HELP US TO BE GOOD: A PNEUMATOLOGICAL VIRTUE ETHIC FOR CHURCHES OF CHRIST Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Mac S. Sandlin, M.Div. August 2021 HELP US TO BE GOOD: A PNEUMATOLOGICAL VIRTUE ETHIC FOR CHURCHES OF CHRIST Name: Sandlin, Mac S. APPROVED BY: Brad J. Kallenberg, Ph.D. Dissertation Director William L. Portier, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader Dennis M. Doyle, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader Jana Bennett, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader John Mark Hicks, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________________ Jana Bennett, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Religious Studies ii ©Copyright by Mac S. Sandlin All rights reserved 2021 iii ABSTRACT HELP US TO BE GOOD: A PNEUMATOLOGICAL VIRTUE ETHIC FOR CHURCHES OF CHRIST Name: Sandlin, Mac S. University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Brad J. Kallenberg Churches of Christ (Stone-Campbell Movement) have inherited from early thinkers in the Restoration Movement and generally operate out of an ethic which can be summarized in the maxim, “Try hard to do what the Bible says.” This approach has two major flaws: self-reliance rather than reliance on the Holy Spirit, and a tendency to treat Scripture and an individual’s obedience to Scripture as ends in themselves instead of the means to an end. This ethic yields an anthropology that is at once too high and too low: too high in its assumption that we can achieve goodness without the direct aid of the Spirit and too low in its assumption that obedience is the highest good to which we are called. To this problem, I propose a two-part prescription. The first element of my proposed solution is recommendation of Alasdair MacIntyre’s recovery of Aristotelian virtue ethics. Key concepts like teleology, narrative, community, practices, and traditions help provide a more wholistic, practical, and, I argue, biblical way to think about ethics. Helpful as he is, MacIntyre presents his project in the language of philosophy, and if virtue ethics are to be accessible to Churches of Christ, they must be baptized and appear in explicitly Christian language. Providentially, Stanley Hauerwas has already done precisely this work. His theological iv appropriation of MacIntyre transforms teleology into eschatology, narrative to the gospel, practices to sacraments, and traditions to the church. But Hauerwas’s work, as has often been noted, tends to offer only a bare account of the Holy Spirit. The second element of my prescription is a more robust pneumatology than can be provided either by Hauerwas or by Churches of Christ but which draws on the best elements of both. Following Hauerwas’s aphoristic style, I propose a riddling methodology to explore three major themes in pneumatology: 1) the Holy Spirit as both the power/presence of God and as a person, 2) the Holy Spirit’s role in kenosis and theosis, and 3) the Holy Spirit and love. Drawing on a wide range of biblical sources, the work of theologians including Robert Jenson and Eugene Rogers, and the images and insights of patristic authors, especially Augustine I attempt to show that the Spirit is a person who helps us to become that which God is, namely, love. I conclude by suggesting that Churches of Christ replace the maxim “Try hard to do what the Bible says” and the theological ethic that it represents with maxims such as: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” “Love and do what you want.” And, the simple but profound prayer, “Help us to be good.” v DEDICATION Dedicated to the Beebe Church of Christ, The people of God, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When a project has taken as long as this one has, the number of people whose impact on the work deserves acknowledgment becomes somewhat overwhelming. I have written this dissertation in three overlapping contexts. The first is religion department at the University of Dayton. The second is Harding University, the school which formed me as an undergraduate and a seminary student and where I am privileged to teach. The third is my church and family. Without any one of them, this project would not be what it is. At Dayton, I obviously an enormous debt to my Brad Kallenberg who not only directed this project, and made suggestions at every step in the process but also prayed for me regularly as I wrote. It is an honor to study under so accomplished and impressive a scholar as Dr. Kallenberg, but it is a blessing beyond words to have a good man like him ask God’s blessing on your work. Many of the major points in this dissertation first began to form in my mind in his classes. Other professors at Dayton also contributed significantly to the project. The chapter on Augustine as well as the pneumatological insights taken from Aquinas, Congar, and Ratzinger originated in classes and guided research projects led by Dennis Doyle. And, of course, I am indebted to Bill Portier whose wisdom, passion, temper, wit, and laughter have made him both a legendary teacher and a great friend. Once after class the two of us engaged in a predictably loud and intense conversation on the doctrine of mediation. Porter threw his arms in the air and shouted, “How are we supposed to love something like God!?” That question lies behind everything I try to say about the Spirit as a person in this dissertation. vii Kallenberg frequently says that theology is a team sport, so I must thank not only my coaches, but also my teammates. Thank you to Amy Doorley, who always knew the answers I needed and was patient with me when I asked more than once. Thank you to my colleagues in the basement office without whose conversations, arguments, laughter, and encouragement I would never have made it to the end of this program. Among these, two names demand a special thank you: Laurie Eloe, who befriended me the first time I walked onto campus and poured more love and wisdom and homemade food into me that I deserve, and Anthony Rosselli, who was and is a brother to me. In your lives and your performance of the Christian faith I learned things about the Spirit that words cannot capture. I am grateful to Harding as an institution for the extensive academic leave needed to pursue this degree and the flexibility granted me while I was writing this dissertation. Among individuals at Harding, I am especially grateful to Monte Cox who saw potential in me that I never saw and who has charted the trajectory of much of my life’s vocation, my teacher, my mentor, my hero, my friend. I hope this dissertation makes it into one more Christmas poem. I also need to acknowledge the tremendous influence that Scott Adair has had on my life and my theology. Though his name never appears in the footnotes in Chapter Seven, his influence lies behind every line it. I could not have written what I have written about the Spirit had I not learned about Christ from Scott. My appreciation also goes out to the West Wing of the Bible Department at Harding: Nathan Guy, Jim Bury, Peter Rice, Kraig Martin, and Dale Manor. There is very little in this dissertation that has not been worked over in conversation with them, and those conversations have been some of the most formative of my life. I also wish to thank my viii students, especially those who took seminar courses on the Spirit and on Augustine with me. Their comments, questions, and insights made this project better. No acknowledgements could be complete without including my family. I cannot overstate my thankfulness for the tremendous sacrifices and unflagging support given to me by my parents, my sister, and above all, by my best friend and wife, Jenni. The title and the prayer from which is taken are hers. I am thankful also to my children, three “signs of hope requiring infinite patience,” whose questions, insights, and beauty inspired many of my favorite lines within this work.1 But my family is not defined only by blood. And so in closing, I must say a word about the Beebe Church of Christ, the body of believers to whom this work is dedicated. Our minister, Matthew Love introduced me to much of the poetry I cite, read multiple drafts of this dissertation for me, and organized a reading group with members of the congregation (Jeff Wisdom, Logan Thompson, Michael Gutierrez, and Caleb Carney) to discuss both my work and significant sources within it. I am grateful to him and to them for their help and support. Hailey Pruitt provided a careful pair of eyes and helped with fine edits, catching many mistakes I had overlooked. Our elders and many members have prayed over me and over this work, and I am confident that their prayers played a significant role in its completion and in anything of value within it. Dayton’s theology program emphasizes the historical context within which we do theology, and the Beebe Church of Christ is my context. For my entire life, I have worshipped, studied, prayed, served, cried, hurt, and celebrated with this church. There is much within it to critique, and the ethic that I find so much fault with in this project, I 1 The quotation comes from a prayer of Stanley Hauerwas’s, “Give Us Hope So We Can Wait,” in Prayers Plainly Spoken (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1999), 87.