the soteriology of saint athanasius of alexandria the conformation of ...

224 JOHN R. MEYER
«When one refers to the proper dignity of the Spirit, he
is with the Father and the Son who are known in contemplation.
However, when one thinks of the grace produced
in participants, one says that the Spirit is in us.
The doxology of in the Spirit does not point to a confession
of his dignity, but is in view of our weakness: it
shows that we ourselves are not apt to render glory,
rather we have the aptitude in the Spirit» 67 .
This language suggests that the Holy Spirit has not yet been
adequately conceptualized as a person, an idea that would be more
patent in Gregory Nazianzen 68 . The Spirit still appears as the
power of God working in man, enabling him to exercise supernatural
acts. Man can contemplate divine things and appreciate the
dignity of the three members of the Trinity because of the Spirit.
In addition, in order to give glory to God we need the presence
of the Holy Spirit. We are rendered active in an almost physical
sense by the indwelling Spirit. As Sts. Augustine and Prosper
would come to appreciate, all good comes from God either as the
author of nature or of grace 69 .
Besides this allusion to the Holy Spirit as God's grace in us,
the formulation 'in the Spirit' also designates our insertion into
the «mystical body» of Christ. However, it would be incorrect
and incomplete to say that this is the only thing that the Spirit
does for the members of that body:
«A11 of the members are assembled in the body of Christ,
in the unity of the Spirit, and they render a mutual service
to one another according to the grace they have
received. God disposed all of the members in the body,
each one as he wished. The members have the same identity
one with another in accord with the mutual sympathy
of their spiritual communion. So that «when just
one member suffers, all suffer with him; so that there is
only one honor, all of the members taking part in his
joy» (/ Cor. 12, 26). And as the part being in all, each
one of us in the Spirit, because all of us form a single
body, we have been baptized in a single Spirit» 70 .
The members of Christ's body are identical inasmuch as
they have been drawn into his life by the Holy Spirit, but they