There is a certain honesty in the title I Believe. Help My Unbelief! that immediately signals both the ambition and the vulnerability of Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s book. Borrowed from the anguished prayer of the father in Mark 9:24, the phrase functions not merely as a rhetorical hook but as a hermeneutical key for the entire project. What follows is neither a defensive apologetic nor a diluted catechism. Instead, Kärkkäinen offers a theologically confident yet dialogically open exposition of Christian doctrine for readers who inhabit a world shaped by religious plurality, scientific rationality, and pervasive secular suspicion.

Kärkkäinen is uniquely positioned to undertake such a task. A long-standing professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, he is widely known for his five-volume Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, a massive academic achievement that few theologians would dare to condense. This book is precisely that condensation, though “simplification” would be the wrong word. What is offered here is rather a careful transposition: the intellectual architecture of a major constructive project rendered in a register accessible to pastors, students, and reflective believers without forfeiting conceptual rigor.

The introduction sets the tone by refusing the false dichotomy between faith and knowledge. Kärkkäinen rejects both naïve fideism and scientistic dismissal, proposing instead a chastened epistemology influenced by Michael Polanyi’s notion of tacit knowledge. Belief, he argues, is neither blind assent nor empirical certainty but a reasoned trust that remains open to testing, critique, and growth. This epistemic humility becomes a recurring virtue throughout the book and helps explain its unusual generosity toward secular interlocutors and other religious traditions alike.

Chapter 1, on revelation, is among the strongest in the volume. Kärkkäinen navigates the post-Enlightenment crisis of authority by articulating revelation as trinitarian, incarnational, and historically mediated. His treatment of Scripture as “God’s Word in human words” avoids both fundamentalist inerrancy and reductionist liberalism, framing inspiration instead as divine–human synergy. Particularly noteworthy is the comparative engagement with Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist accounts of revelation. Revelation here is not domesticated; it remains scandalous, yet intelligible.

Chapter 2 turns to the doctrine of God, where Kärkkäinen’s ecumenical breadth and conceptual discipline are on full display. Rather than beginning with abstract metaphysical attributes, he situates Christian talk of God within the lived realities of religious plurality and philosophical contestation. Classical trinitarian theology is presented not as an inherited formula in need of defense, but as Christianity’s most daring and constructive proposal about ultimate reality: that God’s being is irreducibly relational, communicative, and self-giving.

What gives this chapter its distinctive force is the sustained comparative engagement. Jewish covenantal monotheism, Islamic tawḥīd, and Buddhist non-theism are treated not as foils but as serious theological interlocutors. Kärkkäinen responds to Islamic critiques of the Trinity not defensively but by clarifying how, in Christian theology, relationality does not dilute divine unity but intensifies it. Likewise, his engagement with Buddhist critiques of personal theism exposes how deeply Christian claims about God are bound to incarnation, history, and relational love rather than metaphysical abstraction.

In Chapter 3, creation is explored in sustained conversation with the natural sciences. Kärkkäinen affirms evolutionary accounts without surrendering theological claims about divine purpose, goodness, and providence. Creation is not treated as a closed past event but as an ongoing, Spirit-sustained reality. The chapter’s refusal to pit faith against science gives it particular resonance for readers formed by contemporary cosmology.

Chapter 4 addresses theological anthropology, asking what it means to be human in light of evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and cultural diversity. Kärkkäinen’s insistence on the imago Dei as relational and dynamic allows him to integrate scientific insights while retaining moral and theological depth. His engagement with Buddhist and Hindu views of the self is especially illuminating, clarifying both points of convergence and irreducible difference.

Christology, the focus of Chapter 5, is treated with careful balance. Kärkkäinen affirms classical Chalcedonian orthodoxy while exploring how Christ can be meaningfully confessed in religiously plural contexts. He resists both relativism and triumphalism, presenting Christ as uniquely revelatory and salvific without reducing other religious figures to mere negations. The chapter models a Christology confident enough to listen and humble enough to learn.

Chapter 6 deepens this trajectory by interpreting reconciliation through a plurality of atonement motifs rather than a single controlling theory. This integrative approach reflects both biblical diversity and pastoral sensitivity, particularly in a global context marked by violence, injustice, and historical trauma.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit, explored in Chapter 7, bears the marks of Kärkkäinen’s Pentecostal formation without becoming sectarian. The Spirit is presented as active not only in the church but in creation, culture, and beyond ecclesial boundaries. This expansive pneumatology reinforces the book’s overarching vision of a God who remains dynamically engaged with the world.

