The Kingdom and the Power. The Pneuma Review has received permission to reprint chapters from this important work that asks: “Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Early Church Meant for the Church Today?” The Fall 2010 issue will continue this series with “Models of Prayer for Healing and Related Phenomena.”

Professor Lee Roy Martin looks at some of the most troubling biblical heroes in, “Judging the Judges: Searching for Value in these Problematic Characters.”

How should we lead the church?

Tony Richie: “Leadership in the Local Church: Discerning Practical Value and Developing Theological Foundations”

Some reviews to look for in the Fall 2010 issue:

John Lathrop reviews former Charisma editor J. Lee Grady’s latest book, The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale (Chosen Books, 2010).

Alister McGrath’s book from the 2009 Gifford Lectures, A Fine-tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2009), is reviewed by Wolfgang Vondey.

How should we lead the church?

New Testament scholar Andrew D. Clarke imagines what it would be like to interview the Apostle Paul about church leadership today.

The opportunity to interview the Apostle Paul about his perceptions of church in the early twenty-first century was an opportunity not to be missed.

Interviewer: Paul, could you start by telling us some of the most striking things that you notice about churches today?

Apostle Paul: The thing that amazes me the most is to see how church buildings now have such a high profile in every town and in some of the best city centre locations.

 
Interviewer: Did you ever foresee church buildings would be so large, so permanent and so centrally located?

Apostle Paul: No – our imaginations in the first century never quite expected this. But then, nor did we expect so many centuries would pass without seeing the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly these churches are amazing testimony to centuries of significant growth, development and influence.

 
Interviewer: Would you have liked to minister in these kind of churches?

Apostle Paul: I can certainly see advantages, but then I can also see disadvantages. The biggest advantages are public profile and space. Christians travelling through a strange city can immediately identify where believers are gathering. For many years, identifying whether there was a group of believers in a city was a major challenge to me on my travels.

These church buildings also offer an amazing space for large crowds to worship and hear the gospel proclaimed. Our Lord Jesus, of course, often spoke to very large crowds of my countrymen, and we also looked forward to festival days when the whole city of Jerusalem could offer loud worship to the Lord, with many musical instruments. These new buildings must be ideal for this. When I wrote to the churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia and Achaia, however, this was something I knew was not a realistic option – so I said little about it.

 
Interviewer: And the disadvantages?

Apostle Paul: Probably the same – public profile and space! As I look around today, it seems to me that ‘church’ is now identified either with a building, or with what happens in that building – at fixed times each week. It’s as if church comes down to a list of weekly activities, advertised on large notice-boards outside locked church buildings.

 
Interviewer: But, what about when church is ‘on’?

Apostle Paul: As I say, I’m excited about the opportunities for both teaching and worship, but I’m puzzled about how the mutual up-building of the body is carried out in spaces like this, and I’d be surprised if these buildings were good places to meet unbelievers.

Jonathan Phillips, Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades (London: The Bodley Head, Random House, 2009), 424 pages, ISBN 9780224079372.

Philip Jenkins. The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa and Asia—and How It Died (New York: HarperOne, 2008), 315 pages, ISBN 9780061472800.

If you would read back-to-back, as I did recently, the two books reviewed here, one by a historian of the Crusades and another by a Church historian on the Eastern Church, you will surely broaden your knowledge of world history and gain a surprising perspective on both ecumenism and the prospects of peace with religious extremism.

Both of these books are a good overview of the battlefield called “jihad” by Muslims and “Crusade” by Christians and contain insights into the mistakes made as well as ways people have been successful in working together, though the mistakes far outweigh what went right. Jonathan Phillips is the expert on Crusades history and European medieval secular and religious politics, while Philip Jenkins addresses religious matters in-depth.

