Subversive Fire, The Untold Story of Pentecost
Albert Hernández

Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1609470050   Retail: $44.00

Individual orders at Amazon.com

Search Inside the Book at Amazon.com

This book offers a historical survey and analysis of the ways that medieval and earlymodern European Christian writers and visionaries conceptualized the meaning of the pentecostal narrative found in the New Testament.

While the primary aim of this study is the recovery and examination of the various meanings of Pentecost as envisioned by Christian thinkers during these two historical periods, the relationship of such ideas and concepts to pneumatology in their respective contexts is also discussed in this book.

Pneumatological foundations form the core of numerous Christian doctrines in soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. However, rather than attempting a detailed survey of topics and themes already covered in other histories of pneumatology, this study presents a series of vignettes describing Christian conceptions of Pentecost and pneumatology from the late 1100s to about 1670 while examining related questions of theological discourse.

Key questions considered in this study are: What is it about Pentecost and the Western imagination that allows Pentecost to show up in a variety of literary and theological forms throughout Christian history? Why have so many Christian visionaries revisited the story of Pentecost as an act of theological reconstruction often aimed at subverting dominant ecclesiastical paradigms? What is the relationship between the miraculous pneumatic communication signified in the biblical story of Pentecost and the empowering voice and gifts of the Holy Spirit?

About the Author:

Albert Hernández is senior vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado where he also serves as associate professor of the history of Christianity. His educational career began in South Florida’s Cuban exile community as a high school humanities teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer before returning to graduate school to pursue his interests in medieval and early modern religious history. He holds three different masters degrees and in 2001 received the Ph.D. degree from the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. In addition to his research and teaching on the history of mystical movements in Christianity and Islam, he has addressed numerous local, regional, and national gatherings and religious organizations on the historical legacies of Medieval Spain for a post-9/11 world. He is a United Methodist layperson and maintains collaborative ties with his former Roman Catholic colleagues and mentors in South Florida and New Jersey.