Chapter 8 addresses salvation with notable restraint. Kärkkäinen maps the theological options regarding exclusivity, inclusivity, and hope without forcing premature resolution. Salvation remains decisively grounded in Christ, yet its ultimate scope is entrusted to divine mercy rather than theological anxiety.

Ecclesiology, the subject of Chapter 9, is framed in explicitly public and pneumatological terms and speaks with particular force to ongoing conversations in Pentecostal public theology. The church is not imagined as a protected enclave nor as a moral lobby, but as a Spirit-constituted communion whose very existence is itself a form of public witness. Kärkkäinen resists both withdrawal and domination, articulating instead a vision of the church as porous yet identifiable, hospitable yet disciplined — a communio sanctorum sent into the world without being absorbed by it. Particularly significant is his engagement with secularism and post-secularity, where the church is called neither to nostalgia for Christendom nor to anxious relevance-seeking, but to patient, Spirit-led presence. For Pentecostal readers attentive to the public implications of ecclesiology, this chapter offers a compelling reminder that charismatic vitality and communal formation belong together.

The brief epilogue returns to the book’s governing prayer. Faith, Kärkkäinen reminds us, is always accompanied by questions, and theology at its best does not silence them but teaches believers how to live with them faithfully.

In an age marked by polarized certainties and shallow dismissals, Kärkkäinen offers something quieter and more demanding: a theology that believes deeply, listens carefully, and hopes patiently — refusing to confuse faith with the absence of questions. That may be this book’s most timely gift.

Reviewed by Ciprian Gheorghe-Luca

Publisher’s page: https://wipfandstock.com/9781725276673/i-believe-help-my-unbelief/

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen is Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary.

From the publisher:

Kärkkäinen’s Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World is a five-volume project that aims to develop a new approach to and method of doing Christian theology in our pluralistic world at the beginning of the third millennium. Topics such as diversity, inclusivity, violence, power, cultural hybridity, and justice are part of the constructive theological discussion along with classical topics such as the messianic consciousness, incarnation, atonement, and the person of Christ.

With the metaphor of hospitality serving as the framework for his discussion, Kärkkäinen engages Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism in sympathetic and critical mutual dialogue while remaining robustly Christian in his convictions. Never before has a full-scale doctrinal theology been attempted in such a wide and deep dialogical mode.

From the Winter 2016 issue
Volume 1: Christ and Reconciliation
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Christ and Reconciliation, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World series, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2013), 467 pages, ISBN 9780802868534.

From the Winter 2018 issue
Volume 2: Trinity and Revelation
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Trinity and Revelation, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 486 pages, ISBN 9780802868541.

From the Fall 2018 issue
Volume 3: Creation and Humanity
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Creation and Humanity, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, Volume 3 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2015), pages x+554.

From the Spring 2020 issue
Volume 4: Spirit and Salvation
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Spirit and Salvation, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, Volume 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2016), xi+498 pages, ISBN 9780802868565.

From the Summer 2020 issue
Volume 5: Hope and Community
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Hope and Community, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, Volume 5 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Press, 2017), x+574 pages with indices.

John H. Walton, professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College (at the time of publication), teams with his son J. Harvey Walton to address the contested area in contemporary biblical interpretation regarding the nature and activity of demons and spirits in Scripture. Their central thesis challenges dominant spiritual warfare paradigms by arguing that the biblical authors were less concerned with ontological realities of the spirit world than with communicating theological truths through the cognitive environment of the ancient Near East. This approach, consistent with Walton’s broader hermeneutical project evident in works like The Lost World of Genesis One, prioritizes understanding Scripture within its original cultural and literary contexts rather than imposing modern systematic categories onto the text.

The Waltons organize their study around three primary sections: Old Testament perspectives, New Testament developments, and theological synthesis. Throughout, they maintain that biblical demonology must be understood functionally rather than ontologically—that is, Scripture’s purpose is not to provide information about the nature of demons but to communicate theological truths about God’s sovereignty and humanity’s relationship to the divine.

