A Spirit Christology

“With deep sensitivity to and understanding of the Pentecostal tradition, Skip Jenkins proposes a constructive Pentecostal and incarnational Spirit Christology. The proto-Pentecostal and Scottish pastor, Edward Irving, is the foundation and inspiration for Jenkins’ endeavor. Articulating the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit vis-à-vis the Spirit’s role in the incarnate life of Christ, Jenkins gives the Holy Spirit a major role in redemption, which is sometimes not found in alternative Christian traditions. Jenkins shows, nonetheless, that a Christological structure—the five-fold gospel—frames the hallmark of the Pentecostalism—the experience of Spirit baptism. Although focused on developing Pentecostal theology, Jenkins’ purpose is ecumenical, not parochial. Based on the theological categories of a Pentecostal and incarnational Spirit Christology, he integrates the traditional Pentecostal emphasis on holiness of life and power for mission as well as dialogues with the wider Christian communities. Historical, systematic, constructive, and ecumenical, this book is an important contribution to the growing field of Pentecostal academic theology.” —Steven M. Studebaker, Associate Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology and Howard and Shirley Bentall Chair in Evangelical Thought, McMaster Divinity College
"Skip Jenkins offers the first explicit proposal of a Pentecostal and incarnational Spirit Christology. What is distinctive about the Pentecostal approach is the primacy given both to the experience of the Spirit and to the thematic predominance of the Christological image in the Pentecostal full gospel narrative. Jenkins highlights the mutual conditioning of pneumatology and Christology, linking concerns for trinitarian theology, holiness and power, and the life of the church, above all by taking seriously Edward Irving’s theology concerning the humanity of Christ as fallen flesh and the anointing of Christ with the Holy Spirit. The result is a systematic, constructive, and charismatic Spirit Christology that represents ecumenical Pentecostal theology at its finest!" —Wolfgang Vondey, Reader in Contemporary Christianity and Pentecostal Studies and Director of the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies, University of Birmingham