Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
| PentecostalTheology.com
468
Book Reviews / Pneuma 32 (2010) 431-473
Graham H. Twelftree, People of the Spirit. Exploring Luke’s View of the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009). xvii + 269 pp.
Graham Twelftree has offered his work with two motivations: (i) to identify important aspects about the Church to Luke and (ii) to elucidate lessons for the contemporary Church, where appropriate. After an initial chapter, which acts as a preface, he explores Luke’s perception concerning the origins and purposes of the Church, demonstrating that Luke perceives it to have existed pre-Pentecost, though it explicitly received its resources for its mission thereafter. Thus, the Spirit did not initiate the Church at Pentecost; rather, Jesus called it into existence from the moment he called his followers to be with him. The progress of the Church is thus identified in the lives of the Apostles, in Luke’s gospel when they were with Jesus, and in the book of Acts, where they emulated the mission of Jesus. In chapter 3, Twelftree develops his thesis that despite Acts, in the eyes of many being seen to be about the acts of the Spirit, in reality it is a Christocentric thesis (205-207), with Jesus playing a central role despite his bodily absence. Tis is especially apparent in Luke’s portrayal of the followers of Jesus (a thesis that Andrew Clark [Parallel Lives, Pater- noster, 2001] has comprehensively developed). In chapter 4, the Church and salvation, as reflected in Luke-Acts, are discussed, Twelftree concluding that, in Luke’s perspective, personal salvation results in joining the Church, the latter functioning as a consequence of the former, rather than being viewed as identical to it.
In the following chapter, Twelftree portrays the nascent Church existing in a pre-dawn setting where it has not yet been fully developed (thus, the various names used to describe it), it still being notably Jewish and fulfilling the potential of the Jewish people in relation- ship to God.
A discussion of Pentecost and its consequences is the subject of chapter 6. Although a questioning of the historicity of some of the narrative (concerning the 3000 who responded to Peter’s message, the identification of Pentecost as the occasion when the Spirit came, and the location in Jerusalem) slightly marred the introduction (in my opin- ion), insofar as it indicated that Luke was more of a fabricator than redactor of facts, the conclusions offered concerning the significance of Pentecost to the first century author were valid. I would also quibble with the assertion that “it was not the resurrection but the coming of the Spirit that transformed the followers of Jesus” (81), not because his conclusion is without merit, but because it may be understood as diminishing the power- ful transformative difference the resurrection made to the early believers, resulting in them continually blessing God in the Temple, the place from where, a few days earlier, they had fled in disarray as a result of the demise of their leader. Although, to support his perspec- tive, Twelftree translates Luke 24:41 as “in their joy, they were disbelieving” (80), it may (more appropriately) be translated as “they still disbelieved for joy” (RSV; see also NKJV, NASB), where the emphasis is placed, albeit in a subtle way, on joy (positive) rather than disbelief (negative). As Twelftree correctly notes however, what Pentecost did provide was power and permission to fulfill the commission earlier granted to the disciples by Jesus.
In chapter 7, the relationship between the Spirit, tongues, and baptism is explored, where the gift of tongues is identified as one of the possible manifestations of the coming of the Spirit. Te discussion developed is concise and the conclusions are carefully offered.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/157007410X534148
1
Book Reviews / Pneuma 32 (2010) 431-473
469
Te problems identified in chapter 8 offer a caution to those who assume that the first century Church was trouble-free. Instead, suffering is identified as being central to its development, and internal tensions and lifestyle aberrations caused challenges for its sta- bility and growth. Te place of worship (chapter 9) and the Old Testament (chapter 10) in the early Christian community are clearly and comprehensively explored. Chapter 11 offers Twelftree the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of the experienced event as the primary means of encountering God, the Scriptures, though important, being but the interpreter of those encounters. Tis provides for a much more dynamic encounter of God through the Spirit, where believers are not so much perceived as “people of the book” (163), but as people who experience God in dynamic events. Twelftree concludes that Luke believes that Christians “are fundamentally people of the Spirit” (212). Pentecostals have much to learn from this emphasis (cp. Keith Warrington, Pentecostal Teology, A Te- ology of Encounter [T & T Clark, 2009], 20-27). Similarly, Twelftree identifies the Church as receiving “the empowerment and direction of the Spirit” (206), as experienced by and reflected in Jesus. It is because of this Spirit-endowment that the Church is enabled to be “the present and ongoing embodiment of Jesus and his mission . . . and express the same powerful presence of God apparent in Jesus and his ministry” (205-06).
Issues of leadership (chapter 12) and mission (chapter 13) are cautiously explored where application to the contemporary Church is offered. In this regard, Luke is shown to be demonstrating a mission that includes witness to Jesus and wholeness to the hearers.
Tis is a solid piece of work with regular reference to the Lukan material in support of the issues addressed. It is presented in a measured, gracious and clear style ensuring that the readers do not lose sight of the assertions being offered. Twelftree’s most telling obser- vations are significant and well worth exploring further.
Reviewed by Keith Warrington
Vice-Principal and Director of Doctoral Studies
Regents Theological College, West Malvern, Worcestershire, United Kingdom
2
