This Incredibly Benevolent Force: The Holy Spirit in Reformed Theology and Spirituality
Overview
A key refrain in Reformed theology is that God’s Spirit trumpets the message of salvation through Jesus Christ into every nook and cranny of the universe—but how? And in what way does this cosmic truth touch and shape the mundane reality of our lives and our world?
In this distillation of his Warfield Lectures, delivered at Princeton Theological Seminary in spring 2014, leading Reformed theologian Cornelis van der Kooi examines the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ. He demonstrates how a fuller understanding of the interplay between Christology and pneumatology can encourage the Christian church to have open eyes and ears for the inbreaking of God’s “incredibly benevolent force” into the cosmological emptiness of today’s world.
Key Features
- Discusses the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus
- Examines the importance of the Holy Spirit in modern context
- Draws from a Dutch Reformed theological viewpoint
Contents
- The Promise of Pneumatology: Cosmological Emptiness and the Spirit of God
- The Identity of Christ: Logos and Spirit
- The Anointed Son: Toward a Sustainable Spirit-Christology
- God’s Spirit as Transformative Power: Voices from the Reformed Tradition
- The Threefold Office: Criterion for Living the Christian Life
- Eyes and Ears Open to the World: Discernment and Hope
Top Highlights
“The Reformed tradition focuses the work of the Spirit primarily on conversion and personal holiness” (Page 15)
“is taken by those theologians who want to replace the Logos Christology with a Spirit Christology” (Page 38)
“the Spirit is the Spirit of the eschaton, or fulfillment” (Page 10)
“Jesus does not answer John directly but responds with words from the prophet Isaiah: ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them’ (vv. 4–5). These were the signs of the shalom that the prophet Isaiah had attributed to the Spirit of the eschaton, and now these things were happening around Jesus by virtue of the Spirit who rested upon him.” (Pages 25–26)
“In this text, the attention is on what Jesus undertook to do, on the way in which the signs of the kingdom of God became evident around him. His meaning is determined by what he did and by his being equipped with the Spirit of God.” (Page 25)
Praise for the Print Edition
Cornelis van der Kooi here presents an urgently needed contribution to a future Spirit-Christology and a christologically clarified doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Drawing from biblical sources and from Reformation and Dutch Reformed theology, he awakens new trust in God’s creative saving and ennobling work in the world of the twenty-first century.
—Michael Welker, University of Heidelberg
Originally given as the prestigious Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary, This Incredibly Benevolent Force holds many surprises. In and through them, if the author is right, one may hope that a force working for good will emerge, running like a current between this book and its readers.
—Kathryn Tanner, Yale Divinity School
How do we know that the Holy Spirit is an incredibly benevolent force? Cornelis van der Kooi has a compelling answer: Jesus Christ. He develops this answer with unusual insight and clarity. A truly enjoyable read for students and seasoned theologians alike.
—Frank D. Macchia, Vanguard University
Van der Kooi has written a masterful treatment of the Holy Spirit. Everything in it is fresh, revealing, mature. This will be a theological standard for years.
—Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Calvin Theological Seminary
- Title: This Incredibly Benevolent Force: The Holy Spirit in Reformed Theology and Spirituality
- Author: Cornelis van der Kooi
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Pages: 176
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Holy Spirit; Reformed church › Doctrines; Spirituality › Reformed church
- ISBNs: 9780802876133, 0802876137
- Resource ID: LLS:THSNCRDBSPRTLTY
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:23:01Z
Sample Pages from the Print Edition
Reviews
1 rating
Sam Parkinson
2/19/2022
Really disappointing book. No real logic or argument, just a bunch of assertions and allusions, even when his position is very... Unusual. Dismisses vast swathes of Reformed tradition and the church fathers with nothing more than a caricature, and often a wildly misleading one.
Felmar Roel Rap. Singco
2/16/2018
"As the dew from heav'n distilling" is how the Holy Spirit, the Third Divine Person in the Most Blessed Trinity, works in our lives, our Churches, our families, and our communities. Silently but surely, invisibly but concretely, it has crafted the "stone [that] was cut out with out hands [from the mountain], which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces", in one of Daniel the Prophet's apocalyptic visions of old.
