Discerning Spirit: A Theology of Revelation

Good books on the Holy Spirit have been few and far between, and this may claim to be one of the best since John V. Taylor’s classic The Go-Between God. Its argument is simple. A God who is not engaged in our world is no God. But if God engages, then it must be possible to know him, and the language which the Christian tradition uses in this connection is that of God’s revelation. But where does God reveal himself in our world? That is what a theology of the Spirit is all about. The theology of the Spirit is about learning to discern God, his revelation in our day-to-day life, learning to discover where in the world God meets us. This area of meeting cannot, of course, be limited to*.the church, nor can it be described only in church language. We have to find God beyond the boundaries of religious tradition. This book therefore looks at four areas outside the church where the Bible finds it appropriate to use ‘Spirit’ language -the areas of community, sexuality, politics and art. Where is God to be found in them? How can we tell when it is God we are experiencing and when our daily idolatries? These are the questions of everyday life, and by the end of the book readers may well find themselves looking at their lives in a very different way.