Holy Spirit

Judaism

In Tanach (Jewish scripture), ruaḥ ha-Qodesh/Kodesh is the breath of God, and thus the effective and inspiring consequence of God at work in his creation. The Holy Spirit is also known as ruaḥ Elohim and ruaḥ Adonai, indicating that no separate ‘person’ in relation to God is intended, but rather that this is the way in which God enables humans to do or say particular things.

Christianity

Formally, the Holy Spirit (or ‘Holy Ghost’, especially in liturgical use) is the third person of the Holy Trinity. The Spirit is distinct from but coequal with the Father and the Son, and is in the fullest sense God. This understanding was canonized in the 4th cent.

In the fathers before the 4th cent., the Holy Spirit is variously identified with the Son, or with the Logos, or with God's wisdom. No particular activity of God is consistently said to be that of the Spirit, although Origen held that the characteristic sphere of the Spirit's operation was the Church, as contrasted with the whole creation which was that of the Logos. But from 360 CE onwards the doctrine of the Spirit became a matter of controversy when the Pneumatomach(o)i (‘spirit-fighters’) denied the full divinity of the Spirit. The Cappadocian fathers argued against them, e.g. Basil in his On the Holy Spirit, and were victorious at the Council of Constantinople (381). In the West this doctrine was elaborated by Augustine in his On the Trinity, especially in his understanding of the Spirit as the bond of unity in the Trinity. For the later divergence between Western and Orthodox language about the Holy Spirit, see FILIOQUE.