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Inspired: The Holy Spirit and the Mind of Faith
Eugene Peterson calls Jack Levison ‘the clearest writer on the Holy Spirit that I have known.’ In this book Levison speaks a fresh prophetic word to the church, championing a unique blend of serious Bible study and Christian spirituality.
With rich insight, he shows Christians of any church or denomination how they can take the Spirit into the grit of everyday life. Levison argues for an indispensable synergy between spontaneity and study, ecstasy and restraint, inspiration and interpretation.
Readable and relevant, winsome and wise, Levison’s Inspired sets a bold agenda for today’s church that will replace quick-fix spiritualities with a vibrant, durable experience of the Holy Spirit.
With rich insight, he shows Christians of any church or denomination how they can take the Spirit into the grit of everyday life. Levison argues for an indispensable synergy between spontaneity and study, ecstasy and restraint, inspiration and interpretation.
Readable and relevant, winsome and wise, Levison’s Inspired sets a bold agenda for today’s church that will replace quick-fix spiritualities with a vibrant, durable experience of the Holy Spirit.
- GenresBiblical StudiesTheology
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 13, 2013
16 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Jack Levison
19 books30 followersJack Levison has a passion for ideas and an obsession with writing. Eugene Peterson called his book, Fresh Air: the Holy Spirit for an Inspired Life, “a rare and remarkable achievement,” and Scot McKnight, author of The Jesus Creed, considers Filled with the Spirit as “the benchmark and starting point for all future studies of the Spirit.” His latest books launch into what is for many readers foreign territory: The Holy Spirit before Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2019) and A Boundless God: The Spirit according to the Old Testament (Baker Academic, 2020). To support his writing obsession, Jack has received grants from the National Humanities Center, the Lilly Fellows Program, the Louisville Institute, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Rotary Foundation, the International Catacomb Society, the Sam Taylor Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Jack holds the W. J. A. Power Chair of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He lives in Dallas with his wife of 37 years, Priscilla Pope-Levison, associate dean for external programs and professor of ministerial studies at Perkins. His two adult children, Chloe and Jeremy, live in Dallas, as well, and are the source of considerable levity.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 5, 2019
Great- a new favorite author
February 13, 2014
Being that I am a Mainline Protestant Pastor with a Pentecostal background, I am always on the outlook for books that wrestle with the relationship of the two. My own book, Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening is in many ways my own attempt to make sense of these two parts of my life. This is the first of Jack Levison's books that I've read and found it intriguing and challenging. I must admit that I struggled with it at first. Perhaps it's because I've not read his earlier books that I was trying to figure out his purpose and perspective. It seemed as if he was taking a dismissive tone toward Pentecostalism. But the blurb by Amos Yong gave me pause.
As I read further I discovered Levison's intent -- one that I share -- and that is bridging the gap between Pentecostalism and Mainline Protestantism. In order to do this, he forces us (I think that's a good word), to go back to the Hebrew Bible, especially Genesis 2, to find the way forward. In contrast to Pentecostalism, which places a premium on the Acts 2 story of Spirit Baptism, Levison speaks of "spirit-breath," that endowment of life and the spirit that God provides at creation. It is, therefore, an endowment that is shared by all humans -- and the interfaith part of me embraces this idea. While I had already abandoned my earlier belief that the Spirit had abandoned the Jewish people in the inter-testamental period, I found his explanations very helpful. That said, at points I felt overwhelmed by all the data on Jewish and Greco-Roman sources on the issue of ecstacy. Despite being overwhelmed, in the end I discovered why he went to such trouble.
The point of this book, as Levison makes clear by the end of the book, is to bring together ecstacy and comprehensibility. They need to be together. Inspiration comes in the context of study, not in place of it. Paul's interpretation of Scripture may be inspired -- he clearly takes what we would think are liberties with the text -- but Paul is clearly schooled in the Scriptures and Jewish interpretation. Thus, the goal is symbiosis. This is the goal because the future of Christianity is at stake. Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians and Mainline Protestants are in danger of splitting off from each other in such a way as to create a new schism. Levison offers his current work as a starting point for building that bridge. I will be interested in seeing where this goes. In fact I hope to be part of the conversation.
It's not an easy book. It will tax even those who have theological education -- as it did with me -- but it is a most useful text. I look forward to what comes next.
As I read further I discovered Levison's intent -- one that I share -- and that is bridging the gap between Pentecostalism and Mainline Protestantism. In order to do this, he forces us (I think that's a good word), to go back to the Hebrew Bible, especially Genesis 2, to find the way forward. In contrast to Pentecostalism, which places a premium on the Acts 2 story of Spirit Baptism, Levison speaks of "spirit-breath," that endowment of life and the spirit that God provides at creation. It is, therefore, an endowment that is shared by all humans -- and the interfaith part of me embraces this idea. While I had already abandoned my earlier belief that the Spirit had abandoned the Jewish people in the inter-testamental period, I found his explanations very helpful. That said, at points I felt overwhelmed by all the data on Jewish and Greco-Roman sources on the issue of ecstacy. Despite being overwhelmed, in the end I discovered why he went to such trouble.
The point of this book, as Levison makes clear by the end of the book, is to bring together ecstacy and comprehensibility. They need to be together. Inspiration comes in the context of study, not in place of it. Paul's interpretation of Scripture may be inspired -- he clearly takes what we would think are liberties with the text -- but Paul is clearly schooled in the Scriptures and Jewish interpretation. Thus, the goal is symbiosis. This is the goal because the future of Christianity is at stake. Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians and Mainline Protestants are in danger of splitting off from each other in such a way as to create a new schism. Levison offers his current work as a starting point for building that bridge. I will be interested in seeing where this goes. In fact I hope to be part of the conversation.
It's not an easy book. It will tax even those who have theological education -- as it did with me -- but it is a most useful text. I look forward to what comes next.
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June 4, 2020Not sure what to think of this. There was substantial exegesis of primary sources here concerning pneumatology, but it seemed to me fairly deductive and selectively executed. Levison would state his point, which seemed offbeat and would walk through texts attempting to prove his point. I just wasn't convinced. Especially, given there seemed to be passages he would completely ignore.
Perhaps the most troubling to me was his choice to define ruach and pneuma as simply "the energizing reservoir of virtue and learning that lies within every human being from birth to death" (page 69). In this critical move, the author says he's trying to encompass the broad semantic range ruach and pneuma can have. But to me, he flattens the conception of Spirit and depersonalizes the 3rd person of the Trinity into a type of common grace. In this book Levison is trying to break down dichotomies (126), but in so doing I think he goes too far and collapses the multilayered understanding of the biblical conception of Spirit.
Perhaps the most troubling to me was his choice to define ruach and pneuma as simply "the energizing reservoir of virtue and learning that lies within every human being from birth to death" (page 69). In this critical move, the author says he's trying to encompass the broad semantic range ruach and pneuma can have. But to me, he flattens the conception of Spirit and depersonalizes the 3rd person of the Trinity into a type of common grace. In this book Levison is trying to break down dichotomies (126), but in so doing I think he goes too far and collapses the multilayered understanding of the biblical conception of Spirit.
January 30, 2014
Levison does it again. Another thought provoking book on Pneumatology where he challenges our common and false dichotomies. This one is especially helpful for those who seek the reconcile the Spirit's work in both the ecstatic and the disciplined, in things like glossolalia as well as the rigorous study of Scripture.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews