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Interweaving scholarship with religion, myth and culture, Holl brilliantly examines the life of the Holy Spirit in the historical contect of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

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9780385492843

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For years the Third Person of the Christian Trinity has either been neglected or just demoted to second-class status. This book almost makes up for all that....The book may annoy some people but it will inform and (may I say it) entertain more. <br>--Harvey Cox, Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard University and author of Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century <br> At this first time in history when all world religions can talk and meet, it is so important to see the work of the Holy Spirit in a broader and non-denominational way. Adolf Holl has created a masterpiece of scholarship, history, readability, and a vocabulary for holiness. <br>--Rev. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action & Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico <br> Adolf Holl gifts us with an urbane, sardonic travelogue of the Holy Spirit's manifestations through history. Writing in a punchy yet lyrical style, the author is no pedantic guide, but rather a raconteur for whom every moment is equidistant, and Joachim of Fiore (d. 1201) rubs shoulders with Hitler and Stalin. There will be no other book about the Holy Spirit quite like it. <br>--Walter Wink, Professor of Biblical Interpretation, Auburn Theological Seminary, New York, and author of The Powers That Be <br> What a brilliant idea, brilliantly realized! Who or what is this mysterious third member Who (or which) proceeds from the Father and the Son: A dove-like creature? A beam of light? A violent wind? The Word spoken through the prophets? The force that could pull off an immaculate conception? The terror of the Apocalypse? Holl gives us the history, the sociology, the literature, thetheology and the politics of the Holy Spirit. This 'biography' is a fascinating and important book. <br>--James Reston, Jr., author of The Last Apocalypse <br> Behind every religious belief lies breath, ruach, pneuma, animus, pure spirit, the very stuff of the soul--all of it very hard to handle. But Adolf Holl has done just that. With The Left Hand of God and a generous, eclectic and evolutionary approach, he has succeeded--perhaps as well as anyone can--in laying the Holy Ghost. <br>--Lyall Watson, author of Gift of Unknown Things and Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil

Holl, chaplain of and a theology lecturer at the University of Vienna, was suspended from teaching in the Catholic Church for some of his heterodox notions, but this book is a mellifluous testimony of faith from start to finish. Holl captures the contradictions inherent in the personage of the Holy Spirit, who is described one moment as a pacific, still small voice and the next as a tongue of fire. He takes as his canvas the history of Western religion and philosophy (though his attention to Judaism and Islam, which he examines as manifestations of the Holy Spirit, suffers when compared with his easy familiarity with Christianity). Holl is also conscious of the Holy Spirit's role as a political subversive - the oppressed can tap into the Spirit's immediate authority, which transcends all earthly control. The book is arranged somewhat chronologically, beginning with a quick look at the Old Testament, followed by New Testament events like the unexpected descent of the Holy Spirit onto Jesus and the gift of tongues on the Day of Pentecost. (Holl pairs this latter incident with an account of the Pentecostal movement in the US in the early 20th century; he does history a real service by crediting the movement's founding to its true leader, the African-American preacher William Seymour, rather than to the white pastor who has traditionally gotten top billing.) Holl continues the story of the Holy Spirit's workings through the rise of Islam, as well as the monastic movement and various heretical groups in Christianity. The last third of the book explores the Spirit's entanglements with some great modern thinkers, including James Joyce, Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, Simone Weil, and Sigmund Freud. This section is, of course, less overtly religious than what precedes it, but its implicit message seems to be that the Spirit is at work even in a modern society where philosophers have found it irrelevant. A provocative read, gracefully translated from the German. (Kirkus Reviews)

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