Perspectives On Spirit Baptism Five Views

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 31 (2009) 105-160

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Chad Owen Brand, ed., Perspectives on Spirit Baptism: Five Views (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2004). xiii + 338 pp. $19.99 paper.

The ﬁ ve essays on the Baptism of the Spirit in this book each derive from diﬀ erent ecclesial trajectories: a Reformed Perspective by Walter C. Kaiser Jr., a classical Pentecostal perspec- tive by Stanley M. Horton, a Charismatic perspective by Larry Hart, a Wesleyan perspec- tive by Ray Dunning, and a Catholic or Sacramental perspective by Ralph Del Colle. Kaiser argues that Spirit baptism happens at the moment one believes despite one’s spir- itual experience. He asserts, “To have God’s Spirit is to believe (Rom. 8:9, 14). The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a distinctive blessing of the new age in which all believers are made to participate and drink of the Holy Spirit . . . despite all the denominational or other labels believers may wear” (pp. 36-37). Paul’s teachings on the Spirit are favored more than nar- ratives in Acts in this view, and Spirit baptism occurs when one believes and is “incorpo- rated by God, in the Holy Spirit, into one spiritual body of Christ” (p. 36).

In the classical Pentecostal perspective, Horton contends that “Spirit baptism is an observ- able and intensely personal experience, not just a doctrine” (p. 48). Contrary to Kaiser’s view that Spirit baptism is non-observable and does not come with speciﬁ c normative experi- ences, Horton is convinced that the baptism of the Spirit cannot be separated from an observable experience with accompanying evidence of speaking in tongues. In further con- trast to the Reformed view, Horton argues that the experience of Spirit baptism occurs sub- sequent to conversion. The experience opens the believer up to new levels of spirituality, and is an empowering and preparatory experience for the work of Christ in the world. Hart challenges Horton’s notion that speaking in tongues is the primal experience of Spirit baptism. Hart also calls for a reexamination of “the sign of speaking in tongues” (p. 95). One the one hand there are those who claim the experience of Spirit baptism and speak in tongues but may not live exemplary Christian lives. On the other hand, there are those who manifest the gifts of the Spirit and thus appear to be Spirit-baptized but have never spoken in tongues. Hart believes that the essentiality of the Spirit is to “transform us, empower us and guide us” (p. 169).

Dunning’s Wesleyan perspective places emphasis on the work of the Spirit rather than experiences of the Spirit. Spirit baptism is related centrally to the doctrine of sanctiﬁ cation: “The Holy Spirit is the life-giving agent in the new birth . . . and the Spirit continues to function as the agent of growth and transformation . . . until it is ﬁ nally achieved in its full- ness at the consummation” (p. 193). For Dunning, the Pentecost event was mainly about the moral renewal essential to becoming like Christ. In essence, Spirit baptism is a divine bequest of the Spirit of Christ to sanctify the believer and to equip her or him for the con- tinuance of Christ’s work in the world. Sanctiﬁ cation is, therefore, thoroughly Christologi- cal, as “New Testament pneumatology is through and through Christological” (p. 229). In the ﬁ nal essay, Del Colle situates the baptism of the Spirit within a Catholic frame- work. Here is an ecclesiological dimension of Spirit baptism that is minimally present in the other views. In Catholic theology the mystery of the church is intertwined with the mystery of the sacraments. The eficacy of the sacraments is that they signify grace in the presence of the risen Christ communicated within the ecclesial body. Del Colle argues that similarly “Spirit baptism signiﬁ es the fullness of grace and gifts” as well as “the fullness of the Spirit

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 31 (2009) 105-160

in which the church is baptized” (p. 279). T erefore, Spirit baptism is not unrelated to the sacramental order of the church. Del Colle’s insights bridge the Catholic Church with Spirit-ﬁ lled churches, theologically and pneumatalogically.

While these ecclesial trajectories present varying perspectives, Brand’s volume is limited. The twenty-ﬁrst century church and academy increasingly expects diversity that includes ethnic and gender perspectives. For example, some scholars have noted that the event of Spirit baptism was hotly debated in the early days of the Azusa Street Mission. Charles Parham and other white Pentecostals strongly criticized William J. Seymour and the Afri- can American experience of Spirit baptism with regard to the emotive expressions (falling in the Spirit, screaming and intense shaking) that accompanied the experience. An African American perspective might shed light on the notion of Spirit possession in Spirit baptism so that emotive expressions might not only be phenomenological but also pneumatalogical in testifying to the power of Spirit baptism to take total control of an individual’s life. When one is baptized in the Spirit, the accompanying expressions signify the freeing of the self and the release of the Spirit to have free course in a person’s life. One wonders if there is also a feminist theology of Spirit baptism overlooked in this conversation.

As presented in this volume, each essay is clear and provides insights important to the broader discussion of Spirit baptism. Brand is to be commended for creatively organizing this discussion. Each author responds to the other as the discussion unfolds. T is method presents a true conversation.

I recommend this work as a supplementary text about the workings of the Spirit and the relationship between Word and Spirit. In an age wherein spirituality is both the language of the church and the rest of the world this work will be helpful for both the inquiring aca- demic and interested laypeople.

Reviewed by Antipas L. Harris

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