Recommended Reading List


 

William Menzies & Robert Menzies, Spirit and Power: Foundations of Pentecostal Experience

(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000)

“….present a call to evangelical dialogue on issues foundational to Pentecostal beliefs … Approximately half of the book discuses the baptism in the Spirit, its subsequence to conversion, and initial physical evidence… Spirit and Power presents one of the strongest cases for the Pentecostal position on subsequence and initial evidence yet published.”(Enrichment Journal)


Robert Menzies, Pentecost: This Story is Our Story

(Springfield, Mo: The Gospel Publishing House, 2013)

Robert Menzies, writing in the lucid, moderate style for which he is well known, skillfully explains Pentecostal theology. His answer for the uncertain and the confused is a skillful melding of sound hermeneutics, solid exegesis, and heartfelt testimony. Pentecost demonstrates that the Pentecostal experience is by far the best twenty-first-century expression of Luke’s distinctive vision of the Spirit-baptized church in mission. This book is a heartfelt invitation for all Christians to be open to a new filling of the Holy Spirit of Jesus so He can continue to do immeasurably more for and through mere human beings than any of us can ask or even imagine!


Robert Menzies, Making Pentecost Your Story: 50 Days of Reflection and Prayers – A Devotional Companion for Pentecost: This Story is Our Story Inspired by the Church in China

(Xanesti, 2015)

“This amazing book, which flows from decades of personal experience and interaction with Chinese Christians, will help the reader see the Chinese church as it really is….the Biblical truths and spiritual applications from these ‘Book of Acts’ type testimonies are guaranteed to bless and minister to the reader. I highly recommend it.” – Dennis Balcombe


Robert Menzies, The Language of the Spirit: Interpreting and Translating Charismatic Terms

(Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2010)

The latest work by noted New Testament scholar Robert P. Menzies, The Language of the Spirit: Interpreting and Translating Charismatic Terms, treats in successive chapters six key issues that impact the translation of New Testament terms related to the Holy Spirit or charismatic themes. Special attention is given to how specific terms should be translated in the English and Chinese New Testaments….


Robert Menzies, Empowered for Witness: The Spirit in Luke-Acts

(JPTSS 6; JSOT Press, 1994)

With this study, Menzies sets a new standard for pneumatology. Beginning with an overview of the pneumatological perspectives of intertestamental Judaism (including literature from the Diaspora, Palestinian, Qumran and rabbinic sources), the first section concludes that for the most part these sources “consistently identify experience of the Spirit with prophetic inspiration.” The next section aims to uncover Luke’s distinctive pneumatology, employing a redaction critical method of analysis in order to illustrate Luke’s similarly consistent portrayal of the Spirit as the source of prophetic inspiration, rather than as the source of Christian existence. The final section…


Wonsuk Ma & Robert Menzies, eds., Pentecostalism in Context: Essays in Honor of William W. Menzies

(JPTSS 11; JSOT Press, 1997)

Preface:
“We joyfully offer this Festschrift to William W. Menzies on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday.  We believe that Pentecostalism in Conext is a fitting tribute to his ministry, which has touched the lives of so many colleagues, students and friends.  The book contains essays which examine Pentecostalism in three specific contexts: biblical, theological and missiological….” – Wonsuk Ma & Robert Menzies


Dave Johnson, Theology in Context: A Case Study in the Philippines

(APTS Press, 2013)

This book takes a close look at the culture of one of the lowland Filipino groups with a view toward developing contextual theology that is biblically accurate, missiologically sound and culturally relevant throughout the Filipino lowlands. Johnson delves deep, seeking to understand the religious worldview assumptions that underpin and drive the various religious…


Teresa Chai, ed., A Theology of the Spirit in Doctrine and Demonstration

(Baguio City: APTS Press, 2015)

This book is called a festschrift–meaning a book of essays written to honor those who have served the academic community well over a long period of time. Drs Wonsuk and Julie Ma, the honorees in this book, served as faculty members, Journal pioneers and editors and academic dean (Wonsuk) at the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (apts.edu) for twenty-four years, 1983-2006. In 2006, Wonsuk accepted an invitation to become the Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in the United Kingdom and Julie accepted an invitation to become a research mentor at the same institution….


