The Christ and the Spirit: Pneumatology (Christ and the Spirit, vol. 2)

If Christology is so important because of the centrality of Jesus to Christianity, the importance of pneumatology is in many ways more fundamental still. Within the Judaeo-Christian tradition "spirit" has long been the word that denotes our religious sense of wonder, fear, and reverence, the word that signifies the power within and behind creation, and the name for that power's reverberations within the human soul. The New Testament, however, points us to a more specific understanding of the Spirit-- one that expresses the Spirit in trinitarian terms, intimately related to the life of the church. The subject of pneumatology, then, is of particular importance for Christians everywhere, as witnessed by the extent to which interpretations of the Spirit continue to shape today's denominations. This volume contains twenty-three of James D. G. Dunn's best shorter essays -- produced over a span of twenty-five years and grouped here according to theme on different aspects of New Testament pneumatology. Chapters 1-6 look generally at important pneumatological topics, such as the use of "spirit" and "Holy Spirit" in the New Testament and Spirit-baptism and Pentecostalism. Chapters 7-9 examine the relation of John the Baptist to our Christian understanding of Spirit-baptism. Chapters 10-13 explore the relationship between the Spirit, the kingdom, and Jesus' ministry. Chapters 14-17 study in depth the pneumatology of the book of Acts. Finally, chapters 18-23 consider the implications of New Testament pneumatology for the life of the Christian church. Drawn from a host of periodicals, books, and other scholarly publications, these essays -- like those found in the companion volume on Christology -- will provide stimulating and challenging reading for teachers and students of theology and New Testament studies.