Turning to the New Testament, the Waltons acknowledge a more developed demonology but maintain their functional hermeneutic. They argue that Jesus’ exorcisms and confrontations with unclean spirits address the fundamental problem of human alienation from God rather than engaging in cosmic territorial warfare. Demon possession, in their reading, serves as “living metaphor” for humanity’s captivity to sin and the powers of disorder. When Jesus casts out demons, he demonstrates divine authority over chaos and previews the restoration of creation rather than engaging in strategic spiritual combat. The Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20), for example, illustrates Israel’s uncleanness and alienation, with the exorcism symbolizing restoration to community and covenant relationship.

The Waltons make several valuable contributions to biblical theology. Their insistence on reading Scripture within its ancient cognitive environment prevents anachronistic interpretations that force modern categories onto ancient texts. Their functional approach helpfully refocuses attention from speculation about demonic ontology toward the theological purposes of biblical authors. Additionally, their critique of simplistic spiritual warfare models that lack clear biblical warrant serves as a necessary corrective to some excesses in popular-level demonology.

Furthermore, the book’s dismissal of territorial spirits and strategic spiritual warfare may overreach. While excesses certainly exist in much spiritual warfare literature, passages like Daniel 10:13-21, which describe “princes” associated with kingdoms, suggest some idea of a territorial dimension to spiritual conflict, even if not in the manner popular spiritual warfare models propose. The Waltons’ eagerness to avoid contemporary excess may lead to underreading the biblical data.

Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology offers a provocative and carefully argued challenge to dominant evangelical demonology. The Waltons succeed in demonstrating that much contemporary spiritual warfare theology lacks a clear biblical foundation and that Scripture’s primary concern is theological rather than providing information about the spirit world. Their work serves as an important corrective and will benefit readers by fostering more careful biblical interpretation. Pentecostals and Charismatics would do well to read carefully this contribution to the ongoing conversation. It would serve far better than nearly everything that gets published in the popular marketplace (in articles, books, YouTube, etc.) by Pentecostals and Charismatics on the subject.

Nevertheless, the book’s strengths may be undermined by an overly reductive functional hermeneutic that seems to throw out ontological reality with its methodological bathwater. A more nuanced approach would affirm both the theological purposes of demonic narratives and the personal reality of spiritual beings, recognizing that ancient authors could simultaneously pursue rhetorical goals and describe genuine encounters. For Pentecostal and charismatic readers especially, the Waltons provide valuable cautions but may not adequately account for biblical precedent and experiential dimensions of deliverance ministry that have characterized these movements. The book makes an important contribution to the conversation but should be read as one voice in an ongoing discussion rather than as a definitive resolution to complex questions of biblical demonology.

As a further note, this book offers specific counterpoints throughout to the works of a number of influential scholars on the topic, including the late Michael Heiser. Heiser is well known for his proposed biblical theology of demons, angels, and “the gods” and what has been widely disseminated in his numerous popular publications, most notably his best-selling 2015 book The Unseen Realm (just updated and expanded posthumously in 2025).  The Waltons have taken great care to address many of the issues which Heiser has popularized (having written extensively in academic forms as well) for his theology of the gods (e.g., divine council, sons of God, etc). It is with this in mind that it would be recommended that those who have read Heiser should also read this work by the Waltons, as offering the most cogent counterpoints to date.

Reviewed by Rick Wadholm Jr

Publisher’s page: https://wipfandstock.com/9781625648259/demons-and-spirits-in-biblical-theology/

Preview this book: https://books.google.com/books?id=WvGaDwAAQBAJ

The title of Philip Esler’s New Testament Theology is ill-chosen. Although the book provides a good introduction to a number of aspects that qualify the task of writing a New Testament theology, the book itself is not a New Testament theology by any stretch. At most, it is a highly selective prolegomenon to the task of “doing” New Testament theology. That is not to say, however, that the book is not worthwhile to read—it is simply to say that readers will have to look elsewhere if they really want a New Testament theology.

One of the better features of this book is its discussion of the New Testament’s indebtedness to a dualistic anthropology, which is especially welcome in light of the current trend to argue that the New Testament’s anthropology is really fundamentally monistic. Esler exposes the shortcomings of the numerous attempts to sell readers on a monistic anthropology through a highly selective and tendentious reading of certain passages. (In the process, he also shows that Rene Descartes is not the extreme dualist he is often painted to be by today’s Enlightenment-bashers.)

