Evan B. Howard, The Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2008), 496 pages, ISBN 9781587430381.

Evan Howard has constructed a college or seminary textbook on spirituality that is thorough in its approach, wide in its scope, and deep in its content. The format that he employed benefits the reader by opening each chapter with effective introductions, outlines, and stated objectives. These are wrapped up by summary statements, study questions, and in-depth suggestions for further reading. Howard provides an application on “Practicing Christian Spirituality” that is well suited to engage the reader experientially. Sidebars and character profiles interspersed throughout help illustrate how theories of spirituality have been lived out. On a lighter note, Howard has inserted appropriate cartoons to tease the truth out of the quirkiness of the churched culture, which is a welcomed comic-relief approach to include in a college textbook. Finally, the book concludes with a glossary of the religious terms utilized by the textbook.

The strength of Howard’s textbook rests on his commitment to explain the systems of thought, theology, psychology, and sociology in the history of Christian spirituality. Not presuming on his reader’s knowledge, he has been careful to explain each step and process. For example, when discussing the concept of prayer as a dialogue with God, he first explains theories of human communication. However helpful this may be to the new learner, it becomes tedious to one who is familiar with the theories. Herein lies the tension, how can any author present the mysteries of the spirit via the means of an academic text? How much can anyone learn about spirituality from a textbook?

The Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality is well suited for upperclassmen or for seminarians who have not yet laid a foundation of Christian spirituality. Howard’s textbook has the potential to augment the guidance of a spiritual mentor or director who is active in spiritual discipleship.

Reviewed by John R. Miller

Publisher’s page: http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/the-brazos-introduction-to-christian-spirituality/227930

Pastor Isgrigg introduces us to Professor Ervin and how he helped shape the landscape of today’s Pentecostal/charismatic movement.

Introduction

Howard M. Ervin, a Baptist and Pentecostal scholar, paved the way for other scholars to defend the Pentecostal faith in the academic world. During the last half of the twentieth century, charismatics, evangelicals and Pentecostals scholars have debated the nature and function of Spirit baptism. Early in the debate, Howard Ervin offered a view of Spirit baptism that centered on Luke’s unique pneumatology in Luke-Acts and meaning of the term “filled with the Spirit.” Ervin’s work, These Are Not Drunken as Ye Suppose (1968), was one of the first books to enter the scholarly debate from the Pentecostal position. Some of the leading Evangelical scholars, such as Anthony Hoekema and James D. G. Dunn, would offer a critique of Ervin and the growing Pentecostal position in the early 70’s. In response, Ervin offered his own rebuttal against renowned New Testament scholar James Dunn’s treatment of the Pentecostal position in Conversion-Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit.¹ Today scholars are still debating the nature of Spirit baptism and what it means to be filled with the Spirit. But since that time, Pentecostals views have been more readily accepted in the academic arena. The Society for Pentecostal Studies is a demonstration of the broad level of interest in Pentecostal areas of study. With the explosion of new perspectives on Pentecostal issues, there can be a tendency to focus on the latest ideas. For variety of reasons, Pentecostal scholarship has moved beyond the theology and exegesis offered by Howard Ervin. As the dialogue continues and new insights are brought forth, fewer scholars are integrating Ervin’s ideas. Though his works were written in a different time, Howard Ervin’s pneumatology can speak to the theological issues of today.

Ervin has also been on the cutting edge of the ecumenical movement. In a tradition that has a history of exclusion; Ervin was able to effectively bring the Pentecostal experience to thousands of believers from traditional denominations. Through a tradition of scholarship and a legacy of ecumenism, Howard Ervin’s “Pilgrimage into Pentecost” can continue to inform and inspire the next generation of Pentecostals.

Biography

Howard Matthew Ervin was born into the family of Harry and Florence Ervin on September 21^st, 1915 in the small coal mining town of St. Nicholas, Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, this self-described “practical agnostic” had little interest in religion until he encountered the witness of a Baptist minister one day in his father’s barber shop in Mahanoy City, PA.² As he was considering the minister’s words one evening, Jesus appeared to him in his room and he saw him face to face. That night, December 23^rd, 1939, Howard Ervin entered the kingdom of God at the age of 25. Recognizing his call to ministry Ervin pursued his training at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. It was at Eastern where he met his Latvian-born bride to be, Marta Vaskis.³ Dr. and Mrs. Ervin married in April of 1944. Together they would eventually have three daughters, Gretchen, Deborah and Judith as well as five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.⁴ Ervin continued his education at Eastern as he completed his B.A. and Th.B. degree. He also earned a M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Asia Institute and a B.D. from New Brunswick Theological Seminary.⁵ As impressive as the previous four degrees were, Ervin went on to receive a Th.D. in Old Testament Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary while ministering in New Jersey. With a keen theological mind and a scholar’s vocabulary, Ervin has the ability to speak on any biblical or theological subject with excellence.

Though he is a scholar of impeccable credentials, Ervin has a pastor’s heart. On January 17^th, 1946, Howard Ervin was ordained by the Northern Baptist Convention of New Jersey. Ervin’s first opportunity to pastor came when he was asked to fill the vacant pulpit of Dr. A.L. Murray, the man who had witnessed to him in his father’s barbershop. He was appointed as the interim pastor at the First Baptist Church in Lansdale, Pennsylvania while Dr. Murray fulfilled his military chaplain position. Three years later, in February of 1946, he left Pennsylvania for Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey to pastor Central Baptist Church. He was recommended by the previous pastor, Richard Shearer who was Ervin’s classmate at Eastern Baptist Seminary. After three years, Ervin left Central and founded Emmanuel Baptist Church in February of 1949. It was his seventeen years there that would be the fertile ground for the experiences that would fuel over fifty years of Pentecostal belief and teaching.

