Spirit-christology: Evaluation and Assessment

Abstract

Abstract In the course of this study we have charted a very specific path in our investigation of Spirit-christology as a contemporary dogmatic christological model. By beginning with a critique of the Latin trinitarian tradition exercised by Eastern Orthodox theology, there immediately surfaced a number of dogmatic problems that the Western model was required to address if its own pneumatology was to develop in comparison with that of the East. This led to an examination of the developments within Roman Catholic neo-scholasticism that resolved these issues as a necessary step in order from within that tradition to construct a viable Spirit-christology. As we have seen, this entailed theological argument in favor of a proper mission of the Holy Spirit, a theology of grace that gave priority to uncreated grace as a prerequisite to a real relation between the divine persons and created reality, and a theology of anointing that situated the role and function of the Holy Spirit in christology in relation to that of the divine Son. Each of these steps ensured that Spirit-christology would maintain and even deepen the integrity of the Christian trinitarian confession.