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James M. Hamilton Jr. God's Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. NACSBT1. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2006. xiv + 233 pp. $19.99.
Hamilton's doctoral research (under Thomas Schreiner) is a stimulating study, aspects of which have earned publication in at least five prominent evangelical journals. His dissertation's original form and detail is now largely preserved as the first volume of the new NAC Studies in Bible and Theology series. Clearly written, Hamilton's point is repetitively clear. Presuming a coherent biblical theology, he seeks "to understand and articulate the role of the Holy Spirit in the faithfulness of believers who live both before and after the exaltation of Jesus" (p. 3). This pursuit yields a two-fold answer: OT believers were regenerated by the Spirit, but were not indwelt.
Hamilton's book is really a study of the latter phenomenon. He presumes, with little argument, the universal affliction of original sin and the need for divine regeneration. He also makes evangelical presumptions about the nature of God and the coherence of Scripture. His contribution is in inviting us to think more clearly about the Spirit's indwelling of believers.
After an introductory chapter, he offers a survey of how Christian thinkers have paired regeneration and indwelling, with representatives from the early church, the Reformation/Puritan period, and more recent decades. This survey (a revision of his 2003 TJ...