Ebook
What difference does the Spirit make in the life of Jesus and in our lives? Answering that question without doing away with the divine dignity of Christ has been a challenge in the distant and recent past. But this need not be the case. The current work is a contribution to the growing field of Spirit Christology, which seeks to enrich the classic Logos Christology of the ecumenical Councils with a Spirit-oriented trajectory. Sanchez tests the productivity of a Spirit Christology as a theological lens for assessing the main events of Jesus' life and mission, accounts of the atonement, the significance of the incarnation, the concepts of person and relation, and models of the Trinity. Seeing Christ as the privileged locus of the Spirit also has implications for the church's life in the Spirit. Sanchez shows how a Spirit Christology fosters Christian practices such as proclamation, prayer, and sanctification. Among the highlights of this work the reader will note the author's assessment of early church fathers' readings of the place of the Spirit in the anointing of Jesus, a constructive proposal towards the complementarity of Logos and Spirit Christologies, ecumenical engagement with various theological traditions in the East and the West, and the first constructive assessment of the field informed by the Lutheran tradition.
"Sanchez has written a bold, insightful, and substantial book on
Jesus' relation to the Spirit as a paradigm for spirituality and
ecclesiology. This work by a Lutheran Latino scholar shows the
breadth and applicability of a trinitarian Spirit Christology and
delivers on the promised theme of showing Jesus as the receiver,
bearer, and giver of the Spirit. The way Sanchez applies this
theology to proclamation, prayer, and sanctification is especially
insightful and welcome."
--Myk Habets, Lecturer of Systematic Theology, Carey Baptist
College
"Leo Sanchez proposes a Spirit Christology rooted in the Scriptural
testimony, consistent with the Church's ancient confession, and
rich in implications for the Christian life. Readers will find
faithful but long-neglected ways to conceive of Christ and come
away with insights to think anew about preaching, prayer, and
theology."
--Joel P. Okamoto, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology,
Concordia Seminary
Leopoldo A. Sanchez M. is the Werner R.H. and Elizabeth Ringger Krause Professor of Hispanic Ministries and Director of the Center for Hispanic Studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. He is the author of Receiver, Bearer, and Giver of God's Spirit: Jesus' Life in the Spirit as a Lens for Theology and Life (2015) and Immigrant Neighbors among Us: Immigration across Theological Traditions [co-edited with M. Daniel Carroll R.] (2015)