Esler also steers clear of another trendy but misguided conceit when he affirms the intentionalist hermeneutic basic to the New Testament. But his chief argument in support of authorial intention, I think, is an unnecessary complication of what should be a much more straightforward task: he invokes the idea of the “communion of the saints” in order to say that we owe the “saints” enough respect to listen to what they intend (present tense), and not just what their texted artifacts can be made to say on the basis of a strong misreading. This is an intriguing argument, but it is rather circuitous and perhaps even costly in terms of commitments. Why not just say that we should look for what the author intended because the purpose of their writing in the first place was to convey an intention?

Reviewed by John C. Poirier

Originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Fall 2025 issue.

Here is a book that lingers in the mind like an unresolved chord. In the cacophony of modern theology, where the church often whispers from the shadows of institutional safety, Wolfgang Vondey’s The Scandal of Pentecost: A Theology of the Public Church erupts like the biblical wind and fire it describes—demanding we confront the raw, disruptive birth of the Christian community not as a tidy origin story, but as a scandalous intrusion into public life.

Vondey, a prominent Pentecostal theologian and professor at the University of Birmingham, draws from his deep roots in Pentecostal scholarship to reframe Pentecost as the foundational event where the church emerges as a “public symbol of humanity,” embodying both brokenness and redemption. The book weaves biblical exegesis, historical theology, and philosophical anthropology into a narrative that challenges privatized views of Pentecost. It argues that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on “all flesh” (Acts 2:17) isn’t a mere spiritual footnote but a transformative scandal, revealing the church’s symbiotic tensions—internal conflicts and external confrontations—that propel it into the world.

Vondey’s engagement with the concept of the church as a public symbol is another highlight of the book. Drawing on the work of public theologians such as Martin Marty, he argues that the church’s public witness is not merely a matter of visibility or influence, but of embodying “the communal character of faith” in a world marked by fragmentation and conflict (p. 8). The church, he writes, is “a faith built of ‘broken symbols,’ manifested above all in the scandal of the crucified Christ” (p. 91). The public nature of the church is thus inseparable from its willingness to embrace brokenness, vulnerability, and the tensions of life in a pluralistic society (p. 91). Vondey is clear that the church’s public vocation is not about triumphalism or domination, but about offering “ordering against chaos and meaning where it had been absent” (p. 12). The church’s task, he suggests, is to engage in a “public hermeneutic” that interprets Christian symbols in ways that are persuasive and life-giving, both within and beyond the boundaries of the faith community (p. 20).

Before I rest my pen, one thing must not go unnoticed: not every academic theological book ends with a poem, but Wolfgang Vondey’s choice to conclude poetically is both striking and fitting. The poem distills the book’s central themes into a vivid, almost breathless sequence of images, capturing the disruptive and transformative energy of Pentecost. Vondey’s language is intentionally visceral—“heart-beating, lips-stammering / sons and daughters / in scandalous intoxication”—evoking the embodied, communal, and even chaotic nature of the Spirit’s outpouring. It’s a powerful poetic summary that resonates long after the final page.

In conclusion, The Scandal of Pentecost is a significant and inspiring contribution to Pentecostal theology and to the wider conversation about the church’s place in the world. It is a work of both scholarship and imagination, rooted in tradition yet open to the future. For those seeking to articulate a public theology of Pentecostalism—one that is both faithful to the Spirit and responsive to the complexities of contemporary life—Vondey’s book is an indispensable resource. It challenges us to embrace the scandal of the Spirit, to risk new forms of community, and to bear witness to the hope that is within us. But perhaps the most enduring gift of Vondey’s work is its reminder that the church’s true vocation is not to seek safety or respectability, but to live in the creative tension of the Spirit’s leading. The scandal of Pentecost is that God’s Spirit refuses to be domesticated—refuses to be confined to our institutions, our traditions, or our comfort zones. Instead, the Spirit calls us out—into the world, into relationship, into the risky, joyful, and sometimes messy work of building communion in the midst of difference. To embrace the scandal of Pentecost is to open ourselves to the Spirit’s surprising, unsettling, and renewing work—not only for our own sake, but for the life of the world.

