New Testament

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", and 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:

• John 14:26 NASB – [26] "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."
• John 15:26 NASB – [26] "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, [that is] the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me"

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]

Church Fathers

Nicene and Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creeds

First Council of Constantinople with halo-adorned Emperor Theodosius I (miniature in Homilies of Gregory Nazianzus (879–882), Bibliothèque nationale de France)

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]

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:

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][lower-alpha 2]} 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]

Third Ecumenical Council

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][lower-alpha 3]}

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]

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] 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."^[74]

Philippe Labbe remarked that Ephesus I canons 7 and 8 are omitted in some collections of canons and that the collection of Dionysius Exiguus omitted all the Ephesus I canons, apparently considered that they did not concern the Church as a whole.^[75]

Fourth Ecumenical Council

At the fourth ecumenical council, Chalcedon I (451), both the Nicene Creed of 325 and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, were read, the former at the request of a bishop, the latter, against the protests of the bishops, on the initiative of the emperor's representative, "doubtless motivated by the need to find 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 acts of Chalcedon I defined that:

[ ] no one shall [ ] bring forward a different faith [ ], nor to write, nor to put together, nor to excogitate, nor to teach it to others. [Those who] either [ ] put together another faith, or [ ] bring forward or [ ] teach or [ ] deliver a different Creed [ ] to [those who] wish to be converted [ ] from the Gentiles, or Jews or any heresy whatever, if they be Bishops or clerics let them be deposed, [ ] but if they be monks or laics: let them be anathematized. [ ]^[76]

Possible earliest use in the Creed

Some scholars claim that the earliest example of the Filioque clause in the East is contained in the West Syriac recension of the profession of faith of the Church of the East formulated at the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in Persia in 410.^{[77][lower-alpha 4]} This council was held some twenty years before the Nestorian Schism that caused the later split between the Church of the East and the Church in the Roman Empire.^[78] Since wording of that recension ("who is from the Father and the Son") does not contain any mention of the term "procession" or any of the other particular terms that would describe relations between Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, the previously mentioned claim for the "earliest use" of Filioque clause is not universally accepted by scholars. Furthermore, another recension that is preserved in the East Syriac sources of the Church of the East contains only the phrase "and in the Holy Spirit".^[79]

Various professions of faith confessed the doctrine during the patristic age. The Fides Damasi (380 or 5th century), a profession of faith attributed to Pseudo-Damasus or Jerome, includes a formula of the doctrine.^[80][81] The Symbolum Toletanum I (400), a profession of faith legislated by the Toledo I synod, includes a formula of the doctrine.^[82] The Athanasian Creed (5th century), a profession of faith attributed to Pseudo-Athanasius, includes a formula of the doctrine.^[83]

The generally accepted first found insertion of the term Filioque into the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, in Western Christianity, is in acts of the Third Council of Toledo (Toledo III) (589),^[84] nearly two centuries later, but it may be a later interpolation.^{[85][lower-alpha 5]}

Procession of the Holy Spirit

As early as the 4th century, a distinction was made, in connection with the Trinity, between the two Greek verbs ἐκπορεύεσθαι (the verb used in the original Greek text of the 381 Nicene Creed) and προϊέναι. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote: "The Holy Ghost is truly Spirit, coming forth (προϊέναι) from the Father indeed, but not after the manner of the Son, for it is not by Generation but by Procession (ἐκπορεύεσθαι)".^[87]

That the Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father and the Son in the sense of the Latin word procedere and the Greek προϊέναι (as opposed to the Greek ἐκπορεύεσθαι) was taught by the early 5th century by Cyril of Alexandria in the East.^[10][88] The Athanasian Creed, probably composed as early as the mid 5th-century,^[89] and a dogmatic epistle of Pope Leo I,^{[90][60][lower-alpha 6]} who declared in 446 that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son.^[60]

Although the Eastern Fathers were aware that the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son was taught in the West, they did not generally regard it as heretical.^[91] According to Sergei Bulgakov "a whole series of Western writers, including popes who are venerated as saints by the Eastern church, confess the procession of the Holy Spirit also from the Son; and it is even more striking that there is virtually no disagreement with this theory."^[92] In 447, Leo I taught it in a letter to a Spanish bishop and an anti-Priscillianist council held the same year proclaimed it.^[90] The argument was taken a crucial step further in 867 by the affirmation in the East that the Holy Spirit proceeds not merely "from the Father" but "from the Father alone".^[93][94]

The Filioque was inserted into the Creed as an anti-Arian addition,^[95][96][97] by the Third Council of Toledo (589), at which King Reccared I and some Arians in his Visigothic Kingdom converted to orthodox, Catholic Christianity.^{[98][99][lower-alpha 7]} The Toledo XI synod (675) included the doctrine but not the term in its profession of faith.^[100]

Other Toledo synods "to affirm Trinitarian consubstantiality" between 589 and 693.^[101]

The Filioque clause was confirmed by subsequent synods in Toledo and soon spread throughout the West, not only in Spain, but also in Francia, after Clovis I, king of the Salian Franks, converted to Christianity in 496; and in England, where the Council of Hatfield (680), presided over by Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek,^[102] imposed the doctrine as a response to Monothelitism.^[103]