If we might borrow from Socrates’ saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” we ought to grasp that no movement in the history of humanity was either simple or pure. Phillips does a good job of sustaining the point that both the call to Crusade by popes and the response from the nobles and people was a mixture of sincerely held religious beliefs and the desire for success, power and wealth. Moderns like to say that the Crusades show what is wrong with religion and the Church, but leave out (probably from ignorance) that the Crusades began with a request from Christians in the Middle East, not a European desire for a blood frenzy. However, what Pope Urban II in 1095 decided to do with the appeal from Emperor Alexius of Constantinople and each and every occasion for “taking the cross’ until the reconquest of Granada in 1492 was a mixture of piety and pride resulting in the waste of human lives as well as multiple failures in the goals they hoped to achieve. For example, what the Emperor had in mind was a special forces team of perhaps 300 knights but what happened was one of history’s first carefully orchestrated international public relations campaigns, resulting in an army of tens of thousands of princes and peasants on a long march to Jerusalem. The misdeeds and missteps along the way are well known, but Phillips’ research is highly informative and I learned a great deal. As he points out, it is amazing that those in the First Crusade were successful at all, yet they were the most successful of all.

Mark D. Roberts, Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), 202 pages., ISBN 9781581348668.

There are more books in print on the subject of biblical criticism than anyone cares to read, so why look at another one? Roberts responded to my unasked question with a very readable book, or as he clarified—a “blook.” This book started as Roberts’ blog (pastoral comments and dialogue on his internet web-log) and then was massaged into a good old-fashion paper book. Therefore, the book had gone through the ample processes of interaction, peer critique, and conversation, long before it appeared in the form that I now hold in my hand.

Roberts has taken the academic subject and has transformed it into terms and formats that are both understandable and interesting to the non-academic reader. The book makes an excellent introduction to biblical criticism for the lay minister, college student, or seminarian struggling to make sense of this academic conversation. Roberts does not overload his readers with technical footnotes, but he does provide enough to point his readers where to find detailed information. Additionally, he provided links to his blog, where he has further dialogue on the subjects.

Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts

The strength of the book is its readability. And because it is readable, its subject matter comes to life. Roberts assures his reader that the Gospels are indeed trustworthy; he does so by stabilizing his balance between a naïve or uncritical acceptance of the gospels and the conspiratorial theories that skeptically distrust any tradition of the church (such as Brown’s Da Vinci Code). Although Roberts’ frequent references to Brown’s fiction are rapidly becoming dated, the significance of his point remains the same. Roberts compiles substantiation for the reliability of the gospels through scholarly reasoning, historical evidence, and archeological verification.

If there were time to only read one book on biblical criticism, Roberts’ book would contend for that spot. He clearly communicates the most significant points in conversational terms, bridging the gap between academic sophistication and commonplace comprehension.

Reviewed by John R. Miller

Preview this book online at: books.google.com/books?id=wy-_jkkfIegC

Darrell W. Johnson, The Glory of Preaching: Participating in God’s Transformation of the World (IVP Academic, 2009), 278 pages, ISBN 9780830838530.

With the massive growth in multimedia ministries, it might seem that preaching could go the way of vinyl LPs and telegrams. However, in The Glory of Preaching, Darrell W. Johnson not only aims to convince us that preaching has not lost any of its wonder but that, by standing up to preach, we have the opportunity to participate in this wonder each and every week.

In part 1, we are given the theoretical reasons behind the importance of preaching, based on his hypothesis that “When a human being … invites the gathered assembly into a particular text of the Bible … something always happens” (p. 7). The first two chapters of this part take the form of extended expositions of two key Bible chapters, Ezekiel 37 and Matthew 13. Taken together, these two chapters not only give us a glimpse of the redemptive power of preaching but of reasons why we may not see the expected results after every sermon. The fourth chapter takes a different angle by providing a useful and inspiring study of the Greek words used to refer to preaching and the dynamics of the preaching moment that they represent.

