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Finny Philip inquires into Paul's initial thoughts on the Holy Spirit. Paul's conviction that he was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles and that God bestowed the Spirit upon the Gentiles apart from Torah obedience is the basis for any inquiry on this subject. Central to Philip's argument is Paul's conviction that God graciously endowed his Gentile converts with the gift of the Spirit, an understanding that is rooted primarily in his conversion experience and secondarily in his experience with and as a missionary of the Hellenistic community in Antioch. In examining the range of expectations of the Spirit that were present in both Hebrew scripture and in the wider Jewish literature, the author comes to the conclusion that such a concept is rare, and that it is usually the covenant community to which the promise of the Spirit is given. Furthermore, Paul's own pre-Christian convictions about the Spirit, a result of his own self-perception as a Pharisee and persecutor of the church, display continuity between his thought patterns and those of Second Temple Judaism. Paul's Damascus experience was an experience of the Spirit. His experience of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:1-4:6) provided him with the belief that there was now a new relationship with God, which was possible through the sphere of the Spirit. In addition, Paul was influenced by the Hellenists, whose theological beliefs included the perception of the church as the eschatological temple in which the Spirit of God is the manifest presence of God. It is in these notions that one may trace the origins of Paul's thoughts on the Holy Spirit.
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
What vision does Scripture cast for living as a follower of Christ? New Testament scholar Jarvis Williams offers a multifaceted vision of God's saving action in Jesus Christ for both Jew and Gentile, in both the vertical relationship between God and humanity as well as the horizontal relationships among people—with cosmic ramifications.
Jesus’ Death in New Testament Thought is unlike anything written on the subject to date. It represents a radical break with the traditional models or “theories” of atonement based on ideas such as penal substitution, participation in Christ, and the Christus Victor motif, claiming that all of these ideas as commonly understood are foreign to New Testament thought. On the basis of his analysis of second-temple Jewish thought, Brondos demonstrates that, for Jews in antiquity, what atoned for sins and led people to be declared righteous in God’s sight was not sacrifice, suffering, or death in themselves, but the renewed commitment to living in accordance with God’s will which they manifested by means of their sacrificial offerings and at times their willingness to endure suffering and death out of faithfulness to that will. According to the thought of Jesus’ first followers, in accordance with a divine plan conceived of before the ages, in Jesus God had sent his Son in order to establish around him a community of people fully committed to practicing the love, justice, solidarity, and righteousness associated with God’s will for all. Jesus’ dedication to this task led to confrontation and conflict with the powers and authorities of his day, who sought to silence him by having him put to death. Because he stood firm and remained faithful to that task rather than backing down from it, he was crucified on a Roman cross. Paradoxically, however, in this way he laid the basis for the existence of the community God had desired from the start, stamping it forever as one to which no one could truly belong without assuming the same firm commitment to Jesus and everything for which he had lived and died. Those who form part of this community, living out of faith under Jesus as their risen Lord, come to practice God’s will as redefined through Jesus and on that basis are forgiven and accepted as righteous by God. Thus, by giving up his life out of love for others in faithfulness to the task his Father had given him, Jesus has attained the redemption, reconciliation, cleansing, and justification of those who now live under his lordship as members of the worldwide community of believers from all nations that God has established through him and his death, in fulfillment of the promises that God had made of old to his people Israel. In Volume 1, Brondos looks to the relevant texts from antiquity to trace the background and development of these ideas. His argument will leave the reader with no doubt that Jesus’ first followers understood the salvific significance of his death or blood in the manner just outlined, and therefore that the traditional interpretations of his death that have prevailed from patristic times to the present do not reflect faithfully their thought as we find it in the New Testament. In Volume 2, Brondos examines the formulaic allusions to Jesus’ death that we find scattered throughout the New Testament and other early Christian writings so as to demonstrate that these are precisely the ideas that lie behind those allusions. At the same time, through his analysis of the writings of Melito of Sardis and Irenaeus of Lyons, he provides clear evidence that, by the late second century, ideas that are foreign to those texts began to be read back into them, with the result that the original understandings of Jesus’ death that had developed among his first followers came to be replaced by other understandings that run contrary to their thought. In his Conclusion, Brondos argues that only by rejecting the traditional models of atonement and returning to the New Testament teaching on this central doctrine can the Christian church respond effectively to the crisis it faces today and bring about the restoration of the type of communities envisioned by Jesus and his first followers.