However, while the doctrine was taught in Rome, the term was not professed liturgically in the Creed until 1014.^[61]

In the Vulgate the Latin verb procedere, which appears in the Filioque passage of the Creed in Latin, is used to translate several Greek verbs. While one of those verbs, ἐκπορεύεσθαι, the one in the corresponding phrase in the Creed in Greek, "was beginning to take on a particular meaning in Greek theology designating the Spirit's unique mode of coming-to-be [...] procedere had no such connotations".^[67]

Although Hilary of Poitiers is often cited as one of "the chief patristic source(s) for the Latin teaching on the filioque", Siecienski says that "there is also reason for questioning Hilary's support for the Filioque as later theology would understand it, especially given the ambiguous nature of (Hilary's) language as it concerns the procession."^[104]

However, a number of Latin Church Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries explicitly speak of the Holy Spirit as proceeding "from the Father and the Son", the phrase in the present Latin version of the Nicene Creed. Examples are what is called the creed of Pope Damasus I,^[105] Ambrose of Milan ("one of the earliest witnesses to the explicit affirmation of the Spirit's procession from the Father and the Son"),^[105] Augustine of Hippo (whose writings on the Trinity "became the foundation of subsequent Latin trinitarian theology and later served as the foundation for the doctrine of the filioque").^[67] and Leo I, who qualified as "impious" those who say "there is not one who begat, another who is begotten, another who proceeded from both [alius qui de utroque processerit]"; he also accepted the Council of Chalcedon, with its reaffirmation of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, in its original "from the Father" form,^[106] as much later did his successor Pope Leo III who professed his faith in the teaching expressed by the Filioque, while opposing its inclusion in the Creed.^[103]

Thereafter, Eucherius of Lyon, Gennadius of Massilia, Boethius, Agnellus, Bishop of Ravenna, Cassiodorus, Gregory of Tours are witnesses that the idea that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son was well established as part of the (Western) Church's faith, before Latin theologians began to concern themselves about how the Spirit proceeds from the Son.^[107]

Pope Gregory I is usually counted as teaching the Spirit's procession from the Son, although Byzantine theologians, quoting from Greek translations of his work rather than the original, present him as a witness against it, and although he sometimes speaks of the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father without mentioning the Son. Siecienski says that, in view of the widespread acceptance by then that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, it would be strange if Gregory did not advocate the teaching, "even if he did not understand the filioque as later Latin theology would – that is, in terms of a 'double procession'."^[108]

"From the Father through the Son"

Church Fathers also use the phrase "from the Father through the Son".^[33][109] Cyril of Alexandria, who undeniably several times states that the Holy Spirit issues from the Father and the Son, also speaks of the Holy Spirit coming from the Father through the Son, two different expressions that for him are complementary: the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father does not exclude the Son's mediation and the Son receives from the Father a participation in the Holy Spirit's coming.^{[110][lower-alpha 8]} Cyril, in his ninth anathema against Nestorius, had stated that the Spirit was Christ's own Spirit, which led Theodoret of Cyrus to question whether Cyril was advocating the idea that "the Spirit has his subsistence from the Son or through the Son". For Theodoret this idea was both "blasphemous and impious [...] for we believe the Lord who has said: 'the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father...' ". Cyril denied that he held this teaching, leading Theodoret to confirm the orthodoxy of Cyril's trinitarian theology, since the Church had always taught that "the Holy Spirit does not receive existence from or through the Son, but proceeds from the Father and is called the proprium of the Son because of his consubstantiality.^[111] The phrase "from the Son or through the Son" continued to be used by Cyril, albeit in light of the clarification.^[112] The Roman Catholic Church accepts both phrases, and considers that they do not affect the reality of the same faith and instead express the same truth in slightly different ways.^[113][114] The influence of Augustine of Hippo made the phrase "proceeds from the Father through the Son" popular throughout the West,^[115] but, while used also in the East, "through the Son" was later, according to Philip Schaff, dropped or rejected by some as being nearly equivalent to "from the Son" or "and the Son".^[116] Others spoke of the Holy Spirit proceeding "from the Father", as in the text of the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which "did not state that the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone".^[117]

First Eastern opposition

Maximus the Confessor

The first recorded objection by a representative of Eastern Christianity against the Western belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son occurred when Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople (r. 642–653) made accusations against either Pope Theodore I (r. 642–649) or Pope Martin I (r. 649–653) for using the expression.^[118] Theodore I excommunicated Paul II in 647 for Monothelitism.^[119] In response to the attack by Paul, Maximus the Confessor, a Greek opponent of Monothelitism, declared that it was wrong to condemn the Roman use of "and the Son" because the Romans "have produced the unanimous evidence of the Latin Fathers, and also of Cyril of Alexandria [...] On the basis of these texts, they have shown that they have not made the Son the cause of the Spirit – they know in fact that the Father is the only cause of the Son and the Spirit, the one by begetting and the other by procession – but that they have manifested the procession through him and have thus shown the unity and identity of the essence." He also indicated that the differences between the Latin and Greek languages were an obstacle to mutual understanding, since "they cannot reproduce their idea in a language and in words that are foreign to them as they can in their mother-tongue, just as we too cannot do".^[120]

