Abstract
There are a number of reasons why the illumination or witness of the Holy Spirit is needed if humanity is to understand the meaning of the Bible and be certain of its truth. It could be argued that one of the reasons the special working of the Holy Spirit is needed is that people require certainty with respect to divine matters. In this interdisciplinary book, Johnson T. K. Lim brings together leading scholars from history, theology, and education, including professors and researchers, and ministers and laity from different institutions and denominations to engage in pneumatological issues. The book expressly deals with the Holy Spirit, traversing biblical, theological, historical, ecclesiastical, and practical points of view. The volume covers topics that reflect on biblical narratives, universal trends, prayer, worship, discipleship, preaching, church growth, mission, healing, servant leadership, mentoring, and spiritual discernment. It is a variegated overview of the Holy Spirit in connection with homiletics, hermeneutics, church history, the Bible, the workplace, and pneumatology.
The title of the book is intentionally ambiguous. ‘Unfinished agenda’ is a phrase describing a project whose completion is awated in the future. The title could suggest that a book about the Holy Spirit is, by its very nature, always an incomplete project. Alternatively, it could denote that the Holy Spirit has a project in the world to accomplish. The ambiguity in the title reflects the subject matter of the book very accurately. The book sets out to address issues about the Holy Spirit that have not been understood or appropriated by the church. Anthony C. Thiselton observes that the church has expounded most of the biblical insights about the Holy Spirit through the centuries, ‘but not all of these have been fully understood or appropriated by church people or among wilder perceptions’ (p. xxiii). To understand what the Holy Spirit does, we now need to examine more closely what the Bible has to say about the human condition, particularly the lack of ability to recognize and understand truth without the aid of the Spirit.
The essays in the book could be seen as introductory in nature given their relative brevity. They are, however, informative and serve as gateways to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Any scholar wanting background information on the Holy Spirit will find this book very helpful.