At the AZ District Council this last week, I was browsing the bookstore at the church building where we met and saw that it was the typical church book store – a few Bibles (believe it or not, both TNIV’s and ESV’s were sold here so that was a plus in showing balance) and then mostly books geared to the average reader (popular level). As usual they had the ”Left Behind” shelf, I suppose, to sell stuff more than anything, but really they need to be more careful about what they sell – we want to educate people in the church not denigrate them. Of course too, there was next to nothing on the scholarly side except…. Gordon Fee’s Listening to the Spirit in the Text (Eerdman’s, 2000)! Perhaps they had Fee’s How to Read the Bible for All it’s Worth and maybe the How to Choose a Translation book, but I can’t remember for sure. So, what did I do? Of course, I bought Listening to the Spirit. When you find a book like this, and it’s the only copy they have, if you snooze, you lose.
To me it seems like this would be a great text use in an exegetical methods class at the graduate level because it is the model of nearly supreme exegetical method and application by none other than one of the leading NT scholars in the world today, Gordon D. Fee. Also, solid exegetical method requires that we listen to the Holy Spirit and what he is saying in and through the Biblical text. I look forward to sitting and drinking in the wealth of exposition found in these pages. One will have to be careful – he’s a Pentecostal! What? A Pentecostal who is among the leading New Testament Scholars in the world today??!! How can that be? Well, there’s another one people hardly realize, (probably), Craig Keener, of whom I imagine many a pastor has his IVP Bible Background Commentary on their shelves. There are others out there too you know, they just don’t necessarily go about waving their “I’m a Pentecostal” flag in everyone’s face as some Pentecostals tend to do.
So what kind of book is it? It is a complation of essays that are both written to be read in a book or a common journal (Regent College’s journal Crux) and written to be read for a lecture – he notes he intentionally resisted editing his manuscripts for the book – he wanted to keep the feel of the lectures and not smooth them out for the book. These essays reflect on things, that at the time, Fee had been reflecting on in his own thinking – primarily, they reflect Fee’s “interests in Pauline studies and especially in the role of the Spirit in Paul’s own spiritual life and in that of his churches” (vii). His first chapter gets a the very heart of things for him: “that the Spiritituality of the biblical text should be part of our historical investigation – and obedeince – as New Testament exegetes” (vii).
Max Turner is too.
I do love this book. Though if I were teaching a NT exegesis class and using only Fee I would use two of his other books first. Obviously his “New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Pastors and Students” and his “Gospel & Spirit: Issues in NT Hermeneutics” which is more focused than his “Listening to the Spirit” which is more wide ranging.
“To What End Exegesis” is probably my favorite out of his books that are collections of essays. The essays in it are more academic than “Gospel and Spirit” and “Listening to the Spirit in the Text”. They’re all good though.
Bryan L
Tony – those would be good too – I just thought this one might be an interesting addition to other more technical works just to see how it all works out in the end.
Bryan, I have yet to check out “To what end exegesis” though I want to!
I do think it was wise for me to pick up this one when I could.
I was a Pentecostal and now I am a theologian. Perhaps it is a shame that the two never “met” (this isn’t a dig at Pente’s just a statement of fact). I love Fee and one of the main things I have carried over from my AG days is my spirituality. He was very influential in me taking the road less travelled; especially when it came to what i understood and believed about the Spirit. It led to me eventually hand back my ordination! I will have to get a hold of the book.
I’ll like to own this one.