Claims of authenticity

At the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th century, the Church of Rome was faced with an unusual challenge regarding the use of Filioque clause. Among the Church leaders in Frankish Kingdom of that time a notion was developing that Filioque clause was in fact an authentic part of the original Creed.^[121] Trying to deal with that problem and its potentially dangerous consequences, the Church of Rome found itself in the middle of a widening rift between its own Daughter-Church in Frankish Kingdom and Sister-Churches of the East. Popes of that time, Hadrian I and Leo III, had to face various challenges while trying to find solutions that would preserve the unity of the Church.^[122]

First signs of the problems were starting to show by the end of the reign of Frankish king Pepin the Short (751–768). Use of the Filioque clause in the Frankish Kingdom led to controversy with envoys of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine V at the Synod of Gentilly (767).^{[123][124][125]} As the practice of chanting the interpolated Latin Credo at Mass spread in the West, the Filioque became a part of Latin liturgy throughout the Frankish Kingdom. The practice of chanting the Creed was adopted in Charlemagne's court by the end of the 8th century and spread through all of his realms, including some northern parts of Italy, but not to Rome, where its use was not accepted until 1014.^[97][99]

Serious problems erupted in 787 after the Second Council of Nicaea when Charlemagne accused the Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople of infidelity to the faith of the First Council of Nicaea, allegedly because he had not professed the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father "and the Son", but only "through the Son". Pope Adrian I rejected those accusations and tried to explain to the Frankish king that pneumatology of Tarasios was in accordance with the teachings of the holy Fathers.^{[126][127][lower-alpha 9]} Surprisingly, efforts of the pope had no effect.

The true scale of the problem became evident during the following years. The Frankish view of the Filioque was emphasized again in the Libri Carolini, composed around 791–793.^{[lower-alpha 10]} Openly arguing that the word Filioque was part of the Creed of 381, the authors of Libri Carolini demonstrated not only the surprising lack of basic knowledge but also the lack of will to receive right advice and counsel from the Mother-Church in Rome. Frankish theologians reaffirmed the notion that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and rejected as inadequate the teaching that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son.^[128][127] That claim was both erroneous and dangerous for the preservation of the unity of the Church.

In those days, another theological problem appeared to be closely connected with the use of Filioque in the West. In the late 8th century, a controversy arose between Bishop Elipandus of Toledo and Beatus of Liébana over the former's teaching (which has been called Spanish Adoptionism) that Christ in his humanity was the adoptive son of God. Elipandus was supported by Bishop Felix of Urgel. In 785, Pope Hadrian I condemned the teaching of Elipandus. In 791, Felix appealed to Charlemagne in defense of the Spanish Adoptionist teaching, sending him a tract outlining it. He was condemned at the Synod of Regensburg (792) and was sent to Pope Hadrian in Rome, where he made of profession of orthodox faith, but returned to Spain and there reaffirmed Adoptionism. Elipandus wrote to the bishops of the territories controlled by Charlemagne in defence of his teaching, which was condemned at the Council of Frankfurt (794) and at the Synod of Friuli (796). The controversy encouraged those who rejected Adoptionism to introduce into the liturgy the use of the Creed, with the Filioque, to profess belief that Christ was the Son from eternity, not adopted as a son at his baptism.^[129][130]

At the Synod of Friuli, Paulinus II of Aquileia stated that the insertion of Filioque in the 381 Creed of the First Council of Constantinople was no more a violation of the prohibition of new creeds than were the insertions into the 325 Creed of the First Council of Nicaea that were done by the First Council of Constantinople itself. What was forbidden, he said, was adding or removing something "craftily [...] contrary to the sacred intentions of the fathers", not a council's addition that could be shown to be in line with the intentions of the Fathers and the faith of the ancient Church. Actions such as that of the First Council of Contantinople were sometimes called for in order to clarify the faith and do away with heresies that appear.^{[131][132][133]} The views of Paulinus show that some advocates of Filioque clause were quite aware of the fact that it actually was not part of the Creed.^[132]

Political events that followed additionally complicated the issue. According to John Meyendorff,^[134] and John Romanides^[135] the Frankish efforts to get new Pope Leo III to approve the addition of Filioque to the Creed were due to a desire of Charlemagne, who in 800 had been crowned in Rome as Emperor, to find grounds for accusations of heresy against the East. The Pope's refusal to approve the interpolation of the Filioque into the Creed avoided arousing a conflict between East and West about this matter. During his reign (r. 795–816), and for another two centuries, there was no Creed at all in the Roman rite Mass.

Reasons for the continuing refusal of the Frankish Church to adopt the positions of the Church of Rome on necessity of leaving Filioque outside of Creed remained unknown. Faced with another endorsement of the Filioque clause at the Frankish Council of Aachen (809) pope Leo III denied his approval and publicly posted the Creed in Rome without the Filioque, written in Greek and Latin on two silver plaques, in defense of the Orthodox Faith (810) stating his opposition to the addition of the Filioque into the Creed.^{[136][128][137]} Although Leo III did not disapprove the Filioque doctrine, the Pope strongly believed the clause should not be included into the Creed.^{[123][46][136][lower-alpha 11]} In spite of the efforts of the Church of Rome, the acceptance of the Filioque clause in the Creed of the Frankish Church proved to be irreversible.

