The Holy Spirit in Greek Patristic Thought

1954 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mcintyre
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Church

The subject of this paper abounds in historical problems of an extremely intricate nature—some of which arise through the theologically close association of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; but others of which are rooted in a number of more particular controversies in which the Greek Fathers were involved concerning the Holy Spirit. Among the latter are to be found such questions as the precise identification of the persons against whom many of the Greek writings were directed, for example, who the ‘Tropici’ were, with whom Athanasius deals in the Letters to Serapion, whether ‘Pneumatomachi’ was a generic term used to describe a variety of different heretics, or a proper name referring to an identifiable group existing in one particular place, whether Macedonius was a Macedonian, and so on. Included in the intricate historical problems raised in our period, there is that of accounting for the revival towards the middle of the fourth century of an interest in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit— whether it was due to the developing influence of asceticism, or simply a reaction to a latter-day Arianism working itself out belatedly in heresy concerning the Holy Spirit, or more subtly, whether it was due to a necessity felt by the Church to give substance to the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, now that the doctrine of the Trinity had replaced the doctrine of the Logos as her central and dominant doctrine.

‘Another Puzzle is . . . the Holy Spirit’:De Trinitateas Augustine's Pneumatology

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Najeeb Awad
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
De Trinitate ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

AbstractIn their study of Augustine'sDe Trinitate, scholars read the fifteen books which comprise this text as a monolithically written discourse on the doctrine of the Trinity. This article is an attempt to examine if it is possible to argue on tenable bases that pneumatology, rather than any other doctrine, is the subject of Augustine's text by showing that the interpretation of the identity and consubstantiality of the Spirit occupies inDe Trinitatea more foundational and central place than just being part of Augustine's discussion on the doctrine of the Trinity. It ultimately suggests that freeing Augustine's text from diachronic prejudices means also wondering if he really wanted to write an additional version of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity which he already followed, or whether he wanted to contribute something new about a relatively neglected doctrine in the faith of the church.

The Doctrine of Appropriation as an Interpretative Framework for Karl Barth's Pneumatology of the Church Dogmatics

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-290
Author(s):  
Adam McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Interpretative Framework

Although Karl Barth is widely recognised as the initiator of the renewal of trinitarian theology in the twentieth century, his theology of the Church Dogmatics has been strongly criticised for its inadequate account of the work of the Holy Spirit. This author argues that the putative weakness of Barth's pneumatology should be reconsidered in light of his doctrine of appropriation. Barth employs the doctrine of appropriation as a hermeneutical procedure, within his doctrine of the Trinity, for bringing to speech the persons of the Trinity in their inseparable distinctiveness. It is argued that the doctrine of appropriation provides a sound interpretative framework for his pneumatology of the Church Dogmatics.

scholarly journals Adam Pastor, Antitrinitarian Antipædobaptist

1917 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 73-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Henry Newman
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Church Membership ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Infant Baptism ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Traditional Doctrine

The intellectual, social, and religious upheaval of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of which the Renaissance and the Protestant Revolution were phases, along with the decidedly skeptical tendency of the Scotist philosophy which undermined the arguments by which the great mysteries of the Christian faith had commonly been supported while accepting unconditionally the dogmas of the Church—together with the influence of Neoplatonizing mysticism which aimed and claimed to raise its subjects into such direct and complete union and communion with the Infinite as to make any kind of objective authority superfluous:—all these influences conspired to lead many of the most conscientious and profoundly religious thinkers of the sixteenth century to reject simultaneously the baptism of infants and the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. Infant baptism they regarded as being without scriptural warrant, subversive of an ordinance of Christ, and inconsistent with regenerate church membership. Likewise the doctrine of the tripersonality of God, as set forth in the so-called Nicene and Athanasian creeds, involving the co-eternity, co-equality and consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and the personality of the Holy Spirit, they subjected to searching and fundamental criticism.

