Date of Award
Summer 2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Marcus Plested
Second Advisor
Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent
Third Advisor
Mark Johnson
Fourth Advisor
Michael Cover
Abstract
This dissertation addresses a lacuna within patristic scholarship on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Though the fourth century patristic writer known as “Macarius” addresses the theology of the Holy Spirit with unmatched depth and vibrancy, his pneumatological understanding has not yet been addressed adequately. Consequently, through a close literary analysis of the Spirit’s activity in the Macarian writings, this study proposes a threefold framework within which Macarius’ vision of the Spirit can be clearly perceived. In the first, the economic frame, the work of the Spirit within Old Testament Israel and the new covenant Church is compared and contrasted. The Spirit works within the Church as he did in Israel, but in a greater and unexpected way. Through the Church he acts directly within the soul to save and illuminate her and to actualize the realities to which the Old Testament pointed. Next is Macarius’ ecclesial framework, which points to the work of the Spirit through the Church and her mysteries. In baptism, the Spirit works grace within the soul which is nourished further through the Eucharist and other ministrations of the ecclesial body. At the same time, the Church, like Israel, points beyond herself to the eschatological reality in which she participates. Thus, the Spirit works effectively within the Church to realize grace within the soul. Within this framework, the homilist’s variety of pneumatological images takes a definite liturgical shape. These depictions of the Spirit indicate the inextricable link between his external ecclesial activity and his internal, secret work in the soul. Finally, the third framework of pneumatological activity which this study puts forward is the Macarian anthropological framework, in which the Spirit works to bring the soul to a twofold perfection, in cooperation with the will. In the first place perfection is a recovery of that which was lost in the Fall by Adam. Through ascetic effort, in conjunction with grace, the soul is able to recapitulate the Adamic state and fulfill God’s will where the first man failed. However, God intends human perfection to reach higher than Adam to Christ. Thus, through the Spirit’s activity, the Christian not only returns to the state of Adam but surpasses it in deification. Deified, the Christian becomes another Christ, uniting within herself humanity and divinity in a way akin to the Incarnation, through the gracious work of the Spirit.