Dear Editor,
I was slightly surprised to see, in Matthew Mason’s article on love in your July issue, the definition of the Holy Spirit as the mutual love of the Father and the Son, (‘… the Father loves the Son … and the Son loves the Father. This love proceeds eternally from Father and Son as the Spirit …’).
Your letters page is not, perhaps, the place to finalise the Evangelical understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity; and I have no pretensions to any expertise equal to that of your theologian in residence. Nevertheless, your readers might like to be aware that this formula, which derives from Augustine, is by no means universally accepted.
First, this understanding may not accurately reflect Augustine’s view, which was arguably somewhat more nuanced. Secondly, Augustine was a great theologian, but by no means a sure guide on every issue (as, for example, in his doctrine of the church). Thirdly, it seems to me that this extrapolation from the undoubted mutual love of the Father and the Son has no clear Scriptural warrant. Fourthly (and this is the reason for my writing), this presentation of the Holy Spirit as the personification of an abstract quality of love arguably tends to underemphasise both His personhood and His equality with the Father and the Son.
I would not presume to say that Matthew is wrong, but the point is certainly not beyond doubt and your readers might like to give it some thought.
Yours sincerely, David F. Williams Middlesex
