Abstract
Jack Levison, Inspired: The Holy Spirit and the Mind of Faith, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids and Cambridge, 2013; 260 pp.: 9780802867889, £16.99/$24.00 (pbk)
This work on the Holy Spirit enters the pneumatological fray from what Levison hopes is a unique position. Commencing from the Jewish traditional understanding of the Spirit as the spirit of virtue and learning, he aims to mould an understanding of spirit that can combine scholarly and practical-existential insights into a new conceptualization of the nature and work of the Spirit. He anticipates that this will offer meaningful and helpful insights and pointers to scholars and practitioners across a wide theological spectrum.
The work consists primarily of three chapters of biblical theological review of three themes, followed by a useful chapter proposing an agenda for the future of Pneumatology. The first chapter addresses the notion of the Spirit as the spirit of virtue; the second deals with the Spirit and ecstasy (experience); and the third with the Spirit and interpretation of Scripture. In each chapter a credible exegesis of both Old and New Testament material is followed by proposals for relevant practical appropriation of Levison's findings.
Levison closes each chapter with a discussion of the implications of his insights for Christian life, ministry and community. Chapter 1 on virtue and learning ends by discussing how Christians acknowledge the holy spirit (sic) in those who are not Christians; how Christians pray and learn and cultivate the spirit daily. The second chapter on the symbiosis of ecstasy and comprehension in Jewish and Christian tradition ends with a discussion of how cultural borders are crossed, how believers prepare to experience the holy spirit, how believers respond to the work of the holy spirit, and how churches can make inspired compromises. The third concludes by discussing how Christians assess the value of the Old Testament and appreciate the role of community in interpretation, and how assiduous preparation paves the way for inspiration. The proposed agenda for the future of eschatology is grouped around four major themes: theology, hermeneutics, culture and Church.
Levison’s claim to bring something new to the debate on the Holy Spirit is partly realized in the perspective from which he approaches it. However, one has a sense that the writer wishes to be many things to many people – understandable in a debate that takes few prisoners. There is affirmation for those who would like to see the Spirit freed from a Christocentric or ecclesiocentric focus, as well as for those who appreciate the presence and work of the Spirit as dramatic and supernatural. Pentecostal teachers will be heartened by Levison’s assertion that assiduous preparation and powerful inspiration may not be mutually exclusive. One misses any real consideration of the economy of the Trinity, however, especially any kenosis of the Spirit in submission to Christ. The growing tendency of the ageing Western Pentecostal movement to universalize the working of the Spirit, in a community where the more obvious demonstrations of the recognized pneumatika are waning, is also worthy of a closer sociological examination than is present here.
A worthwhile read and addition to any theological library, a useful if not conclusive contribution to pneumatology.