HEARING THE SPIRIT
Knowing the Father through the Son
By Christopher Ash . Christian Focus Publications. 171 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 845 507 251
One of the benefits of not judging a book by its cover is that you may actually read it!
My advice, straight off the bat, is to ignore the title cover and read on. This a book about the way we understand the Bible, how we hear the Trinitarian God speak definitively in Jesus and authoritatively in Scripture.
As such, it is an important contribution to a key debate which continues to shape the landscape and culture of evangelicalism.
It demonstrates how Christ, through his words, that is the New Testament record of him, and by his Spirit, continues to reveal the Father. Mainly using material from John’s Gospel, the author shows himself as familiar with Martin Luther as he is with Rob Bell, adept at interacting with postmodern theories of textual interpretation and unafraid of taking on such theological luminaries as N.T. Wright and I. Howard Marshall.
It’s rare to read a book which, within the span of a single page, can quote Chrysostom, the New Atheists and Gotthold Lessing without becoming superficial! So you come away positively with a sense that, throughout the entire piece, the author is both living in the 21st century and yet knows how we got here. Helped by study and discussion questions at the end of each chapter, Hearing the Spirit, might be a useful resource for small group study.
It would certainly give those who preach the word publicly a stimulating reminder of the challenge of hearing and proclaiming the message of the Bible with confidence and dependence on the Spirit.
Peter Baker,
senior pastor, Highfields Church, Cardiff
