In the first post in this series, we introduced the idea that the Spirit schools the Body of Christ so that we know the story of God we are called to enflesh. We also saw that this epistemic role of the Spirit is at the heart of Christian ethical behavior. In this post, we'll turn to Gregory of Nyssa for a helpful way of thinking about the Trinity generally and the role of the Spirit in particular. We'll also recall some of the classic Old Testament texts that provided the basis of Christian trinitarian doctrine. This background will be important as we move deeper into our exploration of how the Spirit schools the Body of Christ so that it knows and embodies the truth about God that is the proper foundation of Christian ethical reasoning.
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Pneumatology Revisited: Performing the truth that the world does not know
The Spirit guides the world to grasp the truth about the triune God and itself by creating communities whose words and practices communicate the meanings necessary to reveal that truth. “The Spirit teaches us how, by word and deed, to mean what we ought to believe.”(Marshall, Bruce D. Trinity and Truth (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine). Cambridge University Press, 1999., p. 202-3.) The habits of our common life are therefore an essential part of the Spirit’s epistemic role: the practices of the Church are the crucial means by which the Spirit reveals to the world the truth it does not know. If we want to know the truth about God, we turn to our worship, where the Spirit guides our discernment-in-communion so that, in our liturgical practice, we utter the truth about God. If we want to learn about the greatest good, the greatest truth, and the greatest beauty - if we want to inquire about how God meets our needs so that we might live in friendship with God and our neighbors - we turn in confidence to our sacramental practice because Jesus has promised us he will meet us there.
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