In most parts of the world and especially where Christianity is flourishing, Pentecostal and charismatic movements predominate. What would it look like for the Western world—beset by the narrative of decline—to participate in this global Spirit-driven movement? According to Amos Yong, it all needs to start with the way we approach theological education.
Renewing the Church by the Spirit makes the case for elevating pneumatology in Christian life, allowing the Spirit to reinvigorate church and mission. Yong shows how this approach would attend to both the rapidly deinstitutionalizing forms of twenty-first-century Christianity and the pressing need for authentic spiritual experiences that marks contemporary religious life. He begins with a broad assessment of our postmodern, post-Enlightenment, post-Christendom ecclesial context, before moving into a detailed outline of how a Spirit-filled approach to theological education—its curriculum, pedagogy, and scholarship—can meet the ecclesial and missional demands of this new age.