Anointed Community: The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition

This work is based off Dr. Burge's doctoral dissertation on the Gospel of John. The issue of the existence of a Johannaine community is under some debate - but more importantly Dr. Burge examines how John and the early church viewed the role of and experience of the Spirit in the Christian life. It is scholarly yet accessible. A must read when studying John and his writings. From the back cover: Recent research on the Johannine literature has concluded that behind these writings stand a flourishing community of Christians who lived under the tutelage of the Beloved Disciple, preserved his writings and venerated his memory. In this booke, Gary M. Burge examines one feature of this community's belief and experience: the role of the Spirit in its view both of Christ and of the Christian experience. Burge carefully examines all the Spirit passages in the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles and argues that the Johannine community elevated Spirit-exprience to the forefront of Christian life and found in Christ the model of the Spirit-filled person. Throughly researched and well argued, Burge's systematic study of the pneumatology of John will be valuable to scholars, ministers, and seminary students. Dr. Burge is a professor at Wheaton College.