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FRESHNESS OF THE SPIRIT by Sherwood Eliot Wirt

FRESHNESS OF THE SPIRIT

By

Pub Date: May 17th, 1978
Publisher: Harper & Row

A brisk, often stirring sermon on the Holy Spirit by a veteran evangelist. Wirt, who edits Decision magazine for the Billy Graham Association, flew to Winnipeg in December, 1971, to check out a story that an ecstatic revival was sweeping the city. As a sophisticated theologian (with a doctorate from Edinburgh) and an experienced journalist (with a dozen books to his credit), he was more than slightly skeptical, but what he saw bowled him over and changed his life. He went through a classical conversion experience and rediscovered Christian love in late middle age. Wirt's message is simple--after years of lip-service his faith came alive, and he wants yours to do the same--but he delivers it with unpretentious warmth and zest. At the same time the book has an open-mindedness and a breadth of reference, from Juliana of Norwich and John Calvin to Clifford Odets and Samuel Beckett, rare in the inspirational genre. There's nothing new or unsettling here--Wirt is a solid conservative--but Christians looking for sensible religious reading will find in him an old pro at the top of his form.