The only flaw in this section is that, whereas three of the four chapters rely on direct examination of the Word of God, the third chapter takes a more indirect route and focuses exclusively on the views of theologians. While theological reflection on preaching is welcome and necessary, it would have been useful to relate the theological positions to biblical examples. The thesis of this chapter is that expository preaching, where a sermon examines a single biblical text, rather than a theme or principle, is superior to other preaching methodologies such as narrative and topical preaching (pp. 53-55). Such a position is surely hard to defend scripturally, given the wide variety of preaching styles used by both Jesus and His disciples.

For a number of readers, part 2 will be welcomed as one of the most straightforward sections of the book to apply to the practice of preaching. Here the author deals with the mechanics (his term, see pp. 103-104) of creating a sermon from a Biblical text and backing up your words with Biblical integrity.

In the first chapter of this section (chapter 5), the author walks us through the broad steps of sermon creation from scripture selection to finding the right ways to express the sermon’s content. For each step in the process, we are given a number of questions to guide our thinking. Of course, some of these will be more relevant to some texts and even congregations than others. For instance, the precise nuances of the prepositions used in a text may be less relevant when preaching to a church with a large proportion of new believers. However, these guides, if used wisely will give any preacher an excellent foundation for text study.

Chapter 6 moves us to the ordering of the sermon by providing a wide range of sample structures that can be used. These will be useful for both inexperienced and mature preachers alike and, when combined with the study methods outlined in the previous chapter will form a powerful addition to a preacher’s toolkit. We are also reminded of the oral nature of preaching and the effects this might have on preparation and on the creation of the notes that are taken up to the pulpit.

Calvin L. Smith, ed., The Jews, Modern Israel and the New Supercessionism: Resources for Christians (King’s Divinity Press), 164 pages, ISBN 9780956200600.

Finally—a single book that treats Replacement Theology, Israel, and the Jewish people with respect, reason, and biblical integrity. Over many years working with Christians I have encountered too many who will ardently profess that they are not anti-Semitic, yet continue to hold to the premise that the universal Church supplants biblical Israel. Consider for a moment how that must make the average Jewish man or woman feel to be told that God is done with them, that their role in God’s plan has ceased, that the blessings in the Bible proclaimed for Israel have been transferred to the church, and you begin to realize how thoroughly anti-Semitic this theology is.

The Jews, Modern Israel and the New Supercessionism (American spelling: Supersessionism) takes a multi-faceted approach to Replacement Theology to help set the record straight. Editor Calvin L. Smith has collected works from a number of scholars, all of which were submitted for a weekend conference at the King’s Evangelical Divinity School in England. As Smith writes, “A series of papers were presented which, while academic in nature, were designed to be accessible to everyday Christians.”

That goal was achieved. In chapters such as “Who is the ‘Israel’ of Romans 11:26?,” “Apostolic Jewish-Christian Hermeneutics,” and “Israel and the Purposes of God”—to name a few—readers are given a well-rounded background in how Protestants derived their supersessionistic doctrines. These doctrines are then graciously dissected, discussed, and debunked.

The second edition (2013) cover of the New Revised and Expanded Edition.

There is a great deal of common sense as well. In Smith’s contributions in chapters two and seven: obvious, and not-so-obvious facts about the nation of Israel are brought to light, giving the reader new concepts to consider. He also handles “multiple fulfillments of prophecy” nicely, helping readers understand that prophecy does not have to be locked into an either this/or that dimension.

I was grateful for Andy Cheung’s chapter on “Who is the ‘Israel’ of Romans 11:26?” His examination of how Paul uses the word “Israel” to help us grasp the underpinnings of this epistle is well presented. I do, however, wish some time had been given in the book to verse 11:25 as well with a presentation on the implications of, “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

Editor’s Note: This is the full review of Ivan Satyavrata, The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life. For the Review in Brief, see the full Summer 2010 issue of Pneuma Review.

Ivan Satyavrata, The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life, Christian Doctrine in Global Perspective Series (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2009), 182 pages, ISBN 9780830833078.

