The Holy Spirit

by Robert Letham, Cornelis P. Venema (Foreword)

Writing with care and reverence, Robert Letham develops a holistic and canonical view of the Holy Spirit in the context of the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, and redemption.

Genres: Theology, Christian

376 pages, Paperback

Published February 8, 2023

About the author

Robert Letham (MAR, ThM, Westminster Theological Seminary; PhD, Aberdeen University) is professor of systematic and historical theology at Union School of Theology in Bridgend, Wales, and the author of a number of books, including The Lord's Supper and Union with Christ.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can we learn about the Holy Spirit from the historical teachings of the church? In The Holy Spirit, Robert Letham develops a holistic and canonical view of the Spirit in the context of the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, and redemption.

Historical Discussions

Chapters 1-4 deal with the Holy Spirit and the Trinity by presenting the historical discussions in the church. The Spirit and the Son were subjects of critical questioning throughout church history, and Letham concludes: “The relation between the Spirit and the Son is not one-directional but mutual and reciprocal.”

I was most interested to read how the Holy Spirit does just create and then leave it alone. Instead, he continues to give it life: “The Holy Spirit gives life to the vegetation, the trees and plants around us, and sustains it by his mighty power, in accordance with his immanent causes, such as sunshine and rainfall.” Of course, “this leads on to the reality that the Spirit is the source of the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).” Letham is logical and precise in his presentation.

The Executive of the Godhead

The ordering of the Godhead is given time, and Letham summarizes: “This internal order is from the Father through or in the Son and by the Holy Spirit.” While Letham is concerned with teaching proper doctrine, he also educates on different heresies that have crept into the church. I learned about adoptionism, and how Jesus was supposedly not the preexistent Son of God but began to be at conception, was totally dependent on the Holy Spirit, and exalted to divine status at the resurrection.

The rest of the book looks at the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible. Chapter 5 examines the wide range of ways in which the Spirit of God is said to have acted in the Old Testament. I was interested to read B. B. Warfield’s writing that the Spirit of God is described in the Old Testament as the “executive of the Godhead within the sacred nation.” He “represents the presence of God with his people.”

New Testament Gifts

I was most moved to read how throughout the history of the people of God in the Old Testament, the Spirit was at work in producing a written record of the great redemptive acts of God. Chapter 6 looks at the role of the Holy Spirit in conception and life of Jesus, while Chapter 7 studies his work in the resurrection, the ascension, and at Pentecost.

Chapter 9 tackles the role of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament gifts. I found it fascinating to read Letham’s writings on the interactions between Grudem, Thiselton, Clowney, and Turner. Letham concludes that prophecy is different from preaching in that prophecy is a direct message from God, whereas preaching expounds that message. In regards to speaking in tongues, Letham cites Charles Hodge while explaining that the position rests on the nature of the tongues to be interpreted or translated. While prophecy and tongues I was encouraged to read of the Spirit’s empowerment of other spiritual gifts such as helps, service, administration, and government. Letham’s writing remains encouraging throughout.

Discerning the Spirit’s Redemptive Work

Letham states that Chapter 11 is the most important chapter: Discerning the Spirit’s Redemptive Work. He lists five expectations: (1) Where Christ is glorified, (2) where the Biblical gospel is preached, taught, believed, and confessed, (3) where the fruit of the Spirit is evident, (4) where there is love, demonstrated in service of others, (5) where there is hard work. I was especially inspired to read: “According to Paul, spiritual warfare begins in the library (2 Cor. 10:3f.), as the base from which the godless opinions of the world can be cast down and those who hold them brought into submission to Christ.”

This book is an excellent study on the Holy Spirit. It is academic yet accessible. It will educate you on church history and give you a rigorous study on the Holy Spirit. I am challenged to have greater dependence on the Holy Spirit’s work in my life, and to seek him wholeheartedly in prayer and worship.

I received a media copy of The Holy Spirit and this is my honest review.

