Jesus the Spirit Baptizer

Frank Macchia understands the outpouring of the life-giving Spirit as the fulfillment of Christ's life and mission. And so he rightly interprets the birth, passion, and resurrection of Christ from the perspective of Pentecost. . . . I am grateful for this book. -- Jurgen Moltmann author of The Way of Jesus Christ and The Spirit of Life In this readable and delightful essay on Christology, Frank Macchia contributes his own blossom to the flowering of Pentecostal systematic theology in our time. Ecumenical and grounded in Pentecost, this Christology is at once biblical and academic, creative and traditional. Macchia's salutary critical dialogue with Pannenberg and Barth only serves to deepen his analysis and extend his own creative revisions. -- Alan G. Padgett Luther Seminary A truly inspiring Christology by leading Pentecostal theologian Frank Macchia, who argues that Pentecost is the culminating event of Christ's identity and mission. Macchia unfolds a Spirit-Christology that sheds new light on the saving and ennobling work of Jesus Christ and on the creativity of the triune God. This Christology provides rich nourishment for theological thought and Christian faith. -- Michael Welker University of Heidelberg Frank Macchia has long been at the vanguard of Pentecostal theology as it has engaged the historic Christian theological tradition. This Pentecostal Christology of his reconfigures the entire theological landscape! -- Amos Yong Fuller Theological Seminary Frank Macchia's Jesus the Spirit Baptizer offers a needed corrective to the sad fact of the Holy Spirit's neglect by Christian theology. By depicting Pentecost, not Easter, as the climax of the incarnation, Macchia presents a Trinitarian reading of the Gospel narrative that not only integrates the work of the Son and the Spirit but also offers a robust eschatology full of hopeful anticipation. -- J. Warren Smith Duke Divinity School A perpetual challenge within Christology and pneumatology is the prominent and early claim made by the Baptist in all four Gospels that Jesus was to baptize in the Spirit, yet this language is not picked up again until the beginning of Acts. How can we reconcile such prominence on the one hand and such blatant silence on the other? The answer lies in deliberate, extensive, and creative theological reflection that connects and reconnects all that we know in suggestive and illuminating ways. Few people can succeed at such a task. Frank Macchia not only can but does so masterfully. This book is a true gem, showing that Macchia is one of his generation's most important and capable theologians. -- Daniel Castelo Seattle Pacific University Jesus the Spirit Baptizer constitutes an insightful contribution to the Christological and pneumatological reflection by unfolding the intuition that Christ is best seen in close relationship to the Spirit and from the vantage point of Pentecost, and by offering a comprehensive reading of the Christological moments through that lens. -- Theological Studies Educators of systematic or Pentecostal theology must consider Macchia's vigorous Christology and pneumatology; this work should be required reading for upper division undergrad and master's students. However, beyond our Pentecostal contexts, Macchia, ever the ecumenical theologian, delivers the gift of a Pentecostal worldview. Pentecostals, at their best, do not shortcut Christology for pneumatology. Instead, Macchia's Pentecostal pneumatology provides a more dynamic Christology; thus, it serves an ecumenical vision for unity and common witness. Given Macchia's lifelong commitment to ecumenism, I imagine no higher goal for Macchia than to see his work encourage readers to experience Jesus the Spirit Baptizer living and active among God's people and embodying his mission to a lost and dying world. -- Pneuma Macchia's book opens for us new avenues to understand the gift of the life-giving Spirit as the fulfillment of Christ's life and mission. His interpretation of the birth, ministry, Passion, death, and resurrection of Christ through the lens of Pentecost lends and uncommon dimension to our methodologies in Christology. This highly readable and ecumenically sensitive book is a great gift to student and scholars of theology, especially those engaged in Christology and pneumatology. -- Mission Today The biblical scope and theological learning of Macchia's work is indeed impressive. -- Thomas Weinandy in the International Journal of Systematic Theology