The name Hermann Gunkel is as familiar to biblical scholars as their own. Gunkel founded a school, fathered form-critical research, and taught most of the giants of the last generation. . . from the Introduction This little book, the first by Hermann Gunkel, shattered the reigning images of the New Testament idea of the Spirit. Gunkels argument not only revolutionized the theology of his time but has continued to be foundational for most subsequent studies on the subject. As he did in so much of his work, Gunkel not only explores the milieu of the New Testament but also demonstrates the dependence of the biblical message upon its religious environment. Hermann Gunkel was a leading exponent of the History of Religions School and author of major historical-critical studies of the Psalms and Genesis. He was editor of the monumental Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, to which he contributed over one hundred articles. Roy A. Harrisville is Professor of New Testament Emeritus at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of Fracture: The Cross as Irreconcilable in the Language and Thought of the Biblical Writers and, with Walter Sundberg, of The Bible in Modern Culture: Baruch Spinoza to Brevard Childs. Philip A. Quanbeck II is Associate Professor and Chair of Religion at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fortress Press fortresspress.com