Kerry Dearborn, Drinking from the wells of new creation: The Holy Spirit and the Imagination in Reconciliation (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014), xii + 159 Pps., $20.00
Kerry Dearborn is Professor of Theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seattle Pacific Seminary. She is also the author of Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald (2006). In this book, she argues that living in the wholeness of God’s reconciliation requires an ongoing “bathing” in the presence of the Spirit (3). She also explores the reasons lasting reconciliation depends upon the Spirit’s work through the transformation of the imagination. Debates about the meaning, source, and process of reconciliation abound in the church today, but they sadly obscure God’s gracious invitation and provision rather than compellingly convey it.
This book focuses on understanding and experiencing reconciliation through the work of the Spirit in teaching and transforming believers to share with Christ the ministry of reconciliation. In the first chapter, reconciliation is affirmed as a gift of God, and its scope and nature are addressed. The second chapter investigates the nature of the Spirit and his invitation to and application of the reconciliation we have in Christ. Chapter three deals with the gifts of the Spirit, particularly of re-creation, hope, and love. The fourth chapter focuses on the work of the imagination as a vessel in which the Spirit pours new life to recreate and catalyze our lives. Chapter five explores the Spirit’s use of the imagination as a bridge with its bi-focal capacity to hold together numerous tensions without which the ministry of reconciliation becomes irrelevant. The sixth chapter explores the challenges to reconciliation that arise from “shadows” within the realm of the unconscious and the imagination. And finally, chapter seven concludes the title with a reflection on the work of the Spirit in the imagination.
All in all, this is an interesting read. Dearborn develops a novel thesis, supports it well, and is convincing in her argumentation of it. I recommend it to theology students who have interests in systematic theology.
Bradford McCall
Holy Apostles College and Seminary