Veronica Tierney: The Gift of the Holy Spirit: Pledge and Fulfillment in Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria’s idiosyncratic view of the creation of human beings asserts that the imago Dei is extrinsic, a gift located within the divine inbreathing in Genesis 2:7. This assertion is necessary in Cyril’s account of the fall as the loss of that divine gift, because only that which is extrinsic or “not rooted” in nature can be lost. Cyril’s account of humanity’s creation, fall, restoration, and ultimate glorification has been described as a narrative of the gift, loss, and return of the Holy Spirit. And yet, there has remained unresolved the question that, if the gift of the Holy Spirit could be lost in Eden, what prevents it from being lost ever again? What accounts for the seeming inadequacy of the first gift relative to the second? Relying primarily on Cyril’s Festal Letters and Commentary on John, the paper will argue that Cyril does, in fact, offer a compelling answer to these questions. He appeals to the gift of the Holy Spirit as pledge (ἀρραβὼν; 2 Cor 1:21–22 and 5:5 and Eph 1:13–14), and frequently connects this idea with the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25:14–30), to explain how the Holy Spirit is given provisionally in both the original creation and the new creation of the resurrection, only to be given in full after the general resurrection and final judgment.