The Spirit of Atonement: Pentecostal Contributions and Challenges to the Christian Traditions

Description

Steven M. Studebaker proposes a Pentecostal approach to a major Christian doctrine, the atonement. The book moves Pentecostal theology of the atonement from a primarily Christocentric and crucicentric register to one that articulates the pneumatological and holistic nature of Pentecostal praxis. Studebaker examines the irony of Classical Pentecostalism relying on the Christocentrism of Protestantism evangelical atonement theology to articulate its experience of the Holy Spirit, as well as the Pneumatological nature of Pentecostal praxis. He then develops a Pentecostal theology of atonement based on the biblical narrative of the Spirit of Pentecost and returns to re-imagine an expanded vision of Pentecostal praxis based on the theological formation of the biblical narrative. The result is a Pentecostal atonement theology that shows the integrated nature of pneumatology, creation and Christology in the biblical narrative of redemption. It gives theological expression to not only the pneumatological nature of Pentecostal praxis, but also the fundamental role of the Holy Spirit in the biblical narrative of redemption. The book challenges popular western atonement theologies to re-think their Christocentrism and crucicentrism as well as their atomistic tendency to separate soteriology into objective (Christological) and subjective (pneumatolgical) categories.

Steven M. Studebaker is the Howard and Shirley Bentall Chair in Evangelical Thought and Associate Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at McMaster Divinity College, Canada.

About time! Pentecostal and Charismatic scholars and thinkers have needed a fully-orbed project like this one. A full treatment of a distinctively Pentecostal theology of the atonement is long overdue. Studebaker has offered us a remarkable pastiche of theological points of reference from which we can-for years-draw from. There is power in the blood, indeed! And there is great power in this set of reflections on the power in that blood. -- A.J. Swoboda, Bushnell University, USA Readers who are familiar with Studebaker's work can now behold the full flowering of the pneumatological vision of salvation they have anticipated since his first publications. Those learning from him for the first time will find a careful systematic thinker unusually adept at critically appropriating the wider Christian tradition. -- Christopher A. Stephenson, Lee University, USA For the last two decades, Pentecostal theologies like Studebaker have been interrogating the received Western tradition by asking what difference the Holy Spirit makes for the theological task, materially and methodologically. This book continues such efforts by going to the core of the inherited issues and exposes the one-sided judicial norms and categories at the center of the dogmatic tradition. Constructively, on the other hand, The Spirit of Atonement opens up to a participatory vision of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ when viewed through the lens of Pentecost. A beautiful achievement! -- Amos Yong, Fuller Seminary, USA Anyone interested in Pentecostal theology, constructive theology or atonement theology will find this volume insightful and valuable ... the engagement is deep ... Studebaker has contributed a meaningful, considered and insightful volume to this series and to the field of Pentecostal theology. * PentecoStudies * [I]t significantly contributes to a recently ... growing corpus of monographs that are constructing Pentecostal systematic theology from within the tradition's distinctive theological methods, sensibilities, experience, and practices. ... highly readable, edifying, and inspirational. * Indonesian Journal of Theology *