The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Western Theological Tradition: Underdeveloped or Misunderstood?

In contemporary theological discourse, the Western doctrine of the Trinity, as articulated by figures like Thomas Aquinas, is often criticized on the grounds that it presupposes an underdeveloped theology of the Holy Spirit that denies the third person of the Trinity the fullness of divine personhood. This paper will show that the standard critiques of the Western doctrine of the Holy Spirit spring from a misapprehension of the term ‘person’ as it has traditionally been used to refer to the divine persons. By elucidating the nature of divine personhood in the course of interpreting Aquinas’ thought on the Trinity, the paper will throw into relief the full personhood of the Holy Spirit. On this basis, moreover, it will ultimately aim to demonstrate the unfounded nature of some of the other main critiques of Western Trinitarian doctrine.