Word and Spirit

Resources on Word and Spirit

14 resources on Word and Spirit, in curated order

1. Topic 2: The Reformed Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2014

   Primary readings draw on Calvin’s account of how we receive grace (Institutes, Book III), and extended sections from Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics on the Holy Spirit and the Christian community (CD IV/2 and IV/3). Alternate main texts include Thomas Oden’s Life in the Spirit, Jürgen Moltmann’s The Spirit of Life, and Alasdair Heron’s The Holy Spirit.

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2. Topic 9: Karl Barth for Preachers

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2016

   Designed specifically for parish ministers, this bibliography moves through Barth’s own preacher-facing works: the prolegomena of CD I/1, his Homiletics, The Faith of the Church (commentary on the Apostles’ Creed), Learning Jesus Christ through the Heidelberg Catechism, Deliverance to the Captives (Basel prison sermons), and Evangelical Theology. Secondary guides by Busch, Hancock, and Hunsinger are included for orientation.

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3. Topic 24: Revelation

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2014

   Core texts are Calvin’s Institutes I.1-5 on the knowledge of God, Emil Brunner’s Revelation and Reason, and H. Richard Niebuhr’s The Meaning of Revelation. Secondary readings address the relationship between general and special revelation, the epistemological foundations of Christian theology, and the Reformed tradition’s distinctive approach to natural theology and Scripture.

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4. Topic 37: An Orientation to Karl Barth

   PDFBy Dr. John H. LeithBibliographies2014

   Primary readings include Calvin’s Institutes Book I, Karl Barth’s Credo, Homiletics, The Word of God and the Word of Man, and Evangelical Theology, along with the exchange between Barth and Brunner in Natural Theology. The bibliography serves as an introduction to Barth’s theology by reading it alongside Calvin, tracing both the continuities and the distinctive moves that characterize Barth’s reformulation of the Reformed theological tradition in the twentieth century.

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5. Bucer and Calvin

   PDFBy Willem van ’t SpijkerJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies X2000

   Van’t Spijker traces the doctrine of sealing with the Holy Spirit from Martin Bucer’s 1527 Ephesians commentary into Calvin’s mature sacramental and pneumatological thought, showing the close exegetical and pastoral bond between the two Reformers.

   PDF, 21 pp

6. Calvin’s Concept of the Law and the Spirit

   PDFBy I. John HesselinkJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies V1990

   Hesselink examines a neglected facet of Calvin’s pneumatology: how the Holy Spirit leads, guides, governs, and rules in the life of the believer, and how the Spirit’s work is inseparable from the law as a guide for Christian living.

   PDF, 12 pp

7. Calvin’s Doctrine of the Proclamation of the Word

   PDFBy John H. LeithJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies II1984

   Leith examines Calvin’s doctrine of the proclamation of the Word in light of recent research, arguing that Calvin’s sermons, not only the Institutes, made Geneva what it became and that preaching was central to Calvin’s pastoral vocation.

   PDF, 24 pp

8. Music and the Spirit in Reformed Worship

   PDFBy James MillerJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VI1992

   Ross J. Miller examines psalm-singing in Calvin’s Genevan liturgy, arguing that the Reformer included vernacular psalmody both because he believed it was the practice of the apostolic church and because he saw it as a powerful external means by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers.

   PDF, 10 pp

9. Spirituality and the Church

   PDFBy D. G. HartJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies VIII1996

   D. G. Hart examines the doctrine of the spirituality of the church as articulated in the Westminster Standards and in nineteenth-century American Presbyterianism, contrasting H. Richard Niebuhr’s typology of Lutheran and Calvinist views on the relation of church and civil order.

   PDF, 13 pp

10. The Coherence of Calvin’s Theology

    PDFBy H. Jackson ForstmanJohn Calvin StudiesCalvin Studies III1986

    Jack Forstman returns nearly twenty-five years after his book Word and Spirit to reflect on coherence and incoherence in Calvin’s theology, treating the Institutes as a classic text and combining historical and systematic concerns to test his earlier reading.

    PDF, 16 pp

11. The Freedom of the Word and the Spirit

    RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesColumbia Forum Alumni Lectures, lecture 21978

    Dr. Leith reflects on the relationship between Scripture and the Holy Spirit in the Reformed tradition, exploring how the Word comes alive through the Spirit’s work in the community of faith.

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12. Holy Spirit and the Means of Grace

    RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesDoctrinal Theology, lecture 21982

    This lecture examines the work of the Holy Spirit through the ordained means of grace, namely Word, Sacrament, and prayer, as the Reformed tradition has understood them.

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13. The Problem of Tradition: Heritage and Trust

    RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesThe Warfield Lectures, lecture 11989

    The opening Warfield Lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary explores the nature of theological tradition: how the church receives its heritage and the obligations of trust that heritage places upon every generation.

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14. Preaching

    RecordingBy Dr. John H. LeithSermons & LecturesThe Warfield Lectures, lecture 31989

    Dr. Leith’s third Warfield Lecture addresses the theology and practice of preaching in the Reformed tradition: the primacy of the proclaimed Word and the preacher’s faithful stewardship of the gospel.

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