In 808 or 809 apparent controversy arose in Jerusalem between the Greek monks of one monastery and the Frankish Benedictine monks of another: the Greeks reproached the latter for, among other things, singing the creed with the Filioque included.^{[46][138][139]} In response, the theology of the Filioque was expressed in the 809 local Council of Aachen (809).^{[46][139][140]}

Photian controversy

Around 860 the controversy over the Filioque broke out in the course of the disputes between Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople. In 867 Photius was Patriarch of Constantinople and issued an Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs, and called a council in Constantinople in which he charged the Western Church with heresy and schism because of differences in practices, in particular for the Filioque and the authority of the Papacy.^[141] This moved the issue from jurisdiction and custom to one of dogma. This council declared Pope Nicholas anathema, excommunicated and deposed.^[142]

Photius excluded not only "and the Son" but also "through the Son" with regard to the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit: for him "through the Son" applied only to the temporal mission of the Holy Spirit (the sending in time).^{[143][144][145]} He maintained that the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit is "from the Father alone".^[146] This phrase was verbally a novelty,^[147][148] however, Eastern Orthodox theologians generally hold that in substance the phrase is only a reaffirmation of traditional teaching.^[147][148] Sergei Bulgakov, on the other hand, declared that Photius's doctrine itself "represents a sort of novelty for the Eastern church".^[149] Bulgakov writes: "The Cappadocians expressed only one idea: the monarchy of the Father and, consequently, the procession of the Holy Spirit precisely from the Father. They never imparted to this idea, however, the exclusiveness that it acquired in the epoch of the Filioque disputes after Photius, in the sense of ek monou tou Patros (from the Father alone)";^[150] Nichols summarized that, "Bulgakov finds it amazing that with all his erudition Photius did not see that the 'through the Spirit' of Damascene and others constituted a different theology from his own, just as it is almost incomprehensible to find him trying to range the Western Fathers and popes on his Monopatrist side."^[151]

Photius's importance endured in regard to relations between East and West. He is recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and his line of criticism has often been echoed later, making reconciliation between East and West difficult.

At least three councils – Council of Constantinople (867), Fourth Council of Constantinople (Roman Catholic) (869), and Fourth Council of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox) (879) – were held in Constantinople over the actions of Emperor Michael III in deposing Ignatius and replacing him with Photius. The Council of Constantinople (867) was convened by Photius to address the question of Papal Supremacy over all of the churches and their patriarchs and the use of the Filioque.^{[152][153][154][155]}

The council of 867 was followed by the Fourth Council of Constantinople (Roman Catholic), in 869, which reversed the previous council and was promulgated by Rome. The Fourth Council of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox), in 879, restored Photius to his see. It was attended by Western legates Cardinal Peter of St Chrysogonus, Paul Bishop of Ancona and Eugene Bishop of Ostia who approved its canons, but it is unclear whether it was ever promulgated by Rome.^[156]

Adoption in the Roman Rite

Latin liturgical use of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed with the added term spread between the 8th and 11th centuries.^[60]

Only in 1014, at the request of King Henry II of Germany (who was in Rome for his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor and was surprised by the different custom in force there) did Pope Benedict VIII, who owed to Henry II his restoration to the papal throne after usurpation by Antipope Gregory VI, have the Creed with the addition of Filioque, sung at Mass in Rome for the first time.^[97] In some other places Filioque was incorporated in the Creed even later: in parts of southern Italy after the Council of Bari in 1098^[157] and at Paris seemingly not even by 1240,^[158] 34 years before the Second Council of Lyon defined that the Holy Spirit "proceeds eternally from the Father and from the Son, not as from two principles but from a single principle, not by two spirations but by a single spiration".^[159][160]

Since then the Filioque phrase has been included in the Creed throughout the Latin Church except where Greek is used in the liturgy.^[61][161]

Its adoption among the Eastern Catholic Churches (formerly known as Uniate churches) has been discouraged.^[162][163]

East–West controversy

Eastern opposition to the Filioque strengthened after the 11th century East–West Schism. According to the synodal edict, a Latin anathema, in the excommunication of 1054, against the Greeks included: "ut Pneumatomachi sive Theomachi, Spiritus sancti ex Filio processionem ex symbolo absciderunt"^[164] ("as pneumatomachi and theomachi, they have cut from the Creed the procession of the holy Spirit from the Son"). The Council of Constantinople, in a synodal edict, responded with anathemas against the Latins:"^[165] ("And besides all this, and quite unwilling to see that it is they claim that the Spirit proceeds from the Father, not [only], but also from the Son – as if they have no evidence of the evangelists of this, and if they do not have the dogma of the ecumenical council regarding this slander. For the Lord our God says, "even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father (John 15:26)". But parents say this new wickedness of the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.")

Two councils that were held to heal the break discussed the question.

