Latin term meaning "and from the Son" appended to the Nicene Creed From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filioque (/ˌfɪliˈoʊkwi, -kweɪ/ FIL-ee-OH-kwee, -kway; Ecclesiastical Latin: [filiˈokwe]), a Latin term meaning "and from the Son", was added to the original Nicene Creed, and has been the subject of great controversy between Eastern and Western Christianity. The term refers to the Son, Jesus Christ, with the Father, as the one shared origin of the Holy Spirit. It is not in the original text of the Creed, attributed to the First Council of Constantinople (381), which says that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father" (Greek: τὸ έκ του Πατρὸς έκπορευόμενον) without the addition "and the Son".[1]
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In the late 6th century, some Latin Churches added the words "and from the Son" (Filioque) to the description of the procession of the Holy Spirit, in what many Eastern Orthodox Christians have at a later stage argued is a violation of Canon VII[2][full citation needed] of the Council of Ephesus, since the words were not included in the text by either the First Council of Nicaea or that of Constantinople.[3][full citation needed] The inclusion was incorporated into the liturgical practice of Rome in 1014, but was rejected by Eastern Christianity.
Whether that term Filioque is included, as well as how it is translated and understood, can have major implications for how one understands the doctrine of the Trinity, which is central to the majority of Christian churches. For some, the term implies a serious underestimation of God the Father's role in the Trinity; for others, its denial implies a serious underestimation of the role of God the Son in the Trinity.
The term has been an ongoing source of difference between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity, formally divided since the East–West Schism of 1054.[4] There have been attempts at resolving the conflict. Among the earlier works that have been used in support of the compatibility of Filioque with Orthodox dogmatic teachings are the works of Maximus the Confessor in early 7th century, canonized independently by both Eastern and Western churches. Differences over this and other doctrines, and mainly the question of the disputed papal primacy, have been and remain the primary causes of the schism between the Eastern Orthodox and Western churches.[5][6]
The Nicene Creed as amended by the Second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 381 includes the section:
Greek original | Latin translation | English translation |
---|---|---|
Καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, τὸ Κύριον, τὸ ζῳοποιόν | Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, | And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, |
τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, | qui ex Patre procedit, | who proceeds from the Father, |
τὸ σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον, | qui cum Patre, et Filio simul adoratur, et cum glorificatur, | who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, |
The controversy arises from the insertion of the word Filioque ("and the Son") in the line:
Greek | Latin | English translation |
---|---|---|
τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ ἐκπορευόμενον, | qui ex Patre Filioque procedit, | who proceeds from the Father and the Son, |
The controversy referring to the term Filioque involves four separate disagreements:
Although the disagreement about the doctrine preceded the disagreement about the insertion into the Creed, the two disagreements became linked to the third when the pope approved insertion of the term into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, in the 11th century. Anthony Siecienski writes that "Ultimately what was at stake was not only God's trinitarian nature, but also the nature of the Church, its teaching authority and the distribution of power among its leaders."[7]
Hubert Cunliffe-Jones identifies two opposing Eastern Orthodox opinions about the Filioque, a "liberal" view and a "rigorist" view. The "liberal" view sees the controversy as being largely a matter of mutual miscommunication and misunderstanding. In this view, both East and West are at fault for failing to allow for a "plurality of theologies". Each side went astray in considering its theological framework as the only one that was doctrinally valid and applicable. Thus, neither side would accept that the dispute was not so much about conflicting dogmas as it was about different theologoumena or theological perspectives. While all Christians must be in agreement on questions of dogma, there is room for diversity in theological approaches.[8]
