With his latest book, The Holy Spirit before Christianity, John R. Levison again changes the face and foundation of Christian belief in the Holy Spirit. The categories Christians have used, the boundaries they have created, the proprietary claims they have made - all of these evaporate, now that Levison has looked afresh at Scripture. In a study that is both poignant and provocative, Levison takes readers back five hundred years before Jesus, where he discovers history's first grasp of the Holy Spirit as a personal agent. The prophet Haggai and the author of Isaiah 56-66, in their search for ways to grapple with the tragic events of exile and to articulate hope for the future, took up old exodus traditions of divine agents - pillars of fire, an angel, God's own presence - and fused them with belief in God's Spirit. Since it was the Spirit of God who led Israel up from Egypt and formed them into a holy nation, now, the prophets assured their hearers, the Spirit of God would lead and renew those returning from exile. Taking this point of origin as our guide, Christian pneumatology - belief in the Holy Spirit - is less about an exclusively Christian experience or doctrine and more about the presence of God in the grand scheme of Israel's history, in which Christianity is ancient Israel's heir. This explosive observation traces the essence of Christian pneumatology deep into the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. The implications are fierce: the priority of Israelite tradition at the headwaters of pneumatology means that Christians can no longer hold stubbornly to the Holy Spirit as an exclusively Christian belief. But the implications are hopeful as well, offering Christians a richer history, a renewed vocabulary, a shared path with Judaism, and the promise of a more expansive and authentic experience of the Holy Spirit.
John R. Levison is W. J. A. Power Professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
1. The Emergence of the Spirit Recasting Exodus: The Font of Pneumatology 2. The Essence of the Spirit Retelling Exodus: The Precursors of Pneumatology 3. The Absence of the Spirit Recalling Exodus: The Dawn of Pneumatology 4. The Assurance of the Spirit Rekindling Exodus: The Force of Pneumatology 5. The Significance of the Spirit Rediscovering Exodus: The Future of Pneumatology
Here Levison has provided meticulous exegesis that demonstrates how already in the Scriptures of Israel one encounters 'not merely prolegomen[a] to pneumatology' but 'pneumatology proper' (155n5). Levison's work, alongside other important recent works that focus on agency and exegesis, contributes significantly to our understanding of the emergence of early Jewish and Christian belief in the Holy Spirit. This study should become an enduring point of reference for Old and New Testament scholars, historians of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity, and systematic theologians working in pneumatology or trinitarian theology. --Steven Edward Harris "Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentacostal Studies" Against the grain of much scholarship, this book argues for the emergence of the spirit of God as an independent agent centuries before Christianity. Levison presents clear arguments in welcoming prose. This is mature scholarship which makes an immediately tangible contribution. --Tyler Horton "Reading Religion" The Holy Spirit Before Christianity is a fascinating study and written in a lively fashion. I suspect it will provoke discussion and productive thinking among those interested in pneumatology. What makes this work perhaps most significant is that it forces readers to reckon with the tension between historical description - the historical moment when 'holy spirit' enters the script - and divine ontology - the theological prolegomena that affirms God's eternal existence as triune. --Andrew T. Abernethy "Scottish Journal of Theology" The Holy Spirit before Christianity serves as a vital text for interpreters of both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. It impresses the reader with its research, detailed appendices, complex arguments, and thoroughly engaged exegesis. While the debate of pneumatological origins will doubtless remain, Levison provides an impressive and convincing case on why early pneumatology should be reconsidered. --T. Vollmer "Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses" Spread through various levels and with attention to an impressive range of cross-disciplinary dialogue partners, Levison has put in his debt readers of Exodus, Isaiah, and Haggai; readers of Christian scripture with theological interpretive interests; and all those who would know the Holy Spirit better. --Richard S. Briggs "Review of Biblical Literature" Any researcher with an interest in pneumatology, interpretations of the exodus tradition, exile, Isaiah, or Haggai will not want to miss this excellent book. --Timothy Rucker "Catholic Biblical Quarterly"