The Second Council of Lyon (1274) accepted the profession of faith of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos: "We believe also ⟨in⟩ the Holy Spirit, fully, perfectly and truly God, proceeding from the Father and the Son, fully equal, of the same substance, equally almighty and equally eternal with the Father and the Son in all things."^[166] and the Greek participants, including Patriarch Joseph I of Constantinople sang the Creed three times with the Filioque clause. Most Byzantine Christians feeling disgust and recovering from the Latin Crusaders' conquest and betrayal, refused to accept the agreement made at Lyon with the Latins. Michael VIII was excommunicated by Pope Martin IV in November 1281,^[167] and later died, after which Patriarch Joseph I's successor, Patriarch John XI of Constantinople, who had become convinced that the teaching of the Greek Fathers was compatible with that of the Latins, was forced to resign, and was replaced by Patriarch Gregory II of Constantinople, who was strongly of the opposite opinion.^[168]

Lyons II did not require those Christians to change the recitation of the creed in their liturgy.

Lyons II stated "that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, not as from two principles, but one, not from two spirations but by only one," is "the unchangeable and true doctrine of the orthodox Fathers and Doctors, both Latin and Greek."^[159] So, it "condemn[ed] and disapprove[d of] those who [ ] deny that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from Father and Son or who [ ] assert that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from two principles, not from one."^[46][159]

John VIII Palaiologos by Benozzo Gozzoli

Another attempt at reunion was made at the 15th century Council of Florence, to which Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, Ecumenical Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople, and other bishops from the East had gone in the hope of getting Western military aid against the looming Ottoman Empire. Thirteen public sessions held in Ferrara from 8 October to 13 December 1438 the Filioque question was debated without agreement. The Greeks held that any addition whatever, even if doctrinally correct, to the Creed had been forbidden by Ephesus I, while the Latins claimed that this prohibition concerned meaning, not words.^[169]

During the Council of Florence in 1439, accord continued to be elusive, until the argument prevailed among the Greeks themselves that, though the Greek and the Latin saints expressed their faith differently, they were in agreement substantially, since saints cannot err in faith; and by 8 June the Greeks accepted the Latin statement of doctrine. Joseph II died on 10 June. A statement on the Filioque question was included in the Laetentur Caeli decree of union, which was signed on 5 July 1439 and promulgated the next day – Mark of Ephesus was the only bishop not to sign the agreement.^[169]

The Eastern Church refused to consider the agreement reached at Florence binding, since the death of Joseph II had for the moment left it without a Patriarch of Constantinople. There was strong opposition to the agreement in the East, and when in 1453, 14 years after the agreement, the promised military aid from the West still had not arrived and Constantinople fell to the Turks, neither Eastern Christians nor their new rulers wished union between them and the West.

Councils of Jerusalem, AD 1583 and 1672

The Synod of Jerusalem (1583) condemned those who do not believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone in essence, and from Father and Son in time. In addition, this synod re-affirmed adherence to the decisions of Nicaea I. The Synod of Jerusalem (1672) similarly re-affirmed procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father alone.^[170]

Reformation

Although the Protestant Reformation challenged a number of church doctrines, they accepted the Filioque without reservation. However, they did not have a polemical insistence on the Western view of the Trinity. In the second half of the 16th century, Lutheran scholars from the University of Tübingen initiated a dialogue with the Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople. The Tübingen Lutherans defended the Filioque arguing that, without it, "the doctrine of the Trinity would lose its epistemological justification in the history of revelation." In the centuries that followed, the Filioque was considered by Protestant theologians to be a key component of the doctrine of the Trinity, although it was never elevated to being a pillar of Protestant theology.^[171] Zizioulas characterize Protestants as finding themselves "in the same confusion as those fourth century theologians who were unable to distinguish between the two sorts of procession, 'proceeding from' and 'sent by'."^[172]

Catholic Church

The Catholic Church holds, as a truth dogmatically defined since as far back as Pope Leo I in 447, who followed a Latin and Alexandrian tradition, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.^[90] It rejects the notion that the Holy Spirit proceeds jointly and equally from two principles (Father and Son) and teaches dogmatically that "the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, not as from two principles but as from one single principle".^[159][61] It holds that the Father, as the "principle without principle", is the first origin of the Spirit, but also that he, as Father of the only Son, is with the Son the single principle from which the Spirit proceeds.^[113]

It also holds that the procession of the Holy Spirit can be expressed as "from the Father through the Son". The agreement that brought about the 1595 Union of Brest expressly declared that those entering full communion with Rome "should remain with that which was handed down to (them) in the Holy Scriptures, in the Gospel, and in the writings of the holy Greek Doctors, that is, that the Holy Spirit proceeds, not from two sources and not by a double procession, but from one origin, from the Father through the Son".^[113][162]

The Catholic Church recognizes that the Creed, as confessed at the First Council of Constantinople, did not add "and the Son", when it spoke of the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father, and that this addition was admitted to the Latin liturgy between the 8th and 11th centuries.^[60] When quoting the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, as in the 2000 document Dominus Iesus, it does not include Filioque.^[173] It views as complementary the Eastern-tradition expression "who proceeds from the Father" (profession of which it sees as affirming that the Spirit comes from the Father through the Son) and the Western-tradition expression "who proceeds from the Father and the Son", with the Eastern tradition expressing firstly the Father's character as first origin of the Spirit, and the Western tradition giving expression firstly to the consubstantial communion between Father and Son.^[113]

