| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this thesis is to propose a heuristic comparison between Origen’s and Augustine’s different understandings of the role of the Holy Spirit in their interpretation of the Gospel of John. In particular, I will analyse the functions of the Spirit both in his Trinitarian role and in his soteriological agency. In carrying on this analysis, I will provide an evaluation of the extent to which the two authors’ pneumatologies are shaped by the Gospel of John. The work is divided in three parts (A, B, C), composed of six chapters. In chapter I (introduction), I will present the methodology, grounds and aims of the present comparison, together with an evaluation of scholarly debate and of primary sources. In part A, I will deal with the role of the Spirit as a Trinitarian agent. I will analyse the ways in which Origen (chapter II) and Augustine (chapter III) represent the Spirit as a Trinitarian hypostasis, his ontological derivation and his status in the Trinity. In part B, after a short analysis of the significance of dualism in the Gospel of John (represented by the concept of ‘the world’), I will present the soteriological role of the Spirit in Origen’s and Augustine’s commentaries (respectively, chapter IV and V), with a particular focus on the relation between the Spirit and ‘the world’. Finally, in part C (chapter VI), I will propose a comparison of Origen’s and Augustine’s pneumatologies in light of the dualistic framework which they both derived from the Johannine Gospel, with a particular focus on the interpretation of the Father-Son-Spirit relation and on the dualism between God and ‘the world’. Hence, this thesis will offer not only a re-evaluation of the two authors’ pneumatologies, but also a new assessment of the Johannine derivation of their Trinitarian thought, of their soteriology, and of the connection between the two. | en_GB |