The Holy Spirit is part of a joint project between Langham Trust and IVP. The author, Ivan Satyavrata, is President of Buntain Theological College, Chairman of Asia Theological Association in India, and an ordained minister of the Assemblies of God. In nine chapters, Satyavrata articulates a pneumatology that is rooted in the authority of Scripture, and that is historically sensitive about the diversity of doctrinal understandings of the Holy Spirit. It is also intended as a contribution that illuminates a non-western pneumatology in so far as the series, edited by John R.W. Stott and David W. Smith, seeks to present a biblically faithful and contextually relevant set of Christian doctrines from non-western perspectives, for both western and non-western Christian readers. Hereafter, I will summarize Satyavrata’s main ideas, and then offer a critical assessment.

Satyavrata’s quest is to discern the Spirit against the backdrop of an increasingly post-Enlightenment world, and to show sensitivity of pneumatology in the western and eastern hemisphere. In chapter one, he explains the reasons for a surging pursuit of religious experience and captivation with eastern spirituality among the youth in post-enlightenment western societies. He attributes this quest for authentic religious experience as a reaction to and a disillusionment of the cold, logical, deductive reasoning and objective academic analysis inherited from the Enlightenment. If this trend is not curtailed, subjective experience will eventually become the final authority on truth. This leads to the danger of religious pluralism and the subverting of the authority from which truth is to be discovered.

The larger backdrop for Satyavrata’s pneumatology is his historical account of “the Spirit in the life of the Church.” In twenty-eight pages, chapter two provides a broad and sweeping snapshot of renewal in Christian history. The aim is to show the Spirit’s pervasive activity in the Church over the last twenty centuries – from the earliest Christian community’s experience of the Spirit, to the Church Fathers (such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil of Caesarea), to the “Sectarian Spirit Movements” represented by Gnosticism, Montanism, Joachimism, Friends of God, Irvingites of Roman Catholicism, to Christian Mysticism (such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Martin of Tours, Benedictine Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Catherin of Siena, Vincent Ferrer, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross), to the Reformation Christianity of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Thomas Muentzer, and to modern ‘Spiritual Renewal’ movements (such as Puritanism, Pietism, Quakerism, Quietism, Revivalism [of John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Dwight L. Moody], Evangelicalism, the Holiness movement, and Pentecostalism). The crux of this chapter is that “Spirit-renewal,” such as the Pentecostal renewal since the twentieth century, occurs all through the centuries. The Church struggles historically with the limits and validity of organization versus renewal, form versus freedom, and ritual versus charismata, and the tensions will probably continue until the End of the Age. The tensions are evidence that the Church has been trying to correct the excesses of renewal movements.

In chapter three, Satyavrata discusses four aspects pertaining to the nature and character of God the Spirit in the Old Testament. He is the creative Spirit who “is continually creating and ceaselessly active in directing the processes of the natural world” (p. 55). As such, “the Spirit’s role in creation ensures he is everywhere and must not be excluded from any aspect of human experience” (p. 55). He is the enabling Spirit who equips his chosen ones for leadership and for roles he predisposes, both in the religious and in the ‘secular’ arenas. As the prophetic Spirit who inspires, God the Spirit is the channel of communication between God and people – both in ethically neutral issues and in moral grounds. Finally, he is the universal and messianic Spirit who promises God’s redemption for humanity – foreshadowing the eschatological Spirit of the New Testament who is poured out at Pentecost and who indwells believers.

William D. & Aida Besancon Spencer and Steven R. & Celestia G. Tracy, Marriage at the Crossroads: Couples in Conversation about Discipleship, Gender Roles, Decision-Making and Intimacy (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 232 pages, ISBN 9780830828906.