[Cameron McCartney · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a newbie to academic theology, I found Robert Letham’s overview of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit most helpful for giving the reader a broad-spanning view on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Letham focuses his attention on discussing the Holy Spirit and the Trinity through the theological thought on the Holy Spirit throughout history, and spends a significant portion of the book looking at interpretations of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in the Scriptures.

Overall, this book read very clearly, and Robert Letham adds a very helpful glossary of terms at the end of his book which I for one found very helpful to refer to as I read through the book. Letham helpfully analyses different perspectives on the Holy Spirit in relation to the Trinity, and across the span of a few chapters brings the reader to a well-balanced view of the Spirit which is conducive to the wording of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, whilst also gently deconstructing some of the ancient misconceptions on the role and status of the Spirit throughout history.

Letham also helpfully springboards the reader into deeper thought on the role of the Spirit in Scripture, paying careful attention to history and geography of the Spirit’s activity in the New Testament, notably, but not limited to, Christ’s incarnation, Pentecost and the apostolic ministry as it pushed into new Gentile pastures. Letham’s attention to the Spirit’s activity in these situations really helped me to understand a little more clearly as to what the Spirit actually came to do; not to establish a new pneumatocentric religion, detached from that of the YHWH of the Old Testament, but indeed to continue the ongoing work of Trinitarian salvation, as prophesied through him in earlier Scriptures. I also personally found Letham’s interaction with John Calvin when it came to discussing the presence of the Spirit in communion/the Lord’s Supper very eye-opening for me personally.

Letham’s fair and well-rounded criticism of the understanding of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement was very helpful, and indeed I feel that the second-half of this book could potentially be read by itself to catch most of Letham’s flow with this argument. Letham helpfully and fairly points out that given that there is no mainline governing council or doctrinal statement uniting the Pentecostal movement worldwide, care must be taken in criticising, or endorsing, all the types of churches found within that movement. However, Letham gently points out the dangers of the unnecessary mysticism which seems to be felt in these circles, surrounding the interpretation of extrabiblical prophecies and the general theological airiness around a second “baptism of the Spirit” which seems to be more exclusive than inclusive when it comes to the practices of the Christian community.

This was a great book which I would recommend to anyone who would like to learn from someone who has evidently, richly studied and deeply thought about the biblical and systematic theology of the Holy Spirit and how our modern interpretation may have matched up, or not with the great thinkers, or the great heretics of church history.

[Skip Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has a slight lean toward being academic but is the most thorough book I’ve read on the Holy Spirit and therefore very powerful and needed in my spiritual walk. Which makes sense because of the very nature of the Holy Spirit and how he moves and his role is a little harder to comprehend than the other 2 persons of the Trinity. His explanation of how the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity is second to none.

I loved how he started with the Holy Spirit and the Trinity in the church history, then the latter 2/3 of the book was the Holy Spirit in the Bible. As Letham states, it is important to use as a foundation the 2000 years of study of our spiritual fore fathers rather than try to start our own theology

Then in teaching on the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, the author points out a number of works of the Holy Spirit (instead of how we quickly get caught up in gifts of the Spirit, which the book obviously dives into as well)

Spreading of the gospel
Giving us his Word
Allowing us to commune with Christ and partake of him
Empowering the preaching
Sustains us in our weakness
Helps us pray
Every time we are gathered together for worship, the Spirit is working sometimes in wonder and other times quietly and behind the scenes, speaking to us of Christ.

We are to expect great things! Reading this helped me, put simply, to know my God even more.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

[Eric Yap · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of three planned companion volumes to Letham's seminal "The Holy Trinity" (award-winning first edition published in 2005, second edition published in 2019). Letham's usual comprehensiveness and theological precision continue to shine through in this systematic-redemptive historical exploration of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

