{"id":15895,"date":"2014-04-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=870"},"modified":"2014-04-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T00:00:00","slug":"whats-the-bible-for-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/whats-the-bible-for-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Bible For?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

In the latest issue of the International Journal of Systematic Theology<\/em>, the redoubtable and hyper-productive Matthew Levering probes Augustine\u2019s arguments (in de Trinitate<\/em>) for concluding that the Spirit is \u201clove\u201d and \u201cgift.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Levering points out, the identifications are not straightforwardly asserted anywhere in Scripture, yet Augustine makes a Scriptural case. The description of the Spirit as \u201cgift\u201d is more overtly taught in the New Testament, and Augustine links this with \u201clove\u201d by saying that the gift that God gives is the gift of love. Hence, the Spirit who is gift is also the Spirit who is love.<\/p>\n

Augustine recognizes that naming the Spirit \u201cgift\u201d runs the risk of depersonalizing the Spirit, and so he \u201cemphasizes in Book V that the Spirit is for us as an active origin or divine giver of gifts. Otherwise it would have been impossible for Paul to speak of \u2018one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills\u2019\u201d (139).<\/p>\n

Augustine is also aware that the New Testament speaks of the Spirit as a gift insofar as He is a gift to us. But Augustine is willing to extrapolate from this economic work of the Spirit to a conclusion about the immanent Trinity. Behind this Levering discerns a view of Scripture that is quite different from that of modern critical scholarship. \u201cFor Augustine, Scripture is not a mere set of ancient texts whose meaning can be traced by reading each text individually. Instead, the triune God inspired Scripture in order to teach us about himself, so that we can know him rightly and thereby come to love him more and more\u201d (141). Since Scripture is given to reveal God to us, texts that speak of the Spirit as love and gift in the economy \u201ccan also be expected to teach us about the procession of the Holy Spirit\u201d (141-2).<\/p>\n

Levering concludes that \u201chistorical-critical scholarship cannot generate the insights that Augustine obtains in naming the Spirit, and we should not limit ourselves to the doctrine of Scripture implicit in historical-critical exegesis. Given Augustine\u2019s doctrine of Scripture, it is plausible to anticipate that what we find in John 1:1 about the Son as \u2018Word,\u2019 we will also find in some form about the Spirit. Spurred by such anticipation, we can \u2013 and should <\/em>\u2013 attend to the web of texts that associate the Spirit with \u2018love\u2019 and \u2018gift\u2019 in the economy of salvation, and we can expect to find therein some limited, but precious, instruction from God the Teacher regarding the distinction between the Spirit\u2019s and the Son\u2019s processions in the mystery of the Trinity\u201d (142).<\/p>\n

(Levering, \u201cThe Holy Spirit in the Trinitarian Communion: \u2018Love\u2019 and \u2018Gift\u2019?\u201d IJST <\/em>16:2 [2014] 126-42.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the latest issue of the International Journal of Systematic Theology, the redoubtable and hyper-productive Matthew Levering probes Augustine\u2019s arguments (in de Trinitate) for concluding that the Spirit is \u201clove\u201d and \u201cgift.\u201d As Levering points out, the identifications are not straightforwardly asserted anywhere in Scripture, yet Augustine makes a Scriptural case. The description of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,37,650,651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-augustine","category-bible","category-critical-scholarship","category-spirit"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat’s the Bible For?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the latest issue of the International Journal of Systematic Theology, the redoubtable and hyper-productive Matthew Levering probes Augustine’s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/whats-the-bible-for-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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