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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 311-363
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Edith M. Humphrey, Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006). xiii + 295 pp., $16.00, paper.
The title of the book, Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit, is enough to whet the spiritual appetite of all who hunger and thirst for God, and it will not disappoint the reader, for within this volume is a veritable feast that will challenge the mind and stir the heart to know God in a more intimate way. Humphrey is Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an Anglican layperson from Canada. One of her stated goals is to clarify the meaning of Christian spirituality, which she powerfully situates within the twin truths of the Incarnation and the Trinity.
The book is divided into three parts or “triads” — Love, Light, and Life — with three chapters each. In the first triad, true spirituality is, by necessity, profoundly incarnational. The sufferings of life are seen as the means through which the love of God is revealed by the Holy Spirit to the human spirit in the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Love is identified as the golden thread weaving through the metanarratives from creation and the fall and exemplified in the lives of biblical characters as a means of revealing the bankruptcy of the human soul. Fallen human beings forgot they have a heart with which to seek God, but in love, Jesus came from the bosom of the Father to clear the way for the Holy Spirit to restore the heart’s true desire for God. For Humphrey, the pattern for true spirituality is revealed in the ecstasy and intimacy manifested within the perichoretic relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From this inner communion of the Trinity, God initiates divine- human intimacy and embraces fallen humanity in acceptance and love.
The second triad of Light is the highpoint of the book in which Humphrey describes the ecstasy of love that can be realized in the human relationships of family, marriage, and the church. The Incarnation is the open door through which the inner love life of the Trinity is revealed through these relationships. Humphrey strengthens her definition of authentic spirituality by taking the reader on a journey through church history,introducing great theologians and mystics, “older siblings of the faith,” from both East and West. In compar- ing her understanding of Christian spirituality with the writings of the Christian mystics, or spiritual theologians, as she prefers to call them, the author clearly reveals that authentic spirituality is not a “private esoteric experience” but rather an intimacy with God available to all Christians within the community of faith.
The final triad of Life discusses the negative consequences experienced when “spirituality goes wrong.” Only genuine Christian spirituality can answer the hunger cry of the human heart, and it is uniquely through the Incarnation that God gathers up the hurting and offers himself as the gift of hope and healing.
Scholars will find the book masterfully written and academically satisfying. Due to the thoughtful inclusion of theological definitions, the book is a rich treasure accessible to every Christian. This is not just another book on popular spirituality to stir the senses but is a serious effort to ask difficult questions and cut through misconceptions to articulate an authentic spirituality for contemporary Christians grounded in Scripture, theology, and church history.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/157007407X237999
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 311-363
The sheer depth and breath of the material may leave the reader overwhelmed at times. Yet the difficult reading is well worth the effort, given the book’s capacity to convey the magnitude of the revelation of God moving ecstatically outside the trinitarian union through the Incarnation and touching the human spirit by the Holy Spirit and, in so doing, to draw all people into the trinitarian heart of God to discover love, hope, and healing. Ecstasy and Intimacy is a “must read” for everyone who hungers to know God in a more intimate way and desires to understand the meaning of true Christian spirituality.
Reviewed by Connie Dawson
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