Abstract

To speak of the Holy Spirit in Saint Paul means to approach one of the most central and complex themes of Pauline theology. Paul, in fact, often speaks of the Spirit and he considers him as the person who acts in the history of salvation, in the life of the church and of each believer. In this sense the epistles of Paul do not give us a notion of the Spirit, but an experience of the Spirit which concerns God, Christ and man who act for the full realization of salvation. Hence the abundance of titles attributed to the Holy Spirit and the variegated diversity of charismatic manifestations which, in the strength of the Spirit, operate in the Pauline communities: glossolalia, prophecy, the charisms of the apostolate and Christian life, etc. Because of the complexity and in order to respect Paul's thought about the Spirit, thought linked to experience, the author begins his study from the rich terminology of the Apostle in his epistles. The different interpretations of this terminology are also presented. The author highlights that the deep literary root from which Paul draws to present the reality of the "spirit of God" comes from the revelation of the Old Testament. Paul draws from this source his thought, his images
and his expressions to signify the reality of the Spirit. In a word, the Old Testament gives Paul the literary model with which he expresses his thoughts on the Spirit. Afterwards, the author goes on to describe the different aspects of the action of the Spirit presented by Saint Paul in his epistles.