The volume is separated into two distinct sections. The first section primarily deals with historical theology. Letham comprehensively surveys the theological conversations and meditations of the church universal and historical, delineating the development of this article of faith from pre-Constantinople, to the various controversies on the doctrine of the Trinity, to the unique contributions and voices of various medieval theologians such as Anselm and post-enlightenment theologians such as Barth. It is quite telling that historically, the conversation and development on the doctrine of the Spirit has been quite underwhelming as compared to theology proper (doctrine of God), and Christology, as all the discussions on the doctrine of the Spirit are not standalone conversations but are almost always discussed in relation and inseparably with the doctrine of the Trinity. Understandably, the bulk of the attention goes to the filioque clause that separates the Western church (Rome and Reformation) and Eastern church (Russian and East Europe): does the Spirit proceeds only from the Father (East), or from both the Father and the Son (West). The East is concerned that the filioque clause would confuse the personal hypostasis of the Father and the Son, while Letham posits that exegetical consideration does lean towards the active role of the Son in the sending of the Spirit. He argues along the line of adopting clearer confessional formulas, such as "from the Father in the Son" to break free cleanly from the historical nuances of the filioque clause debate. It is also quite evident that the bulk of the theological considerations here goes to the immanent Trinity and on the hypostasis person of the Spirit.

In the second section, Letham surveys the role of the Spirit through redemptive history, tracing from the Old Testament to the life and ministry of Jesus (canonical Gospels), resurrection, ascension, Pentecost, apostolic ministry (Acts), New Testament church and gifts to the eschatological future (Epistles). The bulk of the attention here is given to the economic Trinity and the role of the Spirit in redemptive history.

Additionally, Letham also helpfully delineates the current debate on Pentecostalism and spiritual gifts, as well as postulating his position, all the while maintaining an irenic and charitable tone as he references a variety of scholarship in the Pentecostal tradition (Gordon Fee, Frank Macchia, Max Turner). Letham, being Presbyterian and Reformed, would lean towards what is commonly known today as the "cessationist" position (I must admit that I am also a functional cessationist). Before delineating Letham's arguments, it must be noted that most discussions over the understanding of the charismata-pentecostalism gifts centre around the concept of "glossolalia tongue" (or to some extent, modern-day prophecy and healing), therefore it is somewhat unfortunate that the idea of "spiritual gifts" are almost synonymous to "supernatural or revelatory gifts," where the gifts of service, teaching, or hospitality (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12) are understated in the church today.

Some of Letham's most convincing reasonings include, firstly, Letham posits that even among Pentecostal scholars, the exact phenomenon of "glossolalia tongue" in Acts 2, 10, and 19 or 1 Corinthians cannot be confidently described or retrieved, there is just too little biblical data! Secondly, the bulk of the life of the church in Acts was occupied not with "glossolalia" but with witness, fellowship, word, and prayer. Thirdly, there are only two books of the New Testament that describe the "glossolalia gift," Acts and 1 Corinthians. Even in these two books, the data is scant, so one must really question the modern church's emphasis on it. Fourthly, taking his cues from Richard Gaffin, if Pentecost is a distinct stage of redemptive history, just like Jesus' incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension, Letham suggests that we must really doubt the veracity of the often-claimed "reoccurrence" of the Pentecostal phenomenon (Azuza street in 1905, Toronto blessing in 1994). If Pentecost marked a distinct stage in the life of the church as part of the overarching redemptive history, then it should be a sole occurrence, just as Jesus has died once, and was raised once (1 Peter 3:18). Finally, he submits that we should redefine the way that the "continuationist-cessationist" debate is framed: the bulk of church history, along with the evidence of redemptive history demonstrates that the "glossolalia gift" is not the norm, therefore, if "cessationism" is the normative observation, then the burden of proof lies on the "charismatic continuations," rather than on the contrary position. That "cessation" is an unfortunate and inaccurate nomenclature because "continuationism" is actually against the norm in the two millennia of church history!

