Description
Christians are united in saying that the Christian life is a life in the Spirit. But the unity breaks down when explaining how the Christian life is a life in the Spirit. Life in the Spirit is the first book to engage the post-Constantinian critique of the church with the field of Spirit Christology. Building upon the work of post-Constantinians John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas and upon the Trinitarian Spirit-Christology of Leopoldo Sánchez, this account provides a framework for seeing one’s Christian life as one transformed by the Spirit. Snavely rejects the characterisation of life in the Spirit as bringing sinners to faith, and instead proposes that as Jesus lived as the Son of the Father in the Spirit, the Spirit also makes other sons of the father in the image of Jesus. This Trinitarian interpretation shows the Christian life as being one of total trust in God with one’s own life, and after death living in Jesus’ resurrected life in the Spirit. Snavely’s account calls for a reimagining of the church and the Christian life in terms of ecclesial structure, Christian discipleship and the Christian view of marriage. Life in the Spirit will not only help Christians to have a better understanding of the place of vocation in the world as witnesses to the lordship of Jesus Christ, but it will also promote unity in the body of Christ based on the actual unity that all his adopted sons and daughters already have by belonging to Jesus Christ’s life in the Spirit.
About the Author
Andréa D. Snavely (PhD, Concordia Seminary) is Professor of Bible and Theology at Global University of the Assemblies of God, Springfield, Missouri. He and his wife, Darla, are blessed with a son, Titus, and a daughter, Tessa.
Contents
Foreword by Joel P. Okamoto
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. The Christian Life as Life in the Spirit
2. A Spirit-Christology That Works for the Christian Life
3. A Trinitarian Spirit-Christology: Jesus, Son of God in the Spirit
4. God Gives His Spirit by Working Jesus Christ in Others
5. The Shape and Direction of the Christian Life: Conformed to Christ’s Cruciform Life in the Spirit
6. Concluding Summary and Implications
Bibliography
Name Index
Subject Index
Endorsements and Reviews
I don’t know of anything more important for the church today than to review those precepts from Jesus’s perspective through this book. … It is my belief that after reading this book we should examine our lives to see if we line up with what Jesus taught us. Life in the Spirit should be life-transforming and of abundant influence on our society. It is a must for every Christian.
John Bueno, Chairman of the Board, Global University, Springfield, Missouri
This book is full of piercing critiques of both contemporary pneumatology and Christian culture at large.
Joanna Leidenhag, in The Expository Times, Vol 127, No 11
Snavely’s reimagining of the Church and the Christian life in terms of living in union with the Spirit is to be highly praised.
Bradford McCall, in Theological Book Review, Vol 28, No 2
