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216
Book Reviews
Terje Hegertun
The Spirit Driven Church: Signs of God’s Graceful Presence(Eugene,OR: Pickwick
Publications, 2017) 324 pp. $38.00 paperback.
The Spirit Driven Church: Signs of God’s Graceful Presence is a theological study written by Terje Hegertun. Hegertun is a professor of systematic theology atMF Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo, Norway. In this text, Hegertun, a Pente- costal with a vested interest in ecumenism, offers a meaningful contribution to ecumenical ecclesiology. In The Spirit Driven Church, he submits “a pneu- matological ecclesiology, which gives attention to the economy of the Spirit, [that] will contribute to an ecumenical comprehension of what it means to foster open and graceful fellowships, beloved by the Trinity” (2). At the center of this project is a pneumatological ecclesiology that takes seriously the claim that the Holy Spirit is the heartbeat of the Christian church.
To present a substantial and organic relationship between the Spirit and the church that highlights Christian spirituality as social, charismatic, and sacra- mental is no minor feat. Nevertheless, Hegertun takes on this challenge by assembling an impressive and theologically diverse ensemble of interlocutors. In so doing, he not only models his definition of church as a composition of the Spirit, but he also provides a more complex and nuanced way of discussing the role of the Spirit in dynamic and sacramental fellowships.
The Spirit Driven Church is organized into ten chapters, excluding the pref- ace and the epilogue. Chapter one acts as the introduction providing the main argument, methodology, and text organization. Chapter two, “The People of God’s Presence,” is a discussion on the nature of the church. In this chapter, Hegertun reflects on the key interactions of pneumatology and ecclesiology, as well as the church as the living presence of the Spirit. As such, the chap- ter highlights the nature of the church as a fellowship that is intentionally and gracefully responsive to the human experience. Such that the apostolicity of the church, via the word of God, spiritual gifts, and sacraments, reveals itself as a “sacramental banquet open to the world” (45). In chapter three, “The Gifted Church of the New Testament,” Hegertun examines how the Christian church is impacted after having an encounter with the Spirit. For this, he turns to the Lukan and Pauline texts and their respective understandings on the inner life of the early church after having received the eschatological Spirit. Ultimately, Hegertun concludes that an encounter with eschatological Spirit results in a Spirit-driven community wherein all have access to and act as instruments of God’s grace in the world.
Following chapter three, Hegertun turns his attention to broadening the concept of the Spirit and bridging the gap between sacramental and charis-
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-04001009
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matic communities by putting diverse theological perspectives in conversation with each other. In chapter four Hegertun explores how James D.G. Dunn, Tor- mod Engelsviken, and Frank D. Macchia have reflected on the baptism of the Spirit in their respective works. Chapter five, “God’s New Reality” builds on chapter four by presenting the theological positions of John Zizioulas, Yves Conger, Jürgen Moltmann, and Wolfhart Pannenberg. Chapter six concludes this portion of the text by introducing the Pentecostal perspective, via promi- nent Pentecostal thinkers. At the end of this chapter, Hegertun takes all of the theological considerations presented up to that point and concludes that nei- ther “feelings nor the analytical mind” control the liturgy of a Spirit-driven church; but rather, the worship event is directed by the genuine encounter with the Spirit (154).
In the final chapters, Hegertun submits worship, the sacraments, and hospi- tality as three aspects given by the Spirit to aid the church in fulfilling its grace- ful presence in the world. In chapter seven, “A Life of Worship,” Hegertun claims that “all of life is an act of worship” (161), that Christian worship forms “its mem- bers into agents of love, desire, and discernment” (165), and that worship fosters “a posture of humility, trust, and hope” (168). Ultimately, Hegertun determines that the transformation in which the church hopes for the world happens first in the people of God when they are transformed by worship. Building on chap- ter seven, chapter eight, “Graceful Gifts,” examines the relationship between the gifts, the church, and the sacraments. Here, Hegertun notes that the sacra- ments play a critical role in the call to worship. The sacraments, as a material substance reflective of the mundane world and our earthly bodies (185), invite us to be human—vulnerable and imperfect—as we encounter the Spirit.
Meanwhile, chapters nine and ten reflect on how the church acts as a fel- lowship and exists in the world, with particular attention to the virtues of hos- pitality, friendship, and graceful relationships as fruits of the Spirit. In these final chapters, Hegertun states that the pneumatological character and identity of the church and the unifying and missional nature of the church are predi- cated on love. Specifically, in chapter ten, he insists that this is a love that is courageous, de-centers oppressive systems of power, and crosses borders to be radically inclusive.
The Spirit Driven Church is an enjoyable read, and genuinely insightful— especially the last four chapters. The text is unapologetically written for a theologically-minded audience. However, it is accessible. Moreover, Hegertun’s passion for the unity of the full Body of Christ is unmistakable. Likewise, his passion for an expanded understanding of the Spirit and Spirit baptism is both convincing and convicting. Thereby making it an invaluable resource for Pen- tecostals and Pentecostal scholars.
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Undoubtedly, The Spirit Driven Church is an important work. A significant strength of this book is its intentional engagement with a host theologically diverse interlocutors. Although Hegertun did well reaching across the prover- bial ecclesiological aisle, he did not include as many women as he did men in this text. The disparity between the genders is especially noticeable given the insertion of the subsection in chapter nine, “A Feminist Perspective.” In two and a half swift pages Hegertun notes the concerns and work of feminist ecclesiol- ogy but limits them to ordination. Consequently, it appears that Hegertun may have missed an opportunity to extend the conversation beyond ordination to include: (1) gender-related physical, sexual, epistemic, and ecological violence intheChristianchurch;oreven(2) waysinwhichthechurchcanemploycoura- geous de-centering love to resist and deconstruct hierarchies that objectify and inhibit women from realizing their full humanity. For as long as these are reali- ties in the church, women and girls are not experiencing abundant life in Spirit.
Given the theological nature of this work, graduate students and specialists with scholarly interests in the related subject matter would benefit most from reading this text.
Dara Coleby Delgado University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio
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