Athanasius and the Holy Spirit: The Development of His Early Pneumatology

Description

Athanasius was one of the first writers to argue for the Holy Spirit's divinity, and the majority of his seven dozen works include at least one reference to the Holy Spirit. Yet, Athanasius is mainly remembered for his Christological writings and role in the so-called "Arian" controversy. Only a limited number of studies have looked at his pneumatology, and these studies have usually focused on Athanasius’s Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit (ca. 359–361), leaving a gap in our understanding of Athanasius’s prior pneumatology. By exploring the period from Athanasius’s election as bishop (328) to the completion of the third Oration against the Arians (ca. 345), this book seeks to help fill this gap. The first part argues that by the mid-330s, Athanasius had begun to establish core pneumatological perspectives that he would maintain for the rest of his career. Part two examines Athanasius’s three Orations, giving particular attention to Orations 1–2. Without the pneumatological perspectives that he established in the 330s and 340s, Athanasius would not have been prepared for his Letters to Serapion, where he took the next steps of confessing the Holy Spirit’s divine nature and role in creating the world. Abbreviations vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii Part I. Athanasius’s Pastoral Works 1. The Problem of Pneumatological Reticence in Against the Pagans–On the Incarnation 3 2. Pneumatology in the Early Pastoral Works 35 3. Pneumatology in the Later Pastoral Works 73 Part II. The Orations against the Arians 4. A Foundational Pneumatology: The Holy Spirit in Athanasius’s Trinitarian Arguments 103 5. Essential for Salvation: Psalm 45:7 and Christ’s Reception of the Holy Spirit 151 6. Participation in the Holy Spirit: Principles and Pneumatological Implications 181 7. The Spirit of the Son: The Holy Spirit’s Union with the Son 215 Conclusion 251 Appendix A: The Holy Spirit in Athanasius’s Works 255 Appendix B: The Son’s Participation in the Father 259 Appendix C: Thematic Developments in Athanasius’s Pneumatology 263 Bibliography: Primary Sources 265 Bibliography: Secondary Sources 273 Index 285