Robert Graves, ed., Strangers to Fire: When Tradition Trumps Scripture

(The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship, 2015)

This is an anthology of 35 essays by 26 authors of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Third Wave movements or non-cessationists of traditional denominations responding to John F. MacArthur’s Strange Fire or cessationism and the abuse of the charismata in general. What others are saying about Strangers to Fire: Cessationism is no longer the default position of evangelical Christianity. This is partly due to the worldwide growth of the Pentecostal-charismatic movement, in which miraculous spiritual gifts play a prominent role. It is mostly due, however, to the biblical, theological, and historical errors of cessationism itself, errors that are patently refuted in this new anthology from the Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship.


Roger Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke

(Hendrickson, 1984) or the revised version.

“I am quite frankly excited at the appearance of Roger Stronstad’s book The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke. Until now people have had to recognize Pentecostalism as a powerful force in the areas of spirituality, church growth, and world mission, but they have not felt it had much to offer for biblical, theological, and intellectual foundations. But this is fast changing, and with the appearance of this book we may be seeing the first motions of a wave of intellectually convincing Pentecostal theology which will sweep in upon us in the next decades.” –From the foreword by Clark H. Pinnock


Craig Keener, Gift and Giver: The Holy Spirit for Today

(Baker Academic, 2001)

In Gift and Giver, a substantial revision of his 3 Crucial Questions about the Holy Spirit, prolific author Craig Keener takes a probing look at the various evangelical understandings of the role of the Holy Spirit in the church. His desire is for Christians to “work for consensus, or at least for unity in God’s work despite our differences on secondary matters.  Employing a helpful narrative approach and an ample number of stories, Keener enters into constructive dialogue with Pentecostals, moderates, and cessationists, all the while attempting to learn from each viewpoint….


 

Simon Chan, Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up

(IVP Academic, 2014)

A dynamic chapter of church history is now being written in Asia. But the theological inflections at its heart are not well understood by outsiders. The published voices of elite academic theologians have drowned out the cadences of Christian faith as it is spoken, lived and prayed in the homes and churches of Tokyo or Shanghai or Madras. Now, in Grassroots Asian Theology, Simon Chan examines Asian Christianity at its daily, sustaining level. There he uncovers a vibrant theology that is authentically Asian and truly engaging. More than a mere survey, Grassroots Asian Theologymakes a serious and constructive contribution to Asian theology….


Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity

(Cambridge University Press, 2nd Ed., 2013)

Pentecostalism has become the fastest growing Christian movement, particularly outside Europe, and Allan Heaton Anderson is one of the foremost scholars of this phenomenon. His innovative interpretation of Pentecostalism focuses on the serious contribution made by both western and Majority World participants in its development. In this second edition of his leading introductory course book, Anderson presents an updated global history of the movement, which addresses significant events and changes in recent years, and surveys important theoretical issues such as gender and society, as well as politics and economics.


Allan Anderson, ed., Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia

(Wipf & Stock, 2nd. ed., 2011)

This is a collection of essays on Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in Asia, a neglected but vitally important area of Christian studies. The many and various forms of Asian Pentecostalism certainly represent a truly remarkable expression of Christianity that will be with us for a long time to come, and we ignore this at our peril. This book presents Charismatic face of Christianity that is becoming its most prominent expression.


Wonsuk Ma & William Menzies, eds., David Yonggi Cho: A Close Look at His Theology & Ministry

(APTS Press, 2004)

David Yonggi Cho, (born Feb. 14, 1936, South Kyŏngsang province, Korea), Korean religious leader and Christian evangelist who presided over the Yoido Full Gospel Church megachurch. As the congregation grew, Cho moved his church first to downtown Seoul and then in 1973 to a new sanctuary on the city’s Yoido Island.


Also see: ACPT Book Reviews