Jesus and the Spirit : a study of the religious and charismatic experience of Jesus and the first Christians as reflected in the New Testament /
by James D. G. Dunn.
- Philadelphia : Westminster Press, [1975]
- xii, 515 pages ; 24 cm.
Includes indexes.
Bibliography: p. [457]-475.
The Religious Experience of Jesus -- Jesus' Experience of God - Sonship -- Jesus' Experience of God - Spirit -- Was Jesus a Charismatic? -- The Religious Experience of the Earliest Christian Communities -- Resurrection Appearances --Pentecost -- Enthusiastic Beginnings in Lukan Retrospect -- The Religious Experience of Paul and of the Pauline Churches -- The Charismatic Spirit - The Consciousness of Grace -- The Body of Christ - The Consciousness of Community -- The Spirit of Jesus - The Consciousness of Christ -- A Glance Across the Second Generation of Christianity and Concluding Remarks
"Christianity is one of the most important religious movements in human history–no one would dispute that. It must be important therefore to inquire closely into the religious experience which lunched this new religion; what were those recognitions of God's activity which constituted a new faith of such dynamic and durable vitality?" begins the author in his Introduction to this highly readable and significant book. In Part One, Dr. Dunn looks at Jesus' experience of God in terms of sonship and Spirit asks, "Was Jesus a charismatic?" In Part Two the resurrection appearances and the account of Pentecost are carefully scrutinized, and Dr. Dunn penetrates the narrative of Act to unpenetrated the narrative of Acts to uncover the vitality of the earliest communities. Part Three begins with an examinations of Paul's understanding of charisma and charismata and continues with an analysis of his concept of charismatic community. A concluding chapter looks briefly beyond first-generation Christianity into the last decades of the first century. Jesus and the Spirit offers solutions to several standing problems of New Testament research and demonstrates how light can be shed on New Testament theology by a sympathetic study of the religious experience behind it.
0664208045
75009802
Jesus Christ--Spiritual life.
Bible.--New Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Spiritual life--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600. Experience (Religion)--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600. Spiritual life--Biblical teaching. Gifts, Spiritual--Biblical teaching. Holy Spirit--Biblical teaching.