HOW DUNN'S “BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT” WAS POPULAR WITH NON-PENTECOSTALS
Anyone familiar with the debates over the doctrine of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit will know just how important this monograph is. James Dunn sparked an entire conversation with the publication of his doctoral research in 1970. Since its publication it this volume has become one of the most significant academic works on the issue and remains a standard of some importance. The evidence of its importance is seen in its careful exegetical work. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a valuable academic work because it forces readers to wrestle with the actual details of the relevant passages on this much-debated doctrine. The book is a careful exegetical study of the various events and passages that provide the case study for this doctrine. Across the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, Dunn meticulously interacts with the lexical and syntactical issues of the text to make his case. His case simply being that baptism in the Holy Spirit was a conversion-initiation experience, contra Pentecostalism. He w...