Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts: In the New Testament Church and Today

by Max Turner

Questions regarding the role of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts in the life of the believer and the church today continue to be asked. Professor Max Turner suggests that the place to begin answering such questions is the New Testament. What do the writers of the New Testament say about the work of the Holy Spirit, and how can we understand spiritual gifts for today? Turner looks carefully at the gospels of Luke and John and the writings of Paul and explores how they took over and developed Old Testament and intertestamental notions of the Spirit. Then he asks how looking at ancient witnesses informs our contemporary understanding.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies

383 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1969

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Reviews

[Ariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are all throughout the New Testament Church and Church today. This book gives scripture revelation of how the Holy Spirit operates in the life of a believer. To put it simply, He gives us these gifts because He loves us and it empowers us to love Him, to edify His Church. Such a good read!

[Daniel Nelms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primary text for current course for my seminary program

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

20 years on and still the definitive academic assessment of Spiritual gifts in the New Testament and contemporary church. For many coming to this, Turner's prose may seem unnecessarily academic, however given that 25% of Christians (or approximately half a billion people) now call themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic Christians, it remains a surprisingly virgin territory for much theology.

Max Turner gives a comprehensive account of the role of the Spirit in the Old and New Testament before going into greater analysis of Acts and the Pauline Corpus (especially 1 Corinthians 12-14). He is disappointingly brief when it comes to analysing the contemporary church but this is precisely because so little (non-popular) work has been done on this, and the gifts and experiences are so varied, that it's hard for Turner to get a handle on it in 50 or so pages.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Careful and balanced. I recommend this for anyone interested in understanding the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts.

[Bauer Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very careful, thoughtful exegesis of the person, work of Holy Spirit. His treatment of John's writings was outstanding!