This work comes from an author intrigued by the development of doctrine and initially attracted to the question why Theophilus and Irenaeus identified the Spirit with Wisdom, whereas other second and third century authors associate Wisdom with the Word/Logos. The outcome is a comprehensive study of Irenaeus's understanding of the Holy Spirit, which takes account of a century of modern scholarship and refines it. Beginning life as a doctoral thesis, what we now have is a much revised and expanded monograph, incorporating some previously published articles.

Crucial to this study is an Excursus inserted more or less at the midpoint of the book. Here grounds are presented for the view that Irenaeus began to use Theophilus's correspondence with Autolycus while writing Adversus Haereses book III. The use of Psalm 32:6 (LXX) in AH 3.8.3 is contrasted with the way it is deployed in AH Prf 5 to show that Irenaeus did not use Theophilus up to AH 3.8.3, yet dependence can be traced from AH 3.22.4. This observation permits a sequential study, the core central chapters tracing early expressions of pneumatology in the first two books and more developed ideas in later books, thus offering a comprehensive account of Irenaeus's progression of thought and distinctive ideas.

Chapter 5, “His Hand and Wisdom,” is devoted to two key elements introduced under Theophilus's influence. The notion of God's hands being instrumental in creation is traced to Jewish roots; for Irenaeus, it reinforced the argument that the one God is the Creator, not angels or intermediaries, and confirms his earlier association of Spirit, as well as Word, with creation. Jewish tradition is also posited as general background for the association of God's Spirit with Wisdom in both Theophilus and Irenaeus, though Irenaeus's reading of Proverbs 8 in terms of the Holy Spirit is attributed to his immediate need to reclaim Wisdom from Gnostic mythologies. “The attribution of creative activity to the Holy Spirit is the most foundational and significant aspect of Irenaeus's pneumatology,” the author concludes (146), emphasising how it entails the divinity of the Spirit and the distinction and equality of the Spirit in relation to the Son.

This conclusion is crucial to the issue which brackets those central chapters. The opening chapter considers “Justin Martyr and the Pneumatology of the Mid-Second Century,” speaking of tension between Trinitarian Conviction and Binitarian Orientation; the closing chapter proves Irenaeus's “Trinitarian Convictions, Trinitarian Logic.” In conclusion Origen, Tertullian, and Novation are briefly surveyed to show how, after Irenaeus, the Binitarian logic arising from identification of the Word with Wisdom continued to diminish the identity and activity of the Holy Spirit. The implied thesis is that earlier scholars failed to appreciate Irenaeus's fundamental Trinitarianism by placing him too closely within the parameters of second and third century ideas. The final full chapter contests readings of Irenaeus that suggest a Spirit-Christology or Angelomorphic pneumatology. It must be acknowledged that historical research into the development of doctrine has often been driven by a determination not to read back developed doctrine into the earlier period; this book helpfully challenges piecemeal readings that jump to conclusions from reading Irenaeus against early confused or “non-orthodox” parallels. However, while largely convinced, as far as Irenaeus is concerned, by this wide ranging and nuanced work, this reviewer is not so sure about the chapter on Justin. The very terms Binitarian and Trinitarian seem anachronistic and over-systematic. A certain fluidity and lack of clarity in Justin's position is indisputable, not least in the way he attributes overlapping roles to the prophetic Spirit and the pre-existent Word; but the question remains whether the terminology adopted really provides the best heuristic tools.

Overall what this study does, I suggest, is to challenge the very model from which it started. “Development of doctrine” surely bears the marks of modern evolutionary presuppositions, and is perhaps not appropriate to the history of ideas. A “discourse” model reflects better the fact that doctrinal shifts happened through processes of debate and questioning as early Christian thinkers sought to articulate the implications of the traditions they received and passed on, never intending to be “original” (another modern category), seeking only to be faithful to their heritage even as, consciously or unconsciously, they did actually innovate. This study surely confirms such observations—Irenaeus's thinking, reading, and interpreting scripture articulates a comprehensive theology of the Holy Spirit, not expressed that way before, nor seriously taken up by his immediate successors, since the Word = Wisdom tradition was scriptural and dominant. His approach came into its own later when that dominant conceptuality ran into difficulties. Thus to show the uneven process of doctrinal articulation as different issues were confronted and new influences brought to bear is to offer evidence for the far greater complexity of the matter than the typical doctrinal development approach.

Meanwhile, the clarification of Irenaeus's views on the activities of the Holy Spirit, both in creation and in salvation, constitutes the major contribution of this work. Chapter 6, for example, engages carefully with AH 5, critically dismissing previous interpretations, whether suggesting that the Spirit's presence is universal in humankind, or advancing a trichotomist view of human beings. A useful distinction is advanced: by its instrumentality the Spirit animates all life, but vivifies believers by its presence, an “earnest” of their future inheritance.

It is impossible to discuss the whole range of material presented but three pervading themes may be highlighted: first, the degree to which the context of debate with Gnostics matters to the formation of Irenaeus's key insights; second, the importance of both Jewish-Christian and scriptural motifs in honing Irenaeus's overall pneumatology; third, the plausibility of the diachronic analysis of Irenaeus's views, which both prevents arbitrary systematic doctrinal constructions across all available relevant extracts, and reinforces the commendable focus, not simply on passages selected, but on the contexts, immediate and overall, in which they are found. These points are well-taken.

This is a book for specialists rather than casual readers. It will advance the debate substantially, with its commendable attention to the careful exegesis of Irenaeus's extant works.