This view is vehemently opposed by those in Eastern Orthodox Church whom Cunliffe-Jones identifies as holding a "rigorist" view. According to the standard Eastern Orthodox position, as pronounced by Photius, Mark of Ephesus and 20th century Eastern Orthodox theologians such as Vladimir Lossky, the Filioque question hinges on fundamental issues of dogma and cannot be dismissed as simply one of different theologoumena. Many in the "rigorist" camp consider the Filioque to have resulted in the role of the Holy Spirit being underestimated by the Western Church and thus leading to serious doctrinal error.[8]
In a similar vein, Siecienski comments that, although it was common in the 20th century to view the Filioque as just another weapon in the power struggle between Rome and Constantinople and although this was occasionally the case, for many involved in the dispute, the theological issues outweighed by far the ecclesiological concerns. According to Siecienski, the deeper question was perhaps whether Eastern and Western Christianity had wound up developing "differing and ultimately incompatible teachings about the nature of God". Moreover, Siecienski asserts that the question of whether the teachings of East and West were truly incompatible became almost secondary to the fact that, starting around the 8th or 9th century, Christians on both sides of the dispute began to believe that the differences were irreconcilable.[9]
From the view of the West, the Eastern rejection of the Filioque denied the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son and was thus a form of crypto-Arianism. In the East, the interpolation of the Filioque seemed to many to be an indication that the West was teaching a "substantially different faith". Siecienski asserts that, as much as power and authority were central issues in the debate, the strength of emotion rising even to the level of hatred can be ascribed to a belief that the other side had "destroyed the purity of the faith and refused to accept the clear teachings of the fathers on the Spirit's procession".[9]
It is argued that in the relations between the persons of the Trinity, one person cannot "take" or "receive" (λήμψεται) anything from either of the others except by way of procession.[10] Biblical texts such as John 20:22[11] were seen by Fathers of the Church, especially Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria and Epiphanius of Salamis, as grounds for saying that the Spirit "proceeds substantially from both" the Father and the Son.[12] Other texts that have been used include Galatians 4:6,[13] Romans 8:9,[14] Philippians 1:19,[15] where the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of the Son", "the Spirit of Christ", "the Spirit of Jesus Christ", texts in the Gospel of John on the sending of the Holy Spirit by Jesus,[16] and John 16:7.[17][10] Revelation 22:1[18] states that the river of the Water of Life in Heaven is "flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb", which may be interpreted as the Holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father and the Son. Tension can be seen in comparing these two passages:
Siecienski asserts that "the New Testament does not explicitly address the procession of the Holy Spirit as later theology would understand the doctrine", although there are "certain principles established in the New Testament that shaped later Trinitarian theology, and particular texts that both Latins and Greeks exploited to support their respective positions vis-à-vis the Filioque".[19] In contrast, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen says that Eastern Orthodox believe that the absence of an explicit mention of the double procession of the Holy Spirit is a strong indication that the Filioque is a theologically erroneous doctrine.[20]
Basil of Caesarea wrote: "Through the one Son [the Holy Spirit] is joined to the Father".[21] He also said that the "natural goodness, inherent holiness, and royal dignity reaches from the Father through the only-begotten (διὰ τοῦ Μονογενοῦς) to the Spirit".[22] However, Siecienski comments that "there are passages in Basil that are certainly capable of being read as advocating something like the Filioque, but to do so would be to misunderstand the inherently soteriological thrust of his work".[23]
Gregory of Nazianzus distinguished the coming forth (προϊεον) of the Spirit from the Father from that of the Son from the Father by saying that the latter is by generation, but that of the Spirit by procession (ἐκπρόρευσις),[24] a matter on which there is no dispute between East and West, as shown also by the Latin Father Augustine of Hippo, who wrote that although biblical exegetes had not adequately discussed the individuality of the Holy Spirit:
