He Who Gives Life The Doctrine Of The Holy Spirit

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 31 (2009) 105-160

Graham A. Cole, He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Foundations of Evangelical Theology Series (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2007). xvii + 310 pp. $30.00 hardback.

Graham Cole is professor of Biblical and Systematic T eology at Trinity Evangelical Divin- ity School. His text is the fourth in the Foundations of Evangelical T eology series edited by John S. Feinberg. The series’ purpose is to provide up-to-date textbooks on systematic theology from an evangelical perspective. Cole’s volume covers pneumatology.

In characteristic fashion for evangelical theology, Cole begins by establishing his com- mitment to a “high view of biblical authority” (p. 24). However, in a way that is uncharac- teristic of traditional evangelical theology, he insists that this means taking the narrative of the Spirit in Scripture as central for forming an evangelical pneumatology. His text is an attempt to fuse the theology of the Spirit that emerges from the Spirit’s role in the biblical narrative with the traditional systematic categories of evangelical theology. T us, Cole retains evangelicalism’s commitment to Scripture, but transcends the Princetonian and tra- ditional evangelical approach that tends to be an encyclopedic summary of biblical theol- ogy according to the topics of Protestant Scholasticism.

Illustrative of the fusion of the topical and narrative theological approaches are the book’s parts and chapter topics. The introduction and part one (“The Mystery of the Spirit”) treat the topics of the Spirit and theological prolegomena and the Trinity. Part two, “The Minis- try of the Spirit — Old Testament Perspectives,” covers the Spirit and Creation, the Spirit and Israel, and the Spirit and the Hope of Israel. Part three, “The Ministry of the Spirit — New Testament Perspectives,” covers issues related to the Spirit and Christology (incarna- tion and the application of redemption), the Spirit and ecclesiology, and the Spirit and eschatology. The ﬁ nal chapter of part three explores the relationship between the Spirit and revelation, Scripture, and illumination, which typically would be treated among the ﬁrst doctrinal considerations in a traditional evangelical systematic theology. The ﬁ nal chapter eﬀ ectively summarizes the book’s development and content. The result is an approach that gives organizational preference to the categories of traditional systematic or, more accu- rately, scholastic theology (e.g., the discussion of the person of the Spirit precedes that of the work of the Spirit) and that endeavors to ﬁ ll this traditional form with the narrative of the Spirit in Scripture.

A more speciﬁ c example of his synthetic approach is the way Cole allows the Old Testa- ment’s themes of part two to inform part three’s New Testament discussion. Part two’s topics of the anticipation of the Spirit’s work in the coming Messiah, the Spirit’s re-creation of God’s people, and the Spirit’s outpouring on God’s people correspond with part three’s topics of the Messiah as bearer of the Spirit, the Messiah as bestower of the Spirit, and the Spirit’s role in the church and eschatology. His ability to incorporate these two methods within a tradition of theology dominated by the scholastic method is the book’s greatest strength.

In terms of its contribution to the series’ purpose to provide evangelical theology text- books, it can be useful in two classroom settings. First, it is valuable as a text book for the section on pneumatology in theology courses in evangelical settings that use the tradi- tional topical approach. The excurses and sections “Implications for Belief and Practice” reinforce its classroom appeal because they relate pneumatology to issues of Christian

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 31 (2009) 105-160

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formation and thought (e.g., should we pray to the Holy Spirit?). Second, it could be used in upper level graduate courses on pneumatology as an example of a contemporary evan- gelical pneumatology.

Cole’s interaction with Pentecostal scholarship is brief — not surprising given the book’s intended audience — but unfortunately misinformed and dated. For instance, he suggests (pp. 199-200) that Amos Yong rejects the ﬁ lioque so that he can separate pneumatology from Christology in order to propose a way of salvation that bypasses the Son. Cole cites Yong’s Beyond the Impasse (2003), in which Yong questions the legitimacy of the ﬁ lioque because it might hamper a pneumatological theology and a pneumatological approach to theology of religions. However, Yong does not promote a non-Christological pneumatol- ogy; in fact, he afirms the necessity of Christological criteria in Beyond the Impasse. Further- more, in The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh (2005), Yong afirms that the ﬁ lioque has explanatory value for a trinitarian model of salvation history and that all salvation, regard- less of how it is experienced, comes “through the work of Christ by the Spirit.” Yong’s criticisms of the ﬁ lioque do not serve to divorce the Spirit from Christ, but rather aim to avoid unnecessary ecumenical roadblocks and the subordination of pneumatology to Christology.

In his discussion of the Classical Pentecostal use of Luke-Acts to support the doctrine of Spirit baptism as subsequent to conversion, Cole follows the traditional evangelical herme- neutical strategy that subordinates narrative accounts to didactic literature and statements (203-7). This is profoundly ironic given his larger attempt to develop a pneumatology from the biblical narrative of redemption. Moreover, in the discussion of the Pentecostal inter- pretation of Luke-Acts, he fails to interact with recent Pentecostal contributions (he refers to Gordon Fee) — some of which support the Classical Pentecostal interpretation (e.g., Roger Stronstad and Robert P. Menzies) and some of which oﬀ er an alternative reading or, at the least, a diﬀ erent emphasis (e.g., Martin W. Mittelstadt and Frank D. Macchia). It is one thing to disagree with Pentecostal scholarship, but quite another simply to ignore it.

Reviewed by Steven M. Studebaker

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