Disputatio LIII: De Felicitate Theologica: Utrum Spiritus Sit Auctor Locutionis Fideli

 On Theological Felicity: Whether the Spirit is the Author of Faithful Speech

Quaeritur

Utrum felicitas locutionis theologicae, id est, rectitudo, auctoritas, et veritas performativa sermonis fidei, non ex intentione vel peritia humana oriatur, sed ex ipso Spiritu Sancto qui loquentem informat, linguam fidei custodiens, purgans, et in Verbo ordinans.

Whether the felicity of theological speech—its rightness, authority, and performative truth—arises not from human intention or rhetorical skill but from the Holy Spirit, who forms the speaker, guards the language of faith, and orders it to the Word.

Thesis

Theological felicity is Spirit-authored rightness of speech. A theological utterance is felicitous not merely when it is grammatically correct or doctrinally sound, but when the Spirit authorizes the speech-act so that the donated referent (Disp. LII), the real presence of the Logos (Disp LI), and the constitutive truth (Disp. L) are joined to the creaturely utterance in one act of fidelis locutio.

Thus: Felicity just in case Spiritus + donatio rei + conformitas ad Verbum. The creature speaks truthfully because the Spirit speaks in, with, and through the creature.

Locus Classicus

1. 1 Corinthians 12:3 — οὐδεὶς δύναται εἰπεῖν· Κύριος Ἰησοῦς, εἰ μὴ ἐν Πνεύματι Ἁγίῳ

“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”

Since the simplest and most central Christian confession is impossible without the Spirit, felicity is pneumatic.

2. Romans 8:26 — τὸ Πνεῦμα συναντιλαμβάνεται τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ ἡμῶν

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness… He intercedes with groanings too deep for words.”

The Spirit perfects our speech when our words fail.

3. John 14:26 — ἐκεῖνος διδάξει ὑμᾶς πάντα

“The Spirit will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have said.”

Speech becomes felicitous when it is brought under the teaching and remembrance of the Spirit.

4. Augustine, De Trinitate XV.19

“Spiritus est nexus amoris quo redimus ad Verbum.”
“The Spirit is the bond of love through whom we return to the Word.”

The Spirit links the human speaker to the Word He speaks.

5. Luther, WA 10/3, 14

“Spiritus Sanctus est verus doctor verbi.”
“The Holy Spirit is the true teacher of the Word.”

Preaching is felicitous only as the Spirit’s work.

Explicatio

Disputation LII established that reference is donation, that the Spirit gives the res. But a donated referent is not yet a felicitous assertion because etween having the referent and speaking the truth, another act is required: authorization.

1. Felicity as Pneumatic Authorization

In theological speech, felicity is not merely correctness of syntax, or accuracy of doctrinal formulation, or sincerity of the speaker, or even conceptual clarity. Rather it is the Spirit’s act authorizing the finite speaker to speak in the Word’s order.

2. The Structure of Felicity

Felicity occurs if and only if: 

1. The Logos is present (LI),

2. The Spirit donates the res (LII),

3. And the Spirit authorizes the creaturely utterance so that it properly bears the res.

This is why Paul says:

“We speak not in words taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:13).

3. Felicity and the Operator Λ ⊨* Tₜ

We must distinguish truth-through-the-Logos (Λ ⊨* Tₜ) and felicity as the Spirit’s ensuring that T is a proper vehicle for Tₜ. 

Thus, a felicitous theological assertion occurs just in case there is a Spirit-gifted word that bears the donated res of the Logos’ presence.

4. Felicity as Participation

To speak felicitously is to participate in the Logos’ act (L), the Logos’ presence (LI), and the Spirit’s donation (LII). Accordingly, human speech is grafted into divine speech.

Objectiones

Ob I: According to the speech act theory of Austin and Searle, felicity conditions are human conventions. Accordingly, no Spirit is needed.

Ob II: Classical Protestant orthodoxy assumes that speech is felicitous when it conforms to orthodox doctrine. If this is so, divine authorization appears unnecessary.

Ob III: Liberal Protestantism claims that truthful speech arises from the authenticity of the speaker’s self-expression. If so, felicity does not require external divine agency.

Ob IV: Contemporary linguistic philosophy supposes that felicity resides in correct rule-following within linguistic practice. Thus, no Spirit is needed for proper language-use.

Ob V: Barthian Theology declares that since human speech is incapable of bearing divine truth, only God’s own speech is true. Therefore, talk of “Spirit-authorized human felicity” is incoherent.

