"Trinitarian Cooperation for our Salvation": Ambrose of Milan's De Spiritu Sancto By Andrew M. Selby A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Theology ofthe University of St. Michael's College and the Department of History of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Theology Awarded by the University of St. Michael's College Thesis Adviser: Dr. Pablo Argárate Readers: Dr. Ephraim Radner Dr. T. Allan Smith Toronto 2010 © Andrew M. Selby Library and Archives Bibliothèque et ?F? 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada Abstract of Thesis While some have dismissed the trinitarian theology of Ambrose of Milan, he actually helped to shape subsequent theology in the West by employing the principle that "the same operations imply the same substance." That is, whenever the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit acts in Scripture, Ambrose believes one can find a place where another divine Person performs that same action, which in turn demonstrates their like substance. Ambrose's overarching purpose in his De Spiritu Sancto is to controvert his Homoian opponents' position that the various operations of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in salvation history indicate their subordinate positions to one another by stating that the Persons actually share similar roles and thus have the same substance, a principle he found in his Greek pneumatological sources—Didymus, Basil, and Athanasius—but which became far more central to his own trinitarian theology than to theirs. 11 Table of Contents Abbreviations iv Introduction: The Overlooked De Spiritu Soneto of Ambrose of Milan 1 Chapter 1 : The Situation and Composition ofDe Spiritu Sancto 8 Chapter 2: Ambrose's Trinitarian Dictum: "The Same Operation Means the Same Substance" ................................ 39 Chapter 3 : Implications 80 Works Cited 96 Appendix 101 iii Abbreviations ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers BdP Biblioteca de Patrística ECF Early Church Fathers FoC Fathers of the Church CSEL Corpus scriptorium ecclesiasticorum latinorum JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies JTS Journal of Theological Studies NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers SC Sources Chrétiennes SP Studia Patristica VC Vigiliae Christianae IV 1 Introduction The Overlooked De Spiritu Sancto of Ambrose ? ? Modern and Ancient Judgment of Ambrose's De Spiritu Sancto Apart from one excerpted dissertation,1 introductions in critical editions and a few translations, no accessible, sustained treatment of Ambrose's De Spiritu Sancto (DSS) exists.3 Granted, some surveys ofpneumatology in the patristic period, and especially the fourth century, devote some space to Ambrose.4 But surely this work deserves a more thorough treatment given that Ambrose's DSS was the first Latin treatise exclusively focused on the Holy Spirit, that it served as an important source of Greek pneumatological theology for the West, and that it influenced Augustine's own Trinitarian teaching.5 Part of the reason for the dearth of interest on this topic is scholars' harsh assessment of the content ofAmbrose's treatise. In the scanty scholarship on the DSS a common theme permeates: while the Bishop of Milan's DSS has importance in the transmission of Greek 1 Norman Joseph Belval, The Holy Spirit in Saint Ambrose, (Rome: Catholic Book Agency, 1971). At the time of writing this thesis, I have not been able to obtain the original dissertation written for the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. The cited work contains only excerpts of about half the dissertation according to BelvaPs introduction. BelvaPs thesis serves to collect older sources' opinions on various aspects of the DSS, especially a chapter devoted to charting Ambrose's use of sources. Since it is not his intention, Belval includes little theological engagement with Ambrose. 