Life in the Spirit

What would the church look like if Christians saw their lives as constituted by the Spirit's presence to live as Jesus lived? In a time when being ""led by the Spirit"" is defined more by achieving the ""American Dream"" than by Jesus's life, answering this question rightly seems all the more critical for the church to survive in a culture increasingly hostile to Christianity. Building upon the work of post-Constantinians John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas and upon the Trinitarian Spirit-Christology of Leopoldo Sanchez, this account of the Christian life provides a framework for seeing one's Christian life as one transformed by the Spirit to live in the resurrection reality of Jesus's sonship with the Father in the Spirit. In the process, one will discover that, for Jesus, being led by the Spirit meant trusting his Father to the point of death on a cross, trusting God to resurrect him even if he did not save him. Should it mean the same for Christians today? If so, this would require the church to reimagine its ministries for the Spirit to work repentance and faith rather than simple agreement. For Christians living in the Spirit, their lives might look very different. ""I don't know of anything more important for the church today than to review those precepts from Jesus's perspective through this book. . . . It is my belief that after reading this book we should examine our lives to see if we line up with what Jesus taught us. Life in the Spirit should be life-transforming and of abundant influence on our society. It is a must for every Christian."" --John Bueno, Chairman of the Board, Global University, Springfield, MO ""Snavely's work is the first attempt to bring the post-Constantinian critique of the church into critical engagement with the field of Spirit Christology. The author favors the countercultural aim of post-Constantinianism to call a church too comfortable in the ways of the world back to living under Jesus's lordship, but he argues that this critique lacks the power to actually move the church toward the repentance and transformation it calls for. Through a creative appropriation of Spirit Christology in a Trinitarian key, Snavely opens up a promising and constructive path to move the conversation forward and gives us some vivid pictures of what life in the Spirit looks like (or should look like) in a church that lives under the cross."" --Leopoldo A. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO ""Christians who believe in Spirit-empowered life should not be intimidated by Spirit-empowered deaths. Christians have been quick to recognize how the Spirit helps us live and slow to rejoice in how the Spirit helps us die, yet a cruciform life is the entry requirement not the retirement award of the Spirit-led Christian. Andrea D. Snavely proposes a proper reading of Jesus' life can be accessed only through his suffering and death. Snavely explains that life in the Spirit, both for Jesus and for his followers, must begin with and be defined by his suffering and death. . . . Snavely's book provides the theological underpinnings for the Live Dead movement. . . . Christians globally need the Spirit's help to both live and die; it is the Spirit alone that empowers us to Live Dead."" --Dick Brogden, Assemblies of God missionary, Cairo, Egypt Andrea Snavely (PhD, Concordia Seminary) is Professor of Bible and Theology at Global University of the Assemblies of God, Springfield, Missouri. He and his wife, Darla, are blessed with a son, Titus, and a daughter, Tessa.