they predicate Him to be the Gift of God, [and they infer] God not to give a gift inferior to Himself. [From that, they] predicate the Holy Spirit neither as begotten, like the Son, of the Father; [ ] nor [ ] of the Son, [ and] they do not affirm Him to owe that which He is to no one, [except] to the Father, [ ] lest we should establish two Beginnings without beginning [ ] which would be an assertion at once [ ] false and [ ] absurd, and one proper not to the catholic faith, but to the error of [Manichaeism].[25][26]
Gregory of Nyssa stated:
The one (i.e. the Son) is directly from the First and the other (i.e., the Spirit) is through the one who is directly from the First (τὸ δὲ ἐκ τοῦ προσεχῶς ἐκ τοῦ πρώτου) with the result that the Only-begotten remains the Son and does not negate the Spirit's being from the Father since the middle position of the Son both protects His distinction as Only-begotten and does not exclude the Spirit from His natural relation to the Father.[27]
Cyril of Alexandria provides "a host of quotations that seemingly speak of the Spirit's 'procession' from both the Father and the Son". In these passages he uses the Greek verbs προϊέναι (like the Latin procedere) and προχεῖσθαι (flow from), not the verb ἐκπορεύεσθαι, the verb that appears in the Greek text of the Nicene Creed.[28]
Since the Holy Spirit when he is in us effects our being conformed to God, and he actually proceeds from the Father and Son, it is abundantly clear that he is of the divine essence, in it in essence and proceeding from it
— Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Treasure of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, thesis 34
Epiphanius of Salamis is stated by Bulgakov to present in his writings "a whole series of expressions to the effect that the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, out of the Father and the Son, from the Father and out of the Son, from Both, from one and the same essence as the Father and the Son, and so on". Bulgakov concludes: "The patristic teaching of the fourth century lacks that exclusivity which came to characterize Orthodox theology after Photius under the influence of repulsion from the Filioque doctrine. Although we do not here find the pure Filioque that Catholic theologians find, we also do not find that opposition to the Filioque that became something of an Orthodox or, rather, anti-Catholic dogma."[29][a]
Regarding the Greek Fathers, whether Cappadocian or Alexandrian, there is, according to Siecienski, no citable basis for the claim historically made by both sides, that they explicitly either supported or denied the later theologies concerning the procession of the Spirit from the Son. However, they did enunciate important principles later invoked in support of one theology or the other. These included the insistence on the unique hypostatic properties of each Divine Person, in particular the Father's property of being, within the Trinity, the one cause, while they also recognized that the Persons, though distinct, cannot be separated, and that not only the sending of the Spirit to creatures but also the Spirit's eternal flowing forth (προϊέναι) from the Father within the Trinity is "through the Son" (διὰ τοῦ Υἱοῦ).[31]
Siecienski remarked that, "while the Greek fathers were still striving to find language capable of expressing the mysterious nature of the Son's relationship to the Spirit, Latin theologians, even during Cyril's lifetime, had already found their answer – the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (ex Patre et Filio procedentem). The degree to which this teaching was compatible with, or contradictory to, the emerging Greek tradition remains, sixteen centuries later, subject to debate."[32]
Before the creed of 381 became known in the West and even before it was adopted by the First Council of Constantinople, Christian writers in the West, of whom Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220), Jerome (347–420), Ambrose (c. 338–397) and Augustine (354–430) are representatives, spoke of the Spirit as coming from the Father and the Son,[10] while the expression "from the Father through the Son" is also found among them.[33][34][35]
In the early 3rd century Roman province of Africa, Tertullian emphasises that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all share a single divine substance, quality and power,[36] which he conceives of as flowing forth from the Father and being transmitted by the Son to the Spirit.[37] Using the metaphor the root, the shoot, and the fruit; the spring, the river, and the stream; and the sun, the ray, and point of light for the unity with distinction in the Trinity, he adds, "The Spirit, then, is third from God and the Son, ..."
