Thursday 7 July 2011

Miguel Brugarolas - Anointing and kingdom. Some aspects of Gregory of Nyssa’s pneumatology.


This communication presents a study of the pneumatological meaning that Gregory of Nisa gives to the notions of «anointing» and «kingdom» in his works Adversus Macedonianos pneumatomachos, De Spiritu Sancto (GNO III/1 102,14ff), Ad Eustathium, De sancta Trinitate (GNO III/1 15,19-16,20) and Oratio dominica ΙΙΙ (GNO VII/2 39,15–19). For the intellection of this notions are crucial the texts of Is 61.1 and Lk 4.18; Act 10.38; and the variant of Lk 11,2 «May Thy Holy Spirit come upon us and purify us», read in parallel with Mt 6.9. Gregory’s interpretation of these texts is very personal and meaningful and underscores some key ideas of his pneumatology: as the divinity of Holy Spirit’s nature, the unity of the Trinity and, in particular, the bond between Son and Spirit.
Gregory bases himself on the notions of anointing and kingdom to stress the mystery of the unity and trinity in God. He refers to the Holy Spirit as the unction of the Son to talk about the close unity between both: The Father is who anoints the Son with the oil of the Holy Spirit, who is the «symbol of his kingship». As there is no distance between the skin and the unction, neither it is between the Son and the Spirit. Even so, this Spirit’s attributes, unction and kingdom or kinship, do not deny the particular difference of the divine Persons, but instead underscores the own role of each one on the Trinity.

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