Description: Fee offers a fresh and in-depth exegesis of every Spirit text in the Pauline corpus. Part Two synthesizes the analysis presented in Part One into a coherent invitation to consider the Holy Spirit’s crucial role in Pauline theology.

Author Information: Gordon D. Fee is Professor of New Testament at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is the author of numerous works, including "The First Epistle to the Corinthians" (New International Commentary), "1 and 2 Timothy, Titus"(New International Biblical Commentary), and, with Douglas Stuart, "How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth."

"Seldom does one find such a satisfying treatment of a theological topic so solidly based on serious and thorough exegetical analysis. In his study of the New Testament Fee recognizes and takes seriously the fact that Paul experienced the reality of the Spirit's empowering presence in his life and in the life of the church. Comprehensive in its scope, this scholarly volume speaks to pastors, students, and other church leaders as well as to the academic community. It is a good book that will do good."

"Fee's book is the most comprehensive treatment available of Paul's understanding of the Holy Spirit, a topic that has rarely received sufficient attention in studies of Pauline theology. Fee's method is exemplary: he first analyzes Paul's statements about the Spirit, in each individual letter, then moves to a synthesis of Paul's general pneumatology. The result is a book that is deeply exegetical, doing justice both to the particularity of Paul's writings and to the fundamental unity of his vision for the Spirit's role in the life of the Christian community. Most importantly, Fee emphasizes insistently that the Holy Spirit must be experienced as a living presence within the church. That message is both faithful to Paul and urgent for the community of faith in our time."

"With the energy and care that is a trademark of his work, Gordon Fee here fills a significant gap in Pauline Studies. Both those who find talk about the Holy Spirit congenial and those who would happily marginalize it will be instructed by this book. Fee makes a genuine contribution as he examines Paul's letters in conversation with both the exegetical tradition of the academy and the pressing needs of the church."

"... Fee's work offers an enduring encyclopedia of Pauline pneumatological exegesis, easy to consult for next Sunday's sermon, yet substantial enough to take its place near George Ladd's Theology of the New Testament as a must-have, within arms' reach for serious interpreters of Paul's gospel. . . . Fee's work is the theological crown of a distinguished exegetical career."

"Our appreciation of the Holy Spirit in Paul—both in academic and larger church circles— has long needed thorough exegetical and theological analysis. By focusing on careful examination of every Pauline text related to the Spirit, Gordon Fee has helpfully filled this lacuna."

"Students of Paul's letters and theology have long been in need of a major scholarly investigation of his treatment of the Spirit. By providing such an investigation with the same high standards of scholarship and skills of communication exhibited in his outstanding commentary on 1 Corinthians, and by doing so with an eye on the present renewed interest in the work of the Spirit in the church, Gordon Fee has put us doubly in his debt. His effective combination of thorough and robust exegesis with invigorating theological reflection that views Paul's experience of and concern with the Spirit from an eschatological and Trinitarian perspective drives home what we should have known—that the Spirit is far more central to Paul's thought than most of his interpreters have recognized. Fee's comprehensive and challenging new study will be appreciated not only by professional interpreters of Paul but by all who have a serious interest in the biblical resources for spiritual renewal."