Jesus before Pentecost

Reviews / Votes

"Written with clarity and verve by a Pentecostal for Pentecostals, Atkinson offers a highly readable and creative contribution to Jesus research. Appealing to Pentecostal religious experiences as analogues, Atkinson builds a hermeneutical bridge for the imagination to the Jesus tradition. Fully aware that there is no such thing as value-free historical enquiry, his Pentecostal grid is not imposed but generates questions around the Pentecostal foursquare gospel - Saviour, Healer, Spirit baptiser, and Soon-Coming King. The result is studded with gems."
Graham H. Twelftree, Charles L. Holman Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, School of Divinity, Regent University

"In this ambitious undertaking, William Atkinson seeks to identify the shape and contours of a Pentecostal study of the life of Jesus. Drawing heavily on his own Pentecostal context by means of the reception history of Jesus within early Finished Work Pentecostal literature, he sets forth an understanding of the person and work of Jesus from a Full Gospel perspective that focuses on Jesus as Saviour, Holy Spirit Baptiser, Healer, and Soon-Coming King, areas of enquiry that have often been underrepresented in the academy. Atkinson's pioneering work bears much fruit and will no doubt generate others of its kind."
John Christopher Thomas, Clarence J. Abbott Professor of Biblical Studies, Pentecostal Theological Seminary

/Readers interested in Pentecostals and their exegesis should find A. refreshing. He defends more than a christology but bears witness to ongoing encounter with the living Jesus'
Martin W. Mittelstadt, Evangel University, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly vol.80 no.4 / October 2018 pp.722-1