The Spirit

2019 ◽  
pp. 293-308
Author(s):  
Wolf Krötke
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The One ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter presents Barth’s understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It demonstrates the way in which Barth’s pneumatology is anchored in his doctrine of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit is understood as the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the One whose essence is love. But Barth can also speak of the Holy Spirit in such a way that it seems as if the Holy Spirit is identical to the work of the risen Jesus Christ and his ‘prophetic’ work. The reception of the pneumatology of Karl Barth thus confronts the task of relating these dimensions of Barth’s understanding of the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit’s distinct work is preserved. For Barth, this work consists in enabling human beings to respond in faith, with their human possibilities and their freedom, to God’s reconciliation in Jesus Christ. In this faith, the Holy Spirit incorporates human beings into the community of Jesus Christ—the community participates in the reconciling work of God in order to bear witness to God’s work to human beings, all of whom have been elected to ‘partnership’ with God. Barth also understood the ‘solidarity’ of the community with, and the advocacy of the community for, the non-believing world to be a nota ecclesiae (mark of the church). Further, to live from the Holy Spirit, according to Barth, is only possible in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Trinity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter van Inwagen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
De Doctrina Christiana ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a central and essential element of Christian theology. The part of the doctrine that is of special concern in the present entry may be stated in these words: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each God; they are distinct from one another; and yet (in the words of the Athanasian Creed), ‘they are not three Gods, but there is one God’. This is not to be explained by saying that ‘the Father’, ‘the Son’ and ‘the Holy Spirit’ are three names that are applied to the one God in various circumstances; nor is it to be explained by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are parts or aspects of God (like the leaves of a shamrock or the faces of a cube). In the words of St Augustine: Thus there are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and each is God and at the same time all are one God; and each of them is a full substance, and at the same time all are one substance. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. But the Father is the Father uniquely; the Son is the Son uniquely; and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit uniquely. (De doctrina christiana I, 5, 5) The doctrine of the Trinity seems on the face of it to be logically incoherent. It seems to imply that identity is not transitive – for the Father is identical with God, the Son is identical with God, and the Father is not identical with the Son. There have been two recent attempts by philosophers to defend the logical coherency of the doctrine. Richard Swinburne has suggested that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be thought of as numerically distinct Gods, and he has argued that, properly understood, this suggestion is consistent with historical orthodoxy. Peter Geach and various others have suggested that a coherent statement of the doctrine is possible on the assumption that identity is ‘always relative to a sortal term’. Swinburne’s formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity is certainly free from logical incoherency, but it is debatable whether it is consistent with historical orthodoxy. As to ‘relative identity’ formulations of the doctrine, not all philosophers would agree that the idea that identity is always relative to a sortal term is even intelligible.

scholarly journals HOLY TRINITY AND THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-48
Author(s):  
Arigala Jessie Smiles ◽  
Potana Venkateswara Rao
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Research Article ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
God The Father ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Arian Controversy

Although early Christian theologians speculated in many ways on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, no one clearly and fully asserted the doctrine of the Trinity until around the end of the so-called Arian Controversy during the 4th century. Arius taught that God the Father and the Son of God did not always exist together eternally. In this context this research article attempts to review the evolution of the concept of Holy Trinity and the Arian Controversy, understand the main differences between Homoousian and Homoiousian arguments with an aim to help the reader understand the divinity of God the Jesus Christ and his co-eternal and co-equal position along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

scholarly journals Grundtvig teologiske udvikling til omkring affattelsen af »De levendes land«

1995 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-274
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Albinus Glenthøj
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Father And Son

