Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition [Paperback]

George T. Montague (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1994

This book is a commentary on all the major biblical texts dealing with the Spirit, from Genesis to Revelation. It is an invaluable reference book for students, teachers, ministers, Bible study groups, or anyone interested in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. It perhaps found its widest use during the Charismatic renewal among both Protestants and Catholics, and has remained a classic ever since.

The author, George T. Montague, has not only provided a rich and thoughtful commentary on individual passages, but he has, by the nature of this work, offered a multifaceted overview of the growth of the biblical doctrine on the Spirit covering many centuries. From the time of the Yahwist, when the Spirit was pictured as God's "breath of life," to the personalized understanding of the Spirit in the Fourth Gospel, the biblical doctrine of the Spirit has evidenced steady development.

Using findings of reliable scholarship, but never burdening the reader with academic trivialities, Professor Montague places a wealth of theological knowledge within the grasp of persons seeking to learn more about the Holy Spirit and striving to enrich their own spirituality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers (January 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565630564
• ISBN-13: 978-1565630567
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,056,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A feast of the Spirit., May 29, 1998

By 

Michael Gent [e-mail] (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (Paperback)

Pope John Paul II has encouraged Roman Catholics to make 1998 the year of the Holy Spirit in preparation for the millenium. <Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition> is an ideal guidebook for this enterprise. Fr. Montague is an eminent scripture scholar, and has been an impressive theological apologist for the Catholic Charasmatic renewal movement. His exposition of the scriptural basis for the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers is both scholarly and leading to devotion. The material dealing with Old Testament references is somewhat dry and plodding. But, the New Testament commentary is fresh, accessible, and truly "inspiring." All intelligent Christians will gain knowledge from Fr. Montague's illumination of the 3rd Person of the Trinity--but, more than that they will become more aware of the power of the Spirit in their lives.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful Compendium and Interpretation, September 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (Paperback)

This book is an extremely useful treatment of the appearance of the Spirit throughout biblical and Qumran literature. It is organized by books of the Bible (in order of their composition), but often draws conclusions after a number of related texts have been treated. These conclusions build, as the experience of the Spirit changes and becomes more complex over the centuries of Hebrew and Greek thought. The author is sensitive to the nuances of the Hebrew and Greek words translated by the English "spirit," and also to the literary, theological and historical contexts in which the sometimes sparse references to "spirit" are embedded. There is considerable interpretation within the short treatments of individual passages, but it seemed to me to be fairly transparent, so that someone with questions or objection to the angles Montague took would be able easily to identify where interpretations diverged. I also appreciated the clarity of the author's style, making what is to a certain extent an encyclopedia into a pleasant and illuminating reading experience. The Rev. Dr. Linda L. Clader, Professor of Homiletics, Church Divinity School of the Pacific

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Suggestive and Helpful Volume on Pneumatology, April 30, 2003

By 

Michael (MARION, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition (Paperback)

Many dogmatic works on Pneumatology begin with two or three chapters on the Holy Spirit as an emergent doctrine, progressively revealed in the Scriptures. Montague expands upon this type of effort, working through nearly all references to the Holy Spirit from the Hebrew Bible through Qumran and into the Early Christian Scriptures. This work surpasses more limited treatments in that he moves beyond simple lexical references (i.e. "ruach" and "pnuema," etc.) and deals in the rich metaphoric and symbolic vocabulary of the Spirit throughout the canon. While the chapter divisions and historical format make his work useful as a periodic reference tool, Montague's greatest strength is that he is able to weave a compelling narrative of growth and development from the many threads contained in the source documents.

For all its remarkable strengths, the work suffers greatly for a lack of interaction with other scholarship. If this work intends to account for a "biblical tradition" one hopes that interaction with the great traditions of Christian and Jewish reflection on the Scriptures would be in evidence. Even where extant scholarship is referenced no citations or references are provided (cf. the citation of R.H. Charles on the "seven spirits" of the Apocalypse on pp. 327-8). Here a re-write is called for, with extensive footnotes or endnotes. The publishers could also serve the reader by providing an index of scriptural citations.