The Indwelling Spirit: From Christology to Ecclesiology in John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman made use of an analogy between the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ and the Spirit in the life of the Church: as the Spirit indwelled and empowered the incarnate Christ during his earthly life, so the Spirit indwells and empowers the Church in the present age. Newman’s use of this particular analogy sheds light on his doctrine of the co-synkatabasis of the Son and Spirit in salvation history, affirms the weight he gave to the process of divinization in his soteriology, and remains indispensable for a full picture of Newman’s ecclesiology.