Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A Re-Examination of the New Testament Teaching on the Gift of the Holy Spirit in Relation to Pentecostalism Today: A ... Spirit in Relation to Pentecostalism Today

In Baptism in the Holy Spirit James Dunn argues that water baptism is only one element in the New Testament pattern of conversion and initiation. The gift of the Spirit, he believes, is the central element. For the writers of the New Testament only those who had received the Holy Spirit could be called Christians. For them, the reception of the Spirit was a very definite and often very dramatic experience - the decisive and climactic experience in conversion-initiation - to which Christians were usually recalled when reminded of their Christian faith and experience.James Dunn uncovers the place of the gift of the Holy Spirit in the total complex event of becoming a Christian. This classic, now in paperback edition, introduces the reader to the most distinctive aspect of Pentecostal theology--baptism in the Holy Spirit. James Dunn sees water-baptism as only one element in the New Testament pattern of conversion and initiation. The gift of the Spirit, he believes, is the central element. WITHIN more radical and pietistic Protestantism there has grown up a tradition which holds that salvation, so far as it may be known in this life, is experienced in two stages: first, the experience of becoming a Christian; then, as a later and distinct event, a second experience of the Holy Spirit. A re-examination of the New Testament teaching on the gift of the Spirit in relation to Pentecostalism today. -- From the backcover