The word spirituality is notoriously difficult to define. It is often used in a vague way to refer to the inner relationship between the self and God. The implication is that people only relate to God with their “inner” being (soul/spirit) and not with any other part of who they are. There is a lurking influence of Neoplatonism within Christian thinking that tends to assume that the material is bad and the spiritual good, that there is a gaping hole between our inner and our outer selves and that the proper location of devotion is our inner being. There is a further assumption that, especially in the writings of Paul, the soul is to be placed in the “good” category while opposite it, in the “bad” category, is the body—leaving the question of what is meant by heart and mind largely ignored. Paula Gooder here explores the meaning of six key concepts in the Bible, especially in the writings of Paul, before moving on to explore what Paul intended by the contrasts he drew, and what implications this all has for the way we think and speak about our spirituality today.
Considering the importance of pneumatological themes for interpreting Paul's argument of Galatians, Grant Buchanan explores how Paul draws from Jewish traditions of creation and the Spirit and presents a fresh cosmogony to the Galatian church. He suggests that Galatians outlines an epistemological shift in how Paul sees past, present, and future reality in light of Christ and the presence of the Spirit in the lives of the believers. The most crucial aspect of this new cosmogony is the centrality of the Spirit in Paul's argument in Galatians 3:1–6:17, with Buchanan's exegesis revealing that the Spirit, the Galatians' identity as children of God and the new creation motif are not merely elements of Paul's argument but intrinsic to it. Buchanan demonstrates that Paul renders Jewish and Gentile identities no longer valid, instead revealing that God's favour and election is already with them by stating that those who have the promised Spirit are all children of God. He examines Jewish biblical and Second Temple extra-biblical texts that explicitly connect the Spirit to creation themes, including Genesis, Ezekiel, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Wisdom of Solomon. Taking Galatians 6:11–17 as the body-closing of the letter, the new creation motif directly implies the activity of the Spirit in the creation of Christian identity. Analysing 6:15 from this pneumatological perspective, Buchanan argues that the new creation motif represents a key aspect of Paul's generative cosmogony and pneumatology, indicating a far broader socio-cosmic transformation than previously assumed, and it becomes a key to understanding Paul's argument.
Leading New Testament scholar Craig Keener is widely respected for his thorough research, sound judgments, and knowledge of ancient sources. His four-volume magnum opus on Acts has received high praise from all quarters. This commentary on Paul's Letter to the Galatians features Keener's meticulous and comprehensive research and offers a wealth of fresh insights. It will benefit students, pastors, and church leaders alike.
In his trailblazing studies of the spirit in Jewish and Christian Antiquity, John R. (Jack) Levison shatters theological and exegetical taxonomies. Should the spirit be understood as breath or Spirit--or both? Is the spirit directed to creation or salvation--or both? Is the spirit a force or an angel--or both? Does the spirit inspire ecstasy or wisdom--or both? When Levison transfers the starting point of pneumatology from the New Testament to the Hebrew Bible, from Christianity to Judaism, questions swell, assumptions detonate, and expectations flourish. Consequently, Levison's studies are considered "impressive and provocative" (Review of Biblical Literature), "delightful, engaging" (Catholic Biblical Quarterly), "compelling, eloquent, sensitive" (Word and World), and "a remarkable read" (Themelios), with "profound ramifications for both Jewish and New Testament Studies" (Journal of Jewish Studies). Now, for the first time, selections of his breathtaking array of studies are available in three accessible volumes. This volume, in which you will discover some of the programmatic studies Levison published on the biblical literature of both testaments, reveals why Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion forecasts that "Levison will continue to be at the center of our most fruitful discussions of pneumatology."