Author-Gordon D. Fee
Publisher-Wm.B.Eerdmans and Regent College Publishing
ISBN-0-8028-4757-9 and ISBN 1-57383-176-X
Gordon Fee is professor of New Testament Studies in Regent College, Vancouver and is a respected evangelical scholar. He is the author of a number of commentaries and other books, all of which bear the mark of his evangelical heart and the fact that he comes from a Pentecostal background. This particular book would be a useful one for pastors and leaders to have in their libraries. It is a chiefly a series of biblical explorations in to various themes in the writings of the Apostle Paul. He pursues certain subjects concerning church life and leadership and there is a largeheartedness in the way he approaches the biblical text. In some of the studies there is much illumination as he brings together deep spiritual sensitivity, textual exactitude and helpful considerations of the background of the 1st century conditions in which Paul wrote. “The New Testament View of Wealth and Possessions’ is a case in point where he lifts the reader away from simplistic comparisons between being rich or poor, he comes from another perspective, a heavenly one. Especially helpful are a number of chapters in which he examines aspects of church order, these consider the subject of speaking with tongues, eldership and the relationship of the ‘laity’ with the ‘clergy’ and his biblical findings are deeply instructive helping release the reader from the bonds of a form and shape which is not born freshly of the Spirit’s working in our day. Reading some of the chapters in this book might well whet the appetite of those unfamiliar with his writings and lead them to consider obtaining his commentary on the book of Philippians, or that written earlier on the first letter to Corinthians. Probably his ‘magnum opus’ is the book in which he has examined every reference to the Holy Spirit in the writings of the Apostle Paul. This book is called “God’s Empowering Presence’ and is considered by many to be the best work on the Holy Spirit. He does, in all his writings call out words from the text and make them pulsate with fresh light and freshness.
