God's Love through the Spirit: The Holy Spirit in Thomas Aquinas and John Wesley

Contents

Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi One Methodism and the Work of the Spirit: Making Good on the Deficit 1 The Spirit of Methodist Theology: Pneumatological Deficit and Reduction to Political Projects 3 Prospects for Retrieval and Development 16 Two Sanctifying Love: The Holy Spirit and Sanctification in John Wesley 17 A Theology of Christian Perfection 18 Wesley’s Trinitarian Understanding of Sanctification 29 Conclusion 61 Three The Holy Spirit as Personal Love in Thomas Aquinas 63 The Trinitarian Basis of Pneumatology 69 The Holy Spirit: Love in Person 71 Conclusion 100 Four Aquinas on the Holy Spirit as Mutual Love 101 The Spirit as Mutual Love in Aquinas: Two Interpretations 103 Mutual Love in the Summa 113 Conclusion 140 Five Gift of the Spirit: The Holy Spirit, Love, and the Christian Life in Aquinas 141 The Holy Spirit, Gift of the Father and the Son 142 The Spirit’s Gift of Love 146 The Christian Life as Gift 165 Conclusion 179 Six Toward Greater Love: Aquinas, Wesley, and Life in the Spirit 181 Aquinas and Wesley as Sources for Pneumatological Recovery 181 Thomists and Wesleyans: Mutual Enrichment on and in the Spirit 225 The Holy Spirit and the Sharing of Gifts in Catholic-Methodist Dialogue 256 Lessons from Wesley and Aquinas on the Spirit: The Politics of Participation in the Life and Love of God 268 Conclusion Further Paths to Mutual Thomist and Methodist Enrichment 277 Bibliography 281 Index 293 ...