Letham's comprehensiveness made this volume a really rich and rewarding read. However, it suffers from the same issue of readability. Sometimes it is hard to tell when Letham is citing someone's position in support or in disagreement, sometimes he even cites one position in order to contradict another cited position. Hence, it can be quite laborious to follow through with some of Letham's discussions and arguments. Secondly, I would hope that less attention went to the discussion of the charismata-glossolalia gifts/Pentecostalism, and to have more detailed and sustained discussions on the role and work of the Spirit in the life of the individual believer and the church (why should the Pentecostals have familiarity with the Holy Spirit over the Reformed?). Finally, there seems to be a chasm of development between the first section and the second section. it would have been helpful if Letham could have provided more synthesis and bridge between the historical-systematic studies with the biblical-redemptive historical surveys; between the immanent-hypostasis person of the Spirit with the economic-salvific role of the Spirit. With all that said, Letham's volume on the Trinity is a good primer to further discussion and scholarly works on the doctrine of the Spirit, and I enjoyed it greatly as with his earlier volumes on Union with Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, therefore I am anticipating eagerly for him to complete this theological trilogy of scholarly excellence.

[Aaron J. Gregas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letham, writing from a Reformed perspective, starts this book off in an unusual manner, dealing first with traditional formulations of the Holy Spirit and then, in the second half of the book, walking through biblical texts relevant to the topic. Two noteworthy aspects of his overall treatment of this subject are (1) his insistence that the Holy Spirit is deeply present in the administration of baptism. Here, he relies on an article by a Lutheran scholar to substantial his point and (2) his careful weighing of the evidence for and the nature of supernatural spiritual gifts, finally taking something of a soft cessationist stance. This book is first in a series, with the remaining two addressing the two other persons of the Trinity. It is an intermediate level work and as such has the deficiency of not engaging thoroughly with recent scholarship on the Holy Spirit. Letham writes clearly and is conversant with the topic. This will serve as a helpful primer for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit from a Reformed perspective.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a few things that are noteworthy, list is non-exhaustive:

1. The Pentecost, along with the life, crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ are a one-time event that cannot and will not be repeated. The uniqueness of these events prove that even if we could find similarities in 2 occurrences of "miracles", their significance and function cannot be assumed to be the same (this does not mean that the Holy Spirit is not at work).

2. The miraculous events are not normative in the entirety of the Bible's redemptive history. Only in Moses, Elijah/Elisha, Jesus and the Apostles time did the miraculous took the mainstay as narrative. Often the miracles are with purpose and to point towards a certain lesson to be learnt.

3. There is no surefire way to verify that concurrent or modern signs and wonders originate from the same source in Acts 2, which signified a unrepeatable turning point in redemptive history.

God can use crooked sticks to draw straight lines, for we are all jars of clay, beset with weaknesses (2 Cor 4:7-9)

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work was difficult to rate. Letham has some wonderful things to say about the Third Person of the Trinity, but the book itself is poorly written. He upholds classic Christian theology to the full. No weird late-modern innovations here (or ancient heresies, for that matter). But the work reads has zero flow. It reads like a very long series of snippets or short encyclopedia articles. I've never seen anything like it. I can't tell if he wrote it in a hurry, or if he had a 600 page book that he tried to turn into a 300 page book. But it was choppy to the point of distraction.

I especially appreciated his chapter on the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. He takes an expansive view, and I might not agree with his take on the question of indwelling in the OT, but by and large he draws out a great deal of material from the OT that the reader otherwise might miss.

A good book to have on the shelf, but hard to read straight through.

[Mark Mcconnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might read one more book in my life. It should be this one. And suppose that I could own no other books: It would be this one. If I had a choice of which book I could be the author, in some other life, I would rifle through all the lives and all the books that are offered in the catalog until I find this one. And then I would say, "This one. I wish I had written this one.". I would sell all my other books to buy it if it was selling for the price of all my other books. Why? Because there are that many books in it, yet unwritten. There are that many books in it that have yet to be read that do not yet exist.

[Benjamin Bartels · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a long time coming. “The Holy Spirit” is a highly academic rundown of The Spirit in the Bible and more so as evidenced in church history. I found the authors use of differing perspectives to be quite confusing and tedious. It’s not a bad book, just one to read with caution. If you’re prepared for a dense read, this is a great one to get information!

[Deeps George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep book on the Holy Spirt , covering different view points and thoughts . A read that will question the concept of the Holy Spirt and help one find answers from the biblical and historical perspective.