This engrossing book will quickly capture your attention as you realize the excitement leading up to this festive occasion and the richness it will bring to your understanding of both the Old and New Testament references. The authors treat us to the sense of anticipation that "cannot be overstated" as their insightful account of traditions leading up to this holiday unfolds...a boy's first haircut, bonfires, sweet treats, artful paper cutting, firstfruits. Shavnot will lead believers in Jesus into greater understanding of the significance of the omer, the waiting period, which foreshadows our watching for His return and gives further meaning to our work of building His kingdom.

Through a systematic analysis of the conflicts emerging when the public church encounters the public world, The Scandal of Pentecost argues that the public advent of the church stands in continuity with the public scandal of the incarnate and crucified Christ. The book traces the contours of this scandal in the confrontation of the dominant ruling hermeneutic of authority with a Christian hermeneutic of resistance. This highlights the brokenness of the human condition manifested by the church in the drunkenness of the disciples, the speaking in other tongues, the baptism with the Spirit, the empowerment of the flesh, and its public witness to a scandalized world. The effects of the scandal transform both the disciples' individual and communal witness and their public recognition as the church. Through the lens of a symbolic hermeneutic, the public witness of the church at Pentecost reveals a Christian scandal of anthropological proportions: with the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh the church emerges as the symbol of humanity.

In From Pentecost to the Triune God Steven Studebaker puts forth a provocative Pentecostal Trinitarian theology, arguing that the Holy Spirit completes the fellowship of the triune God and therefore shapes the identities of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, Studebaker maintains, is not simply a passive end-product of a procession from the Father and Son but, rather, a dynamic person who plays an active role in the Trinity and a constitutional, consummational role in the history of redemption. In the course of his study, Studebaker shows the theological yield of the Pentecostal experience of the Holy Spirit and uncovers the biblical narratives of the Spirit from creation to Pentecost. A constructive and ecumenical contribution to Trinitarian theology, From Pentecost to the Triune God also engages major historical and contemporary figures such as Augustine, the Cappadocians, Weinandy, and Zizioulas, as well as representatives from the evangelical and charismatic traditions. Finally, Studebaker applies his Pentecostal Trinitarian theology to the theology of religions and creation care, proposing that Christians embrace an inclusive posture toward people of other religious traditions and have an earth orientation that sees creation care as Christian formation.

Dr. R. Hollis Gause has been Professor of Theological and New Testament Studies at Lee University and the Church of God Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, for many years, and his huge contribution to Pentecostal scholarship is held in high regard internationally. His influential life and ministry, as well as his teaching and scholarship, are here celebrated in his 85th year by many of his colleagues and former students. Contributors are: Contributions: K.E. Alexander, L.R. Martin, R.D. Moore, J.M. Beaty, J.A. Adewuya, J.C. Thomas, K.J. Archer, S.-E. Han, T.L. Johns, D.G. Roebuck, J.P. Bowers, C. Bridges Johns, C.R. Cason, M.O. McMahan, D.W. Slocumb, R.E. Waldrup.

The power to witness effectively in these troubled times is the basis for this book in which Speaks challenges today's church to offer more than pep pills of personal piety, laxatives of racial tolerance, and the surgery of social revolution. Speaks dares the church to build temples of love on the dung hills of hate, to build a new community of brotherhood upon the shifting sands of racism, and to build a new society of peace upon the wastelands of human strife.

An examination of the evidence that the Festival of Weeks was the occasion for the celebration of the renewal of the covenant in the Second Temple period, encompassing chapters on the Hebrew Bible, book of Jubilees, Qumran Scrolls, and the New Testament (Luke-Acts and Ephesians).