Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-97).

Thesis (M. Div.)--Western Evangelical Seminary, 1971. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [85]-87).

Thesis (B. Div.)--Northwestern Seminary, 1948. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-99).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Grace Theological Seminary, 1983. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-74).

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 1985. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-207).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 1992. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [401]-410).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Grace Theological Seminary 1991. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-105).

New Testament / (M.Th.(New Testament))

ABSTRACT DE SPIRITU SANCTO: NOVATIAN OF ROME’S PNEUMATOLOGY IN DE TRINITATE JohnMark Bennett Beazley, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2016 Chair: Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin This dissertation evaluates the pneumatology of Novatian of Rome. Novatian’s pneumatology in De Trinitate is marked by a profound Biblicism and seeks to describe the Holy Spirit as an object of the Christian faith. This approach severely limits how he addresses the ontology of the Holy Spirit, but it does provide a broad scope of how he understood the activity of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 1 sets the context of pneumatology in the third century and describes how Novatian’s pneumatology should be viewed in this context. Chapter 2 provides a biographical sketch of Novatian. It places him in his historical and ecclesiastical context. Chapter 3 examines the pneumatology of those Christian writers who preceded Novatian and whose writings would have been known to him. This chapter provides a context from which to understand how Novatian’s pneumatology fits with those who preceded him. Chapters 4 and 5 examine Novatian’s pneumatology in detail. Chapter 4 demonstrates that Novatian was primarily concerned with describing the Holy Spirit as the object of Christian belief through the biblical language about the Holy Spirit, which focused upon the activity of the Holy Spirit within the church on behalf of the Son. Chapter 5 shows that while Novatian did not call the Holy Spirit by the term “God,” he implicitly and inescapably affirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 6 briefly addresses Novatian’s pneumatology in light of his predecessors along with the legacy of his pneumatology in De Trinitate. This chapter demonstrates that Novatian’s pneumatology was used by both orthodox (Gregory of Elvira) and heretics (Pneumatomachi).

There must be certain reasons why one embarks on a study of the Holy Spirit. The first is perhaps because there is a need today for a Biblical doctrine of the Spirit. The second follows from the first, for there is a need for a deeper knowledge of the Spirit and His work. He is the life-giving Spirit, and we need today to be spiritually alive. The third reason for a study of this kind is that we need a deeper understanding of the power of the Spirit in the affairs of men in the world. We have got away from the idea that God works amongst us through His Spirit, and we tend to think more and more of the achievements of man, and the power of the machine to do as we wish. We need to return to the power of the Spirit, and to be instruments of God's wishes. Finally, our Christianity today, in this country, appears to be so lifeless, so stuck in the groove of routine - the interminable bazaars, money raising efforts, and social half-hours - that we have lost the enthusiasm of first century Christianity, the driving force of the Spirit spurring us on to bring the Gospel of Life to the hungry world. We need in our modern experience and our modern condition, to find the powerful enthusiasm, as a result of the Spirit' s working in us, that the early Christians found when they were filled with Him and worked under His guidance. So we undertake the study of the Spirit among the early Church, in the hope that we too may desire to be filled as the Apostles were filled.