Date of Award
Summer 2009
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
Abstract
This study grows out of a course on early Christian pneumatology offered by Michel Barnes during my second semester of doctoral studies. The development of doctrine intrigues me. The second-century ascription of the title Wisdom to the Holy Spirit and its subsequent repudiation in the third-century caught my attention. My curiosity centered upon why the association of Wisdom with the Spirit, an established aspect of lsraelite thought, was rejected with relative ease and rapidity at the turn of the century. The association of Christ and Wisdom in the New Testament writings played a role of course, but that association did not dissuade the identification of the Spirit with Wisdom by Theophilus nor by lrenaeus. whose high regard for Scripture is beyond doubt. Upon questioning Barnes on this topic, I discovered that a solid explanation did not yet exist. In fact, work needed to be done on the presence of this identification in the second century before we could address its subsequent disappearance. As a doctoral student without a thesis topic this answer was welcome indeed...