Marriage at the Crossroads is more like a forum or panel discussion reduced to print. The subtitle characterize the discussion as “conversations” between two couples on what makes an effective Christian “one-flesh marriage.” The couples involved are the authors, William D. and Aida B. Spencer of Gordon-Conwell Theological School and Steve and Celestia Tracy of Phoenix Seminary. The Spencers take an egalitarian position and the Tracys a complementarian viewpoint. “Conversations” is an appropriate description as polarization of viewpoints is entirely absent and dialogue is very much present. Both the Spencers and the Tracys consider mutual submission to Christ and to one another in discipleship as the critical element in marriage. For the Spencers an equality of the partners is assumed, an equality in which the husband and wife are “first in authority” with Christ as “ruler of the household” (p. 102). The partners together seek Christ’s wisdom on any given matter. For the Tracys, the partners complement each other affirming thereby that husband and wife have some gender-differentiated tasks, strengths and abilities, “all of which contribute to the joint marital mission” (p. 124). The husband’s “headship” or “authority” consists of lifting, strengthening, and being in personal intimacy with his spouse.

In many respects the differences between the Spencers and the Tracys appear to be more semantical than actual as there are several shared sentiments. “If we didn’t know better, we would say we had read each others chapters because they have each similar and overlapping content” (p. 182). There are five sections and a conclusion to Marriage at the Crossroads. Each of the first four chapters are further subdivided into three sections. The first chapter dealing with marriage and discipleship first present the viewpoint of the Spencers, then the Tracys’, and lastly, a concluding dialogue between the two as to what was learned from one another. This is repeated in the second chapter on “headship” and submission, but starting with the Tracys’ position and ending with a concluding dialogue. Chapter three dealing with marriage roles and decision making reverses the order of presentations with the Spencers stating their case. The Spencers delineate five aspects in the process of decision making and lay out six criteria for the basis of making decisions. The Tracys start their argument from the basis of innate gender differences and where these intersect with gender roles and how through “designer love,” “designer work,” and “designer parenting” decisions affecting each other and the children are made. The fourth chapter on “Marriage and Intimacy” begin with the Tracys views on developing intimacy and ends with the Spencers’ understanding of intimacy. Like the other three chapters, the fourth ends with a concluding dialogue on similarities, differences, and what was learned.

The fifth chapter was devoted to responses on the part of a North American Hispanic couple, a Second Generation Korean couple, and an African-American couple to the insights of both the Spencers and the Tracys as to how those would work out within their separate ethnic or racial situations given their cultural backgrounds.

The conclusion reached at the end of the book is that marriage has to first be a committed partnership within which personal interests are subsumed under the Lordship of Jesus and his leadership over their lives together. The book offers many valuable ideas and concepts that can be utilized by pastors and counselors who guide couples in life together in discipleship to Jesus.

Reviewed by Woodrow E. Walton

Preview this book online at: www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=2890

James C. Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 233 pages, ISBN 9780801027765.

Dallas Willard, in The Spirit of the Disciplines, challenges the Church to return to the primary purpose of proclaiming the gospel and making disciples (18). James Wilhoit’s spiritual theology, as viewed through the lens of a careful ecclesiology, answers Willard’s challenge for the Church to pursue renewal in authentic discipleship. Beginning as conversations with his students and later as interviews with church leaders, the author’s research attempted to discover patterns and practices of spiritual formation within Christian faith communities. He discovered that “some churches are marked by the presence of a ‘culture of formation’ … while others may have many programs and much activity, [but] lacked the presence of … a transformative culture” (13).

Wilhoit, maintaining that he writes “as an evangelical … deeply concerned about the erosion of intentional practices of spiritual formation in many … churches,” explains his concern that “patterns of nurture” long practiced within the church have either been abandoned or set aside. He lists systematic Bible teaching, Scripture memorization and reading, Sunday evening services “with an emphasis on testimonies, missions, and global Christianity,” observance of Sabbath, shared meals, hospitality, church summer camps, pastoral visitation, and intergenerational socializing as elements of formative spirituality often missing in contemporary faith communities (13). His intent is to present a process of formation based on patterns and practices he defines as four spiritual commitments or dimensions including “receiving, remembering, responding, and relating” that become, in effect, “a curriculum for Christlikeness” in the local church (7).

James Wilhoit is the Scripture Press Chair of Christian Formation & Ministry at Wheaton College.

