On the Love of God by Mark Christopher Gorman Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Edgardo Colón-Emeric, Supervisor ___________________________ Paul J. Griffiths ___________________________ Randy L. Maddox ___________________________ J. Lester Ruth ___________________________ William C. Turner, Jr. Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2015 ABSTRACT On the Love of God by Mark Christopher Gorman Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Edgardo Colón-Emeric, Supervisor ___________________________ Paul J. Griffiths ___________________________ Randy L. Maddox ___________________________ J. Lester Ruth ___________________________ William C. Turner, Jr. An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2015 Copyright by Mark Christopher Gorman 2015 Abstract This dissertation queries the ongoing significance and fruitfulness of Augustine of Hippo’s insight that the Holy Spirit is the Love of God. Rather than turning to the standard text, his De Trinitate, this project examines closely the earlier Tractatus in Epistolam Joannis ad Pathos, a set of sermons on 1 John delivered mostly during the Octave of Easter. The study of the Tractatus is offered in conjunction with a much later interlocutor, John Wesley. A close reading of Augustine’s sermons of the Tractatus is synthesized with a close reading of Wesley’s five extant sermons on texts from 1 John. The principal argument in this dissertation is that a synthesis of Augustine and John Wesley on the Holy Spirit produces a nuanced understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Love of God that enriches contemporary systematic theology. Furthermore, instead of either a purely archeological retrieval or genealogical study of these two theologians, this dissertation demonstrates the potential for enrichment by offering constructive proposals concerning the systematic coherence between a theology of divine desire and a theology of Christian initiation made possible by this Augustinian-Wesleyan approach to the Spirit. The opening chapters, one through three, form an exegetical and synthesizing foundation, establishing the basic building blocks of the constructive proposals of chapter four, a theology of divine desire, and chapter five, a theology of Christian initiation. In the early chapters, the dissertation draws on the recent insights into systematic theology of Sarah Coakley and A.N. Williams in order to approach systematics in a way that iv brings coherence to a disparate set of homiletical texts. The conclusion of the dissertation is that Augustine’s naming of the Holy Spirit, far from being an ancient relic best abandoned, resonates strongly with Wesley’s own insights into the Spirit’s person and work and that an Augustinian-Wesleyan pneumatology suggests possibilities for further cross-centuries examination of these two significant Christian preachers. v Dedication To Libby vi Contents Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………….xii Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….1 Augustine and John Wesley………………………………………………………3 Method and Structure…………………………………………………………..…7 Chapter One……………………………………………………………………………...10 Introduction………………………………………………………………………10 Secondary Literature……………………………………………………………..12 Larger works incorporating the Homilies………………………………..13 Introductory essays………………………………………………………16 The Homilies: Initial Comments…………………………………………………19 The Ten Homilies in Detail……………………………………………………....23 Homily I….………………………………………………………………24 Homily II…………………………………………………………..……..25 Homily III……………………………………………………………...…27 Homily IV………………………………………………………………...29 Homily V…………………………………………………………………31 Homily VI………………………………………………………………...33 Homily VII…………………………………………………………….…35 Homily VIII……………………………………………………………....37 Homily IX………………………………………………………………...39 Homily X………………………………………………………………....41 vii Thematic considerations………………………………………………....44 Love From Three Perspectives…………………………………………………..45 Love’s inception………………………………………………………….45 Love’s intention………………………………………………………….50 Love’s perfection………………………………………………………...56 The Holy Spirit……………………………………………………………….….59 General associations……………………………………………………...60 The Holy Spirit and love…………………………………………………63 The Holy Spirit as Love………………………………………………….65 The Love of God………………………………………………………………....67 Chapter Two……………………………………………………………………………...70 Introduction………..……………………………………………………………..70 Wesley and Systematic Theology………………………………………………..73 The unifying theme approach……………………………………………74 Sarah Coakley and A.N. Williams…………………………………….…79 Five Wesley Sermons on 1 John………………………………………………....84 Sermon 19 “The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God”……..85 Sermon 55 “On the Trinity”……………………………………………..89 Sermon 77 “Spiritual Worship”……………………………….