In his arguments against Arianism, Marius Victorinus (c. 280–365) strongly connected the Son and the Spirit.[38]
In the mid-4th century, Hilary of Poitiers wrote of the Spirit "coming forth from the Father" and being "sent by the Son";[39] as being "from the Father through the Son";[40] and as "having the Father and the Son as his source";[41] in another passage, Hilary points to John 16:15[42] (where Jesus says: "All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that [the Spirit] shall take from what is mine and declare it to you"), and wonders aloud whether "to receive from the Son is the same thing as to proceed from the Father".[43]
In the late 4th century, Ambrose of Milan asserted that the Spirit "proceeds from (procedit a) the Father and the Son", without ever being separated from either.[44] Ambrose adds, "[W]ith You, Almighty God, Your Son is the Fount of Life, that is, the Fount of the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit is life ..."[45]
"None of these writers, however, makes the Spirit's mode of origin the object of special reflection; all are concerned, rather, to emphasize the equality of status of all three divine persons as God, and all acknowledge that the Father alone is the source of God's eternal being."[46]
Pope Gregory I, in Gospel Homily 26, notes that the Son is "sent" by the Father both in the sense of an eternal generation and a temporal Incarnation. Thus, the Spirit is said to be "sent" by the Son from the Father both as to an eternal procession and a temporal mission. "The sending of the Spirit is that procession by which It proceeds from the Father and the Son."[47] In his Moralia in Iob, initially composed while he was apocrisarius at the imperial court of Constantinople and later edited while Pope of Rome, Gregory wrote, "But the Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, in all things has Him (the Holy Spirit) both always and continually present. For the same Spirit even in substance is brought forth from Him (quia et ex illo isdem Spiritus per substantiam profertur.) And thus, though He (the Spirit) abides in the holy Preachers, He is justly said to abide in the Mediator in a special manner, for that in them He abides of grace for a particular object, but in Him He abides substantially for all ends."[48] Later in the Moralia (xxx.iv.17), St. Gregory writes of the procession of the Holy Spirit from Father and Son while defending their co-equality. Thus, he wrote, "[The Son] shews both how He springs from the Father not unequal to Himself, and how the Spirit of Both proceeds coeternal with Both. For we shall then openly behold, how That Which Is by an origin, is not subsequent to Him from Whom It springs; how He Who is produced by procession, is not preceded by Those from Whom He proceeded. We shall then behold openly how both The One [God] is divisibly Three [Persons] and the Three [Persons] indivisibly One [God]."[49]
Later in his Dialogues, Gregory I took the Filioque doctrine for granted when he quoted John 16:7,[50] and asked: if "it is certain that the Paraclete Spirit always proceeds from the Father and the Son, why does the Son say that He is about to leave so that [the Spirit] who never leaves the Son might come?"[51] The text proposes an eternal procession from both Father and the Son by the use of the word "always" (semper). Gregory I's use of recessurum and recedit is also significant for the divine procession because although the Spirit always proceeds (semper procedat) from the Father and the Son, the Spirit never leaves (numquam recedit) the Son by this eternal procession.[52][discuss]
Yves Congar commented, "The walls of separation do not reach as high as heaven."[53][further explanation needed] And Aidan Nichols remarked that "the Filioque controversy is, in fact, a casualty of the theological pluralism of the patristic Church", on the one hand the Latin and Alexandrian tradition, on the other the Cappadocian and later Byzantine tradition.[54]
The original Nicene Creed – composed in Greek and adopted by the first ecumenical council, Nicaea I (325) – ended with the words "and in the Holy Spirit" without defining the procession of the Holy Spirit. The procession of the Holy Spirit was defined in what is also called the Nicene Creed, or more accurately the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which was also composed in Greek.
Traditionally, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is attributed to the First Council of Constantinople of 381, whose participants, primarily Eastern bishops,[55] met, decided issues (legates of Pope Damasus I[56] were present).[57][self-published source][better source needed][contradictory]
The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is not documented earlier than the Council of Chalcedon (451),[58] which referred to it as "the creed [...] of the 150 saintly fathers assembled in Constantinople" in its acts.[59] It was cited at Chalcedon I on instructions from the representative of the Emperor who chaired the meeting and who may have wished to present it as "a precedent for drawing up new creeds and definitions to supplement the Creed of Nicaea, as a way of getting round the ban on new creeds in" Ephesus I canon 7.[58] The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed was recognized and received by Leo I at Chalcedon I.[60][61] Scholars do not agree on the connection between Constantinople I and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which was not simply an expansion of the Creed of Nicaea, and was probably based on another traditional creed independent of the one from Nicaea.[62]
The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is roughly equivalent to the Nicene Creed plus two additional articles: one on the Holy Spirit and another about the Church, baptism, and resurrection of the dead. For the full text of both creeds, see Comparison between Creed of 325 and Creed of 381.
