DESCRIPTION
Series: Pentecostal Manifestos (PM)A pneumatological, Pentecostal-friendly theology of justification by faith -- broadly Trinitarian, ecclesiological, and eschatological in orientationThe classic debate on justification by grace through faith has historically been limited to the question of whether justification is the reception of forgiveness by faith alone (classically Protestant) or the personal transformation that occurs as we cooperate with grace (traditionally Catholic). While some more recent ecumenical discussions have sought to link the two, many of these efforts have been criticized as patchwork solutions that do not develop precisely how forgiveness and personal transformation via grace find integration under the larger notion of the justification of the sinner. Frank Macchia here seeks to fill that lacuna.
Inspired by the typically Pentecostal accent on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
Justified in the Spirit sets both Protestant and Catholic views within a larger framework, namely, the Spirit of Life as the realm of God's favor. Since the Holy Spirit is the power of love and communion within the Trinity and between us and God, a pneumatological accent ultimately locates the justification of the sinner within the embrace of the Triune God as a communion of persons. Therefore, the Christological, ecclesiological, social, and ecological implications of justification can be fruitfully developed from the broad spaces of this Trinitarian communion.
In identifying divine favor with the realm of the Holy Spirit, Macchia here constructs a unique pneumatological theology of justification by faith that is broadly Trinitarian, ecclesiological, and eschatological in orientation.
REVIEWS
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen
— University of Helsinki
"In recent years exciting developments in biblical, historical, ecumenical, and systematic studies of the traditional doctrine of the justification by faith have taken place; however, these different fields of theological inquiry have not talked to each other in a way that would be able to offer a new integrative vision of what justification by faith might look like in the beginning of the new millennium. Frank Macchia's constructive proposal does all of that and also puts the doctrine of the Spirit in a pnuematological, Trinitarian, and eschatological framework Macchia, a noted systematician and ecumenist, also gleans from his own Pentecostal tradition in his intriguing revisioning and reorientation of this major soteriological concept."
William G. Rusch
— Yale Divinity School
"The doctrine of justification is recognized as a critical element in Christian teaching. Its status and meaning have divided Catholics and Protestants for centuries. Macchia, sensitive to the present ecumenical context, argues persuasively that Christian teaching about the Spirit (pneumatology) has much to offer for a correct understanding of justification. His conclusions are a significant contribution to the present discussion and have ecumenical implications that demand careful reflection. We have here a book of singular consequence."
Jürgen Moltmann
— University of Tübingen
"It is a necessary and new perspective to see the justification of the sinner embraced by the life-giving Spirit. Frank D. Macchia's book is a great step forward toward a full Trinitarian concept of salvation. In a truly ecumenical way he brings together the Western forensic understanding and the Eastern Orthodox physical view of grace with the new Pentecostal concept of the indwelling of the Spirit. A rich book full of solutions to old theological problems."
Ralph Del Colle
— Marquette University
"With Macchia's Justified in the Spirit Pentecostal systematic theology has come of age. . . Catholics and Protestants will no longer be able to attribute a secondary role to the Spirit, while Pentecostals will discover the hidden treasures that their movement signifies."