Kingdom Come

In this groundbreaking work, Liston tackles admirably the thus far unexplored use of Third Article Theology as a lens for exploring the relationship between the church of Christ and the kingdom of God. Most impressively, Liston does not only accomplish this task with scholarly depth, clarity, and maturity, but also in a pastoral way that winsomely invites the church on a Spirit-led journey to imagine, experience, and practice even now her own transformation into the image of God's coming kingdom. A tour de force!

-- Leo Sanchez, Concordia Seminary, USA

Karl Barth famously referred in his final years to the possibility of a theology of the Holy Spirit. Greg Liston has answered the call here with an ecclesiology taking its rise from the third article of the creed, that of the Spirit. His book is both stimulating and provocative, and it will no doubt spur the church onwards as it reflects on the work of the Spirit and its own identity and task in the third millennium.

-- Kimlyn J. Bender, Baylor University, USA

Using the Holy Spirit as his lens, Liston grants us a challenging view of the church as the anticipation of the Kingdom of God to come. Anyone who reads this will never view the nature and mission of the church the same way again.

-- Frank D. Macchia, Bangor University, UK

Third Article Theology has been making inroads into contemporary theology for some time and with this work it speaks into areas previously overlooked. Kingdom Come offers readers something unique: a perspective on the Church, the Spirit, and the eschaton in equipoise and one that manages to speak into the present ecclesiological chaos with an ordered word of the Spirit. Liston starts at the end and works backwards in order for the rest of us to start where we are and move forward. Kingdom Come offers insight and hope to the Body of Christ as we see how the Spirit is guiding the Church to its intended telos and is transforming it in the process. Bringing Christ and Church, Spirit and Kingdom together, and starting with eschatology, is a masterstroke the rest of us can benefit from.

-- Myk Habets, Laidlaw College, New Zealand

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. This saying applies to Gregory Liston’s book, where he not only offers a systematic-theological reconstruction of an eschatological ecclesiology through the lens of a comprehensive pneumatology, but also shows how the apostle Paul addressed the followers of Jesus in Corinth from a similarly constructed point of view. And it tastes good! This is how systematic theology should be done, not in isolation from biblical scholarship, but in direct conversation with the bible! In doing so, Liston presents a great example of what David Tracy called analogical imagination.

-- Cornelis van der Kooi, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

Recent years have seen a greater emphasis on understanding the significance of the third article of the creed not only for accounts of the Holy Spirit but as a dogmatic res from which to build other theological loci. This book shows the fascinating and generative results that come about when the intersections of pneumatology, eschatology and ecclesiology are explored in a richly theological and biblical way.

-- Tom Greggs, University of Aberdeen, UK

The Christian Church is a work in progress, a community being formed to participate in the coming kingdom of God. In this penetrating analysis of how that transformation takes place Greg Liston draws our attention to the vital role of the Spirit who makes Christ present and draws into the Church’s present life anticipations of the kingdom that will one day be realised in full. More than just a theory, this book offers practical guidance on how the Spirit is at work among us.

-- Murray Rae, University of Otago, New Zea