The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed article professes:
Καὶ εἰς | Et in | And in |
τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, | Spiritum Sanctum, | the Holy Spirit, |
τὸ κύριον, τὸ ζωοποιόν, | Dominum et vivificantem, | the Lord, the giver of life, |
τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, | qui ex Patre procedit, | who proceeds from the Father. |
τὸ σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ | Qui cum Patre et Filio | With the Father and the Son |
συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον, | simul adoratur et conglorificatur; | he is worshipped and glorified. |
τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν. | qui locutus est per prophetas. | He has spoken through the Prophets. |
It speaks of the Holy Spirit "proceeding from the Father" – a phrase based on John 15:26.[63]
The Greek word ἐκπορευόμενον (ekporeuomenon) refers to the ultimate source from which the proceeding occurs, but the Latin verb procedere (and the corresponding terms used to translate it into other languages) can apply also to proceeding through a mediate channel.[64] Frederick Bauerschmidt notes that what Medieval theologians disregarded as minor objections about ambiguous terms, was in fact an "insufficient understanding of the semantic difference" between the Greek and Latin terms in both the East and the West.[65][b] The West used the more generic Latin term procedere (to move forward; to come forth) which is more synonymous with the Greek term προϊέναι (proienai) than the more specific Greek term ἐκπορεύεσθαι (ekporeuesthai, "to issue forth as from an origin").[65] The West traditionally used one term and the East traditionally used two terms to convey arguably equivalent and complementary meaning, that is, ekporeuesthai from the Father and proienai from the Son.[65][64] Moreover, the more generic Latin term, procedere, does not have "the added implication of the starting-point of that movement; thus it is used to translate a number of other Greek theological terms."[46] It is used as the Latin equivalent, in the Vulgate, of not only ἐκπορεύεσθαι, but also ἔρχεσθαι, προέρχεσθαι, προσέρχεσθαι, and προβαίνω (four times) and is used of Jesus' originating from God in John 8:42,[66] although at that time Greek ἐκπορεύεσθαι was already beginning to designate the Holy Spirit's manner of originating from the Father as opposed to that of the Son (γέννησις — being born).[67]
The third Ecumenical council, Ephesus I (431), quoted the creed in its 325 form, not in that of 381,[68] decreed in Ephesus I canon 7 that:
[ ] it is unlawful [ ] to bring forward, or to write, or to compose a different [ ] Faith as a rival to that established by the [ ] Fathers assembled [ ] in Nicæa. [ ] those who [ ] compose a different faith, or to introduce or offer it to persons desiring to turn to the acknowledgment of the truth, whether from Heathenism or from Judaism, or from any heresy whatsoever, shall be deposed, if they be bishops or clergymen; [ ] and if they be laymen, they shall be anathematized. [ ][68][c]
Ephesus I canon 7 was cited at the Second Council of Ephesus (449) and at the Council of Chalcedon (451), and was echoed in the Chalcedon definition.[69] This account in the 2005 publication concerning the citing by Eutyches of Ephesus I canon 7 in his defence was confirmed by Stephen H. Webb in his 2011 book Jesus Christ, Eternal God.[70][relevant?]
Ephesus I canon 7, against additions to the Creed of Nicaea, is used as a polemic against the addition of Filioque to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed,[71][72][self-published source] In any case, while Ephesus I canon 7 forbade setting up a different creed as a rival to that of Nicaea I, it was the creed attributed to Constantinople I that was adopted liturgically in the East and later a Latin variant was adopted in the West. The form of this creed that the West adopted had two additions: "God from God" (Deum de Deo) and "and the Son" (Filioque).[73] Strictly speaking, Ephesus I canon 7 applies "only to the formula to be used in the reception of converts."