The monarchy of the Father is a doctrine upheld not only by those who, like Photius, speak of a procession from the Father alone. It is also asserted by theologians who speak of a procession from the Father through the Son or from the Father and the Son. Examples cited by Siecienski include Bessarion,^[174] Maximus the Confessor,^[175] Bonaventure,^[176] and the Council of Worms (868),^[177] The same remark is made by Jürgen Moltmann.^{[lower-alpha 12]} The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) also stated that not only the Eastern tradition, but also the Latin Filioque tradition "recognize that the 'Monarchy of the Father' implies that the Father is the sole Trinitarian Cause (αἰτία) or Principle (principium) of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".^[61]

The Catholic Church recognizes that, in the Greek language, the term used in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (ἐκπορευόμενον, "proceeding") to signify the proceeding of the Holy Spirit cannot appropriately be used with regard to the Son, but only with regard to the Father, a difficulty that does not exist in other languages.^[61] For this reason, even in the liturgy of Latin Church Catholics, it does not add the phrase corresponding to Filioque (καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ) to the Greek language text of the Creed containing the word ἐκπορευόμενον.^[61] Even in languages other than Greek, it encourages Eastern Catholic Churches to omit the Filioque from their recitation of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, even in Eastern Catholic liturgies that previously included it.^[179]

Anglicanism

The 1978 and 1988 Lambeth Conferences advised the Anglican Communion to omit printing the Filioque in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.^[180] In 1993, a joint meeting of the Anglican Primates and Anglican Consultative Council, passed a resolution urging Anglican churches to comply with the request to print the liturgical Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed without the Filioque clause.^[181] The recommendation was not specifically renewed in the 1998 and 2008 Lambeth Conferences and has not been implemented.^[182]

In 1985 the General Convention of The Episcopal Church (USA) recommended that the Filioque clause should be removed from the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, if this were endorsed by the 1988 Lambeth Council.^[183] Accordingly, at its 1994 General Convention, the Episcopal Church reaffirmed its intention to remove the Filioque clause from the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed in the next revision of its Book of Common Prayer.^[184] The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer was last revised in 1979, and has not been revised since the resolution.

The Scottish Episcopal Church no longer prints the Filioque clause in its modern language liturgies.

Protestantism

Among 20th century Protestant theologians, Karl Barth was perhaps the staunchest defender of the Filioque doctrine. Barth was harshly critical of the ecumenical movement which advocated dropping the Filioque in order to facilitate reunification of the Christian churches. Barth's vigorous defense of the Filioque ran counter to the stance of many Protestant theologians of the latter half of the 20th century who favored abandoning the use of the Filioque in the liturgy.^[185][186]

The Moravian Church has never used the Filioque.

Eastern Orthodoxy

There has never been a specific conciliar statement in the Orthodox Church which defined the filioque as heresy.^[187]

The Eastern Orthodox interpretation is that the Holy Spirit originates, has his cause for existence or being (manner of existence) from the Father alone as "One God, One Father",^[188] Lossky insisted that any notion of a double procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son was incompatible with Eastern Orthodox theology. For Lossky, this incompatibility was so fundamental that "whether we like it or not, the question of the procession of the Holy Spirit has been the sole dogmatic grounds of the separation of East and West".^[189][190] Eastern Orthodox scholars who share Lossky's view include Dumitru Stăniloae, John Romanides, Christos Yannaras,^[191] and Michael Pomazansky. Sergei Bulgakov, however, was of the opinion that the Filioque did not represent an insurmountable obstacle to reunion of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.^[189]

Oriental Orthodox Churches

All Oriental Orthodox Churches (Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Malankaran) use the original Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed,^[223] without the Filioque clause.^[224][225]

Church of the East

Two of the present-day churches derived from the Church of the East, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, do not use "and the Son" when reciting the Nicene Creed. A third, the Chaldean Catholic Church, a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church, in 2007 at the request of the Holy See, removed "and the Son" from its version of the Nicene Creed.^[179]

Linguistic issues

Ware suggests that the problem is of semantics rather than of basic doctrinal differences.^[215][226] The English Language Liturgical Consultation commented that "those who strongly favor retention of the Filioque are often thinking of the Trinity as revealed and active in human affairs, whereas the original Greek text is concerned about relationships within the Godhead itself. As with many historic disputes, the two parties may not be discussing the same thing."^[227]

In 1995, the PCPCU pointed out an important difference in meaning between the Greek verb ἐκπορεύεσθαι and the Latin verb procedere, both of which are commonly translated as "proceed". It stated that the Greek verb ἐκπορεύεσθαι indicates that the Spirit "takes his origin from the Father ... in a principal, proper and immediate manner", while the Latin verb, which corresponds rather to the verb προϊέναι in Greek, can be applied to proceeding even from a mediate channel. Therefore, ἐκπορευόμενον ("who proceeds"), used in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed to signify the proceeding of the Holy Spirit, cannot be appropriately used in the Greek language with regard to the Son, but only with regard to the Father, a difficulty that does not exist in Latin and other languages.^[61]