Reviewed by Ciprian Gheorghe-Luca

Chad Tyler Gerber is Assistant Professor of Theology at Walsh University, USA. This book is part of the Ashgate Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity. The series focuses on major theologians from the patristic period as individuals immersed in their own culture. It somewhat uniquely aims to understand the convergence or divergence of pagan and Christian thought on issues addressed by both streams. Accordingly, it hopes to ascertain the true creativity of a particular author and to assess the abiding value of his thought for modern times. This text is serious theology so lay people or even many clergy may not find it easily palatable. However, teachers and advanced students of theology will definitely find it a rewarding and worthwhile read. Augustine is indisputably one of the giants of Christian thought, and Gerber offers a fresh and vigorous look at his pneumatology. That alone is cause for acclaim. Accordingly, those interested in patristic studies in general or in Augustine in particular as well as his pneumatology will benefit from The Spirit of Augustine’s Early Theology. I suspect Pentecostal and Charismatic theologians should be especially interested in the depths of Augustine’s theology of the Holy Spirit.

Gerber explains that “Augustine’s pneumatology remains one of his most distinctive, decisive, and ultimately divisive contributions” to Christian theology. Several questions guide Gerber’s work on this text. How did Augustine’s understanding of the Spirit develop? Why does he identify the Spirit with divine love and cosmic order? What were the sources of his inspiration? Gerber focuses on the early Augustine and his first writings in order to get at the seminal roots of his more mature thought. He is particularly interested in the Platonic influence on Augustine’s pneumatology and in the possibility of his continuing commitment to the divinity of the human soul. (In a brief appendix, Gerber sums up his argument that Augustine rejected the divinity of the soul; but, he suggests Augustine appropriated certain functions of the Plotinian Soul regarding the particularity of the Holy Spirit, especially his idea of the Spirit as the “ordinator” of the world.)

Following the contours of Augustine’s early writings and the locale of their construction, Gerber presents his material in four chapters. After a brief introduction, Chapter One on “Nicea and Neoplatonism” (386-87 AD) examines the influence of Nicea and Neoplatonism on the budding theologian’s early Trinitarian theology as he writes from Milan. Gerber concludes that “at bottom” Augustine’s early Trinitarian theology was “pro-Nicene” and also made use of “Plotinian triadology”. He suggests the early Augustine still had much to learn about both Neoplatonism and pro-Nicene theology; but, he had sufficiently grasped the central tenets of both in such as way as to understand and express his theology in terms that would remain essentially the same throughout his subsequent writings.

In Chapter Two, “The Soul of Plotinus and the Spirit of Nicea,” studying the Cassiciacum Dialogues (386-87 AD), Gerber gets to a more specific pneumatology and also to the delicate relation in Augustine between Plotinus’ philosophy and Nicene theology. Gerber suggests that Augustine’s more or less random invocations on pneumatology at this point nevertheless adhere to a consistent “redemptive-historical perspective in which God the Spirit leads fallen souls to God the Son.” Augustine is apparently influenced here by the New Testament and by patristic writings. The theme of “return” is also evident, and Plotinus appears to have provided “a psychological model of ascent” in which the soul’s salvation involves a vision of “archetypal Truth and a ‘return'” to God as “the ultimate source of all things” (although Romans 11:36 is key). Gerber, however, judges the material too scarce at this point to make sweeping conclusions about specific ideas concerning pneumatology and cosmic order.

Most books on contemporary theology trace key themes in theology or focus on the contributions of influential theologians. While these approaches are helpful, it can be easy to miss how contemporary developments in theology have influenced each of the traditional topics in systematic theology. We can be grateful that Mapping Modern Theologyhelps us to see how this is the case.

Mapping Modern Theology is not technically a book on “contemporary theology” broadly speaking, however. Rather, the authors focus specifically on how theologians in the last couple hundred years have responded to modernity. The book begins with an essay by Bruce McCormack which introduces the concept of “modernity” within a theological context. He suggests that “modern” theology emerges when “church-based theologians ceased trying to defend and protect the received orthodoxies of the past against erosion and took up the more fundamental challenge of asking how the theological values resident in those orthodoxies might be given an altogether new expression, dressed out in new categories of reflection” and that philosophically  there was a “shift from a cosmologically based to an anthropologically based metaphysics of divine being” (p. 3).

