The Mystery of the Holy Spirit (Book Review)

R.C. Sproul, The Mystery of the Holy Spirit, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1990, ISBN 0-8423-4378-4, pp. 191, $15.

I picked up this book with a lot of hope, looking for light to understand the Holy Spirit and to be better informed about his role in my life. What I found was a well assimilated theological presentation about the Holy Spirit, written in layman’s terms. The author in his introduction specifically states that the ‘book is written for the serious layperson and seeks to avoid undue theological technicalities.’ Indeed it doesn’t emphasize on the theological technicalities but it sure doesn’t omit them. In fact, the author presents the theology of the Holy Trinity and of the Holy Spirit, to some extent, in simple language. His source is mostly biblical but he does make references to the writings of John Calvin, whose theology he obviously endorses. Nevertheless, he strives to present as catholic a view as possible.
The book consists of 10 chapters. The chapters are short and focused on the theme. The book is highly readable on account of its simple, colloquial language. Even the theology doesn’t seem too heavy or hard to grasp. In fact the author comments, right at the outset, that ‘Some sections will require deep thought. Some probe the abstract because it is unavoidable…’ The author does a contradictory statement as he gets carried away with his argument in an attempt to emphasize a point but I suppose it is forgivable so long as it doesn't really impact the presentation. 

‘Because the Spirit is mysterious, we are vulnerable to superstitions and distortions of His person and work. Here we must listen carefully to Scripture as it reveals to us the character of God the Holy Spirit.’ The book makes you feel like you are in a theology classroom. It is very didactic and makes quite a few noteworthy points. I would recommend this book to every Christian serious about their faith and about knowing the Holy Spirit. Seminarians will benefit a good deal from this book at might learn a thing or two about simplicity while teaching. 

     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortatio
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young priest, boys would long for more than just a wekkly encounter with him. They loved him and found in him a friend w
Read more