Kenneth M. Loyer

God's Love Through the Spirit: The Holy Spirit in Thomas Aquinas and John Wesley Kenneth M. Loyer

Although the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has often been a neglected subject in theology, it remains vital for understanding both the Christian
confession of God as Trinity and the nature of the Christian life. In view
of those two topics, God's Love through the Spirit examines the relationship between love and the person and work of the Holy Spirit in Thomas Aquinas and John Wesley - two very different figures whose teachings on the Spirit and the Christian life are found to be, on the whole,
surprisingly compatible. An investigation into Aquinas's amor-based
pneumatology, including a groundbreaking analysis of his recently discovered Pentecost sermon, and a fresh assessment of the doctrine of
sanctification in Wesley show that in distinctive yet largely complementary ways, Aquinas and Wesley provide resources that can be used to
reclaim a richer pneumatology, specifically in relation to the theological virtue of love.

Despite the obvious differences between these two figures in method
and style, there are certain conceptual parallels in their writings - such
as the central themes of love and holiness - that create the possibility
for mutual enrichment among their respective theological heirs. Aquinas's pneumatology can be illuminated and amplified by the emphasis
on the Holy Spirit and sanctification that is found in Wesley, even as the
insights of Aquinas can aid Methodists and Wesleyans in accounting
more fully for the properly theological, and indeed trinitarian, basis of
sanctification. The conclusions reached in God's Love through the Spirit,
particularly concerning an understanding of love both within God?s
own life and in Christian participation in God by grace, challenge the
claim that Western theology suffers from a pneumatological deficiency,
and represent a significant contribution to the study of Aquinas and of
Wesley, to ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Methodists (and
Protestants more broadly), and to the retrieval and development of a
genuinely constructive pneumatology.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kenneth M. Loyer is a United Methodist pastor and an adjunct professor of theology at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

"It is commonplace these days to view ecumenism as a spent force, and, in fact, most of
the postconciliar energy is gone. Yet the work
must continue and initial enthusiasm give
way to more realistic and limited approaches.
Ken Loyer's work is a model in this regard. He
seeks neither to gloss over the differences between the Catholic Aquinas and the Protestant
Wesley nor exaggerate them. Rather, by close
study, he enables the reader to appreciate both
the distance between their two approaches
as well as the possibilities those differences
allow for mutual enrichment in the ongoing
attempt to understand better our common life
in Christ."

-Dr. James F. Keating, Providence
College