Basil of Caesarea by Radde-Gallwitz Andrew;

Basil of Caesarea by Radde-Gallwitz Andrew;

Author:Radde-Gallwitz, Andrew; [Radde-Gallwitz, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621893899
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2015-08-24T07:00:00+00:00


It is said that there are two realities: divinity and creation, sovereignty and servitude, sanctifying power and sanctified power, that which has virtue by nature and that which achieves virtue by freewill. In which class shall we rank the Spirit? Among those who are sanctified? But it is sanctity itself. Perhaps among those who come to possess virtue by good deeds? But it is good by nature.10

Basil distinguishes between those things that have a property, such as goodness, by participation, and that which is good by nature, simply in virtue of being what it is. When we look at biblical passages on the Spirit’s nature, we must bear this dichotomy in mind. To explain it, Basil uses his beloved example of iron heated in fire. Here, the point of the analogy is to stress that fire has heat as a natural property, whereas iron does not. While it is true that both the heated iron and the fire are hot, fire is so by its very nature, whereas iron is so only by its contact with fire. Similarly, both God and an angel are holy. However, God is so by nature, whereas the angel (or a saintly person) is so derivatively. Just as iron can be iron while changing from cool to hot and back, so too can an angel become holy and lose holiness. But God can no more be unholy than fire can be cold. This is what we mean when we say that holiness is the nature of God. And Basil has already shown in the first two books Against Eunomius that titles attributed to the Father’s nature are shared with the Son. So, both Father and Son are holy by nature. But, “holy” is of course especially ascribed to the Spirit in Scripture, so much so that we can confidently claim that “holiness is the Spirit’s nature.”11 This means that the Spirit, along with Father and Son, is the source of holiness for created beings, not in the way that heated iron could in turn heat other objects, but as the fire that heats of its own nature. If the question is, “What or who is the Spirit?,” the best answer is, “Sanctity itself.”

What goes for holiness also goes for other terms associated with the Spirit in Scripture: “goodness” (the Spirit is called “good Spirit” in Ps 142:10 LXX) and “Paraclete.” As the Spirit is holy by nature, so too is the Spirit by nature good. And the fact that the Son also is called “Paraclete” (for instance, in John 14:16) shows that the Spirit shares the Son’s nature.

Basil makes two assumptions worth noting. First, the revealed language of Scripture is the primary guide for theological reflection. The names of the Spirit tell us something about who the Spirit is by nature. Of course, the Spirit’s nature remains incomprehensible, and revealed language employs metaphor and enigma. We can know that the Spirit is holiness, but saying exactly what holiness is eludes us. Yet, it is worth



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