Kelly M. Kapic is professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

The remainder of the essays by various evangelical (broadly defined) authors each focus on a different topic in systematic theology (e.g., creation, Christology, Holy Spirit, the Church), primarily from a Reformed Christian perspective. The chapters will be helpful for both non-specialists (although those who have never studied theology would be easily lost) and specialists. For example, the chapter on the Trinity (a topic in which I am well-versed) helped me to better grasp the impact of the “historical” approach to the Trinity in contemporary theology.

This book serves as a good reminder of the impact our philosophical assumptions can have on our theology, even when we are not conscious of them (or even deny them). The book will also serve well anyone who wants to know how the various topics in systematic theology have been influenced by modernity.

Bruce L. McCormack is Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Mapping Modern Theology could serve as a helpful textbook to a course on systematic theology or contemporary theology. At the same time, the strength of the book could also be its weakness, as far as being used as a primary rather than supplemental textbook. That is, in the systematic approach of the book, one could miss the big picture changes happening in theology today and might not get a good sense of who the most influential theologians have been in contemporary theology. This would not be an issue if the course lectures took a different approach than the book. Another concern (which is true for many books) is that readers might get the impression that theology is only about debates where theologians disagree on things, and readers might therefore miss the depth of the historical consensus of the Church on doctrine. While being aware of these concerns, readers will benefit greatly from the contributions in Mapping Modern Theology.

Reviewed by Andrew K. Gabriel

This review first appeared on Andrew Gabriel’s blog, www.andrewgabriel.wordpress.com and is reprinted here with his permission. Later included in the Summer 2024 issue of The Pneuma Review.

Karl Barth and Pentecostal Theology: A Convergence of the Word and the Spirit, edited by Frank D. Macchia, Terry L. Cross, and Andrew K. Gabriel. London: T & T Clark, 2024.

The book is published in the growing academic book series Systematic Pentecostal and Charismatic Theology.

The book is currently very expensive (US$150), but in a year or two the publisher should release a paperback version that will be closer to US$50. That is still expensive, but a little more reasonable for an academic book.

Description (from the Publisher):

The essays in this volume evaluate and build on Barth’s theology from the perspective of Pentecostal theology and, thereby, contribute to constructive Pentecostal systematic theology by using Barth as a valuable dialogue partner. At present, a theological conversation of Pentecostals with Barth does not exist and this volume fills this void. More widely, it will aid all those who seek a convergence of the Word and the Spirit in theology.

Barth and Pentecostals share some important common theological interests. Barth’s mature theology has a decidedly christological emphasis. Likewise, historically, Pentecostals have often spoken of a “full gospel” with an emphasis on Christ as savior, healer, baptizer (in the Spirit), and soon-and-coming King, with some Pentecostal traditions also adding a fifth emphasis on Christ the sanctifier. Furthermore, near the end of his life, Barth anticipated “the possibility of a theology of the third article, a theology where the Holy Spirit would dominate and be decisive.” The realization of Barth’s dream is no doubt coming to pass in part through the development of Pentecostal theology in as much as pneumatological theology (exploring how pneumatology affects, supplements, and might reform other doctrines) is an emerging paradigm for Pentecostal theology.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Frank D. Macchia (Vanguard University, USA), Terry L. Cross (Lee University, USA), Andrew K. Gabriel (Horizon College and Seminary, Canada)

Part One: Theology and Revelation

2. Theology as a Pointing Finger: Barth and Pentecostalism on the Nature of Theology, Todd Pokrifka (Institute for Community Transformation, USA)
3. Revelation as Encounter: Karl Barth, Pneumatological Realism, and the Pentecostal Notion of Prophetic Preaching, Gary Tyra (Vanguard University, USA)

Part Two: God and Creation

4. Oneness, Pentecostals and Karl Barth: Theological Cousins Who Never Met? David A. Reed (Wycliffe College, Canada)
5. Barth and Pentecostals on the Divine Perfections of (Im)mutability and (Im)possibility, Andrew K. Gabriel (Horizon College and Seminary, Canada)
6. Barth, Election, and the Spirit, William Atkinson (London School of Theology, UK)
7. Empowered by the Spirit: A Pneumatological Revision of Karl Barth’s Theological Anthropology, Lisa P. Stephenson (Lee University, USA)

