Works on the Spirit: Athanasius the Great and Didymus the Blind

Popular Patristics Series Volume 43

In the second half of the fourth century the mystery of the Holy Spirit was the subject of fierce debate. Those who fought against the Nicene Creed opposed the idea that the Spirit was God. Even some of those willing to accept the equality of the Father and the Son saw the Spirit as more angelic than divine.

This volume offers new translations of two of the most powerful Patristic reflections on the work and nature of the Holy Spirit. The first great testament to the Spirit's divinity -- showing how the Spirit creates and saves inseparably with the Father and the son -- is St. Athanasius' Letters to Serapion. Only a few years later, Didymus the Blind penned his own On the Holy Spirit, which is here translated into English for the first time. For Didymus, the Spirit transforms Christians by drawing them into the divine life itself, and must therefore be one with the Father and Son.

About the Translators: Mark DelCogliano teaches at the University of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota. Andrew Radde-Gallwitz teaches at Loyola University, Chicago. Lewis Ayres teaches at Durham University in the United Kingdom.