Chapter 23 — Solution of the arguments given above, against the divinity of the Holy Spirit

Solution of the arguments given above, (Ch. 16.) against the divinity of the Holy Spirit

It remains for us to reply to the arguments given above, whereby it was contended that the Holy Spirit is not God, but a creature.

Here we must remark in the first place that the word ‘spirit’ is apparently derived from the respiration of animals, which is a certain movement of the air by inhalation and exhalation. Hence the name ‘spirit’ is given to any impulse or movement of an aerial body. Thus the wind is called a spirit: Fire and hail, snow and frost, spirit of the storms (Most English translations (including the RSVCE) have stormy winds.) fulfilling his command (Ps 148:8). Thus too the subtle vapour diffused throughout the members of the body to facilitate movement is called ‘spirit.’ Again, since air is invisible, the name ‘spirit’ is applied also to any kind of motive power or invisible substance. Hence both the sensitive and the rational soul, as well as angels and God himself, are called spirits. God proceeding by way of love is called this in a special way, because love implies a certain motive power. Thus when Amos says: He creates the wind (Amos 4:13), he refers to the wind, as our translation more clearly expresses it; this is in keeping with the context: He who forms the mountains (Amos 4:13). When Zacharias says of God that he creates or forms the spirit of man (Zech 12:1), he is speaking of the human soul. Hence we cannot conclude that the Holy Spirit is a creature.

In like manner, the words of our Lord in reference to the Holy Spirit: He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he will hear he will speak (John 16:13), do not prove that the Holy Spirit is a creature. For we have proved (Ch. 17.) that the Holy Spirit is God proceeding from God. From which it follows that he receives his essence from another, even as we have shown in reference to the Son. (Ch. 14.) Therefore, since in God his knowledge, power and operation are the divine essence, all knowledge, power, and operation of the Son and Holy Spirit are from another; but in the Son they are from the Father alone, whereas in the Holy Spirit, they are from Father and Son. Since, then, one of the operations of the Holy Spirit is to speak in holy men, as we have shown, (Ch. 17.) for this reason it is said that he will not speak on his own authority, because he does not work of himself. In him, to hear is to receive knowledge, even as he receives his essence, from Father and Son. Thus we acquire knowledge by hearing, and Scripture is wont to speak of divine things after the manner of human. Nor need we stress the use of the future tense when he says: he will hear, because to receive is eternal in the Holy Spirit: for verbs of any tense can apply to eternity, since eternity embraces all time.

For the same reason it is clear that the mission whereby the Holy Spirit is said to be sent by the Father and the Son is no proof that he is a creature. For it has been said that the Son of God is said to be sent inasmuch as he appeared to men by taking visible flesh. Thus he began to be in the world after a manner in which he was not there hitherto—that is to say visibly—whereas he was always there invisibly as God. Now, it was owing to the Father that the Son did this. Therefore, in this respect he is said to have been sent by the Father. Now, the Holy Spirit also appeared visibly, both in the form of a dove over Christ at the baptism, and under the form of fiery tongues over the apostles. And though he did not become a dove or fire, as the Son became man, nevertheless he appeared under these visible forms as signs of himself. Hence he also was in the world in a new way, that is to say, visibly. This was owing to the Father and Son, for which reason he is said to be sent by the Father and the Son. This does not indicate subjection in him, but procession.

There is also another way in which both the Son and Holy Spirit are said to be sent, but invisibly. For it is clear from what has been said that the Son proceeds from the Father, as the Father’s knowledge of himself, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Son, as God’s love for himself. Hence, as we have already said, when by the Holy Spirit a man becomes a lover of God, the Holy Spirit dwells in him and thus is in man in a new way, namely, by dwelling in him in respect of a new effect. That the Holy Spirit produces this effect in a man is owing to the Father and the Son; for this reason he is said to be sent invisibly by them. In like manner, the Son is said to be sent invisibly into a man’s mind when a man comes to love God through his knowledge of God. Therefore, it is clear that neither does this kind of mission in the Son imply subjection on the part of the Holy Spirit, but only procession from another.

Nor does it argue against the divinity of the Holy Spirit that Father and Son are sometimes associated without mention of the Holy Spirit, as neither is it an argument against the divinity of the Son, that the Father is sometimes spoken of without mention being made of the Son. For thus Scripture insinuates tacitly that when anything pertaining to the divinity is said of one of the three, it is to be referred to all of them, because they are one God. Nor indeed can God the Father be understood apart from his Word and Love, nor vice versa. For this reason, in any one of the three, all three are implied, so that sometimes the Son is mentioned alone, in reference to that which is common to the three, for instance: No one knows the Father except the Son (Matt 11:27); and yet both Father and Holy Spirit know the Father. In the same way, it is said of the Holy Spirit: No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:11), and yet it is certain that both Father and Son have this knowledge.