Part Three: Christ and Salvation

8. Jesus the Spirit Baptizer: A Pentecostal Revision of Karl Barth’s Spirit Christology, Frank D. Macchia (Vanguard University, USA)
9. On Giving the Devil (No More Than) His Due: Karl Barth, Pentecostalism, and the Demonic, Michael McClymond (Saint Louis University, USA)
10. Subjects and Predicates: Barthian Grammar and Pentecostal Soteriology, David J. Courey (Continental Theological Seminary, Belgium)
11. Slamming the Door and Cracking a Window? Pneumatological Investigations for Possible Openings in Karl Barth’s Generally Closed Theology of Religions, Tony Richie (Pentecostal Theological Seminary, USA)
12. Barth, Pentecostalism, and the Eschatological Cry for the Kingdom, Christian T. Collins Winn (Augsburg University, USA)

Part Four: Holy Spirit and the Church

13. Spirit, Love, and Charisma: Pneumatology in the Theology of Karl Barth and Pentecostalism, Peter Althouse (Oral Roberts University, USA)
14. Let the Church be the Church: Barth and Pentecostals on Ecclesiology, Terry L. Cross (Lee University, USA)
15. You Wonder Where the Real Presence Went: The Sacraments and the Pentecostal Experience, Chris E. Green (Southeastern University, USA)

Bibliography

Index

PR

Publisher’s page: Karl Barth and Pentecostal Theology: A Convergence of the Word and the Spirit

More by authors appearing in this book:

The theology and influence of Karl Barth: an interview with Terry Cross

Terry L. Cross, Answering the Call in the Spirit: Pentecostal Reflections on a Theology of Vocation, Work and Life (Lee University Press, 2007) as reviewed by Mara Lief Crabtree

Frank Macchia: Assessing the Prosperity Gospel

John Wesley and Pentecostalism: an interview with Frank Macchia

Frank D. Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology (Zondervan, 2006) as reviewed by Tony Richie

Frank D. Macchia, Tongues of Fire: A Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Cascade, 2023) as reviewed by Wolfgang Vondey

Robert W. Graves, ed., Strangers To Fire: When Tradition Trumps Scripture (The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship, 2014) as reviewed by Tony Richie

Tony Richie, Essentials of Pentecostal Theology: An Eternal and Unchanging Lord Powerfully Present and Active by the Holy Spirit (Wipf & Stock, 2020) as reviewed by John Lathrop

Tony Richie, “Do All Abraham’s Children Worship Abraham’s God?”

This book is an English translation of Jean Daniélou’s seminal 1944 book Platonisme et théologie mystique: doctrine spiritualle de Saint Grégoire de Nysse (originally his 1943 dissertation with a second edition published in 1953) that in many ways sparked the renewed interest in the study of Gregory of Nyssa. Daniélou’s work is an impressive feat: he has gathered together from Gregory’s wide corpus a systematic vision of the spiritual life. To do this, Daniélou uses the traditional framework of the spiritual life: purgation, illumination, and union. While not original to Gregory, it is a helpful framework that allows Daniélou to paint a coherent and persuasive picture of Gregory’s thought.

For Gregory, we are first united to God in baptism which sets us on a course to radically change our behavior no longer living according to the flesh but according to the spirit. This is the first way of purgation. Here, the concept of apatheia (passionlessness) is important. It is not so much that we become “apathetic” or have no desires, but that we develop apatheia for our sinful desires (chapters 1–3). In the second way, illumination, we start to think differently about the world around us and begin to see how it all points to God. Creation is not an end in itself, but its purpose is to always point us back to God (chapters 4–5). Finally, in the third way, we leave the world and our thoughts behind and are united in love to God who is beyond all knowledge and understanding. As we progress in these stages, we slowly begin to apprehend the presence of the Word—Jesus—in our own souls which has been there all along since baptism though we could not fully grasp it. Interestingly, the apprehension of the Word within us simultaneously points us outward to God. The more we see God working in our own souls, the more we are pushed outward to fuller union with God, a union that will never be complete because God can never be fully comprehended (chapters 6–8).

There is much more that can be said regarding Nyssa’s view of the spiritual life, but one thing that should be noticed is how much grace pervades every aspect of it. This can often be lost both when one is unfamiliar with how someone like Gregory speaks of the spiritual life, but even more so for contemporary evangelicals who have developed their own way of speaking about God’s grace in our justification, sanctification, and glorification. But for Gregory, the grace of God in Christ descending to become incarnate comes before any human action or choice (12) and is present throughout the spiritual life, even if at times Gregory’s language is not as clear as we may wish it to be.

