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BOOK REVIEWS

Ralph Del Colle, Christ and the Spirit. Spirit-Christology in Trinitarian Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). 240 pp. $35.00, hardback.

Reviewed by Donald L. Gelpi, SJ

This careful and nuanced analysis of the development of neo-scholastic christology presents the work of Australian theologian David Coffey as the culmination of a neo-scholastic theological reappropriation of the role of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation and in the gracing of the Christian community. Del Colle teaches at Barry University, and his book represents a significant attempt to advance ecumenical dialogue between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians. By a Spirit-Christology Professor Del Colle seems to mean an account of Jesus Christ which does two things: 1) it gives full weight to the role of the Holy Spirit in gracing and empowering Jesus during his life and ministry; and, 2) it also recognizes the proper action of the Spirit of the risen Christ within the economy of salvation. Del Colle begins by arguing that Roman Catholic theology needs to respond better than it has heretofore to the legitimate criticisms of orthodox theologians who complain that, in its more traditional formulations, Catholic theology failed to give an adequate account of the role of the Holy Spirit in the economy of salvation. He presents the work of David Coffey as an attempt to overcome the inadequacies of scholastic pneumatology from within the neo-scholastic tradition. Thus, Del Colle also examines the antecedents to Coffey within modem neo-scholasticism; he examines the christology and pneumatology of Matthias Sheben, Emile Mersch, Maurice de la Taille, and William Hill. In addition, Del Colle makes clear that Coffey's work also draws creatively on the work of Karl Rahner and of Heribert Muehlen. Because this book primarily studies the development of the neo-scholastic theological tradition, the reader will need to cope with the somewhat dated and arcane language which characterizes this tradition. But careful study of the argument will repay the effort it demands. 306

Scholasticism's inability to account adequately for the action of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation and in the life of the Church stemmed from its acquiescence in an Augustinian construct of the trinity. Del Colle correctly argues that one's trinitarian theology necessarily conditions what one says about the incarnation and about the activity of the Spirit. He, therefore, correctly argues the necessity of coordinating carefully trinitarian, christological, and pneumatological doctrine. Scholasticism found that coordination difficult because it taught that, whenever the divine persons act on creation, not only do they all act simultaneously, but that activity flows from the essence of substance common to all three of them. Only in the incarnation, then, does one encounter a divine person acting in his own right. Clearly, such an account of the trinity makes it difficult to ascribe any saving activity to the Holy Spirit as such. Instead, one only attributes to the Spirit an activity which flows from the divine substance common to all three persons. In technical scholastic terminology "notional" acts refer to the action of the divine person as such, while "essential" acts designate those which flow from the substance. As neo-scholasticism confronted the Catholic Biblical Renewal, it found itself increasingly forced to come to terms with the New Testament witness to the saving personal activity of the Holy Spirit within human history. The Spirit empowers Jesus' messianic ministry. The Spirit justifies, sanctifies, and charismatically inspires the Christian community. In groping for technical language to express these basic New Testament insights, neo-scholasticism found itself challenged to revise its construct of the trinity in a way which allowed it to give full and proper weight to the saving action of the Holy Spirit within the economy of salvation. David Coffey's theology, Del Colle informs us, began as a critical appropriation of the neo-scholastic tradition; but as his christology and trinitarian theology evolved, it recognized the need to move beyond neo-scholastic paradigms. In his most recent formulation of the action of the divine persons of the trinity, Coffey gives primacy to the notional plane over the essential. Moreover, he correctly perceives this as a reversal of traditional Thomistic trinitarian doctrine. This shift allows Coffey to speak of the proper action of the Holy Spirit, both in the incarnation and in the whole economy of salvation. Del Colle concludes his study by contrasting Coffey's position with that of other theologians. This book puts its finger on a neuralgic point in traditional scholastic christology and trinitarian theology. In my judgment, however, the position of David Coffey does not go far enough. Although Coffey recognizes that Catholic theology will have to move beyond a neo-scholastic paradigm if it hopes to coordinate successfully christology, pneumatology, and trinitarian theology, even Coffey's