Thursday, February 6, 2020

Robert Bellarmine on "Spirit" in John 4


In his work defending the Roman Catholic dogmatic teachings about the Mass (i.e., it is a propitiatory sacrifice and, related to such, Transubstantiation being the only proper understanding of “Real Presence”), Robert Bellarmine, while a staunch defender of Catholic Trinitarian theology (see Controversy 2, dedicated wholly to Christology), offered an interpretation of John 4:23-24 which mirrors how LDS apologists discuss the passage, that is, it is not about the ontological nature of God (the Father) being “only” a spirit, but instead, it is about the worship of God and such informs how we should understand “spirit” in this passage:

. . .the following words of verse 23, "the true adorers will adore the Father in spirit and truth," have this sense: True adorers, i.e. those who truly worship God, namely Christians, will adore the Father, i.e. they will sacrifice to God; in spirit and truth, i.e. in a spiritual, and true sacrifice, not a carnal sacrifice or a type as the Jews did. For the spirit is opposed to the flesh and truth is to the figure; the Jewish sacrifice were carnal, because they consisted in the slaughter of flesh and the effusion of blood, and at the same time were types and shadows of future things. Yet the Eucharist is a spiritual sacrifice because (as we already said), it is effected by the Holy Spirit and the words of consecration, and at the same time, it is true and the fulfillment of the old figures. Even if it is a type in respect to the sacrifice of the Cross, nevertheless, in respect to the sacrifices of the Jews, it is not a type, but must be said to be true. In this way, Chrysostom, Cyril, and Euthymius explain the phrase, "In spirit and truth" in their commentaries on this passage. Nevertheless, they can also be so distinguished, as Theophylactus and St. Thomas distinguish them, as a spiritual cult, opposed to the carnal cult of the Jews; moreover, the true cult is opposed to the false cult of the Samaritans, who really did not legitimately, and through this not truly worship God in their sacrifices. (Robert Bellarmine, On the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass [trans. Ryan Grant; Post Falls, Idaho: Mediatrix Press, 2020], 90)

On John 4:24 and related texts (e.g., Gen 1;26-27; Heb 1:3) and the Latter-day Saint belief in divine embodiment, see:


For articles responding to the Roman Catholic dogmatic teachings on the Mass from both the Bible and patristic literature, see: