In the fourth century after Christ, with the full deity of the Third Person of the Trinity at stake, St. Basil the Great comes firmly establishing a scriptural basis for the divinity of the Holy Spirit. This book review analyzes the theological underpinnings of St. Basil’s treatise On the Holy Spirit. In an age when Arian theology holds official sway over the people, St. Basil contends for the faith utilizing Holy Scripture and tradition as his guide. On the Holy Spirit was his magnum opus on the Spirit’s position in the Godhead of the Trinity. In this exposition, he set the theological foundation for the future of orthodox trinitarian theologia.

Basil of Caesarea was born in either 329 or 330 and died on either January 1 or 2, 379. Now known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers, he opposed heresies such as Arianism that threatened the survival of early Christian orthodoxy. Image: Icon of St. Basil the Great from the St. Sophia Cathedral of Kiev, via Wikimedia Commons.

St. Basil began his treatise addressing the accusation the Arians brought against him. He wrestled with the “hair-splitting”[1] that the Arians created as they speciously differentiated between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Heretic Aëtius stated that “‘through whom’ is different than ‘from whom’; therefore, the Son is different from the Father.”[2] He asserted that St. Basil’s doxology “glory be to the Father, with the Son, together with the Holy Spirit” was unscriptural. However, St. Basil attributed such meticulous manipulation of prepositions by his opponents on their reliance of pagan philosophy. In the end, he accused his adversaries of striving to subordinate the Holy Spirit through their pagan distinctions.

St. Basil believed that the Scriptures affirmed both “through him’ and “from him.” He quoted the apostle Paul’s doxology in Romans 11:36 (NRSV) “for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” Holy Scripture did not follow the pattern proposed by the Arians. Therefore, their exploitation of pagan fetishes became the epistemological springboard for St. Basil to commence his treatise on the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

The initial debate with St. Basil centered over his doxology. Specifically, the axis of the deliberation focused on the Holy Spirit. For St. Basil, the Holy Spirit was divine. Quoting Scriptures from Wisdom 1:7; Psalm 138:7 and Haggai 2:4-5, he asked several piercing questions about the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

What sort of nature should he be thought to have, who exists everywhere and co-exists with God? … Should we not exalt him who is divine in nature, unbounded in greatness, powerful in his energies, and good in his deeds? Should we not glorify him?[3]

The fundamental core of his questions affirmed that he unconditionally embraced the divine nature of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit lacks nothing less of God and his attributes were not characteristics of a created being.

Richard M. Riss presents evidence for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit throughout the Church Age.

Origen

In any case, Origen, Clement’s successor as head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, makes explicit references to miraculous gifts in operation in his day, at the beginning of the third century. He wrote, “there are still preserved among Christians traces of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the form of a dove. They expel evil spirits, and perform many cures, and foresee certain events, according to the will of the Logos.”²⁴ Elsewhere, he wrote:

Moreover, the Holy Spirit gave signs of His presence at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, and after His Ascension He gave still more: but since that time these signs have diminished, although there are still traces of His presence in a few who have had their souls purified by by the gospel, and their actions regulated by its influence.²⁵

A much more extensive treatment of the gifts of the Spirit appears in Origen’s De Principiis, book II, chapter VII, which is entitled, “On The Holy Spirit”. The third portion of this part of Origen’s work appears to be a very loose paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12: 8-11, where he writes:

For on some is bestowed by the Spirit the word of wisdom, on others the word of knowledge, on others faith; and so to each individual of those who are capable of receiving Him, is the Spirit Himself made to be that quality, or understood to be that which is needed by the individual who has deserved to participate.²⁶

The following paragraph (section 4) of the same chapter provides unquestionable evidence that he is speaking of the spiritual gifts with reference to the time in which he was living, for he writes:

We must therefore know that the Paraclete is the holy Spirit, who teaches truths which cannot be uttered in words, and which are, so to speak, unutterable, and “which it is not lawful for a man to utter,” i.e., which cannot be indicated by human language…..For if any one has deserved to participate in the Holy Spirit by the knowledge of His ineffable mysteries, he undoubtedly obtains comfort and joy of heart. For since he comes by the teaching of the Spirit to the knowledge of the reasons of all things which happens—how or why they occur—his soul can in no respect be troubled, or admit any feeling of sorrow; nor is he alarmed by anything, since, clinging to the Word of God and His wisdom, he through the Holy Spirit calls Jesus Lord.²⁷

There can be no question that Origen is speaking of revelatory spiritual gifts, for he writes very explicitly in this passage of revelation by God’s Spirit. His reference to unutterable truths which cannot be indicated by human language seems to suggest the possibility of a heavenly language in which such things can be uttered through the gift of tongues. Such an interpretation would certainly be consistent with the continual association of the gift of tongues with other prophetic gifts throughout the Patristic era.