Pilgrimage into Pentecost

During his time at Eastern, Ervin studied under what he calls a “rare group of men.”⁶ He credits one professor, Dr. Adams, with a philosophy of interpreting Scripture by the maxim, “What does the text say?”⁷ Because of Ervin’s commitment to good exegesis he has been able to “depart from traditional theology if the text supports it.”⁸ It is this very principle that would lead Ervin on what he calls his “Pilgrimage into Pentecost.”⁹ Determined to preach only what the scripture teaches, Ervin prided himself on exegetical, verse-by-verse teaching of the whole Bible. This commitment to the text brought him to the realization that he was living under the experience of believers that was communicated in the Bible. He recalls, “When I read the Scriptures it made my own experience seem like another world. If my experience was normative, there was something wrong with the Scriptures. If the Scriptures were normative, there was something wrong with my experience and the experience of the church as I know it.”¹⁰

Howard M. Ervin, Healing: Sign of the Kingdom (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002), 116 pages.

This is a wonderful little book on the significance of healing in the earthly ministry of Jesus. Howard Ervin rightly notes that the focal point of Jesus’ ministry was the Kingdom of God that is coming and was already made present in him. Healing, according to Ervin, played a pivotal role in emphasizing the reality of the Kingdom. “His preaching announced the advent of the kingdom. His teaching described the nature of the Kingdom. His healing miracles made present the powers of the Kingdom” (p. 1). The miracles of physical healing served to authenticate Jesus and demonstrate the reality he brought.

As the book’s subtitle indicates, healing is a sign of the substance of the message, the message of the Kingdom. The reciprocal relationship between the message and the sign is the crucial point Ervin makes throughout his work. The sign demonstrates the message, the message authenticates the sign. Ervin says that healing in the church, the community centered around faith in the Christ, is no longer properly called a sign. Rather, it is a gift given by the Spirit of God to the faithful. These manifestations of the Spirit’s gift remain a sign to those outside the faith in Christ required by the new covenant.

Ervin makes clear that the gifts of healing, as well as other manifestations of the Spirit’s action in and through the church, are not the proprietary gifts of the spiritually arrogant. No one’s spirituality is to be judged according to quantity or quality of spiritual gifts operating through them. This is a very important message for Pentecostal/charismatics to hear, for in their worst moments, they are among all Christians most likely to fall into this error. Ervin points out that the true measure of one’s spirituality is the fruit of the Spirit, manifestations of a transformed life. “Fruitbearing is a testimony to the life that is in the root. Hence, the ‘fruits of the Spirit’ are attributes of divine life received from the root. They are, therefore, evidence of the new birth” (p. 71). The fruit of the Spirit arises from the faithful response to God that we all have the opportunity to make, while the manifestations of the Spirit’s power in our lives, including gifts of healing, are not for our cultivation, only our openness to the Spirit’s use.

Demonstrating the difference between the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit is just one of many theological sidebars Ervin offers throughout this exercise in New Testament exegesis. Other topics broached include the nature of saving faith , how the pneumatologies of Luke and John compliment each other instead of being opposed, the nature of the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit, and a biblical defense of miracles. This defense of the miraculous is complete with a critique of the methods used by those who seek to discredit miracles on scientific grounds.

This excellent book is written in such a way that it will challenge the casual reader but is readily accessible to those looking for a good exegetical resource of this topic. Ervin is to be commended for his service to the church in carefully investigating and explicating an area so often fraught with difficulties in real-life practice.

Reviewed by Matthew Thompson

“Three Temptations of Spiritual Formation” Evan Howard. Christianity Today (Dec. 9, 2002), pages 46-49.

The spiritual formation movement is growing in significance and impact among Christians of all traditions. Numerous influences are shaping this movement, most of them positive, but there are real dangers lurking. Author Evan Howard writes that when we seek to be shaped by Christ, it is often difficult to keep a fully Christian approach. He says that “Christian spiritual formation is not simply fostering the experience of the Spirit but rather a radical formation, a shaping and molding of the believer into conformity with Christ through the Spirit” (p. 49).

Howard states that the Pentecostal/charismatic “movement has spawned a renewed sense of worship, and emphasis on the personal touch of God for believers, and a new sense of the church as a community of gifted believers. The renewed interest in and study of Christian spirituality has been a big boon for charismatics. Again and again, historians of Christian spirituality have pointed out that charismatic experience and expression are not isolated phenomena of recent American history. Some of the most respected saints in church history have experienced and even encouraged profound experiences of the Spirit” (p. 49). He goes on to warn that those who emphasize spiritual experiences often fall into the danger of shifting their focus from scripture to these experiences. By way of example he then critiques Guy Chevreau’s assessment of the Toronto Blessing Catch the Fire, saying that spiritual transformation must be part of the renewal.

All believers who are participating in organized prayer movements or rediscovering Christian disciplines need to be aware of the temptations that are ready to draw them away from Christ. I also recommend reading the article “Missing ingredient” by Eugene Peterson in The Christian Century, Mar 22, 2003 (Vol 120, No 6), pages 30-37. Probably no seasoned disciple of Jesus has not known of at least one person who has succumbed to such temptations and made a wreck out of their “formation.” Let us be careful to put our Living Messiah and His Word at the core of all we learn and practice.

Reviewed by Raul L. Mock

Read this article online: www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/december9/4.46.html