- LeRon Shults and Andrea Hollingsworth, The Holy Spirit (Eerdmans Guides to Theology, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), viii + 156 Pps., $13.95.
Approaching the development of any doctrine within the Christian tradition is a daunting task. Therefore, it is desirable for one to have a guide along the path of one’s exploration. Eerdman’s Guides to Theology is a series sponsored by the Christian Theological Research Fellowship that provides erudite introductions to key themes and current issues in systematic theology. Written by leading experts, these volumes are truly designed for students and general readers, serving as clear and accessible explanations of the basic doctrines of Christianity. The latest installment to this series, written by F. LeRon Shults and Andrea Hollingsworth, provides an excellent guide to the historic development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology). It is designed to be an introductory text, outlining the major movements and figures in the historical unfolding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, with special attention on the role of philosophical interpretation and spiritual transformation, showing how historical developments have shaped contemporary trends in pneumatology. The book unfolds chronologically, and is divided into two parts: 1) a section that interprets the transforming experience of the Holy Spirit, as attested to by Patristic, Medieval, Reformation, Early and Late Modern theology; and 2) an annotated bibliography of English-language resources on the Holy Spirit. In what follows, select points shall be highlighted in order to give the reader a taste of what the book contains within it.
In the introduction, the authors note that they shall depict the Spirit as a personal presence intimately related to the Father and the Son, using the leitmotif of the relationship between interpretation and transformation, as attested to by key issues, persons, and debates in the development of pneumatology. In so doing, they demonstrate the link between the Spirit and spirituality. They highlight also herein that theologians, to a greater and lesser extent, always engage and appropriate the linguistic categories of their cultural contexts. In part one, the authors refer to Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic schools of philosophy that have impacted the development of pneumatology. They note, using primary sources as verification, that resources from Platonic philosophy was well represented in the early centuries of theological reflection upon the Holy Spirit. A shift occurred, they acknowledge, in the middle ages, when Aristotelian categories, mediated through Aquinas, were predominant in theological formulations of pneumatology. A third school of thought, Stoicism, gained an upper-hand during the Renaissance period, and later greatly influenced pneumatology during the Reformation. They note that both the Platonic and Aristotelian schools of thought tended to give more attention to the development of Christology than to pneumatology per se, at times even practically collapsing pneuma into logos.
The authors note that for the most part, early and late modern Protestant theologians followed the Augustinian-Thomist formulation of pneumatology, although with some revisions along the way. Significantly, they highlight that Wesley was a hinge-point, of sorts, between the historic depictions of pneumatology and the more recent relational and dynamic formulations of pneumatology, an assertion that can be well-proven by inquiry into Wesleyan-relational theology. They contend that a pneumatology in which the Spirit is understood as an all-embracing, dynamic presence invites more relational, holistic, and embodied practices in spirituality (93), a point that I assert is well manifested in the current spread of Pentecostalism globally.
Before concluding the first part of this book, the authors suggest three critical tasks facing the construction of pneumatology in the current milieu. First, we must ensure that our attempts to belie the dualism of yesteryears in reference to the God-world relation do not inadvertently collapse into pantheism. Second, we must be careful to avoid the modalist tendencies of the psychological model of the Trinity, as well as the tri-theistic leanings of social trinitarian models. Thirdly, we must attempt to depict the Spirit in ways that avoid early modern fatalism, on one hand, and Occasionalism on the other, without giving up the idea that the Godhead is the absolute ground of all things (94–95). Part two consists of an annotated bibliography of over one hundred-fifty resources, which alone makes this book worth the purchase price.
This is an excellent sourcebook, one that will be bountifully helpful to students, both undergraduate and graduate, in the religious studies area. The authors’ two key themes, interpretation and transformation as they relate to the experience of the Holy Spirit, are infinitely illuminating. They trace the development of pneumatology in the writings of the mystics and scholastics, focusing on the practical and theoretical aspects of pneumatology. Throughout, they note the disastrous consequences that Boethius’ definition of person being an individual substance of rational nature’ has had upon pneumatology. However, they are encouraged by the recent trend toward relational views of the Trinity, and assert that these recent developments offer resources for a more robust pneumatology. In sum, I recommend this title without hesitation to teachers offering introductory courses on historical theology, as well as interested laypeople who desire further readings in the development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.