…………95 Sermon 78 “Spiritual Idolatry”………………………………………....100 Sermon 62 “The End of Christ’s Coming”……………………………..104 viii Wesley on Love and the Holy Spirit……………………………………………110 John Wesley on love and desire………………………………………...112 Wesley on the Holy Spirit……………………………………………....116 John Wesley and the Love of God…………………………………………...…121 Chapter Three…………………………………………………………………………...125 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..125 Augustine and Wesley on Love………………………………………………...127 Augustine and Wesley on the Holy Spirit...…………………………………….133 The Love of God……………………………………………………………..…140 Love from and to God…………………………………………..………140 Love of God and love of neighbor……………………………………...144 Love of God and the Trinity…………………………………………....146 Love of God and holistic soteriology…………………………………...148 An Authentic Cadence………………………………………………………….150 Chapter Four…………………………………………………………………………....155 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..155 Naming and the Love of God…………………………………………………...157 Limits and naming……………………………………………………...158 Excess and naming……………………………………………………...160 Love and naming………………………………………………………..161 Catechesis and naming……………………………………………….…164 Invocation and naming………………………………………………….166 ix Divine Desire in Scripture……………………………………………………...168 Desire and divine aseity………………………………………………...169 Desire and worship……………………………………………………..170 Desire and Israel………………………………………………………..173 Desire and the divine missions………………………………………....175 Contemporary Pneumatology…………………………………………………..177 José Comblin…………………………………………………………....180 Michael Welker………………………………………………………....182 Eugene F. Rogers, Jr…………………………………………………....184 Immanence and transcendence………………………………………....186 Divine Desire and the Love of God…………………………………………….187 Preliminary matters……………………………………………………..187 Searching the Scriptures for the Love of God……………………….…190 The Love of God and contemporary pneumatology…………………....193 Sounding the depths of the Trinity for the Love of God………………..195 Conclusion: The Bond of Love………………………………………………....199 Chapter Five…………………………………………………………………………….201 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..201 Liturgical Studies and Christian Initiation……………………………………...204 Christian Initiation and the Love of God…..………………………………...…206 Christian initiation, human desire, and the Love of God…………….....210 Baptism, chrismation, confirmation, and Eucharist………………….…216 x Christian initiation, postbaptismal sin, and the Love of God…………..223 The Challenge of Christian Practice…………………………………………....230 Initial remarks………………………………………………………..…230 Rethinking “open table” Eucharist……………………………………...235 Rites, Loci, and System…………………………………………………………240 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...242 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………..246 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………....251 Biography……………………………………………………………………………….263 xi Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude too great and to too many people to acknowledge fully. I am grateful to Duke Divinity School Dean Richard Hays and former director of the Th.D. program Randy Maddox, who both worked hard to ensure I could have a place in the doctoral program. A fellowship, in the full sense of the word, from A Foundation for Theological Education gave my family added financial security. Edgardo Colón-Emeric has been my adviser since my first day at Duke as an M.Div. student. His guidance, wisdom, and patience have guided me through two degree programs and provisional ordination in The United Methodist Church. Four of the five chapters in this dissertation have their origins in directed readings with Edgardo Colón-Emeric, Paul Griffiths, Randy Maddox, and Lester Ruth. The practice of directed readings is vital to the doctoral program at Duke Divinity, and I am glad to have had professors willing to dedicate their time to students like me. My wife Libby is the best editor I could have. She has read every page of every paper I have written at Duke; even I would find that occupation intolerable. I dedicate my work here to her. By the grace of God I have found myself in a community of friends such as I describe in the conclusion of a dissertation that would not have been possible without them. And so I wish to thank my parents, Libby, Nathaniel, Mae, and Lydia, Brian and Amy, Edgardo, Brett, Jen, Joelle, Sangwoo, my students at Duke, and the members of New Hope Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill, NC, and Centre United Methodist Church, Forest Hill, MD: many different relations; all friends. xii All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. xiii Introduction How might Augustine’s understanding