Metropolitan John Zizioulas, while maintaining the explicit Orthodox position of the Father as the single origin and source of the Holy Spirit, declared that PCPCU (1995) shows positive signs of reconciliation. Zizioulas states: "Closely related to the question of the single cause is the problem of the exact meaning of the Son's involvement in the procession of the Spirit. Gregory of Nyssa explicitly admits a 'mediating' role of the Son in the procession of the Spirit from the Father. Is this role to be expressed with the help of the preposition δία (through) the Son (εκ Πατρός δι'Υιού), as Maximus and other Patristic sources seem to suggest?" Zizioulas continues: "The Vatican statement notes that this is 'the basis that must serve for the continuation of the current theological dialogue between Catholic and Orthodox'. I would agree with this, adding that the discussion should take place in the light of the 'single cause' principle to which I have just referred." Zizioulas adds that this "constitutes an encouraging attempt to clarify the basic aspects of the 'Filioque' problem and show that a rapprochement between West and East on this matter is eventually possible".^[228]

Some Orthodox reconsideration of the Filioque

Russian theologian Boris Bolotov asserted in 1898 that the Filioque, like Photius's "from the Father alone", was a permissible theological opinion (a theologoumenon, not a dogma) that cannot be an absolute impediment to reestablishment of communion.^{[229][185][230]} Bolotov's thesis was supported by Orthodox theologians Bulgakov, Paul Evdokimov and I. Voronov, but was rejected by Lossky.^[185]

In 1986, Theodore Stylianopoulos provided an extensive, scholarly overview of the contemporary discussion.^[231] Ware said that he had changed his mind and had concluded that "the problem is more in the area of semantics and different emphases than in any basic doctrinal differences": "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone" and "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son" may both have orthodox meanings if the words translated "proceeds" actually have different meanings.^[232] For some Orthodox, then, the Filioque, while still a matter of conflict, would not impede full communion of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches if other issues were resolved. But 19th century Russian Slavophile theologian Aleksey Khomyakov considered the Filioque as an expression of formalism, rationalism, pride and lack of love for other Christians,^{[lower-alpha 20]} and that it is in flagrant contravention of the words of Christ in the Gospel, has been specifically condemned by the Orthodox Church, and remains a fundamental heretical teaching which divides East and West.

Romanides too, while personally opposing the Filioque, stated that Constantinople I was not ever interpreted "as a condemnation" of the doctrine "outside the Creed, since it did not teach that the Son is 'cause' or 'co-cause' of the existence of the Holy Spirit. This could not be added to the Creed where 'procession' means 'cause' of existence of the Holy Spirit."^[234]

Inclusion in the Nicene Creed

Eastern Orthodox Christians object that, even if the teaching of the Filioque can be defended, its medieval interpretation and unilateral interpolation into the Creed is anti-canonical and unacceptable.^{[lower-alpha 20][185]} "The Catholic Church acknowledges the conciliar, ecumenical, normative and irrevocable value, as expression of the one common faith of the Church and of all Christians, of the Symbol professed in Greek at Constantinople in 381 by the Second Ecumenical Council. No profession of faith peculiar to a particular liturgical tradition can contradict this expression of the faith taught and professed by the undivided Church."^[61] The Catholic Church allows liturgical use of the Apostles' Creed as well of the Nicene Creed, and sees no essential difference between the recitation in the liturgy of a creed with orthodox additions and a profession of faith outside the liturgy such that of Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople, who developed the Nicene Creed with an addition as follows: "the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father through the Son".^[61] It sees the addition of "and the Son" in the context of the Latin qui ex Patre procedit (who proceeds from the Father) as an elucidation of the faith expressed by the Church Fathers, since the verb procedere signifies "the communication of the consubstantial divinity from the Father to the Son and from the Father, through and with the Son, to the Holy Spirit".^[61]

Most Oriental Orthodox churches have not added the Filoque to their creeds but the Armenian Apostolic Church has added elucidations to the Nicene Creed.^[235] Another change made to the text of the Nicene Creed by both the Latins and the Greeks is to use the singular "I believe" in place of the plural "we believe", while all the Churches of Oriental Orthodoxy, not only the Armenian, but also the Coptic Orthodox Church,^[236] the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church,^[237] the Malankara Orthodox Church,^[238] and the Syriac Orthodox Church,^[239] have on the contrary preserved the "we believe" of the original text.

