KEENER’S The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking WINS 2017 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

(Saint Louis, MO, 2017) The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship (TFFPS) has conferred its 2017 awards for excellence in Pentecostal scholarship. The awards were announced at the 2017 Conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. One book award and three article awards were conferred. 

This year’s Book Award of Excellence went to Craig S. Keener for The Mind of Christ: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking, published by Baker Academic-Baker Publishing Group (Grand Rapids, MI, 2016). Keener (PhD, Duke University) is F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of 17 books, including The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, commentaries on Matthew, John, Romans, First and Second Corinthians, and Revelation; his two-volume work Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts won the Foundation’s 2012 Book Award of Excellence. 

Three Awards of Excellence for short works were conferred this year to the following scholars: Kimberly Ervin Alexander for “Heavenly Choirs in Earthy Spaces: The Significance of Corporate Spiritual Singing in Early Pentecostal Experience” (Journal of Pentecostal Theology); Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III for “The Spirit in Jude 19–20” (Journal of Pentecostal Theology); Samuel W. Muindi for “Ritual and Spirituality in Kenyan Pentecostalism” (in Scripting Pentecost: A Study of Pentecostals, Worship and Liturgy). 

ANDERSON’S Introduction to Pentecostalism WINS 2015 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE 

(Lakeland, FL, 2015)  The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship (TFFPS) has conferred its 2015 awards for excellence in Pentecostal scholarship. TFFPS president, Robert Graves, announced the awards during the 2015 Conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies convening at Southeastern University, March 12–14. One book award and two article awards were conferred.

This year’s Book Award of Excellence went to Allan Anderson for his book Introduction to Pentecostalism, 2nd edition. Anderson (DTh, University of South Africa) is Professor of Mission and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham (England).  His other books include To the Ends of the Earth, African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century, and Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostals and Zionists/Apostolics in South Africa. 

Two Awards of Excellence for short works were conferred this year to the following scholars: Aaron T. Friesen, for his essay “Pentecostal Antitraditionalism and Pursuit of Holiness: The Neglected Role of Tradition in Pentecostal Reflection” (Journal of Pentecostal Theology), and Philip L. Mayo “A New Look at an Old Problem” (in But These Are Written . . .). 

STRONSTAD’S The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke WINS 2013 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

(Seattle, WA, 2013)  The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship (TFFPS) has conferred its 2013 awards for excellence in Pentecostal scholarship. TFFPS president, Robert Graves, announced the awards during the 2013 Conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies convening at Seattle Pacific University, March 21–23. Two book awards and three article awards were conferred.

This year’s Book Award of Excellence went to Roger Stronstad for his book The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke: Trajectories from the Old Testament to Luke-Acts (2nd edition) published by Baker Academic Press (Grand Rapids, Mich., 2012). Dr. Stronstad is director and associate professor in Bible and theology at Summit Pacific College (formerly Western Pentecostal Bible College), where he has served for over thirty years. His other books include Spirit, Scripture and Theology: A Pentecostal Perspective, The Prophethood of All Believers, and Baptized and Filled with the Holy Spirit. He has also served as a co-editor and contributor on several multi-authored projects, including the Life in the Spirit Study Bible and the Life in the Spirit Commentary on the New Testament. John ChristoperThomas’s The Apocalypse: A Literary and Theological Commentary (CPT Press, 2012) won the Foundation’s Award of Merit.

Three Awards of Excellence for short works were conferred this year to the following scholars: Rickie D. Moore for his essay “A Pentecostal Approach to Teaching Old Testament” (in The Spirit of the Old Testament, Deo Publishing, 2011); Robert P. Menzies for “The Persecuted Prophets: A Mirror Image of Luke’s Spirit-Inspired Church” (in The Spirit and the Christ in the New Testament and Christian Theology (Wm. P. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2012); and John Christopher Thomas for “New Jerusalem and the Conversion of the Nations: An Exercise in Pneumatic Discernment (Rev. 21:1–22:5)” also in The Spirit and the Christ. 

MITTELSTADT’S Reading Luke-Acts in the Pentecostal Tradition WINS 2011 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

 (Memphis, TN, 2011)  The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship (TFFPS) has conferred its 2011 awards for excellence in Pentecostal scholarship. TFFPS president, Robert Graves, announced the awards during the 2011 Conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies convening in Memphis, March 10–12. One book award and three article awards were given.

This year’s book award, with a $500 honorarium, went to Martin William Mittelstadt for his book Reading Luke-Acts in the Pentecostal Tradition, published by CPT Press (Cleveland, Tenn.). Mittelstadt is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Evangel University (Assemblies of God) in Springfield, Mo. He is also the author of The Spirit and Suffering in Luke-Acts: Implications for a Pentecostal Pneumatology (London: T&T Clark, 2004), which was the subject of a roundtable discussion of the 2005 Society for Pentecostal Studies conference, and co-editor with Geoff Sutton of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Restoration: Multidisciplinary Studies from a Pentecostal Perspective (Portland: Wipf & Stock, 2010).

