spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

Recently Augustine’s theology has given rise to renewed scholarship. Theologians like Lewis
Ayres (1996, 2000, 2010), Michel Barnes (1995, 1999, 2003), and Rowan Williams (1990) set
the trend to re-read Augustine’s Trinitarian theology in order to retrieve essential notions that
have been neglected under the influence of the negative reception of Augustine’s theology. The
new readings respond to and overturn the idea that Augustine’s Trinitarian theology is the
initiator of disastrous trends in Western Christian thought (Ayres 2010:1). This re-reading is
referred to as the ‘new canon’ of Augustine scholarship, and it contributes to the understanding
of contemporary scholarship that Augustine’s theology has been interpreted primarily through a
non-theological lens and with a focus on his Neo-platonic engagements. Countering the older
and disapproving receptions of Augustine’s Trinitarian theology, the new readings show, for
example, that Augustine moves towards an account of the divine communion on the basis of the
threeness of the Trinity (Ayres 2010:3, 263-272).
In his work On the Holy Trinity, Augustine addresses the person of the Holy Spirit in relation to
the other persons within the Godhead 42 . He understands the person of the Holy Spirit within
Trinitarian life as “a certain unutterable communion of the Father and the Son; and on that
account, perhaps, He is so called, because the same name is suitable to both the Father and the
Son” (5.11.12). The Holy Spirit is identified as communion or fellowship between the Father and
the Son, which means that the Father and the Son can be characterized as communion as well:
God is communion (Ayres 2010:251). Taking this a stage further, Augustine re-emphasizes that
the Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son in all things, and he starts to define this communion
as love: “the Holy Spirit, whatever it is, is something common both to the Father and Son. But
that communion itself is consubstantial and co-eternal; and if it may fitly be called friendship, let
it be so called; but it is more aptly called love” (On the Holy Trinity 6.5.7).
This identification of the Spirit as love does not only explain the person of the Spirit within the
Trinity as the One who is the love that bonds the Father and the Son; it also emphasizes the
understanding of God as being in communion, loving and sharing with one another (Ayres
2010:258). On the basis of 1 John 4:8-16, Augustine argues that God is love, and that the Holy
Spirit is the love that the Father and the Son share, because it is only through the Spirit that
God’s love can be experienced. God’s nature is love, and the identity of the Spirit can be found
in this loving relationality of the Trinitarian persons. Augustine also uses Romans 5:5 to
substantiate the identification of the Spirit as the mutual love between the Father and the Son.
Paul encourages believers to persevere in their suffering, because it will produce hope that will
42. Full text available on http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf103.html (accessed on 2 November 2011).
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