1. Greek term for communion is defined as:
1) fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse
1a) the share which one has in anything, participation
1b) intercourse, fellowship, intimacy
1b1) the right hand as a sign and pledge of fellowship (in fulfilling the apostolic office)
1c) a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, as exhibiting an embodiment and proof of fellowship
We believe fellowship is listed as a quality of the Spirit--not a personage. This is consistent with the listing of particular qualities of the Father and Son--grace and love.
But my question wasn't about the communion of the Holy Spirit. My question was, why would Paul list the Holy Spirit apart from the Father and the Son in this doxology, if the Holy Spirit is merely the acting, guiding force of Father and Son?
And what's this about the Spirit praying for us with groaning, and what about the "mind of the Spirit" in Romans 8:26-27?
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
It's not prose, it's a manual of instructions governing the Sacramental, spiritual, ethical and hierarchic life of the ancient Church, and it's the oldest non-Biblical text we have. It's not the same kind of material as the Bible. You're right, it's not inspirational, it's instructional. Why baptize in the name of Father, Son AND Holy Spirit, as written in the Didache? Wouldn't naming the Father and Son cover it?2. We do not consider the Didache as inspired prose.
And it was only explicitly defined because now, Christians didn't have to worry about getting thrown to the lions, being burned alive or tortured to death, and now they had time to actually deal with heresies. The Trinity was only defined because it was being challenged by Arianism, which asserted that the Son and the Holy Spirit were merely created beings. The Church had to act to preserve the faith of the Apostles.As you probably know the trinity was not formally adopted until after 325 A.D. the Council of Nicea. It was finally adopted, essentially as now commonly understood, by the 381 Council of Constantinople.
Because, if anyone was in danger of having their divinity denied, it would be Jesus. At the time, it was not necessary to defend the divinity of the Spirit, because it was clear.As a matter of fact, Ignatius never mentioned the Holy Spirit as God in any of his writings and he was one of John's students.
Besides, even if Ignatius never explicitly called the Holy Spirit God, it's always Father, Son and Holy Spirit with the Fathers. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit...
Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, that so all things, whatsoever ye do, may prosper both in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit; in the beginning and in the end; with your most admirable bishop, and the well-compacted spiritual crown of your presbytery, and the deacons who are according to God. Be ye subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; that so there may be a union both fleshly and spiritual.