Responsiones

Ad I: Theological felicity cannot be reduced to human convention. The Spirit is not a pragmatic condition but the agent who unites human speech to divine reality, transforming finite utterance into a bearer of the infinite Word.

Ad II: Orthodoxy is necessary but not sufficient. One may confess correct propositions without the Spirit’s life. Felicity requires authorization, not merely accuracy.

Ad III: Authenticity is indexical to the self; felicity is ordered to the Logos. Theological speech is not self-expression but participation in divine speech.

Ad IV: Grammar governs internal form; felicity concerns divine empowerment.The Spirit gives a speech-act not only correctness but truth-bearing capacity.

Ad V: Barth rightly insists that God alone reveals—but the Spirit makes human words vehicles of that revelation. Felicity is the mode in which God’s speech becomes creaturely speech without ceasing to be divine in origin.

Nota

Felicity is the Spirit’s bridging act between the donated reference of Disp. LII, and the truthful assertions of Disp. L. It is the pneumatic fitting of human speech to divine being. Thus, we can claim the following about the Trinity: 

• The Father constitutes truth.

• The Son is present as truth.

• The Spirit donates the res and authorizes the word.

Felicity is the Spirit’s signature on human speech because without felicity doctrine becomes mere abstraction, the sacrament becomes only a symbol, preaching is only exhortation, and theology remains only grammar. However, with felicity doctrine becomes light, the sacrament becomes communion, preaching becomes divine address, and theology becomes true participation.

Determinatio

We determine that:

1. Felicity is Spirit-authored, not humanly achieved.

2. A theological utterance is felicitous when the Spirit authorizes it to bear the donated referent.

3. Felicity unites presence, donation, and truth, completing the semantic-ontological structure of theological meaning.

4. The Spirit’s act is the condition of faithful, truthful, and effective theological speech.

5. Thus: The Spirit makes human speech a participation in divine discourse.

Transitus ad Disputationem LIV: De Hyperintensionalitate Divinae Operationis

Having established that the Spirit authorizes speech to carry the divine res, we now turn to the final structural element of our semantic theory and ask as to why divine acts require a hyperintensional semantics.

Thus, we proceed to Disputatio LIV: De Hyperintensionalitate Divinae Operationis: Utrum Actus Dei Non Sint Reducibiles ad Extensiones vel Possibilia, in which we ask whether divine acts differ in such a fine-grained manner that no extensional or modal semantics can capture their truth.

Disputatio LII: De Donatione Referentiae per Spiritum: Utrum Spiritus Sanctus Donet Rem Theologicam

 On the Donation of Reference by the Spirit: Whether the Holy Spirit Gives the Theological Referent

Quaeritur

Utrum referentia in theologicis non per designationem humanam sed per donationem divinam constituatur; et utrum Spiritus Sanctus sit ille qui rem ipsam quae per linguam fidei significatur creaturae largitur, ita ut verbum theologicum referat quia res donatur.

Whether reference in theological language is constituted not by human designation but by divine donation; and whether the Holy Spirit is the one who bestows the very reality signified by the language of faith, so that a theological word refers because the res is donated.

Thesis

In theology, reference is not designation but donation. A theological expression does not gain its referent through human intention, mental representation, or linguistic convention, but through the Spirit’s act of giving the res that the expression signifies.

Thus:

1. The Logos constitutes being and truth, that is, the Logos is the truthmaker for theological language: Λ ⊨* Tₜ.  

2. The Logos is present as the truth-for-us as we saw in Disputatio LI. 

3. The Spirit donates the referent of theological language by linking word to real presence.

Hence, theological reference just is the Spirit-given participation in the reality of the Logos.

Locus Classicus

1. John 16:14 — ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ λήμψεται καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν

ἐκεῖνος ἐμὲ δοξάσει, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ λήμψεται καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν.
“He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.”

The Spirit takes (λήμψεται) and gives (ἀναγγελεῖ). This is precisely donation: the res is received from Christ and given to the believer.

2. Romans 8:16 — αὐτὸ τὸ Πνεῦμα συμμαρτυρεῖ

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit.”

Witness is thus not designation but granted participation. The referent is given, not inferred.

3. 1 Corinthians 2:12 — τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ χαρισθὲν ἡμῖν

“We have received the Spirit… that we might know the things freely given to us by God.”

Knowing follows giving. The referent precedes the concept.

4. Augustine, De Magistro

“Nemo docet nisi interior magister.”
“No one teaches except the inner Teacher.”

The Spirit gives the res to the mind; language alone cannot.

5. Luther, WA 40/1, 360

“Spiritus est qui dat intellectum verbi.”
“The Spirit is the one who gives the understanding of the Word.”

Understanding presupposes reference. Thus, the Spirit gives the referent by giving the thing signified.

Explicatio

While Disputation L established constitutive truth -- the Logos makes being -- and Disputation LI established presential truth -- the Logos is present as truth-for-us -- Disputation LII establishes semantic truth, for the Spirit gives the referent of theological language.

1. The Problem of Reference in Theology

While ordinary semantics treats reference as a human designation, that is, a word refers because a subject intends it, in theology the following holds: 

• the subject cannot circumscribe God,

• the mind does not contain the res,

• signs do not determine their own referents.

Accordingly, designation fails. This suggests that only donation can ground reference.

2. Donation as the Ontological Form of Reference

The Spirit gives the referent by uniting:

• the human word to divine reality,

• the signifier to the Logos’ presence,

• the finite knower to the infinite known.

This act is therefore neither intellectual nor linguistic but ontological.

3. Donation and the Operator Λ ⊨* Tₜ,

We must distinguish these:

• Λ ⊨ T : truth in a model

• Λ ⊨* Tₜ : truth through the Logos

• donation as the Spirit’s act of linking T to Tₜ

Thus, while designation → Λ ⊨ T, donation → Λ ⊨* Tₜ.  Accordingly, donation is the movement from linguistic form to divine act.

4. Donation and Participation

Accordingly, to have a referent in theology is to participate in the reality of Christ. The Spirit grants this participation and thus grants reference.

Objectiones

Ob I: According to the Fregean theory of reference, reference is determined by sense or descriptive content. No Spirit is needed.

Ob II: For the Kripkean direct reference theory, terms refer rigidly independent of mental or divine acts, and therefore donation is unnecessary.

Ob III: Postliberalism claims that theological reference occurs within the grammar of Christian usage, and thus metaphysical donation is superfluous.

Ob IV: The Phenomenological critique declares that if God transcends objecthood, He cannot be referred to. Thus, donation is conceptually impossible.

Ob V: Constructivist Hermeneutics argues that reference is constructed within interpretive communities and that donation is an illusion.

Responsiones

Ad I: Since God exceeds conceptual capture, reference cannot be mediated by sense. Thus, the Spirit must donate the reality in excess of description.

Ad II: Rigid designation works only when the designator is already in causal contact with the referent. But the creature has no such causal access to God apart from divine initiative. Thus, rigid designation presupposes donation.

Ad III: Grammar governs felicity, not ontology. Revealed truth requires that the referent be real and given, not merely textual. Thus, without donation, theology becomes semiotic idealism.

Ad IV: Donation is not the giving of God as object but the giving of participation in divine presence. Accordingly, the Spirit gives mode of access, not objectification.

Ad V: Interpretation does not entail construction. Donation is the metaphysical act by which meaning precedes interpretation, and meaning is received because the res is given.

Nota

Donation is the semantic form of participation.

• In Disputatio L, the Logos constitutes being and truth.

• In Disputation LI, the Logos is present as truth-for-us.

• In Disputation LII, the Spirit donates the referent so that theological language participates in this presence.

Thus, theological semantics unfolds as:

1. Constitutive Ground because the Logos makes truth. 

2. Real Presence since the Logos is truth-for-us. 

3. Donated Reference because the Spirit gives the res of the word. 

4. Felicity since the Spirit authorizes the creature’s act of speaking.

5. Participation because truth becomes ours. 

Without donation, theology collapses into:

• designation as in analytic theory,

• symbolism as with Zwingli,

• grammar as postliberalism holds, 

• and construction as hermeneutics attempts. 

With donation, theology becomes:

• ontologically grounded,

• presential,

• pneumatologically mediated,

• hyperintensional,

• participatory,

• and true.

Determinatio

We determine:

1. Reference in theology is donation, not designation;

2. The Spirit donates the res of theological language, enabling participation in the Logos;

3. Reference is grounded in presence, not sense or convention;

4. Donation is the semantic form of the Spirit’s interpretive act;

5. Thus, theological language refers truly because the Spirit gives what it says.

Transitus ad Disputationem LIII: De Felicitate Theologica

Having established that reference is a divine donation, we now turn to the complementary question: How does the Spirit authorize the human act of speaking so that donated reference becomes felicitous utterance?

Thus we proceed to Disputatio LIII: De Felicitate Theologica: Utrum Spiritus Sit Auctor Locutionis Fideli where it will be asked whether the felicity of theological language arises from the Spirit’s co-action with the human speaker, rendering theological assertions valid, trustworthy, and performatively true.