The Trinitarian Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas - El Camino ...

220 The Person of the Holy Spirit
names, and lay out his action within the economy. So he turns one question
over to the Holy Spirit, a second to the name Love and a third to the name
Gift.
On a theoretical level, the central question is surely that of Love (q. 37). It is
this one which creates the window for explaining why it is in the Holy Spirit’s
character to be Gift, and it also sets the frame for the Holy Spirit’s action in
the economy. But the Wrst question, which studies the name Holy Spirit
(q. 36), is also highly elaborated. Three articles are set aside for the origin of
the Holy Spirit: ‘Does the person whom one calls Holy Spirit proceed from
the Father and the Son?’2 Because of the diYculties speciWc to this question,
which are as much methodological as doctrinal, and because of its ecumenical
implications, we will present it in the next chapter. But we should nonetheless
keep in mind that, when he works through the questions about Love and Gift,
Thomas has already laid out the Catholic doctrine of the origin of the Spirit
(that he proceeds from the Father and from the Son).
1. THENAME‘HOLYSPIRIT’
Amongst the New Testament names, the predominant one is Spirit or Holy
Spirit.3 St Thomas markedly follows this use of language. But this phraseology
raises a two-sided problem. On the one hand, in and of itself, the word Spirit
does not exclusively characterize the third person of the Trinity, but can also
refer to God in his divinity as such, or in other words, it could mean the
Father, or the Son, or the whole Trinity. ‘The name Spirit can be apposite to
the three persons; we see this in John 4.24: God is Spirit.’4 Thomas explains
this by noting that the incorporeality (cf. Lk. 24.39) and the power of life
denoted by the word spirit must be seen in each of the divine persons.5 The
name Holy presents a similar problem, because it is in the essence of God to be
holy, and each of the three persons shares in the same holiness: ‘to be holy is
2 This is the title of ST I, q. 36, a. 2 (cf. q. 36, prol.). One can see from this formulation that
Thomas connects this doctrinal point to the expression ‘Holy Spirit’, that is, to the personal
name.
3 There are around 275 mentions of the divine Spirit in the New Testament (there are 379
occurrences of the word pneuma, but this Wgure also includes references to bad spirits or the
human spirit).
4 I Sent. d. 10, q. 1, a. 4, arg. 2; ST I, q. 36, a. 1, arg. 1.
5 In Ioan. 4.24 (no. 615). The verse in 2 Cor. 3.17 (The Lord, is the Spirit) presents an
analogous problem: Thomas comments that the word Spirit can refer either to the person of the
Holy Spirit, or to Christ (In 2 Cor. 3.17; no. 111).