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Pneuma 43 (2021) 135–166
Book Reviews
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Amos Yong, Mission after Pentecost: The Witness of the Spirit from Genesis to Revela-
tion(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019). 300 pp. $19.33 softcover.
Amos Yong is dean of the School of Theology and the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary and in 284 pages, he charts the witness of the Spirit from Genesis to Revelation. The book is in two parts, with each containing four chapters. Part One is entitled “Divine Wind and the Old Testa- ment: Ruahic Witness across Ancient Israel,” and Part Two is entitled “Divine Breath and the Christian Scriptures: Pneumatic Witness after Pentecost.” The book is essentially an “exercise in theological interpretation of scripture bifo- cally mediated: pneumatologically and missiologically” (15). Although the word “mission” occurs in this book’s title, this is not a manual about how to do mis- sion or indeed mission strategy, even though one often equates mission with “being sent” which is, of course, a New Testament concept. The term “mis- sion” has hundreds of years of colonial history behind it, and the author invites the reader to step back from some of that history and observe how “mission” unfolds across the landscape of Scripture in both Old and New Testaments.
A wind from God swept over the face of the waters in the creation account, and so naturally this is an appropriate starting point to the divine wind in the Old Testament. The wind reappears in Genesis 6:3, which leads to the prob- lematic passage about the sons of God and the Nephilim. Yong nevertheless presses on undeterred to document every account of the divine wind/breath and skilfully connects such accounts with mission. For example, he cites that the presence of God’s Spirit with Joseph in Egypt is missiological as he is a son of Jacob or Israel and so is in Abraham’s lineage whose election is to initiate a redemptive sequence of events intertwined with God’s intention to bless the world (33). After all,Yahweh’s election of Israel serves as mediator between God and the world, and such a vocation is not meritorious but missiological (40).
In addition to being insightful, Yong, in forging a connection between the ancient and contemporary Western world, provokes a little controversy in sug-
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/15700747-04301002
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book reviews
gesting that “affluent Christians have more in common with Egyptian masters than with Hebrew slaves” (36). Furthermore, he cites Joshua’s track record as not being exemplary when considered in postcolonial perspective (54). What Yong doesn’t do, is shy away from difficult texts, an example of the conquest of Canaan and the authorized genocide being a case in point.
Chapter three is the shortest in Part 1 because the there is no reference to the divine in books such as Ruth and Esther nor are there any “explicit references to the breath of God in Israel’s literature outside of Job and Psalms except indi- rectly at the end of Ecclesiastes” (107).
In Part Two, he discusses what the apostolic writers say about the Spirit, and also what the missiological implications are, both then and now (156). Yong determines to uncover pneumatological passages that invite fresh con- sideration of other nations, peoples, cultures and religions who Jesus calls His followers to bear witness to (156) and challenges the general acceptance that Matthew wrote his gospel for a Jewish community only. He cites Matthean texts which suggest the mission is wider than Israel such as the inclusion of four Gen- tile women in Jesus’ genealogy, the Magi from the East, a Roman centurion, a Canaanite woman and of course culminating with the Great Commission. Given that the Great Commission occurs in the longer ending of Mark’s gospel, Yong masterfully demonstrates that it is already inferred and included in Mark regardless. He treats Luke and Acts together and includes John with Revelation and the three letters which bear his name, although Yong does not presume that it was the same John who wrote all five documents.
Chapter six is the longest chapter of the book as there are ten letters associ- ated with Paul, which mention the Spirit. Although Colossians is more Christ- centered than Spirit-occupied, Yong highlights the one explicit reference to the Spirit (Col. 1:7–8).
Regarding Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, Yong asks “how might we be able to discern afresh missional strategies from adhering to these documents ontheirownterms,especiallyasguidedbypneumatologicalmotifs,ratherthan attempting to import our own modern constructions and categories of assess- ment onto documents from two thousand years ago” (229)?
He concludes the book with a recapitulation of his findings of the witness to the divine breath and some proposals “for witness praxis in a post-missionary era” (273).
Yong’s writing is both narrative and expository and at times reminiscent of a commentary. The inclusion of interspersions from accomplished scholars in each section complements and reinforces each theme he addresses. The book answers the question, “What is God’s heart for mission in the pages of the Bible by showing that the Spirit’s activity is among peoples, nations and systems?”
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While the Spirit works at the individual level, the Spirit also works at the sys- temic, structural, political and economic levels. In contrast with the modern missionary movement, which essentially seeks to make individual disciples, Yong infers that while important, one cannot reduce mission to this one aspect only.
The book invites the reader to go beyond individual and colonial enterprise and retrieve the Scriptural narratives, which will lead not only into individual encounters and interactions but also into engagements with people groups, nations, structures and systems.
Mark Anderson
Kings Evangelical Divinity School, Broadstairs, UK [email protected]
Pneuma 43 (2021) 135–166
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