"When Then? Is the Spirit God? Certainly!" St Gregory's Teaching on the Holy Spirit as the World's Salvation, Philip Kariatlis

Abstract: The writings of St Gregory the Theologian on the Holy Spirit stand out among early Christian Patristic literature for their cogency and spiritual depth. Whilst the Holy Spirit figures centrally in numerous works, this paper focuses on his famous Fifth Theological Oration, arguably the crowning work in the area of Pneumatology, where St Gregory put before his audience the full flowering and richness of the orthodox vision of the Holy Spirit. By ushering in a new way of critical reflection on the Spirit's deity, St Gregory not only paved the way for a definitive settlement of the Trinitarian crisis which plagued fourth-century Christianity but more importantly ingeniously demonstrated how God continued to dwell in the Church making salvation (deification) in actual human lives a genuine reality.

Bio: Philip Kariatlis is Academic Secretary and Lecturer in Theology at St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College. He received his Doctor of Theology degree from the Sydney College of Divinity having examined the notion of koinonia in Orthodox ecclesiology as both gift and goal. His research interest lies in Church doctrine, specifically its existential and salvific significance. He translated the doctoral dissertation of Archbishop Stylianos (Harkianakis) The Infallibility of the Church in Orthodox Theology (2008) and has written in several peer reviewed journals within Australia and abroad.