Duke Divinity School Professors Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon have teamed up for a new book on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit some 25 years after writing a groundbreaking work challenging the Christian church to live as a vital embodiment of the Gospel by operating within society but apart from its eroding values.

The new book, The Holy Spirit, was published this month by Abingdon Press. The company also published the pair’s first book, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, which still resonates today with clergy, congregations, and seminaries.

Hauerwas, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, and Willimon, professor of the practice of Christian ministry, hope the book will lead pastors and their congregations to have a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit, which is said to be the most neglected aspect of the Trinity.

The pair’s collaborative discussion in the book provides insight on topics related to the Holy Spirit ranging from the historic creeds to Wesleyan heritage to contemporary Pentecostalism. It also contains liturgical applications, biblical expositions, testimonial observations, and pastoral appeals.

“Hauerwas and Willimon are among the most reliable teachers of the church,” stated Walter Brueggemann, emeritus professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, who is considered one of the world's leading interpreters of the Old Testament. “Ours is a time when faithful teaching is urgent in the church that is compromised, bewildered, and domesticated. This study by these trustworthy teachers on the Holy Spirit is a robust affirmation of the way in which core claims made concerning God’s Spirit matter concretely in the life of the church. This book is an invitation to fresh learning, to repentance, and to the recovery of missional nerve.”