organized selection of the most important and interesting writings on the Holy Spirit Considers how the Holy Spirit has always been an integral part of both Christian belief and systematic theology - from the Church Fathers through to the present day Each set of readings is prefaced by an introduction from the editor, drawing out the main themes and important historical points, and linking the readings to what has gone before Tackles the disagreements over the role of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity, and how it was a contributing factor in the split between the Western and Eastern Church Opens with a newly-commissioned essay describing the importance of the Holy Spirit in the theology of the last one hundred years, and in particular in relation to the revival of Trinitarian theology

With his latest book, The Holy Spirit before Christianity, John R. Levison again changes the face and foundation of Christian belief in the Holy Spirit. The categories Christians have used, the boundaries they have created, the proprietary claims they have made--all of these evaporate, now that Levison has looked afresh at Scripture. In a study that is both poignant and provocative, Levison takes readers back five hundred years before Jesus, where he discovers history's first grasp of the Holy Spirit as a personal agent. The prophet Haggai and the author of Isaiah 56-66, in their search for ways to grapple with the tragic events of exile and to articulate hope for the future, took up old exodus traditions of divine agents--pillars of fire, an angel, God's own presence--and fused them with belief in God's Spirit. Since it was the Spirit of God who led Israel up from Egypt and formed them into a holy nation, now, the prophets assured their hearers, the Spirit of God would lead and renew those returning from exile. Taking this point of origin as our guide, Christian pneumatology--belief in the Holy Spirit--is less about an exclusively Christian experience or doctrine and more about the presence of God in the grand scheme of Israel's history, in which Christianity is ancient Israel's heir. This explosive observation traces the essence of Christian pneumatology deep into the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. The implications are fierce: the priority of Israelite tradition at the headwaters of pneumatology means that Christians can no longer hold stubbornly to the Holy Spirit as an exclusively Christian belief. But the implications are hopeful as well, offering Christians a richer history, a renewed vocabulary, a shared path with Judaism, and the promise of a more expansive and authentic experience of the Holy Spirit.

In his role as learned bishop of Milan in the 4th century, Saint Ambrose published this work concerning the holy trinity of Christ, God and the Holy Spirit. Though not formally educated or trained in a university or seminary, St. Ambrose possessed gifts of intuition for matters of faith. His studies spanned wide, and he duly gained recognition and prominence as a scholar of great understanding and faith. Setting out to first define the tenets of the Christian Holy Trinity, Ambrose here uses his knowledge of Bible texts to support clear and well-founded explanation of what the holy spirit is and its subtle influence upon believers. The establishment of a clear theology was a great concern of the early figures in Christianity. St. Ambrose spent years battling the rival doctrines of Arianism, at one point almost losing his own church to the movement. Eventually, he and fellow believers overcame the Arian faith; many of the writings and actions of St. Ambrose led to the formation of the Catholic church.

In The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience, Simeon Zahl presents a fresh vision for Christian theology that foregrounds the relationship between theological ideas and the experiences of Christians. He argues that theology is always operating in a vibrant landscape of feeling and desiring, and shows that contemporary theology has often operated in problematic isolation from these experiential dynamics. He then argues that a theologically serious doctrine of the Holy Spirit not only authorizes but requires attention to Christian experience. Against this background, Zahl outlines a new methodological approach to Christian theology that attends to the emotional and experiential power of theological ideas. This methodology draws on recent interdisciplinary work on affect and emotion, which has shown that affects are powerful motivating realities that saturate all dimensions of human thinking and acting. In the process, Zahl also explains why contemporary theology has often been ambivalent about subjective experience, and demonstrates that current discourse about God's activity in the world is often artificially abstracted from experience and embodiment. At the heart of the book, Zahl proposes a new account of the theology of grace from this experiential and pneumatological perspective. Focusing on the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and sanctification, he retrieves insights from Augustine, Luther, and Philip Melanchthon to present an affective and Augustinian vision of salvation as a pedagogy of desire. In articulating this vision, Zahl engages critically with recent emphasis on participation and theosis in Christian soteriology, and charts a new path forward for Protestant theology in a landscape hitherto dominated by the theological visions of Barth and Aquinas.

Early Christian claims to the Holy Spirit arose in a vibrant cultural matrix that included Stoicism, Jewish mysticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Greco-Roman medicine, and the perspectives of Plutarch. In a range of articles, this multidisciplinary volume discovers in these texts rich cultural connections related to inspiration and the Holy Spirit. Essential reading for scholars of Judaism and the New Testament, as well as classicists and theologians.

A Compelling Introduction to the Work and Person of the Holy Spirit The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is equal to the Father and the Son, yet he is often overlooked and misunderstood. In this helpful introduction, theologian Fred Sanders clears the confusion by highlighting the Holy Spirit's place in the Trinity. He focuses on the Spirit's relation to the Father and the Son, and then on his work in the lives of believers. Written for pastors, students, and laypeople, this addition to the Short Studies in Systematic Theology series underscores the essential role the Holy Spirit plays in salvation history.