Up to now the teaching on baptism in the Holy Spirit has been based on a few scriptural texts, whose interpretation was disputed. This doubt cast its shadow on those who promote baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Now new evidence has been found in early post-biblical authors (Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers, Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom, Philoxenus, and the Syrians) which demonstrates that what is called baptism in the Holy Spirit was integral to Christian initiation (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist). Because it was part of initiation into the Church, it was not a matter of private...

If the Spirit is not equal to the Father and the Son, can the Trinity survive? Is the role of the Spirit in salvation as important as that of the Son? Why was the divinity of the Spirit problematic in the early Church? If the Son, Jesus Christ, is the way the truth and the life," what role does the Spirit have in God's reaching out to touch the Church and the world? Is there any contact with, any experience of God, apart from the Spirit? In what sense is the Spirit the goal of the Christian life? "The Other Hand of God" addresses these theological queries.

Chapters are *To Do...

Some poets begin very early to write great poetry. Arthur Rimbaud wrote one of his best poems at 15, Percy Shelley published his first book of poetry at 18. But Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B., did not start until he was 75, after decades of writing as a professional theologian. Now 82 he gives us "Swift, Lord, You Are Not," poems of the struggle to find God - waiting for the silence of God to break. He does not write pious verse, or inspirational poetry, but of wrestling with the illusive God. His themes are mostly biblical and monastic. He closes with an essay Poet: Can You Start at...

Only eternal life is worthy of the name, writes Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B., in an elegy for a brother monk, and in his poetry one feels the working out of this life that begins with Adam and proceeds beyond our own span of time on earth. These poems breathe human air, but are always conscious of the larger picture of life in Christ.

I wrestle with God 'flesh to flesh, sweat to mystery, ' and I limp away. This is how Father McDonnell describes his poetic project, and in these poems the reader attends a wrestling match of the highest order. He takes on the great themes of poetry: desire,...

Calvin's eucharistic doctrine has been approached in the past from the standpoint of his polemic with the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, but Father McDonnell believes that Calvin's primary position was determined by his rejection of Roman Catholicism. The author, therefore, explores Calvin's eucharistic doctrine through a comprehensive analysis of his stand against the Roman Catholic Church. Introductory chapters are devoted to the broader currents of pre-Reformation thought: Scotist tradition, devotiomoderna, humanism, and the Platonic renewal. The study continues with a discussion...