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410
book reviews
Michael Horton
Rediscovering the Holy Spirit: God’s Perfecting Presence in Creation, Redemption, and
Everyday Life(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017). 334 pp. $22.99 paperback.
In what may seem surprising to Pentecostal scholarship, Reformed theolo- gian, Michael Horton, popular author and professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, sets course to “rediscover” the work of the Holy Spirit. It may appear as if either the author addresses an audience still unacquainted with the Spirit or the book is not intended for a Pentecostal audience. Or could it be that the book is written for Pentecostals, who arguably have rediscovered the Holy Spirit already but have yet to come to terms with the theological consequences of their extraordinary experiences? Horton raises these observations at the start of his book and points out that what is still missing is a broad pneumatological framework for understanding the work of the Spirit as it is currently pursued by “a new generation of Pen- tecostal theologians” (20). He sees the present age as a largely pantheistic, or at least panentheistic, era in academic theology in which the Spirit is deper- sonalized and universalized. Rediscovering the Holy Spirit means therefore to reemphasize the distinctness of the Spirit as person and the proper identi- fication of the Spirit’s operations “not only with that which is extraordinary, spontaneous, and immediate but also—and even more frequently—with that which is ordinary, ordered, and performed through creaturely means” (29).
Twelve chapters guide the reader from considerations on the work of the Trinity (chapter 1) to creation (chapter 2), to the Spirit’s work in community and church (chapter 3), the Spirit in divine judgment (chapter 4), the work of the Spirit in Christ (chapter 5), the Spirit after Pentecost (chapter 6), the baptism with the Spirit (chapter 7), the gift of salvation (chapter 8), the gifts of the Spirit (chapter 9), the function of the Spirit’s work (chapter 10), the work of the Spirit in glorification (chapter 11), and the Spirit in the kingdom of God (chapter 12). The last chapter ends the book with a reminder of the promise of Pentecost and the invitation to come and rediscover the life of the Spirit.
Horton’s focus on Pentecost plays an important role in his sweeping por- trayal of the work of the Spirit. What should speak to Pentecostals is his insis- tence that Pentecost “indicates a qualitatively new manifestation of the Spirit” and that “something fundamentally new was experienced at Pentecost” (146) so that “Pentecost inaugurates a qualitatively new era” (149) … “different not only in its extensiveness … but in its intensity” (150): the age of the Spirit. At this point, halfway through the book, the attention shifts to the qualitative aspects of the Spirit’s work. Horton is interested in portraying the effects of the power of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. His concern is how these attributes of
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-03903012
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the Spirit’s work are experienced and understood today—a concern he shares with Pentecostals.
Despite the obvious similarities with Pentecostal interests, the book makes little use of Pentecostal scholarship. After the initial comments on Pentecostal pneumatology, no Pentecostal authors are consulted in the rest of the work, although some sweeping statements are made about Pentecostal pneumatol- ogy, particularly what Horton sees as the prominence of panentheism, and occasional references to how Pentecostals view certain biblical texts. Promi- nent contemporary works on the Holy Spirit friendly to Pentecostals, such as the work of Clark Pinnock, Lyle Dabney, or Philip Clayton, are also given as evi- dence of the panentheistic paradigm.
Nonetheless, the text offers no actual engagement with the Pentecostal literature. Instead, support for the argument comes generally from different (and expected) voices of Reformed theology. The lack of engagement with global Pentecostal voices is particularly evident in the second part of the book, which reads frequently as an attempt to revitalize Reformed pneumatology yet without significant engagement of contemporary ecumenical scholarship. The discussion of the baptism in the Spirit or the gifts of the Spirit does make use of James D.G. Dunn, Gordon Fee, and the recent work John R. Levison, yet with no consideration of the broad discussions of the topics and these texts in Pentecostal circles. The paradigm shift, which Horton invites, begins with discerning the Spirit’s distinctive role in the biblical scriptures in order to arrive at a recognition of the Spirit in our own lives (38). A broader consideration of Pentecostalism might suggest that in Pentecostal life and experience this paradigm is often reversed. The result is a worthwhile expedition into the work on the Holy Spirit that ticks all the theological boxes yet appears strangely out- of-touch with the Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian world.
Where Horton directs Pentecostals is the importance of communicating the distinctive mission and work of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostal scholarship, with all its focus on the Spirit, has neglected to span the gap between academic the- ology and the popular audience. Horton walks this line carefully, adding to his conversation references to modern literature and contemporary films before entering into more dedicated theological discussions. If this book were written by a Pentecostal theologian, it would certainly look different. However, once again, Pentecostals miss out on writing works on their central theological com- mitments and leave it to others to bring a highly relevant subject matter to the attention of the broader public. For this lesson, Pentecostals can appreci- ate Horton’s work as pointing to the discovery of the Spirit not in the vastness of everywhere but in the personal and particular contexts of somewhere. The book charts the course for this discovery along well-trodden, ordered, and per-
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formed theological paths in need of ways that insist on the extraordinary, spon- taneous, and immediate. In the end, the book issues a welcomed invitation to rediscovering pneumatology and the life of the Spirit in the ordinary world, but it is not an invitation to the messy and risky experience of Pentecost. Reformed theology may be able to live with this distinction, Pentecostal theology cannot.
Wolfgang Vondey
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
PNEUMA 39 (2017) 365–424
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