The author’s theology of formation begins with the gospel. He carefully exposits the problem of sin; its remedy in Christ and the unfolding pattern of sanctification as essential to the individual’s formation in Christlikeness and to the growth and effective ministry of each community of faith. Wilhoit is careful to precisely define grace, which he views as free and unmerited favor, but also inclusive of God’s “regenerating and strengthening power” (79). This recurring theme of grace presents the connecting thread of theological truth that weaves together the author’s exposition of practices and disciplines designed to provide an intentional focus on seeking God’s presence and discerning the Spirit’s movements within the daily life of a faith community.

His conviction that “spiritual formation must continually return to the truths of sin, cross, redemption, grace, and true holiness because the prevailing plausibility structures of our culture push us in the direction of idolatry and false gospels,” emphasizes an approach to formative spirituality that is solidly grounded in biblical theology (76).

The author’s holistic approach to spiritual formation, his focus on a well-developed hamartiology and the importance of community, are important aspects of the text that distinguish it from many other works on formative spirituality that do not develop these ideas as carefully or in as much detail. Wilhoit carefully develops his discussion on the spiritual brokenness of the human person as viewed through the lens of yearnings: those yearnings that persist and are seen “to be the result of compromised discipleship” and those yearnings that have been “fully met in Christ” (61). The author understands that practicing spiritual disciplines may either be used as “a space to meet God and be refreshed and healed by his grace” or as “material [that some use] to become far more accomplished legalists” (76). His refusal to reduce formation to “doing”, but rather examine, from the standpoint of biblical theology, the ontological truths of formation, are strengths of Wilhoit’s presentation.

The Camel is a book of both testimony and teaching. The author shows us that God is at work among Muslims, he also shows us some things that we can do that will help us reach for them for Christ. If you think that reaching Muslims is “mission impossible” you will be surprised when you read this book. Kevin Greeson is a church planter who works for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He serves as a missionary church planter in South Asia in an area that has a large Muslim population. In this book he shares how at one point in his ministry he was seeing very few results as he ministered to Muslims. During this same time he heard reports of large numbers of Muslims coming to Christ in other places. He investigated these reports and found them to be true. Muslim-background believers were leading many of their family and friends to the Lord. Greeson shares what he learned from these Muslim-background believers. He began to apply what he learned and found that their approach worked. In this book he shares the “secret of their success.” Their success was very significant; it resulted not just in individual conversions but in church planting movements. Most Christians in the West probably do not know how to begin a conversation with a Muslim about Christ, this book is a great help in this regard.

Greeson found a number of interesting things about the Muslim-background believers that were planting churches. He found that they used a different vocabulary, they did not try to use “foreign” religious language, they spoke from their Islamic heritage as long as it did not conflict with the Bible (page 34). For example, they called their pastor “imam,” this is a term used for Muslim religious leaders but it simply means “the one in front” (page 34). They also did not identify themselves as Christians; they referred to themselves as “Isahi Muslims.” This means that they are those who submit themselves to God by following Jesus. In short, what Greeson found was that the Muslim-background believers contextualized the gospel. They also used the Qur’an to witness. They did not dilute the gospel message but they presented it in a more appealing way to those from an Islamic background.

The “camel” is actually an acronym: c-a-m-e-l. It is a way to remember some of the key points found in Surah al-Imran, which is chapter three in the Qur’an. The “c” reminds us that Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus (Isa), “a” stands for the fact that angels made this known to her, “m” tells us that Jesus would do miracles and “el” tells us that Jesus knew the way to eternal life (pages 41-42). Muslim-background believers use this information to build bridges with their Muslims friends to lead them from the Qur’an to the New Testament. In addition to the “c-a-m-e-l” approach the book offers some other valuable information as well. It offers a more advanced evangelistic tool called “The Korbani Plan of Salvation” (pages 113-120) and it tells you how to answer a Muslim who says that you can not trust the Bible because it is corrupted (pages 139-140). There are also answers to some of the more common objections that Muslims may raise (pages 140-146).