In Peace Let Us Pray to the Lord: An Orthodox Interpretation of the Gifts of the Spirit

by Alexis Trader

For many, the modern Pentecostal Movement can be a perplexing and mystifying world. In this masterful work, Fr. Alexis Trader provides one patristic answer to the questions that Pentecostalism raises, an answer fully grounded in Holy Scripture, and accessible through the spiritual life of stillness. Fr. Alexis deftly shows how the Church that experienced and was established at Pentecost, the Orthodox Church, can illumine our understanding of the history, experience, and teaching of Pentecostalism, while simultaneously providing a pathway to the gifts of the Spirit where seemingly confusing Biblical passages are placed in a context that brings clarity. Without a doubt, this is the best and fullest work dealing with this topic in the English language.

- Patristic interpretation
- spiritual gifts
- speaking in "tongues"
- the aim of the true Gifts of the spirit
- unceasing prayer
- discerning the spirits
- the American Protestant experience
- the first American Pentecostals
- the "TV Church"
- dogma, heresy and the Church
- and more...

Genres: Nonfiction, Christianity

301 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

Reviews

[Debbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched and very detailed book. Bishop Alexis has detailed the Church Father's historical understanding of the Gifts of the spirit - most especially the gift of tongues as it is recorded in the Book of Acts and in the Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. It is very detailed. Probably much more detail than the average Christian would be looking for, but he does give us a good glimpse into the mind of the early church and it's interpretation of these two passages. This book would probably be interesting to those who are either formerly involved in Christian traditions would encourage speaking in tongues or someone who is grappling with this tradition and wanting to learn about how it was historically understood.

[Ted · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking for a positive exposition of the ideas of spiritual gifts for Orthodox Christians. This book is really a polemical book aimed against Protestant Pentecostals and Charismatics. Trader basically denies that mention of spiritual gifts in the New Testament has anything to do with what Protestants think it does. He basically claims the church from the time of the apostles has had men who were hesychasts and that speaking in tongues actually refers to the hesychast silent prayer of the heart. Basically on Pentecost, according to Trader, the apostles who were already deified became hesychasts. All of St. Paul's references to spiritual gifts are to be interpreted within the limits of and interests of the hesychast and monastic tradition.

[Randall Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Orthodoxy and Pentecost

An exegesis of Acts and 1 Corinthians regarding Pentecost, and 'speaking in tongues'. Also a brief history of the origins of the Pentecostal movement, and their incoherent theology.

[Mikhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

The twentieth century saw the advent of the Pentecostal movement, whose emphasis on glossalalia and other spiritual gifts have shaken Western Christendom. The later Charismatic movement that branched off from Pentecostalism touched every Christian sect. In the wake of this situation, Fr. Alexis aims to examine the Biblical passages about speaking in tongues to see if there is any merit to the interpretation given by Pentecostalists and Charismatics. The end result of his labour is an interesting interpretation of tongues in a very Orthodox perspective. Sometimes, Fr. Alexis seems to stretch his argument a bit, but I overall enjoyed the book. For anyone interested in both Orthodoxy and the phenomenon of glossalalia, I recommend this book.