Chris E W Green

What sort of experience of grace does the Holy Spirit give Pentecostals when they celebrate the Eucharist? This book aims to answer that question by investigating Holy Communion through a "Pentecostal spirituality" framework and process known as search-encounter-transformation. Doing so enriches the theology and spirituality of Pentecostalism and broadens its understanding of the journey of salvation. The author argues that the invocation of the Spirit in the Eucharist (the epiclēsis) grants the church a pneumatological imagination, enabling it to properly remember (the anamnēsis) the work of Christ. The outcome of remembering will be to see the Eucharist as a meal of solidarity and justice, a meal that manages the hunger of the world, a meal that offers healing, a meal for missional nourishment, a meal reorienting eschatology by providing a preview of the restoration of all things (apokatastasis) in the wedding supper of the Lamb. Ultimately, this book encourages Pentecostals to desire a weekly celebration of the Eucharist in order to become truly Pentecostal

What sort of experience of grace does the Holy Spirit give Pentecostals when they celebrate the Eucharist? This book aims to answer that question by investigating Holy Communion through a "Pentecostal spirituality" framework and process known as search-encounter-transformation. Doing so enriches the theology and spirituality of Pentecostalism and broadens its understanding of the journey of salvation. The author argues that the invocation of the Spirit in the Eucharist (the epiclēsis) grants the church a pneumatological imagination, enabling it to properly remember (the anamnēsis) the work of Christ. The outcome of remembering will be to see the Eucharist as a meal of solidarity and justice, a meal that manages the hunger of the world, a meal that offers healing, a meal for missional nourishment, a meal reorienting eschatology by providing a preview of the restoration of all things (apokatastasis) in the wedding supper of the Lamb. Ultimately, this book encourages Pentecostals to desire a weekly celebration of the Eucharist in order to become truly Pentecostal

The Fire and the Cloud is a non-supersessionist biblical Christology developed from close readings of Israel's Scriptures. In this work, the second in a trilogy that began with All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology, Chris E. W. Green tracks the recurrent and interwoven themes of exile, journey, and return across the canonical order, beginning with the story of Cain's exile and ending with the homecoming of Naomi and Ruth. He examines crucial passages and their significance in later Jewish and Christian interpretations, reckoning honestly with the history of Christian anti-Jewishness and reminding us of the good news that the nations are being grafted into the people of God. Beginning to end, Green's figural--indeed, mystical--Christology lays itself open to the mysterious and transformative power of imaginative exegesis, seeking both to honor Israel's unique, ongoing vocation as the people of God and to honor the church's faith in and witness to Jesus, striving not to impose a dead image of him onto the ancient texts but to recognize his living likeness in their Spirit-inspired movements. Green believes such interpretation is necessary and necessarily difficult, requiring us to read both with and against the grain of our convictions and commitments, expecting and allowing the biblical texts to teach us what we did not know we needed to learn differently. This is so, he argues, because a biblical Christology, if it is to be true to its purposes, must be capable of surprising us as the living word of the living Christ--confronting us in judgment, decentering us in praise, and sweeping us up into the covenant-making work of the Spirit for the sake of the nations.

This volume focuses on the relationship of prophecy and reconciliation, within the frame of Pentecostal hermeneutics. These themes have been prominent throughout Rickie D. Moore's work and this collection celebrates his life and academic career-as a professor of Old Testament, a specialist in the prophetic literature, a leading voice in the development of Pentecostal hermeneutics, and an influential figure of the Cleveland School of Pentecostal theology.The editors and contributors of this volume represent a small selection of Moore's mentors (Walter Brueggemann and James Crenshaw), his colleagues (Lee Roy Martin, John Christopher Thomas, Blaine Charette, Amos Yong, Kimberly Alexander, and Chris Green), and former students (Caroline Reddick, Robby Waddell, Jesse Stone, David Johnson, Daniela Augustine, and Casey Cole). Their words testify to the deep, far-reaching effects of his teaching and his presence.The essays are gathered into three main sections: the first two deal explicitly with a close reading of biblical texts from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and the last deals with the theological issues that emerge in consideration of prophetic awareness and action and the hope of intergenerational reconciliation. Moore pioneered an integrative approach to reading and teaching the Scriptures, keenly aware of his own theological and spiritual inheritance as a Pentecostal and deeply committed to the life-altering power of sacred study, skillfully blending critical self-reflection and testimony with rigorous scholarship.

God calls humans to be creative. The human drive to represent transcendent truths witnesses to the fact that we are destined to be transfigured and to transfigure the world. It is worth asking, then, what truthful representations, whether in art, spirituality, or theology, teach us about the one who is our truth, the one who made us and the one in whose image we are made. All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology is an experimental and constructive aesthetic Christology sourced by close readings of a wide array of artistic works, canonical and popular-including poems, films, essays, novels, plays, short stories, sculptures, icons, and paintings-as well as art criticism and passages from the Christian Scriptures. From first to last, these readings engage in conversation with the deep, broad wisdom of the Christian theological tradition. The liturgical calendar guides the themes of the book, beginning with Advent and Christmas; carrying through Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension; and ending with Pentecost and Ordinary Time.Chris Green brings together these readings to create a mosaic-like impression of Jesus as the one through whom God graces and gives nature to all things, his life and death redeeming the whole creation, including human creativity and artistic endeavor, and transfiguring it into the full, free flourishing that God has purposed. This vision of Christ holds promise for artists and theologians, as well as preachers and teachers, revealing how our compulsions to create-and the meanings with which we endow our creations-become a site of the Spirit's presence, opening us to the goodness and wildness of God.

In this constructive monograph, Pentecostal theologian Chris Green offers an alternative to the standard Evangelical models of Scripture and scriptural hermeneutics. Instead of beginning with the usual epistemological questions about how the biblical texts can be understood as God's Word, Green's work begins with soteriological concerns: how does God use the Scripture in readying the church to fulfill her calling? And how are we to read the Scripture so that we are drawn along by the Spirit into Christlikeness? Green explores the profound and dynamic interrelatedness of vocation, holiness, and the interpretation of Scripture. Through close readings of biblical texts and searching engagement with the church's spiritual and theological traditions, he develops a model that creates room for God to use the always difficult and sometimes overwhelming work of interpreting of the Scriptures to form the people of God for faithful and sanctifying participation in the divine mission. This Second Edition is substantially revised throughout and includes more than 50 pages of new material, which enhances the discussion at many points. Also new are biblical interpretations that illustrate the heart of Green's significant and engaging proposal.

This book explores the deep and abiding human need for contemplation, for coming to terms with and standing in awe of the nature and character of the God revealed in the Scriptures. When so much is wrong in the world, when our lives are troubled by so many threats, both real and imagined, we must learn to look to God and to see all things, including ourselves, in the light of who he is. A life of faithful contemplation begins to free us from the bad desires, false expectations, and corrupting illusions that bind us against our will and keep us from the fullness promised in the gospel. ""I wouldn't hesitate to rank Chris Green's Surprised by God among the great spiritual classics. Although such an endorsement for a new book may appear to be hyperbolic, I do not intend it as an exaggeration. Drawing on contemporary spiritual luminaries as well as a wide array of ancient thinkers--Mothers and Fathers of the church--Green weaves together a spiritual reflection on God that is as timely as it is outstanding."" --Robby Waddell, Southeastern University Chris E. W. Green is Associate Professor of Theology at Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, TN and Teaching Pastor at Sanctuary Church in Tulsa, OK.

Robert Jenson has been praised by Stanley Hauerwas, David Bentley Hart, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and others as one of the most creative and important contemporary theologians. But his work is daunting for many, both because of its conceptual demands and because of Jenson's unusual prose style. This book is an attempt to give Jenson the kind of hearing that puts his creativity and significance on display, and allows newcomers to and old friends of his theology the opportunity to hear it afresh. ""We have needed an introduction to Jenson's theology. In this concise and clear volume, Chris Green opens a door onto the grand vision of God's story that animates Jenson's proclamations. Patient with Jenson's pithiness, Green presents the accomodating and generous rendition of the gospel driving his theology--hearing Christ's life as a word so alluring that it could only be music."" --Stephen John Wright, Lecturer in Christian Theology, Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, England ""The late Robert Jenson was one of the most stimulating, provocative theologians of his generation. He was also one of the most misunderstood. That's partly a result of the density of Jenson's aphoristic style, his refusal to say what he did not mean. It's mostly due to the radical metanoia--change of mind, repentance--his theology demands. If the gospel is true, then we have to think again about everything. Most of us don't have the intellect or courage to make the attempt. Jenson did, and Chris Green's superb introduction to Jenson's theology will solidify his reputation as a great theologian of the evangel."" --Peter Leithart, President, Theopolis Institute, Birmingham, Alabama Chris E.W. Green is Associate Professor of Theology at Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Teaching Pastor at Sanctuary Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is the author of Foretasting the Kingdom (2012) and Sanctifying Interpretation (2015).