Co-worship and Co-glorification of the Holy Spirit in the Treatise of St. Basil of Caesarea “On the Holy Spirit”

Abstract

The text published below is the report which was read at the VI International Patristic Conference “Saint Basil the Great in the theological tradition of East and West”, Moscow, April 11–13, 2019. The report examines the doctrine of St. Basil of Caesarea on the Holy Spirit, as expressed in his treatise “On the Holy Spirit”, in the context of the trinitarian disputes of the 4th century. More specifically, the report focuses on St. Basil’s arguments in defense of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, based on two types of doxology, that is, the economic and theological. In the first case, the action of the Divine Persons is taken as externalized; in the second case, the Divine Persons are considered in their intra-trinitarian relations and equality. Of these two doxological formulas, the first is vulnerable to interpretations that subordinate the Son and the Spirit to the Father. The second doxological formula, on the contrary, strongly affirms the equality of Persons. St. Basil had to prove to his opponents that the equation of the Spirit with the Father and the Son is not an arbitrary innovation, but is expressed in the “commandment of baptism”, which clearly indicates the divinity of the Spirit. Then St. Basil shows the community of nature, glory and worship between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. The communication of nature provides both the identity of the Person and the unity of the essence. The communication of glory means that in the Spirit the whole Trinity is contemplated and glorified: the Spirit reveals the Son as the image of the Father, and reveals a prototype in the Son, that is, the Father; but the Spirit Himself is glorified through fellowship with both. Hence all three Persons are worshiped as one God. The report concludes with an analysis of the role of the Holy Spirit as Lord and Giver of life.