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Language about the Holy Spirit in church worship is confused and contradictory. This can lead to extremes in which the Spirit may appear limited to the ministry of bishops and elders, or is believed to be manifest in signs and wonders which alone are held to be the marks of the true church.
This book is written for congregations, clergy and leaders by a leading international authority on the Old Testament(a non-charismatic Christian). He helps readers navigate and understand the church's perplexing language about the Holy Spirit, using insights from scholarship and his long experience of working as a priest.
Based on sermons from his regular ministry, each chapter carefully explores and illuminates biblical references to the Holy Spirit, encouraging readers to believe that God is on the inside of his creation, in the world and the church, even when 'results' are not spectacular in a human sense. Where the Gospel is faithfully preached and heard, the Spirit of God is at work.
About the author
John Rogerson gave this text as a series of lectures to friends in 2018, and it is the last of his lectures because he died later that year. If this book is your first encounter with John Rogerson, then you can be assured that you are in the company of a very great internationally celebrated scholar, who spent his life studying the biblical traditions of scholarship and the history and interpretation of the Bible. John was also an Anglican priest. During his long career he showed how the Bible, carefully handled, has something profound to say to our lives today, drawing on biblical scholarship, theology, philosophy, sociology, politics, ethics and literature.
He continued this work in retirement and served and taught the small community at Beauchief Abbey, where he brought his gifts and knowledge into service for this little local Anglican church in Sheffield. His friendship was something that many people found transformative, and this friendship, grounded in John's experience and reflection on the Christian offer, is something that continues to resonate very deeply with his friends and readers following his death. We created the Beauchief Abbey Press to allow others to share the remarkable conversations and invitations that came through working with and alongside John. If you enjoy this book you will find others by John, such as The Kingdom of Heaven, Perspectives on the Passion, and The Poet-Prophets of the Old Testament, that may interest you further, as well as several collections of his remarkable sermons.
