Studies in Guidance: Donald Gee as an Interpreter of Saint Luke

Authors

  • Mark Wilson

Abstract

How to receive guidance from God remains one of the biggest issues of practical theology that Christians struggle with in their spiritual lives. This reflective article examines the subject of divine guidance as addressed by a leading Pentecostal Bible teacher from a previous generation, Donald Gee. The article begins with a case study concerning how the author was ‘guided’ to Gee and his writings. Because divine guidance is a major theme in the book of Acts, Gee in his volume Studies in guidance looks to Acts for numerous examples to illustrate his discussion. The majority of the article focuses on Gee’s exegetical development of this theme as he presents persons, situations, and outcomes in Acts related to divine guidance and their application both to individuals and to congregations. It assesses Gee’s effectiveness in exegeting these texts. The article concludes with an excursus that discusses briefly how Gee’s exegetical method contributes to the development of a pneumatic hermeneutic in Pentecostal/charismatic scholarship.

References

Archer, K. J., 2004, A pentecostal hermeneutic for the twenty-first century: Spirit, scripture and community, T & T Clark, London/New York.

Barrett, C. K., 1994, Acts 1–14, vol. 1, T & T Clark, London/New York.

Bruce, F. F., 1990, The Acts of the apostles, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.

Carter, J., 1975, Donald Gee, pentecostal statesmen, Assemblies of God, Nottingham.

Fee, G. D. 2014. The first epistle to the Corinthians, rev. ed. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.

Gee, D., 1940, Studies in guidance, Victory, London.

Guthrie, G. 2015, 2 Corinthians, Baker, Grand Rapids.

Haenchen, E., 1971, The Acts of the apostles: a commentary, Westminster John Knox, Louisville.

Hollenweger, W., 1971, The Pentecostals: the charismatic movement in the churches, Augsburg, Minneapolis.

Hollenweger, W., 2000, ‘Two extraordinary Pentecostal ecumenists, the letters of Donald Gee and David Du Plessis’, The Ecumenical Review 52(3), 391-402.

Hur, J., 2001, A dynamic reading of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield.

Kay, W., 2007, “Donald Gee: An important voice in the Pentecostal movement’, Journal of Pentecostal Theology 16.1, 133-153.

Miller, John B. F. 2007, Convinced that God has called us: dreams, visions, and the perception of God’s will in Luke-Acts, Brill, Leiden/Boston.

Moore, S. D., 2004, The shepherding movement, Continuum, New York.

Porter, S., 2008, Paul in Acts, Hendrickson, Peabody.

Ross, B. R., 1978, ‘Donald Gee: Sectarian in Search of a Church’, Evangelical Quarterly 50.2, 94-103.

Ross, R. M., 1994, ‘Donald Gee - in search of a church: a sectarian in transition’, ThD thesis, Knox College.

Spawn, K. L. and Wright, A. T., 2012, ‘The emergence of a pneumatic hermeneutic in the renewal tradition’, in K. L. Spawn & A. T. Wright (eds.), Spirit and scripture: examining a pneumatic hermeneutic, 3–22, Bloomsbury, London/New York.

Squires, J. T., 1998, ‘The plan of God,’ in I. H. Marshall & D. Peterson (eds.), Witness to the gospel: the theology of Acts, 19–39, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.

Stählin, G. ‘τὸ πνεῦμα Ἰησοῦ (Apostelgeschichte 16:7)’, 1973, in Barnabas Lindars and Stephen S.Smalley (eds.), Christ and Spirit in the New Testament, 229–51; English summary 252, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Thomas, J. C., 2012, ‘What the Spirit is saying to the church: the perspective of a Pentecostal working in New Testament studies,’ in K. L. Spawn & A. T. Wright (eds.), Spirit and scripture: examining a pneumatic hermeneutic, 115-129, Bloomsbury, London/New York.

Wilson, M., 2005, ‘The role of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s ministry journeys’, Ekklesiastikos Pharos 87, 76–95.

Wilson, M., 2011, ‘Review of William Sanger Campbell, the “we” passages in the Acts of the apostles”, in Neotestamentica 45.2, 360-362.

Wilson, M., 2012, ‘Paul: bound in the Spirit for Jerusalem’, in J. S. Duvall and V. Verbrugge (eds.), Devotions on the Greek New Testament, 54-55, Zondervan, Grand Rapids.

Wilson, M. forthcoming, ‘Paul’s first landing in Pamphylia: intention, implementation, departure’.

Wilson and Thompson, forthcoming, ‘The route of Paul’s second journey in Asia Minor: in the steps of Robert Jewett and beyond’.

Witherington, B. 1998a, The Acts of the Apostles: a socio-rhetorical commentary, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.

Witherington, B. 1998b, Grace in Galatia: a commentary on Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.

Published

2016-02-26

How to Cite

Wilson, M. (2016). Studies in Guidance: Donald Gee as an Interpreter of Saint Luke. Australasian Pentecostal Studies, 18. Retrieved from https://aps-journal.com/index.php/APS/article/view/9494

Issue

Section

Articles