Other titles nominated for the award were Paul King’s Only Believe (Word & Spirit Press), Henry Lederle’s Theology With Spirit (Word & Spirit Press), Bradley Noel’s Pentecostal and Postmodern Hermeneutics (Wipf & Stock), Vinson Synan’s An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit (Baker/Chosen Books), Del Tarr’s The Foolishness of God (The Access Group/GPH), Keith Warrington’s The Message of the Holy Spirit (IVP), and John Wyckoff’s Pneuma and Logos (Wipf & Stock).

Three Awards of Excellence for short works, with $100 honorariums, were conferred this year to the following scholars: Jordan D. May for his essay “Is Luke a Reader-Response Critic? Luke’s Aesthetic Trajectory of Isaiah 49.6 in Acts 13.47,” Robert P. Menzies for “The Sending of the Seventy and Luke’s Purpose,” and Roger Stronstad for “On Being Baptized in the Holy Spirit: A Lukan Emphasis.” All appeared in Trajectories in the Book of Acts: Essays in Honor of John Wesley Wyckoff (Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2010). Nine other essays were nominated.

FEE’S Galatians WINS 2009 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

(Eugene, OR, 2009)  The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship (TFFPS) conferred its 2009 Awards of Excellence for Pentecostal scholarship. TFFPS president, Robert Graves, announced the awards during the 2009 Conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies at Eugene Bible College. One book award and three article awards were given.

This year’s book award went to Gordon D. Fee for his book Galatians from the Pentecostal Commentary Series (John Christopher Thomas, general editor), published by Deo Publishing (Dorset, UK). Fee, Emeritus Professor of New Testament, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada, is an expert on New Testament textual criticism and exegesis. His other books include How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth and God’s Empowering Presence. 

Other titles nominated for the award were Paul Elbert’s Pastoral Letter to Theo: An Introduction to Interpretation and Women’s Ministries (Wipf and Stock Publishers), J. P. Moreland’s Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power (Zondervan), and Robby Waddell’s The Spirit of the Book of Revelation (Deo Publishing).

            Three Awards of Excellence for short works were conferred this year to the following scholars: Robert P. Menzies for “Acts 2.17–21: A Paradigm for Pentecostal Mission,” which appeared in the Journal of Pentecostal Theology; Julie C. Ma for “Changing Images: Women in Asian Pentecostalism,” which appeared in Philip’s Daughters: Women in Pentecostal-Charismatic Leadership, edited by Estrelda Alexander and Amos Yong (Princeton Theological Monograph Series, Pickwick Publications, a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers); and Janet Meyer Everts for “Pentecostalism 101,” also in Philip’s Daughters.

CHO’S Spirit and Kingdom in the Writing of Luke and Paul AND KIMBERLY ERVIN ALEXANDER’S Pentecostal Healing: Models in Theology and Practice WIN 2007 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

(Cleveland, TN, 2007) The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship (TFFPS) conferred its 2007 Awards of Excellence for Pentecostal scholarship. TFFPS president, Robert Graves, announced the awards during the 2007 Conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies at Lee University. Two book awards and one article award were given.

This year’s book award voting resulted in a tie between Pentecostal Healing: Models in Theology and Practice by Kimberly Ervin Alexander, an Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at the Church of God Theological Seminary, and Spirit and Kingdom in the Writings of Luke and Paul: An Attempt to Reconcile These Concepts, by Youngmo Cho, an Assemblies of God missionary and assistant professor of New Testament studies at Asia LIFE University (Seoul, Korea).

The short work award went to Paul Elbert, adjunct Professor of Theology and Science at the Church of God Theological Seminary and of New Testament Theology at Lee University for "Possible Literary Links Between Luke-Acts and Pauline Letters Regarding Spirit-Language.”

Alexander’s Pentecostal Healing (Deo Publishing) is believed by many to be the most comprehensive study of the 19th-century healing movement and divine healing as a central belief in the early Pentecostal movement. Cho’s Spirit and Kingdom (Paternoster) interacts effectively with works by New Testament scholars James Dunn and Max Turner, exposing the weaknesses in their anti-Pentecostal positions.

Elbert’s essay, published in The Intertextuality of the Epistles: Explorations of Theory and Practice, eds. Thomas L. Brodie, Dennis R. MacDonald, and Stanley E. Porter (New Testament Monographs 16; Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006), postulates that Luke’s writing of his double work follows the expected Greco-Roman narrative-rhetorical tradition of the day with respect to earlier revered literature, like the Pauline letters. Accordingly, he seeks “to initiate and stimulate a fresh reading of Paul and extend Paul’s proper influence” by persuasively clarifying Paul’s Spirit language through vivid and plausible examples of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Other nominated books were Kenneth J. Archer’s A Pentecostal Hermeneutic for the Twenty-First Century: Spirit, Scripture and Community (T&T Clark), and Frank D. Macchia’s Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology (Zondervan).