The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the Holy Spirit - by Grace Ji-Sun Kim (Paperback)

About the Book

It is time for the Holy Spirit to get its own street cred! There shall be no more third-wheeling the ever-present, life-sustaining, and empowering member of the Trinity. In this guide to the Spirit, Kim is putting the Holy Ghost back where it belongs; after all, the Spirit gave birth to the church and kept it rocking, rolling, revivaling, and transforming across time and culture. Throughout the book, you will get a taste of the different ways the church has understood the Spirit, partnered with the Paraclete, and imaged the Spirit in scripture. Most importantly, Kim brings together the tradition with contemporary culture, science, and the many tongues and testimonies of the global church.The compelling power of this volume comes from the creative interplay Kim orchestrates between images such as the Spirit as vibration, breath, and light and her powerful unpacking of different images such as the releaser of han, a Korean term for unjust suffering, or the concept of Chi. This isn't simply a guide to what the church is saying about the Holy Spirit--it's a guide to actually opening our theological imaginations to a Spirit that is present, active, and calling us to participate in life-giving work.

Book Synopsis

It is time for the Holy Spirit to get its own street cred! There shall be no more third-wheeling the ever-present, life-sustaining, and empowering member of the Trinity. In this guide to the Spirit, Kim is putting the Holy Ghost back where it belongs; after all, the Spirit gave birth to the church and kept it rocking, rolling, revivaling, and transforming across time and culture. Throughout the book, you will get a taste of the different ways the church has understood the Spirit, partnered with the Paraclete, and imaged the Spirit in scripture. Most importantly, Kim brings together the tradition with contemporary culture, science, and the many tongues and testimonies of the global church.

The compelling power of this volume comes from the creative interplay Kim orchestrates between images such as the Spirit as vibration, breath, and light and her powerful unpacking of different images such as the releaser of han, a Korean term for unjust suffering, or the concept of Chi. This isn't simply a guide to what the church is saying about the Holy Spirit--it's a guide to actually opening our theological imaginations to a Spirit that is present, active, and calling us to participate in life-giving work.

Review Quotes

"In The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the Holy Spirit, Grace Ji-Sun Kim presents an inviting, imaginative, and innovative perspective of the Spirit that challenges and provokes us. Her honest stories and reflections take us on an insightful journey of deeper understanding and fresh revelations of who God is as Spirit, Chi, and as a giver of life for all humanity." --Jacqueline J. Lewis, senior minister, Middle Collegiate Church, New York

"From buttoned-down Presbyterian protocols to shaking-on-the-floor Pentecostal rowdiness, the Holy Spirit is understood in a wide variety of ways among Christians today. Theologian Grace Ji-Sun Kim dives deep into the confusion and controversy and emerges with a fresh and life-giving way of understanding and experiencing the Spirit-not just in church, but in life. You'll get a concise overview of the Spirit in the Bible, a helpful overview of the Spirit in church history, and an extremely helpful engagement with the Spirit in today's diverse world in this enjoyably written and spiritually sensitive book." --Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration

"With the big two of God and Jesus up front and dominating the conversation, it is too easy to forget the crucial role the Holy Spirit plays within the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Thanks to Grace Ji-Sun Kim's book, I'm reminded that much of what gives me life about my faith--creativity, prophetic witness, liberation, divine presence, radical inclusion--is the work of the Holy Spirit. That such a serious theologian as Kim can write this book in such an accessible, poetic, and personal way is yet another manifestation of the Spirit's continued work in the world. Every pastor, church book club, and adult education class that has been trying to find an engaging text on the Holy Spirit should be on their feet shouting hallelujah!" --Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, senior vice president, Auburn Seminary

"Grace Ji-Sun Kim's book offers a succinct account of the vibrant ways that the Holy Spirit continues to be a force that transforms, from political projects to the quotidian ways in which people find themselves so inextricably grounded in the material world. For Kim, the Spirit is the force that shapes this very material grounding so already saturated with the Spirit of the divine. This is a most readable and lively book. It is immensely teachable in seminaries and will serve well as an excellent resource in the church." --W. Anne Joh, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

"This is a wide-ranging personal and theological study of the Holy Spirit in all its dimensions, including its relation to Chi and han. One sentence captures the scope of the author's work: 'how the Spirit is the Spirit in the world.' I particularly admire the imaginative way the author speaks of the Spirit in her own life story while seeing it also as the Spirit of God that energizes all creation. A good read that is profound but also a delight." --Sallie McFague, Distinguished Theologian in Residence at Vancouver School of Theology

"I heard about Grace Ji-Sun Kim long before I met her--this joyful, thoughtful, down-to-earth prophet, one foot in heaven, the other on earth. Now she is writing about the Spirit she knows so well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have." --Philip Gulley, author of If the Church Were Christian

"With exceptional pedagogical skills and communication dexterity, Grace Ji-Sun Kim brilliantly explains in a language accessible to the young generation the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit. She ranges across the Bible, history, feminist and ecological thought, and Asian philosophy of Chi and produces a rich and insightful theology of the Holy Spirit that will invigorate Christian life today. We older theologians can learn a thing or two from this younger and prolific theologian about new developments in pneumatology and how to communicate this doctrine powerfully and effectively." --Peter C. Phan, Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Georgetown University