{"id":23611,"date":"2023-07-10T18:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T18:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/john-r-levison-the-holy-spirit-before-christianity\/"},"modified":"2023-07-10T18:00:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T18:00:42","slug":"john-r-levison-the-holy-spirit-before-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/john-r-levison-the-holy-spirit-before-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"John R. Levison: The Holy Spirit before Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>John R. Levison, The Holy Spirit before Christianity<\/a><\/em> (Baylor University Press, 2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The book consists of Acknowledgments, five chapters, thirteen excurses, varied notes, selected bibliography, and detailed indexes of subjects, ancient names, modern authors and ancient sources.<\/p>\n

Chapter titles include: \u201cThe Emergence of the Spirit: Recasting Exodus\u201d, \u201cThe Essence of the Spirit: Retelling Exodus\u201d, \u201cThe Absence of the Spirit: Recalling Exodus\u201d, \u201cThe Assurance of the Spirit: Rekindling Exodus\u201d, and \u201cThe Significance of the Spirit: Rediscovering Exodus\u201d. Each chapter brings a varied and deep-well resource for the study of pneumatology.<\/p>\n

This work offers detailed, personable, opinionated, and indispensable tedious research. From his descriptions of German theologian Hans Leisagang and more to his Greek or Jewish tracing of the origins of historical pneumatology, you\u2019ll find detailed promise of the divine presence of God. The weight of God\u2019s glory is depicted through Israel\u2019s birth and early years. Pillars and angels, Clouds and fire are described as leading the Israelites to outpace the Egyptians. While God\u2019s presence is described as durable, unshakable, and reliable.<\/p>\n

The Spirit is active now.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>It is focused reading; deliberate; not a mindless read; not casual reading and genuinely fundamental tenets of the Spirit\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Levison\u2019s description of the Babylonian exile offers intriguing storylines where the Spirit is an active agent in cross-cultural contexts.\u00a0 He offers rich parallels of Moses and Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Zechariah and more with concepts of the Spirit of God 1) rushing upon, 2) pouring over, and 3) resting upon individuals.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jack Levison holds the W.J.A. Power Chair of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Levison was raised in New York, attended Wheaton College, received an MA at Cambridge University, and pursued his doctoral studies at Duke University. Faculty page<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He offers a unique study of consequences regarding modern assessments of early Judaism including a discourse of NT Wright\u2019s deep appreciation for the contributions of 2nd<\/sup> Temple Judaism and Shekinah Glory\u2019s indwelling presence. He proclaims clearly, the Spirit is active now.<\/p>\n

Levison ends this work with thirteen brief two to four page excurses. An excursus (from Latin excurrere<\/em>, ‘to run out of’) is a short outbreak or narration in a work of literature. Excursuses often have little to do with subject matter discussed by the work, used to lighten or add insight to the story. He does it with brilliance.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Joseph S. Girdler<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Publisher\u2019s page: https:\/\/www.baylorpress.com\/9781481310031\/the-holy-spirit-before-christianity\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John R. Levison, The Holy Spirit before Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2019) The book consists of Acknowledgments, five chapters, thirteen excurses, varied notes, selected bibliography, and detailed indexes of subjects, ancient names, modern authors and ancient sources. Chapter titles include: \u201cThe Emergence of the Spirit: Recasting Exodus\u201d, \u201cThe Essence of the Spirit: Retelling Exodus\u201d, \u201cThe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3172,"featured_media":23612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6896],"tags":[6581,2833,6906,3450,6907,3360,5698,3800,3275,3451,4838,2891],"ppma_author":[4625],"class_list":["post-23611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-studies","category-spring-2023","tag-angels","tag-christianity","tag-clouds","tag-divine","tag-exodus","tag-fire","tag-judaism","tag-levison","tag-pneumatology","tag-presence","tag-shekinah","tag-spirit","author-josephsgirdler"],"authors":[{"term_id":4625,"user_id":3172,"is_guest":0,"slug":"josephsgirdler","display_name":"Joseph Girdler","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/JosephSGirdler2022-236x236-150x150.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/JosephSGirdler2022-236x236-150x150.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23611"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=23611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}