Customer Reviews

He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Foundations of Evangelical Theology)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Strong Points:
1. The material is distinctly evangelical and Biblical. Though Dr. Cole often draws upon sources outside of evangelicalism, such as philosophy or other Roman Catholicism, he remains both Biblical in his conclusions.
2. Dr. Cole does not back down from confronting error in either theology or philosophy. He does not gloss over or otherwise ignore problems such as Kant's relativism, Feminist theology, or errors regarding the trinity. (I wish he took them on more strongly, more clearly, but the fact that he does it is commendable.)
3. The volume is practical and well-written. The practicality of the material shows up regularly in his conclusions about the impact of a principle on belief and practice. I wouldn't be afraid to give it to almost anyone in a local church.
4. He is conciliatory with regard to the many divergent points of distinction that exist among evangelicals and fundamentalists. While making his conclusions clear he allows for differences. The value I find here is clear: Taking this approach allows the reader to gain a better understanding of the differences and thus become better theologians themselves.

Any weak points? Just one, but it's not his fault: I wish there were more that could be accomplished in these modest 300ish pages. The style and quality editing provided by Dr. Feinberg could allow this volume to become much richer in the years to come. I'm looking forward to more from Dr. Cole in this regard.

Additional observations:
The theme is certainly the "mystery" of the Holy Spirit.
His favorite theologian appears to be B. B. Warfield. The complements seem undending.

Favorite Quote:
Believing that God is mysterious in the sense of incomprehensible has a number of practical corollaries.
At an attitudinal level, humility is the appropriate virtue. (p. 56)

He Who Gives Life is, admittedly, the first book on systematic Pneumatology that I've read in several years, so it brought a welcome return to many ideas, speculations and problems that infrequently grace the economy seats on my train of thought. The book starts out with an introduction that explores the need for the preeminence of scripture in talking about Pneumatology and then outlines the 4 sections of the book.

The first section looks at the mystery of the Spirit, with chapter two commenting on the elusiveness of the Holy Spirit and chapter three exploring the Holy Spirit and the Trinity. The second section looks at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament with chapter four exploring the Holy Spirit and his role in creation, chapter five regarding the Holy Spirit and his workings with the nation of Israel and chapter six looking at the Holy Spirit and the various angles of the future hope of Israel. The third section looks at the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament with chapter seven commenting on the Messiah as the bearer of the Holy Spirit, chapter eight exploring the Messiah as the bestower of the Holy Spirit, chapter nine taking a look at the Holy Spirit and his work in the church (along with the ever present "charismatic questions") and chapter ten looking at the Holy Spirit and his work in revealing God to the world. Part four closes off the book with a brief series of comments summarizing each chapter and the book as a whole.

I definitely liked how Cole incorporated the mystery of the Holy Spirit without making the mysterious a flippant "trump card" to get out of tight theological discussions. I also liked how he defined the word mystery when he wrote that a mystery is an "open secret" and "Mystery as I am using the term is an epistemological claim about an ontological reality" (43). I appreciated his clarifications in saying that a mystery is neither a puzzle nor a problem, for both of those can be ultimately solved. I often hear the word mystery thrown around in both those kinds of ways, and his initial clarification prompted thought on something I often have running fuzzily through my brain.

On the same wavelength as his clarification of the word "mystery", I really found myself liking his definition of theology. On page 55 he quoted Thomas Weinandy saying "theology by its nature is not a problem solving enterprise, but rather a mystery discerning enterprise", and on the following page he still articulated that "there are genuine problems thrown up by revelation that require clarification, and those clarifications need to be argued and therefore justified". I liked how Cole actively and honestly attempted to avoid a modernistic "finding the answers" approach to theology as well as a postmodern "nobody knows" approach. I appreciated how he tried to be honest in representing the struggles with both positions and the need for a recognition of both the propositional and logical nature of scripture along with the mysterious nature of the content of scripture.

Another quote I appreciated was when he commented in the seventh chapter on the "unforgivable sin". He wrote about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and succinctly said "Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not an episode but a way of life" (177). In the light of the "blasphemy challenge" on Youtube that is currently (and idiotically) running, I found that comment sticking out at me as both simple and profound.