It is also evident that it cannot be proved that the Holy Spirit is a creature, from the fact that Sacred Scripture ascribes to him things that savor of movement. Such things are to be taken metaphorically since Sacred Scripture sometimes ascribes movement to God. For instance: They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden (Gen 3:8); and: I will go down to see whether they have done according to the outcry (Gen 18:21). Hence, the words: The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters (Gen 1:2), must be taken as stated above, as when we say that the will inclines to its object, or that love pursues the beloved. Some, however, refer these words, not to the Holy Spirit, but to the air, the natural place of which is above the waters. Hence to indicate the manifold changes of the air, it is said that it was moving over the face of the waters. The words: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28), must be taken as referring to the sending of the Holy Spirit by Father and Son, of which we have spoken above. The expression pour out indicates the abundant effect of the Holy Spirit, in that it will not confine itself to one person, but will reach many, from whom it will flow forth, as it were, on to others, as may be seen when corporeal things are poured forth.

In like manner, the words: I will take some of the Spirit which is upon you and put it upon them (Num 11:17) refer not to the essence or person of the Holy Spirit, since he is indivisible, but to his effects whereby he dwells in us, for they can increase and decrease in man. Yet the sense is not that the identical effect taken from one person is bestowed on another, but that the effect which is increased on the one hand is similar to that which is decreased on the other. Nor does this necessitate subtraction from one person if another receive an addition, because a spiritual thing can be shared by several at once without detriment to any one of them. Consequently, it does not follow that Moses must have been deprived of any of his spiritual gifts, in order that they might be bestowed on others. This bestowal refers to the act or office, because the Holy Spirit accomplished through several persons that which previously he had effected through Moses alone.

Thus again Eliseus did not ask that the essence or person of the Holy Spirit might be doubled in him, but that he might receive the Holy Spirit’s twofold effect bestowed on Elias, namely, prophecy and the working of miracles. Yet it is not unreasonable that one man should have a more abundant share of the Holy Spirit’s gifts than another, whether twice as much or in any other proportion of excess, since every man’s power is measurable and finite. But Eliseus would not have presumed to ask that he might surpass his master in a supernatural effect.

It is also plain that, as is customary in Sacred Scripture, human passions are ascribed to God metaphorically. Thus it is said: The anger of the Lord was kindled against his people (Ps 106[105]:40); for God is said to be angry by reason of a likeness in the effect, because he punishes, which angry people do. Therefore, it is said: He gave them into the hand of the nations (Ps 106[105]:41). In the same way, the Holy Spirit is said to grieve on account of a likeness in the effect, because he abandons sinners, even as men who are grieved abandon those who grieve them.

It is also a usual mode of expression in Sacred Scripture to ascribe to God that which God works in man: Now I know that you fear God (Gen 22:12), that is, I have made you know. In this sense, it is said that the Holy Spirit asks, because he makes us ask, since he causes the love of God in our hearts so that we desire to enjoy him, and through desire, we ask.

Now, the Holy Spirit proceeds as the love with which God loves himself; and with the same love God loves himself and other things for the sake of his own goodness; therefore, it is evident that the love with which God loves us pertains to the Holy Spirit. So does the love with which we love God, since it is he who makes us lovers of God, as proved above. (Ch. 20.) As regards both of these, it is fitting that the Holy Spirit be given to us. As to the love with which God loves us, it is in keeping with our usual mode of speaking, when we say that a man gives his love to another when he begins to love him. Indeed, it is true that God does not begin to love anyone in time, if we consider the divine will with which he loves us; but the effect of his love is caused in us in time, when he draws us to himself. As to the love with which we love God, it is fitting, because the Holy Spirit causes this love in us. Hence in respect of this love he dwells in us, as we have shown, and thus we possess him as one in whose wealth we share. And because it is owing to the Father and the Son that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and is possessed by us through the love which he causes in us, he is fittingly said to be given to us by the Father and the Son. Nor does this prove him to be less than the Father and the Son, but that he proceeds from them. He is also said to give himself to us inasmuch as the love by which he dwells in us is caused in us by him as well as by the Father and the Son.

Now, though the Holy Spirit is true God, and has the true divine nature from Father and Son, it does not follow that he is a Son. For a man is a son because he is begotten; consequently, if one thing receive from another the latter’s nature, otherwise than by being begotten, the conditions of sonship would be lacking. Thus, if by a power granted him by God, one man were to fashion another from some part of his body, or from some extraneous matter like a work of art, the result would not be called his son since he would not be born of him. Now, the procession of the Holy Spirit does not satisfy the conditions of birth, as we have shown. (Ch. 19.) Therefore, although the Holy Spirit derives the divine nature from Father and Son, he cannot be called their Son.

And it is reasonable that in God alone can the divine nature be communicated in several ways, because in God alone is operation identified with being. Hence, since in him (as in every intellectual nature) there is intelligence and will, it follows that what proceeds in him by way of intelligence, as a word does, and by way of love and will, as love does, must have divine being, and must be God. Consequently, both Son and Holy Spirit are true God.

We have said enough about the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Any other difficulties touching his procession must be considered in the light of what we have said about the nativity of the Son.