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HarleyD: "But the Holy Spirit is far more than just "love"."

From Ott via Aquinasfan:"The main speculative explanation for the spiration of the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the will or from the mutual love of the Father and the Son. Ott cites many Scriptural verses for this explanation."

Thanks, Aquinasfan. The explanation from Ott clarifies my own crude thinking on the matter. To wit: the love which exists between the Father and the Son is of such infinite nature it gives rise(spirates) the Third Person, the Holy Spirit.

Harley, this is why I think the Holy Spirit is, in essence, love. But not "just love," but rather the perfect and infinite love which exists between the Father and the Son.

Thanks. I'm reading through some of Thomas Aquinas' writings now. It's not an easy read so it may take some time.

As I explained in an earlier post, according to the scripture and the early church fathers, all concurred that the Holy Spirit is God and 1/3 part of the Trinity. So far I have found nothing in Thomas Aquinas' writings that disagree with scripture and the early church (albeit I just started looking through his many works).

I'm just puzzled where this "Holy Spirit is love" started from. This is a very humanistic view like saying "God is Love". God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is so much more than just love and if people think they can boil God down into this one attribute they should read Revelations.

The best I can tell from studying church history this theology began to affected the Catholic Church in the 1400-1600 timeframe during the time of the Renaissance, was a primary reason for the Reformation, and then affected the Protestant denominations through Arminianism.

Thomas Aquinas lived from 1227 to 1274, slightly ahead of the time when this humanistic view of God crept into the church. It begs the question as to whether this is what Thomas Aquinas actually believed or if he was reinterpreted by people with humanistic views at a later time.