My introduction to the bibliographic essay I've written on Gause's writing:
For years students have been challenged by the rapid-fire delivery of Dr. Hollis Gause’s logically ordered but tightly packed lectures in theology and biblical studies. The challenge to ‘keep up’ and ‘get it all down’ is complicated by the awe and wonder we experience as we hear what we’ve never heard before though it resonates within us. What amazes those of us who’ve studied under him and now have had the privilege of teaching with him is that though he is obviously drawing on an accumulation of scholarly work spanning five decades, he continues to write new lectures, to think in new ways and to re-vision Pentecostal theology. As one student who ‘sat at his feet’ at both the undergraduate and graduate level put it, ‘I was always thrilled to see those fresh legal sheets.’
The yellow legal pad, for the most part has been replaced by the word processor (sans the grammar check, which he has disabled, for obvious reasons!) and he continues to articulate Pentecostal theology, re-thinking categories, looking anew at familiar texts not just through the lens of his keen intellect but also through the companion lens of years of experience in the classroom, the study and the church.
Dr. Gause, as your student, first and foremost, and now as your colleague, I want to thank you for what you have imparted to me and to generations of Pentecostal scholars and ministers. And I want to thank you for the model you have provided of what it means to worship in our discipline. I am forever grateful.