The Development of Grundtvig ’s Theology until about the Time of the Composition of .The Land of the Living. About the Eschatological Tension in the Understanding of the Kingdom of GodBy Elisabeth Albinus GlenthøjIn order to characterize briefly Grundtvig’s ideas about the Kingdom of God, the following statements are crucial: The Kingdom of God will break through visibly at the Second Coming of Christ. Until then the Kingdom is present to Faith and Hope through the Holy Spirit.The tension between the eschatological, visible Kingdom of God and the presence of the Kingdom now is a common theme in Grundtvig’s hymns. This study seeks to trace the development of Grundtvig’s theology towards his fully developed view of the Kingdom of God. The subject of the study is the great hymn, .The Land of the Living., from 1824, which contains beginnings of Grundtvig’s more elaborated view. The basic texts of the study are sermons by Grundtvig from 1821 to 1824, the period in which the eschatological tension emerges.Sections I to II.A. bring a chronological outline of the development of Grundtvig’s theology during the period until and including the year 1824. Section II.B. examines »The Land of the Living«  in the light of this outline. Throughout the study the emphasis is on the emergence of the eschatological tension.From his parents Grundtvig inherits a belief in a Kingdom of God hereafter, but as Grundtvig experiences the presence of the Lord through the Holy Spirit - in his own life and in the Church - the theology develops towards an understanding of the Kingdom of God as already present to Faith and Hope through the Holy Spirit. The future visible Kingdom illuminates the life of the Church already. Thus the eschatological tension emerges.The continuity between the future and the present Kingdom of God is found in the union with Christ through the Holy Spirit. This union is granted in Baptism and is nourished first and foremost through the Eucharist, and, next, through prayer and words of praise. Grundtvig’s experience of Pentecost underlies »The Land of the Living«: The Holy Spirit builds up the heart of man to become a temple for the Father and Son (stanza 12). Stanzas 7 to 11 elaborate the content of this unity with the Trinity. From here originates the life of the Church in the love of God and of one’s neighbour, a life which, through the Holy Spirit, takes man closer to the likeness to Christ; the goal is reached in Eternity. Wherever the love of God prevails, the Kingdom of God is present (stanza 13); that is where men are »co-operating witnesses to the divine struggle of the Spirit against the flesh«, against everything »which seeks to ... wipe out His image, destroy His temple within us« (Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 1824).

scholarly journals A Igreja, a homossexualidade e o clero

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (282) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Arlene Denise Bacarji
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Sociological Knowledge ◽  
God's People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Church

A autora faz observações sobre o último documento da CNBB, Diretrizes para a formação dos presbíteros da Igreja no Brasil, relacionando-ocom a ordenação de homossexuais, acrescentando conhecimentos sociológicos e psicanalíticos sobre o tema. Alerta a Igreja sobre a perversão, mostra uma visão de quem está de fora do clero e faz parte do povo de Deuse questiona qual seria o significado dos fatos à luz do Espírito Santo.Abstract: The author comments on the last document of the Brazilian Bishops Diretrizes para a formação dos presbíteros da Igreja no Brasil, relating it with the ordination of homosexuals, adding psychoanalytic and sociological knowledge about the subject. Alert the Church on perversion, shows a view of who is out of the clergy and is part of God’s people and asks what is the meaning of the facts in light of the Holy Spirit.

scholarly journals Sumbangan Athanasius dari Aleksandria dalam Pembentukan Ajaran Trinitas

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Hendri Mulyana Sendjaja
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Church Tradition

The intellectual struggles and adventures of Christian thinkers in Alexandria in the first centuries produced an overarching effect to the doctrines of Christian faith, which survived to the present day. One of those doctrines is the doctrine of the Trinity. The study of the thought of Athanasius of Alexandria in regards of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, through his works such as Contra Gentes-De Incarnatione, Contra Arianos I-III, and Epistola ad Serapionem, speaks for itself the contribution he made to solidify the doctrine of the Trinity. For him, the doctrine expresses the eternal communion among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which in effect brings benefi t to us. The construction of the doctrine is inseparable from the Church tradition which owed to the ecclesiastical biblical exegesis, and the construction of the theological methods, and the soteriological perspective.

scholarly journals The Ascension of Christ and Permanent Ecclesiogenesis: A Contribution to Pneumatological and Eschatological Ecclesiology

2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Andrzej Napiórkowski
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Temporal Reality ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

What is the Ascension? Is it merely a narrative of a post-paschal community? In what spatio-temporal reality has it been fulfilled? How should we understand its placement in time: forty days after the Resurrection, and ten days prior to the Descent of the Holy Spirit? The Ascension should be analyzed integrally in connection with the mystery of death and the Resurrection. This paper presents an attempt at deepening New-Testament ecclesiogenesis while also moving away from the narrowed understanding that the Church emerged solely as a result of the words, deeds and person of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, it is a reference to the five stages of the Church's emergence as an event of the entire Holy Trinity in the still-unfinished history of salvation. On the other: it is a presentation of the typically ignored of the Ascension, which is usually reduced to the event of the Resurrection of the glorious Lord. Analysis of the Ascension – performed in the light of ecclesiogenesis – leads to uncovering the pneumatological and eschatological components, which are most interesting in reference to the multi-dimensional establishment of the Church and its mission.

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