Basil the Great (b. 330 d. 379) was appointed Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia in 370. He lived and worked in a most contentious age – between the Council of Nicaea (325) and the Council of Constantinople (381). At issue was the Christian revelation of God. Basil’s opponents were the semi-Arians, Sabellians, and the Pneumatomachi (Spirit-fighters), all of whom denied the equal divine nature of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, thereby denying the doctrine of Holy Trinity. Basil explains that the Holy Spirit is a person within the divine substance. He appeals to three things: (1) the Spirit’s relations with the Father and the Son within the Holy Trinity; (2) the Holy Spirit’s work in the salvation of the world, and (3) the adoration of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy of the church.
