HONOR113be holy is to be actively engaged in one’s
own unique relationship with Christ.
Twentieth-century theology featured
a lively debate about whether or not it
was possible to be a genuine Christian
theologian unless one was holy. Some
theologians, for example, Hans Urs von
Balthasar, have emphasized that human
holiness is a necessary condition for
knowledge of God; hence a person lack-
ing holiness would thereby lack knowl-
edge of theos (God)—the subject matter
of theology. Von Balthasar also accorded
human holiness a central role in Chris-
tian apologetics, arguing that the lives of
the saints constitute the best evidence for
the truth of Christianity.
The notion of human holiness, how-
ever, is not unique to Christianity; many
religious traditions identify certain exem-
plary practitioners who are thought to
have a special relationship with the divine.
This suggests that the concept “human
holiness” has important trans-cultural
implications despite the fact that there is
little agreement between religious tradi-
tions about what exactly makes a particu-
lar figure exemplary.
HOLY SPIRIT. The third member of
the trinity in the Christian faith. In the
words of the Nicene Creed: “And I believe
in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of
Life; who proceeds from the Father (and
the Son); who with the Father and the
Son together is worshiped and glorified;
who spoke by the prophets.” Controversy
occurs between the Western, Latin church
(Catholic and Protestant), which sees the
Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father
and the Son, and the Eastern, Orthodox
church, which holds that the Holy Spirit
only proceeds from the Father. Some
Orthodox Christians claim that the West’s
addition of the filioque clause (“and the
Son”) resulted in a subordination of the
Holy Spirit, which has led the West to
have a less stable, more erratic history of
spirituality and mysticism. By under-
standing the Holy Spirit as proceeding
from the Father alone, Eastern Orthodox
Christians believe they accord a higher
role to religious experience.HOLY WILL. For Kant, the idea of a will
that cannot do evil. Kant held that all or
most human beings do not have a holy
will. Some traditional, Anselmian Chris-
tians believe that Jesus Christ had a holy
will and could do no evil. This can create
tension with the New Testament narrative
of Christ undergoing temptation. Some
Anselmians reply that you can be tempted
to do that which you actually could not
carry out. Perhaps Mother Teresa was
tempted to steal to help the poor, but she
was of such a character that she could not
have actually carried out such a robbery.HONOR. The concept of honor is con-
troversial—vital to some, abhorrent to
many, alien to others. It inspires lives of
integrity and courage, but also acts of vio-
lence and oppression, and some think it