Skip to main content

Seven Spirits Burning

So I have another book today by John Crowder.

This one is called Seven Spirits Burning and is about the seven-fold nature of the Holy Spirit. Some of you may have heard all you wanted to hear. Others have just had their curiosities piqued. Either way, I would say that for the one who wants to learn something, this book is worth the read.

Crowder is detailed. That can be a very good thing, for someone who hadn't just read another book of his. Early on Crowder uses much of his own material from his book Mystical Union. He said he was laying a foundation. I get that as important as well. I wasn't quite sure this was all foundation that needed to be laid for the subject at hand. It felt at points that we'd left this book and entered another. Indeed, I kept checking the covers.

Once we got past the very in-depth review it was very informed. Although there were still parts where it felt like rabbit trails, albeit smaller ones, were taken. But in the end, the book is organized much like the Menorah. It all points to Christ and has mirror images on either side, something Crowder says is representative of the sevenfold nature of the Holy Spirit.

Crowder breaks down each chapter by explaining the different facets of the Holy Spirit. It is based on this scripture from Isaiah


The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—  Isaiah 11:2

As always he uses plenty of scripture to back up his ideas. While a lot of it seems harmless, there are a few times when I feel like the interpretation is more to back up his own idea than to support what is really said.

My guess is that fans of John Crowder will love this book. Skeptics will find reasons to be skeptical. I find myself comfortably inbetween. There is much to learn and another perspective is always good.

I received this book from my good friends at SpeakEasy. You can learn more about Crowder, and Mike Morrell (of SpeakEasy) and his thoughts on Crowder at the following links.

John’s online home: http://www.thenewmystics.com/

An example of John Crowder’s good-news bottom-line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOcWH-VkudE (How you respond to this is a good gauge to how you’ll like the books)
The first installment of Mike's blog series on Crowder three years ago – much has changed, much has stayed the same: http://zoecarnate.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/charismatic-chaos-or-holy-spirited-deconstruction/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Studies on the Go...Genesis

To be honest, I had not heard of Studies On The Go before being offered a review copy by my god friends at Youth Worker. But since I’m always looking out for study ideas, I said yes to this opportunity. Studies On The Go by Laurie Polich-Short has 30 studies. This particular edition is on the book of Genesis. Any book of the Bible can be daunting when you’re trying to interest and impact teenagers. But Genesis increases that difficulty due to the many questions that arise on the topic of creation. On top of that, you have the many stories of questionable characters that we often call heroes of the faith. Each study comes with great questions, not mindless Sunday School questions where every answer is Jesus. They also come with an optional activity to take the lesson a step further and create true impact. Add to that a weekly plan for students to go deeper and you have a winner of a study in one little book. If all the book studies are as well done as this one, I’d ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Are You Capable Of?

I fancy myself to be just like Batman...without the money, the cave, the vendetta, the car and the cool belt. Other than that, we're pretty much the same guy. Does it help my case that I have a boy wonder? It's my son, but I'd take him over a dude in green tights any day. I've also imagined myself to be similar to Superman...you know, but without the super strength, speed, or that thing he can do with his eyes. Oh, and I'm also not from another planet. But he was a reporter and I like to write, though that hasn't been proven much by my blog. At least, not compared to what I used to write. The first time I write this post, it sounded like an apology. But that's not really the message I want to convey. Yes, I wish I were posting more. I also wish I had super strength or a cool utility belt, but those things aren't happening right now either. Maybe some day . The truth is I have been keeping busy. I'm not sitting back, sipping lemonade. I've never c...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Facebook Maybe

Granted, I'm a pastor. I have Type-A tendencies. Ok, my tendencies border on freakish OCD behavior patterns, but... Few things bother me more than the Facebook 'maybe'. I suppose I could go on and on about the grey areas of our society and the refusal of people to accept absolute standards. I could discuss the great need of people to accept that what is wrong for one person is likely wrong for everyone. I should certainly be concerned about mentioning that someone might have sin in their life. But I don't believe the Facebook 'maybe' is quite sin. Perhaps if I were coming up with new sins, I would add this to the list. But alas... Some might think the Facebook 'maybe' did not exist prior to the Internet, but they would be wrong. When I was in high school and asked a girl out on a date, I would normally be told that if they had no other plans, if nobody else called them, if there was nothing good on television and their hair did not need washing, then per...
5 comments
Read more