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Title: The Holy Spirit (Contours of Christian Theology) by Sinclair B. Ferguson ISBN: 0-8308-1536-8 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: February, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding and Necessary
Comment: This book by Ferguson is now 7 years old, but it remains an essential treatment of the Holy Spirit from a Reformed perspective. As Ferguson aptly notes early on, fascination with the work of the Holy Spirit has greatly increased in the last 100 years in Christian circles, but knowledge and understanding of the Spirit Himself remains more elusive than ever it seems. This book is a wonderful remedy to this starvation.
Ferguson takes a very mild mannered tone throughout his presentation. Even the section of the book where he registers his sharpest theological disagreement (in this case, with Grudem), he is charitable and properly recognizes the importance of theology's role to increase understanding and knowledge, but also the depth of Christian community.
As is to be expected from a book written by a professor from Westminster Seminary, the reader can expect to get a healthy dosage of Vos/Ridderbos Biblical theology in here. Ferguson adopts the favored Westminster view that the New Testament needs to be seen within the context of redemptive history, and particularly eschatology. As a result, Ferguson's treatment of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit is seen within an eschatological context that stresses His role in the 'already/not yet' period of the coming of the Kingdom. What this means is that a reader who picks up this book who is enamored more with a systematic theological approach will find a different approach undertaken here. Particularly in Ferguson's treatment of the ordo salutis, the scholastic approach is mostly spurned in favor of a Biblical Theological approach that stresses the believer's unity in Christ within redemptive history as the predominate motif of the Spirit's work.
Ferguson's early detail on the Person of the Holy Spirit is highly informative and a needed premise to analyzing the work of the Holy Spirit. In this respect, Ferguson does retain elements of a more traditional systematic theological approach, but also employs a literary approach as well which is the latest thing in theological formulation. In addition, Ferguson's section on sanctification is outstanding and should aid believers in the perennial dilemma of what to make of the old self/new self imagery in the Bible, as well as the inner personal struggle we experience that frustrates and even perplexes us at times. Lastly, Ferguson's section on the Spirit's ministry gifts is outstanding. He comes to this discussion from a cessationist perspective, but is very charitable in his critique and seeks not to minimize or dismiss personal experience, but to incorporate such experience within what he believes is a Biblical framework.
Overall, this book is definitely a worthy successor to Kuyper's work a century ago, and is a book that is much needed in Reformed circles to regain the appreciation and dependence we should be feeling toward the Holy Spirit in all phases of our living. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5
Summary: Readable, profound and practical
Comment: "There is a sense of harmony between the message which is being proclaimed and the way the Spirit clothes himself with the messenger" (239). While the immediate context of this statement pertains to the power of the Holy Sprit through the preached word, I think that it aptly summarizes the many practical lessons I learned from Ferguson's book.
Understanding the way that the Spirit works not only gives me confidence in the actual proclamation of the gospel, but enables me to more accurately proclaim it. For example, in the second chapter on the "Spirit of Christ," seeing a more complete picture painted of the Spirit's companionship with Christ gives me the ability to truly say that Jesus Christ is continually with his people. In the face of the painful seeming (and in one sense, bodily and true) absence of Christ, unpacking this union is a great encouragement as we live in the "already-and-not-yet."
Similarly, knowing that the work of the Spirit in Christ's resurrection and our union with him is evidence of the "not-yet" intruding into our lives today gives assurance that the tension of Christian life will one day be resolved. In the way of the harmony mentioned above, I can proclaim these truths-of the Spirit's uniting the already and not yet to the body of Christ-within the historical particularity of my day, unembarrassed at the seeming incompleteness of the promised sanctification of God's people, because it is present in our union with Christ in his Holy Spirit.
At the same time as Ferguson gives clearer hope to those struggling with the apparent far off nature of our salvation, his words convict those who are content without struggle and repentance. Taking refuge in divine monergism in order to escape active faith is not an option for Reformed Christians, as he makes clear. While rebirth in the Spirit does radically change our standing with the world, we actively strive in the Spirit to avoid conformity with it. His distinction between conviction and repentance is essential at this point, one which the Reformed community needs to hear. The Holy Spirit convicts, as scripture makes clear; yet without faith and repentance, that conviction that is merely a dry recognition of sin will ultimately condemn us. Still, the hope implicit in this reality is that just as the Spirit works diversely within human nature, he causes varying experiences of repentance. There are marks of repentance that, joined with faith and recognition of God as who he is, are absolutely necessary. Yet their incarnation in the body of Christ will be as diverse as its members.
Finally, Ferguson's exploration of the body of Christ and the communion of the saints is valuable. He rightly emphasizes the ministry of the word and sacraments and especially the real eating and drinking of Christ, which is in opposition to the hyper-spiritualized (in reality, memorialist) perspective that the Reformed church today can lean toward. To me, that the Spirit is in communion with weak believers who need to cry out "Abba, father," and that he comes to us in physical emblems in order to bind us to Christ means that as we seek greater harmony with our proclamation and the Spirit's action, we ought not be ashamed of our weakness, nor of our need for signs to "close the gap" at this time before the parousia. It is an encouragement as well, as Ferguson says, that some day "the full reality expressed by the symbols will be present, and they will become, like the temple building, redundant" (205).
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent synthesis of biblical and sytematic theology.
Comment: Ferguson provides a refreshing study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. His approach is neither topical nor controversial, but rather a biblical-theological development of the Spirit as He is revealed in Scripture. Unlike so many speculative studies of the Holy Spirit, this book evidences a balanced exegetical approach. Highly recommended.
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Title: The Church (Contours of Christian Theology) by Edmund P. Clowney, Gerald Bray ISBN: 0830815341 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: September, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray ISBN: 0802811434 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: June, 1984 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Bible and the Future by Anthony A. Hoekema ISBN: 0802808514 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: August, 1994 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Millennial Maze: Sorting Out Evangelical Options by Stanley J. Grenz ISBN: 0830817573 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Person of Christ (Contours of Christian Theology) by Donald MacLeod ISBN: 0830815376 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: December, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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