Thursday, April 08, 2010

the spirit today: a theology with popular culture

“a work of outstanding scholarship”

That’s the blurb for a book just out, The Spirit of Truth: Reading Scripture and Constructing Theology with the Holy Spirit, in which I have a chapter.

The book began as a conference, back in 2008, which gathered around what is one of the most interesting and growing fields in theology at the moment, that of the study of the Spirit. My chapter sought to provide a theological method by which one might read popular culture. I argue, drawing on Luke 10 and art in relation to the Transfiguration, that in the action of the Spirit in the New Testament, we see that God likes material things – wombs and water, bodies and bread – and this can be applied to help us understand a theology of popular culture and in a more naunced way than if we use an Incarnational approach.

The book has got some great endorsements:

“This ‘pneumatology from below’-not in the methodological but in the geographical sense: from New Zealand-extends the contemporary renaissance of the discussion on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit across the theological loci and disciplines. A veritable pneumatological contribution indeed by Myk Habets and his colleagues from Down Under.”
—Amos Yong, J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology, Regent University

“There has been a resurgence of interest in the Holy Spirit in recent years and this wide-ranging book edited by Myk Habets, who is quickly becoming a major contributor to discussions of the Spirit in contemporary theology, offers reflections that are profoundly theological and sometimes provocatively challenging but always helpful in pushing theologians to think more precisely about the pneumatological dimensions of theology”
—Paul D. Molnar, Professor of Systematic Theology, St. John’s University, New York

“The theology of the Holy Spirit has undergone something of a renaissance in recent times: this collection reflects a valuable contribution to that cause. These are stimulating essays on a range of vital topics in biblical, dogmatic, and practical pneumatology-scripturally responsible, historically informed, and justly conscious of the potentially transformative significance of their theme for Christian existence in the world.”
—Ivor J. Davidson, Professor of Systematic & Historical Theology, University of St. Andrews

Posted by steve at 10:31 PM

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