Abstract
Jack Levison is the W. J. A. Power Professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew in the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He has authored or contributed to dozens of books for both scholarly and popular audiences. In addition to numerous articles, A Boundless God is Levison’s seventh book on pneumatology, which will be accompanied later in 2020 by his An Unconventional God: The Spirit According to Jesus (Baker Academic).
Since the language and questions of Levison’s pneumatology are not identical to those of students of spiritual formation, A Boundless God may run the risk of largely remaining confined to readers of titles in biblical studies. If that is the case, readers from other disciplines (especially spiritual formation) will miss the opportunity for a rewarding engagement with this text. Even if Levison’s questions arise from a different academic starting point than the common questions of spiritual formation, readers cannot miss the shared focus on the spirit among Levison’s pneumatology and explorations of spiritual formation.
Some readers will quickly notice Levison’s choice (consistent throughout A Boundless God and elsewhere) not to capitalize “spirit.” Rather than implying any kind of demotion of the third person of the Trinity, which some readers may fear on encountering this, Levison’s choice is exegetically based. This reflects his attempt to preserve the nuances of the original languages, whose terms for “spirit” do not reflect the kinds of dichotomies inherent in English translations. This insight points to the kind of valuable questions for spiritual formation raised by Levison’s work on pneumatology, such as: In what ways could it matter for our theory and praxis of spiritual formation that the writers of the Old Testament used a single term, rùaḥ, to refer to “breath,” “wind,” and “spirit” (whether of God or humans)?
Levison introduces his book by highlighting “the dominance of rùaḥ” (3) with regard to the frequency of its usage throughout the Old Testament. He argues that the 389 occurrences of rùaḥ “lie at the base of the Jewish scriptures,” (4) while other important Hebrew nouns are used much less frequently—such as the number of occurrences of the terms for “covenant” (287 uses), “Torah” (223 uses), or “Sabbath” (111 uses). Despite the prevalence of rùaḥ, Levison notes the “near absence of the Old Testament” in studies of pneumatology (4), and offers his book as an attempt to fill that void.
While his comparative analysis is helpful, a potential objection to Levison’s characterization of “the dominance of rùaḥ” is that it disregards the much greater frequency of other key Hebrew nouns, such as the terms for “nation” (561 uses), “slave” (800 uses), or “king” (2523 uses). However, if the reader can accept Levison’s point that rùaḥ is underemphasized relative to its prevalence, the remainder of the study remains exceptionally informative.
Levison organizes the body of the book in eight chapters around verbs associated with the spirit in the Old Testament: (1) blowing and breathing, (2) coming upon, (3) resting upon, (4) passed on, (5) poured out, (6) filling, (7) cleansing, and (8) standing and guiding. The variety of verbs indicated is indicative of the breadth of ways that rùaḥ is described in its occurrences throughout the Hebrew Bible. Some of these actions of rùaḥ and their respective biblical passages will be familiar, such as the first mention of rùaḥ in the Bible, when the Spirit/wind of God hovered/swept/moved/blew over the waters of creation. In his work with familiar passages, Levison consistently expands the reader’s comprehension of the Hebrew understanding of rùaḥ and of the actions of the spirit in the world. Alongside his exposition of familiar passages, a strength of Levison’s writing is his ability to expose the reader to more surprising (sometimes even troubling) biblical descriptions of the spirit’s actions. An example is Levison’s treatment of the association of the spirit with violence in the book of Judges, such as when the spirit “rushes upon” Samson, followed in each instance by Samson’s acts of brutality. Readers will appreciate how Levison introduces these surprising passages, connects them with the overall biblical narrative, and wrestles honestly with them. In the cases of the spirit and violence in Judges, he acknowledges the disturbing nature of the biblical descriptions: “Troubling is the only way to characterize the possible association of the spirit with liberation in the book of Judges” (41).
Although Levison avoids the temptation of a neatly packaged closure to his exploration, the overview of his observations described in the book’s conclusion provides a valuable synthesis. In a section titled “Beyond Spirituality,” he briefly revisits the respective emphases of each chapter, noting the often underemphasized public and communal nature of the work of God’s spirit. In the familiar and comforting passages as well as the surprising and troubling biblical descriptions of rùaḥ, Levison reminds readers who seek to be formed by the spirit of God that “when the spirit comes upon an individual, what occurs is public…The spirit does not kindle a private devotion” (174). One may deduce from such a statement that Levison’s study does not directly reflect a “contemplative” or “mystical” approach to the spirit’s work, such as is central to much contemporary theory and praxis of spiritual formation. However, this does not mean that Levison’s pneumatology excludes the importance of an individual’s prayerful study and reflection. As exemplified in his chapter on “Spirit Filling,” a consistent theme across his writings on pneumatology is the connection between learning and inspiration. He explores the biblical examples and states that “there is no gulf, no chasm at all, between life in the spirit and a lifetime of learning. Education and inspiration reinforce one another” (121).
Furthermore, addressing the nature of the public and the private in the work of the spirit, Levison’s chapter on “Spirit Cleansing” includes an enlightening study of the four occurrences of rùaḥ in the personal prayer of repentance of Psalm 51. Levison emphasizes that even this psalm, via its traditional ascription to King David, shows “how an intensely private poem could have intensely public consequences” (177). Perhaps Levison’s most critical contribution for students of spiritual formation is his ability to describe this natural biblical unity of the inward cultivation of cooperation with the spirit and the accompanying public and collective impact. His exegesis leaves no room for the commonly assumed duality between spiritual formation and mission.
A Boundless God sits alongside Levison’s other works on pneumatology, providing a significant contribution toward greater clarity regarding the biblical descriptions of spirit and the formation process to which this journal is dedicated. The work is well researched and will be a valuable resource for pastors and teachers. Furthermore, given Levison’s writing ability, it will be a helpful and accessible guide for small groups in the church and students seeking to study the spirit in the Old Testament or the spirit’s work in spiritual formation.