The Breath of God: An Essay on the Holy Spirit in the Trinity
Ebook
The Holy Spirit is in a way the most mysterious of the three "names" of God. For many it is the "unknown God" (Acts 17:23). How can a "Spirit" be love? How can it be a person? What role can a "Spirit" have in the trinitarian relations? In The Breath of God, Veto argues that a more exact comprehension of the third divine person can be reached by considering the way it acts in the economy of salvation and how it reveals itself in its scriptural names: Ruah and Pneuma, breath or wind. Just as, in the eternal life of God, the Father and the Son are precisely what their names designate, likewise, the Holy Spirit is the Breath of God. The procession of the Spirit is the "breathing out" of the Father into the Son, the communication of one intimacy into another, and the "breathing" back of the Son into the Father. This leads to reshaping many aspects of trinitarian theology, in particular divine personhood. It is also fruitful for the believer's life of prayer because it offers a better understanding of the distinct relationship one can have to Father, Son, and Spirit.
“Interiority, hiddenness, anonymity, insubstantiality, fluidity…
such challenging features of the Holy Spirit led Vetö to
investigate the full significance of a neglected divine name:
Breath. Informed and insightful, this book revisits
traditions and sets landmarks toward a renewed pneumatology. With
refinement, by means of deep thinking and aesthetics, Vetö
introduces his readers into a joyful gaze at the Three in their
uniqueness.”
—Emmanuel Durand, OP, Angelicum University, Rome
Etienne Vetö is a Roman Catholic Priest of the Chemin Neuf
Community. He is Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian
University (Rome, Italy) and Director of the “Cardinal Bea Centre
for Judaic Studies” of the same university. He is the author of
From Christ to the Trinity (Du Christ à la Trinité,
2012).