The Anointed Son: A Trinitarian Spirit Christology

by Myk Habets

Spirit Christology complements Logos Christology in the same way in which Christ and the Spirit are mutually constitutive. Or at least this should be the case. The history of Christian thought shows that Logos Christology has dominated, resulting in both an eclipse of Trinitarian doctrine and a diminution of pneumatology. Recently there have been calls to reclaim a theology of the Third Article in order to present a Trinitarian theology that is faithful to Scripture, the Great Tradition, and one that is existentially viable. While studies examine various aspects of Spirit Christology there has yet to appear a work that introduces the doctrine, examines the various mutually exclusive proposals, and offers a constructive trinitarian proposal. The present work does just this, introducing the constituent features of a Spirit Christology that is Trinitarian, orthodox, and contemporary. The current work proposes a model of Spirit Christology that complements rather than replaces Logos Christology and does so in a robustly Trinitarian framework. Within contemporary theology a pneumatically oriented approach to Christology is being advanced across denominational and traditional lines. Those wanting to navigate their way through the many competing proposals for a Third Article theology will find a comprehensive map here.

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Mats Winther · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Anointed Son: A Trinitarian Spirit Christology (2010), by Myk Habets, is a sincere attempt to introduce a new form of Christology in order to achieve a theology predominantly and decisively of the Holy Spirit. The book is well crafted and rich in references. Unfortunately, its intellectual content is, in my humble judgment, not up to par. Spirit Christology typically means the rejection of a Christology “from above” (Logos Christology). Jesus’s divinity is not of his essence but entertained by the Holy Spirit: “The Father begets the Son in the spiration of the Spirit” (pp. 224-25). Such a view resonates with Adoptionism. It contradicts the Nicene creed. However, Habets argues that we may hold both views by seeing them as complementary (as in quantum physics).

In order to do this he involves himself in difficulties. In keeping with Karl Rahner’s much criticized formula (“The immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity”) there ought to be a corresponding Christology “from below”. It necessitates that we start from below in order to affirm Jesus’s divinity, by getting a clearer picture of the historical Jesus (p. 44). He is really serious about this. I say good luck with that! The Trinity is reinterpreted as a social Trinity. It violates the traditional view that the ‘persons’ are not to be seen as subjects who have a will independent of the others, or else it leads to Tritheism. In rejecting the trinitarianism of Augustine and Aquinas, he claims that they divided ‘God’ from the Trinity, as a kind of fourth aspect (p. 226). No, they weren’t morons! Aquinas was clear that ‘person’ signifies the essence (ST Ia. 29, 4) and Augustine gives his view in a nutshell:

 
At this time you must hold with unshaken faith that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the Trinity, but they are only one God; not that the divinity, which they have in common, is a sort of fourth person, but that the Godhead is ineffably and inseparably a Trinity; that the Father alone begot the Son, and the Son alone was begotten of the Father, but the Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son. (Augustine, Letter 120)
 

Habets says that “[i]n death the Spirit also underwent a kenosis whereby he committed himself totally to the Son” (p. 165). But what does kenosis of the Holy Spirit really mean? It’s confusing, because I always thought that kenosis (self-emptying) meant the way in which Jesus came to truly live as a mortal. Furthermore, the author complements the traditional view of salvation with Neoplatonic “upwards salvation”. We may climb a ladder to God and achieve union with the Godhead:

 
What a doctrine of unio mystica achieves is a more dynamic understanding of salvation whereby Christ becomes ours and we become Christ’s through an organic, vital, spiritual, eternal, and mystical union in which justification and sanctification are no longer separated, since they are simultaneous realities of the unio mystica. Once more pneumatology and Christology are held together more rigorously than has often been the case previously. The final goal of salvation is not only to be united to Christ by the Spirit but also to commune with the Father through the incarnate Son in or by the Holy Spirit. Union with Christ is thus understood to be participation in the divine life. (pp. 247-48)
 

The next step is theosis, i.e., becoming divine (pp. 248ff). The idea that we may attain salvation by our own means is in Luther’s view a “theology of glory”. In his view God has nothing to do with ‘holy’ men (WA 40.2, 347). The author made a serious attempt; but it resulted in a fiasco, a theological chop suey. Religion does indeed come “from above”. This book is only worth two stars.