I found, “Paul, the Spirit and the People of God” by Gordon Fee (Hendrickson, 1996) to be a fascinating read. Fee has explained much of the theology of the Holy Spirit as outlined in Paul’s writing. He has presented fresh insights and brought perceptive to much of Paul’s understanding of the Holy Spirit. Coming from a conservative background myself I realize how little teaching I have received on the Holy Spirit and my theology was poorer because of this.
One area I found particularly enlightening was in regard to the fact that Paul’s teaching was initially intended to address first generation Christians. However in our culture we are often addressing second, third, fourth generation Christians and we don’t realize the difference this makes to the way we ought to present our message. Paul was also writing to deal with problems that had arisen in the early church and not presenting a systematic theology. We need to read his letters with this in mind.
I particularly liked the way Fee concluded his book as he encouraged us back to a more Biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit and how we can better communicate this to those who have been brought up in a Christian environment.