Take, for another example, purification. Purification language is common in platonist thinkers such as Plotinus, and many times Gregory will sound very much like him, if not even directly copying his phraseology. However, when we look closer, we start to notice some important differences. Plotinus, for example, has one remove the filth of vice (or created nature) in order to see the godlike nature already always present within the human being. For Gregory, one must remove the filth of vice in order to turn to God and from God receives the image of or likeness to God. This godlikeness is a gift (grace) from God, not something that is proper to human nature itself (253–4).

In light of the explosion of Nyssan scholarship since the mid-twentieth century, the editor, Rev. Ignatius Green, has done an excellent job of adding notes scattered throughout the book that clue the reader into some of the debates and advances in Nyssan scholarship without distracting from Daniélou’s original work. Additionally, modern English translations of patristic sources are included in the footnotes as well, which is itself a testament to the influence of Daniélou’s life and work and the bibliography of Nyssa’s works at the end is a treasure trove for anyone interested in reading Gregory in his own words.

But why would anyone want to read the writings of a 4th-century bishop? What could he offer a pastor in 21st-century America? As someone who has spent a lot of time studying the early church, it can be easy for me to scoff at the question, but it is not an unreasonable thing to ask. With all the responsibilities of ministry, why should someone carve out time to either read Gregory or about his thought? I think Daniélou’s book is valuable for two reasons. The first is that he challenges the pervasive myth that still inexplicably is peddled in popular and even academic studies of the Hellenization of Christianity in the early Church. The second is that in considering how someone from another time, place, and culture read and interpreted Scripture, we are forced to recognize how our own understandings of the Bible are shaped by our time, place, and culture. Gregory, thanks to the expert guidance of Daniélou, will challenge those assumptions as we read Scripture. It is impossible to walk away from Daniélou’s book and not realize just how deeply Gregory’s thought is shaped by Scripture in a deep and profound way. For that reason, I cannot recommend enough this translation of Daniélou’s groundbreaking work and thank the editor and translators for their service to the church.

Reviewed by Ryan Clevenger

Publisher’s website: https://svspress.com/platonism-and-mystical-theology-the-spiritual-doctrine-of-st-gregory-of-nyssa/

In volume thirty-four of Brill’s Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies, editors Peter Hocken, Tony L. Richie, and Christopher Stephenson spearhead a collection of essays discussing varied interpretations and intersections of Pentecostal theology and Ecumenical theology. The editors and authors of the volume come from varied streams in the global Pentecostal/Charismatic movement and represent a collective of like-minded scholars, who’ve not only contributed to Pentecostal/Charismatic theology, but also supported ecumenical dialogues. Peter Hocken, who died before the final release of said volume, was himself an accomplished ecumenist and a Catholic Charismatic (ix).

In part I, essays were largely descriptive of historical and current Pentecostal interpretations on ecumenism. Notable among the essays is one from Pentecostal historian and ecumenist, Cecil M. Robeck, who chronicled early Pentecostal ideation and response to ecumenism. Robeck pointed out that early responses were of trepidation and misconception—the idea of ecumenism being correlated to the coming of the Antichrist (4). It was only in later years after efforts made by Pentecostal ecumenists like David du Plessis that Pentecostals opened to the viability of ecumenism and ecumenical theology (27).

Asian Pentecostal, Simon Chan, adds his position to this discussion by proposing that the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost (with the manifestation of tongues speech) inaugurates the Church as a “unity-in-diversity” (273). As a unity-in-diversity, the Pentecostal church can become an avenue for a confluence of traditions. Pentecostals can do this is by developing a more holistic charismatic worship in confluence with sacramental forms of Christianity (280). This confluence allows for the mutual engagement of both Pentecostal/Charismatic worship with liturgical/sacramental forms of Christianity.

I highly recommend this volume, Pentecostal Theology and Ecumenical Theology. The editors did a great job of collecting essays that not only inform readers of both theologies’ historical and current interpretations but also of the potential richness in their intersections. Each contributing author brings convincing propositions and evokes further reflection. It may also serve as a prolepsis to the future of Pentecostal/Charismatic scholarship.

Reviewed by Lora Angeline E. Timenia

Publisher’s page: https://brill.com/display/title/39536