2 "Introduction" by H. de Romestin in Ambrose, Select Works and Letters, ed. Phillip Schaffand Henry Wace, trans. H. De Romestin, NPNF, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1896), 91-2; "Introduction" by Roy J. Deferrari in Theological and Dogmatic Works, trans. Roy J. Deferrari, Fathers of the Church, (Washington: Catholic University ofAmerica Press, 1963), 31-3; "Prolegomena I-VII" by Otto Faller in "De spiritu sancto libri tres, De incarnationis dominicae sacramento," ed. Otto Faller, in CSEL, 79 (Vindobonae: Hoelder, Pichler, Tempsky, 1964), 5*^*4*; "Introducción" by Carmelo Granado in Ambrosio de Milán, El Espíritu Santo, trans. Carmelo Granado, BdP, vol. 41, (Madrid: Editorial Ciudad Nueva, 1998), 7-24. There are some more general works, however, on his pneumatology and on various aspects of DSS which include the following: Carmen Castillo, "El prólogo al libro I "De Spiritu Sancto" de San Ambrosio," Rivista liturgica 89, no. 3 (2002): 451-80; Giuseppe Bentivegna, "Lo Spirito Santo nella vita della Chiesa secondo Sant'Ambrogio," Anuario de historia de la iglesia 8 (1999): 87-93; Carmelo Granado, "El Espíritu y el paraíso," Revista española de teología 63, no. 4 (2003): 471-97; ""Spiritus creator" en San Ambrosio de Milán," La Civiltà cattolica 148, no. 3525 (1997): 259-71; Giuseppe Ferraro, "Lo Spirito Santo nella "Esposizione del Vangelo secondo Luca" di sant'Ambrogio," Communio 17, no. 2 (1983): 183-99; also see chapters 8 and 9 in Carmelo Granado, El Espíritu Santo en la teología patristica, (Salamanca: Ediciones Sigúeme, 1987). 4 See two books by Henry Barclay Swete, The Holy Spirit in the Ancient Church: A Study ofChristian Teaching in the Age ofthe Fathers, (London: Macmillan, 1 9 1 2), 3 1 6-22 ; On the History ofthe Doctrine ofthe Procession ofthe Holy Spirit: From the Apostolic Age to the Death ofCharlemagne, (Cambridge: Deighton, 1876), 120-22; also Stanley M. Burgess, The Spirit and the Church: Antiquity, (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1984), pp. 171-79; for a dismissive account see, R.P.C. Hanson, The Searchfor the Christian Doctrine ofGod: the Arian Controversy 318- 381, (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988), 789. 5 Fr Glorie, "Augustinus, De Trinitate: Fontes-Chronologia," Sacris Erudiri 16 (1965): 203-55. 2 theology of the Holy Spirit, he contributes little or nothing original to Trinitarian theology. Such a claim has an ancient precedent. In his preface to his translation of Didymus the Blind's work, De Spiritu Sancto, Jerome himself noted Ambrose's generous borrowing of other sources, calling him a crow bedecked in others' colourful feathers before going on to offer even less flattering comments about Ambrose's DSS: A short while ago I read a certain person's books on the Holy Spirit and, in the words of the comic writer, I saw bad things in Latin taken from good things in Greek. Nothing there was closely argued, nothing was manly or firm so as to convince the reader even involuntarily, but everything was flaccid, soft, glistening and cute, painted here and there in exquisite colors. Even scholars who display a marked sympathy for Ambrose acknowledge the derivative nature of most of his theology, and especially the DSS. A good example is Boniface Ramsey, the editor of a recent volume introducing Ambrose, who points to Ambrose's "discretion" and "creativity" in the way he employed Greek sources, but who must also recognize "that Ambrose's writings are overwhelmingly derivative." In his magisterial tome on Trinitarian theology of the fourth century, R.P.C. Hanson takes aim at Ambrose, though more with the Defide in his sights than the DSS, and fires this dart: When we turn. .to [Ambrose's] actual defense of the pro-Nicene doctrine in his De Fide we gain the unavoidable impression that Ambrose has not, like Athanasius and Hilary and Marius Victorinus, struggled with the problem of Arianism and thought it through for himself, but rather has learnt the conventional arguments because these are the stuff which the official, successful church hands out. Almost all his ratiocination proceeds upon the method. .of assuming as true what he is supposed to be provided, and too often Q his arguments are, as rational discussion, beneath contempt. 6 Jerome in the Prologue to Didymus, De Spiritu Sancto = Über den Heiligen Geist, trans.