Daniel Marsh
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I never said Oden was a materialist. Of course he talks everywhere about Spirit. Nonetheless he wrote:
"Jesus himself chose the expression 'Holy Breath’ to designate the Comforter to follow Him (John 20:22)'" ( Thomas C. Oden, Life in the Spirit: Systematic Theology Volume Three (Peabody: Prince Press, 2001, reprint), p. 16)
Page 16
THE HOLY SPIRIT
by Whom the Father is known and the Son is glorified. . . . Why make a long discourse of it? All that the Father has the Son has also, except the being Unbegotten; and all that the Son has the Spirit has also, except the Generation.
(Gregory Nazianzen, Oral. XLI.9, NPNF 2 VII, p. 382, amended)
The Worship ofGod the Spirit. The Spirit is called Lord (1 Cor. 12:4-6) because he is God, entitled to the same worship rightly offered up to the Father and the Son (Basil, On the Spirit VIII.44-XXI.52, NPNF 2 VIII, pp. 27-34). The Spirit’s name is placed on equal terms with the Lord in the apostolic benediction (2 Cor. 13:14). The Spirit’s equality with Father and Son is clear from the great commis- sion (Matt. 28:19), an equality that does not erase distinguishability (Athanasius, LCHS IV.3-4; cf. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Spirit, NPNF 2 IV, p. 325). “The Spirit is jointly worshipped in God, when God is worshipped in the Spirit” (Ambrose, Ofthe Holy Spirit III.X.82, NPNF 2 X, p. 147). By diminishing the Spirit one does not exalt Father or Son: “If ever there was a time when the Son was not, then there was a time when the Spirit was not. If the One was from the beginning, then the Three were so too. If you throw down the One, I am bold to assert that you do not set up the other Two” (Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. XXXI.4, On the Holy Spirit, NPNF 2 VII, p. 319).
The Holy Spirit is supplicated as “perfecting all other things, but Himself lack- ing in nothing; living not as needing restoration, but as Supplier of life; not grow- ing by additions, but straightway full, the self-established, omnipresent, source of sanctification” (Basil, On the Holy Spirit, 1.9, NPNF 2 VIII, p. 15, amended). Daily prayer has begun for centuries in the Orthodox tradition with this prayer: “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who art everywhere and fillest all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of Life, Come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.”
The Many Names of the One Spirit. Though called by many names, the Spirit is one (Tho. Aq., ST I—I, Q36, I, pp. 182—85): Only the Spirit of life could be the Spirit of holiness. Only the Holy Spirit could be the one Spirit of the Church. Only the Spirit of love could be at once the sacramental and charismatic Spirit. Though any systematic discussion of the Holy Spirit must be divided into sequen- tial parts, God the Spirit remains undivided, and “we preach faith undivided to- wards Him” (Cyril ofJerusalem, Catech. Led. XVII.2, NPNF 2 VII, p. 124).
The work of the one Spirit is indicated by varied names ascribed in scripture. As compassionate Lord, the Spirit is Comforter (John 14:16), as reclaimer, the Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15), as regenerator, the Spirit of Life (Rom. 8:2), as life giver, the Spirit who awakens faith (2 Cor. 4:13), as merciful One, the Spirit of Grace (Heb. 10:29), as teacher, the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17), as counselor, the Spirit of Wisdom (Eph. 1:17), as sanctifier, the Spirit of holiness (Rom. 1:14; Cyril ofJerusalem, Catech. Led. XV.5, NPNF 2 VII, p. 125; Calvin, Inst. 3.1.3).
Jesus himself chose the expression “Holy Breath” to designate the comforter to follow him (John 20:22; M. Sheeben, The Mysteries of Christianity, pp. 97 f.). “Christ breathed the Spirit in a corporeal fashion and thus showed that as from the mouth of a man comes the corporeal breath, so from the divine substance in a way that befits it comes the breath that proceeds from it” (Cyril of Alexandria,
THE PERSON OF THE HOEY SPIRIT
17
Comm, on John 14.16, tractate IX, MPG 74.258; cf. Letters 55.40—43, FC 77, pp. 34—36). “The Greeks have compared the Spirit to the breathing forth of an outer breath, the Latins to the breathing forth of an inner love” (Bonaventure, Comm., Book / of Lombard's Sentences, XI, Q1; Heron, HS, p. 87).
Faith’s privilege is not merely to believe that the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity but to “take him for Christ’s Agent or Advocate with our souls, and for our Guide, Sanctifier, and Comforter” (Baxter, Christian Directory 1.3.3). Holy Spirit is “the third name of divinity, the proclaimer of the one monarchy, and at the same time the interpreter of the economy. . . the ‘leader into all truth’” (Tertullian, Ag. Praxeas 30, ECF, p. 131). The Holy Spirit is “the Inspirer of the Faith, the Teacher of Knowledge, the Fount of Love, the Seal of Chastity, and the Cause of all Power” (Leo, Sermons LXXV, NPNF 2 XII, p. 191)."
And, ignoring the other quotes by him that I posted weakens your jump to conclusions.
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