Although I mostly liked Cole's work, I did find some parts of it that were either confusing, unnecessary or questionable. One thing was how Cole seemed to have a penchant for including discussion and comment that were either unnecessary or outright distracting. An example of this was on pages 87-88 when he gave a short commentary on how Islam is non-Trinitarian. I am guessing that it was significant to him, but I could not understand why he singled out Islam (as opposed to other world religions) and how it somehow added to his book, outside of the inclusion of a theological curiosity. Another example was how on page 177, after his comments on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, he then quoted Pope John Paul II on the matter. I was left sitting in my seat and asking "how in the world does this add anything to what he's just exegeted and written?"

Another component that I found weak was his treatment of the whole Cessationist/Continuationist question. I didn't feel he accurately portrayed the cessationist camp, for I couldn't find any of the arguments that I would use for cessationism in his representation for then cessationist camp. In the end, like most Continuationists I've ever read or met, he practically abandons Sola Scriptura on this issue and says "Over the years I have heard `tongues' spoken on more than one occasion. I have seen the ecstasy on the faces of those who so spoke..." (256), After all his biblical reasoning, he still plays the "I've seen it and cannot deny the reality of my experience" card. One must wonder if he has ever stopped to ponder the possibility that his exegesis needs to drive his interpretation of his experience.

All in all, I was quite impressed with He Who Gives Life. Graham Cole does a good job of setting up the need for a scripturally building a case for an understanding of the Holy Spirit. He definitely models a practical outworking of Sola Scriptura in the formulation of doctrine (in almost every area), and it's encouraging to see the strong emphasis on the sufficiency of scripture in the 21st century when so many other voices in Christendom seem to be weakening or outright compromising on the subject.

This is by far the best book I have read this year. It is especially the best book I have read about the Holy Spirit. Cole's book is well researched, thorough, thoughtful, and comprehensive. He has a way of saying a lot with little words. This book was recommended by a professor and I have thanked him for his reference. If you are looking for a complete book about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit look no further than He Who Gives Life, by Graham Cole.

Graham Cole approaches his thesis with great reverence. He was very cautious with his views of the Holy Spirit. He strongly emphasized that the Spirit of God is a great mystery that should not be taken lightly. "The mystery of the Spirit needs to be seen in terms of the mystery of the triune God as revealed in the scripture." (Cole p. 282)

A survey of the book - The book is written from an Evangelical perspective dealing specifically with the Holy Spirit. It talks about who the Holy Spirit is, discusses old debates about the Holy Spirit, and addresses the role of the Holy Spirit today. The book does an excellent job of raising some difficult questions about the Holy Spirit, challenging long-held assumptions that I myself had (where in the Bible is the Holy Spirit spoken of as "illuminating"?). The author discusses the mystery of the Holy Spirit, where the Spirit fit in with the Trinity, the Spirit in the OT and the NT, and the Spirit and us.

Overall, it was not a bad book, but I was disappointed with how many great questions it raised but never answered. The book opens with a discussion of the mystery of the Holy Spirit and while I appreciate the humility in the position taken about how we ought not to be dogmatic about things Scripture is not dogmatic about, it seems that that position is taken the other way in this book. Chapter after chapter is filled with many excellent questions about what the role of the Holy Spirit really is and how clear Scripture really is but I was continually dismayed that after the questions would be raised and various people would be quoted, the book would seem to just move on without taking a definitive stance.

One thing in particular that really made me wonder was the continual use of quotations from people outside the stream of Evangelical thought. The author quoted Pope John Paul as if he was an authority on various topics, and while I appreciated the effort to demonstrate the overlap that we have with other streams of thought, I was always a little hesitant about including Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox theologians in what is called "Christian."

Those said, the last section of the book, on the Spirit's role in the church and the believer was greatly encouraging and informative. Though the weaknesses of the book were still evident, here there was a lot more definitive positions and exhortations and encouragements to love God and love His people.

All in all - a thought provoking book, but not one that left me satisfied. I wish there were more answers to the good questions being raised, more definitive "this is what Scripture says" and less statements that don't ever come out and throw their hands up, but seems like it at times. A good book for gaining perspectives on what people believe about the Holy Spirit, but didn't really do a great job laying out a position and defending it.

Book was received within the specified time and its condition was as advertised.

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