Focus on Saint Maximus as a point of mutual agreement

Recently, theological debate about the Filioque has focused on the writings of Maximus the Confessor. Siecienski writes that "Among the hundreds of figures involved in the filioque debates throughout the centuries, Maximus the Confessor enjoys a privileged position." During the lengthy proceedings at Ferrara-Florence, the Orthodox delegates presented a text from Maximus the Confessor that they felt could provide the key to resolving the theological differences between East and West.^[240]

The PCPCU states that, according to Maximus, the phrase "and from the Son" does not contradict the Holy Spirit's procession from the Father as first origin (ἐκπόρευσις), since it concerns only the Holy Spirit's coming (in the sense of the Latin word processio and Cyril of Alexandria's προϊέναι) from the Son in a way that excludes any idea of subordinationism.^{[61][lower-alpha 21]}

Orthodox theologian and Metropolitan of Pergamon, John Zizioulas, wrote that for Maximus the Confessor "the Filioque was not heretical because its intention was to denote not the ἐκπορεύεσθαι (ekporeuesthai) but the προϊέναι (proienai) of the Spirit".^[228]

Zizioulas also wrote that "Maximus the Confessor insisted, however, in defence of the Roman use of the Filioque, the decisive thing in this defence lies precisely in the point that in using the Filioque the Romans do not imply a "cause" other than the Father. The notion of "cause" seems to be of special significance and importance in the Greek Patristic argument concerning the Filioque. If Roman Catholic theology would be ready to admit that the Son in no way constitutes a "cause" (aition) in the procession of the Spirit, this would bring the two traditions much closer to each other with regard to the Filioque."^[228] This is precisely what Maximus said of the Roman view, that "they have shown that they have not made the Son the cause of the Spirit – they know in fact that the Father is the only cause of the Son and the Spirit, the one by begetting and the other by procession".

The PCPCU upholds the monarchy of the Father as the "sole Trinitarian Cause [aitia] or principle [principium] of the Son and the Holy Spirit".^[61] While the Council of Florence proposed the equivalency of the two terms "cause" and "principle" and therefore implied that the Son is a cause (aitia) of the subsistence of the Holy Spirit, the PCPCU distinguishes "between what the Greeks mean by 'procession' in the sense of taking origin from, applicable only to the Holy Spirit relative to the Father (ek tou Patros ekporeuomenon), and what the Latins mean by 'procession' as the more common term applicable to both Son and Spirit (ex Patre Filioque procedit; ek tou Patros kai tou Huiou proion). This preserves the monarchy of the Father as the sole origin of the Holy Spirit while simultaneously allowing for an intratrinitarian relation between the Son and Holy Spirit that the document defines as 'signifying the communication of the consubstantial divinity from the Father to the Son and from the Father through and with the Son to the Holy Spirit'."^[241]

Roman Catholic theologian Avery Dulles wrote that the Eastern fathers were aware of the currency of the Filioque in the West and did not generally regard it as heretical: Some, such as Maximus the Confessor, "defended it as a legitimate variation of the Eastern formula that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son".^[91]

Pomazansky and Romanides^[234] hold that Maximus' position does not defend the actual way the Roman Catholic Church justifies and teaches the Filioque as dogma for the whole church. While accepting as a legitimate and complementary expression of the same faith and reality the teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son,^[113] Maximus held strictly to the teaching of the Eastern Church that "the Father is the only cause of the Son and the Spirit":^[242] and wrote a special treatise about this dogma.^[234][192] The Roman Catholic Church cites Maximus as in full accord with the teaching on the Filioque that it proposes for the whole Church as a dogma that is in harmony with the formula "from the Father through the Son",^[61] for he explained that, by ekporeusis, "the Father is the sole cause of the Son and the Spirit", but that, by proienai, the Greek verb corresponding to procedere (proceed) in Latin, the Spirit comes through the Son.^[61] Later again the Council of Florence, in 1438, declared that the Greek formula "from the Father through the Son" was equivalent to the Latin "from the Father and the Son", not contradictory, and that those who used the two formulas "were aiming at the same meaning in different words".^{[243][244][245][246]}

Per Filium

Recently, some Orthodox theologians have proposed the substitution of the formula ex Patre per Filium / εκ του Πατρός δια του Υιού (from the Father through the Son) instead of ex Patre Filioque (from the Father and the Son).^[247]

Old Catholic Church

Immediately after the Old Catholic Church separated from the Catholic Church in 1871, its theologians initiated contact with the Orthodox Church. In 1874–75, representatives of the two churches held "union conferences" in Bonn with theologians of the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church in attendance in an unofficial capacity. The conferences discussed a number of issues including the filioque controversy. From the outset, Old Catholic theologians agreed with the Orthodox position that the Filioque had been introduced in the West in an unacceptably non-canonical way. It was at these Bonn conferences that the Old Catholics became the first Western church to omit the Filioque from the Nicene Creed.^{[248][249][250]}

Anglican Communion

Three Lambeth Conferences (1888, 1978 and 1988) have recommended that the Filioque be dropped from the Nicene Creed by churches that belong to the Anglican Communion.

The 1930 Lambeth Conference initiated formal theological dialogue between representatives of the Anglican and Orthodox churches.^[251] In 1976, the Agreed Statement of the Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Commission recommended that the Filioque should be omitted from the Creed because its inclusion had been effected without the authority of an Ecumenical Council.^[252]

In 1994, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church (US) resolved that the Filioque should be deleted from the Nicene Creed in the next edition of the Prayer Book.^[253] The enthronement ceremonies of four recent archbishops of Canterbury (Robert Runcie, George Carey, Rowan Williams, Justin Welby) included recitations of the Nicene Creed that omitted the Filioque; this has been considered to have been "a gesture of friendship toward Orthodox guests and their Communions".^[254][255]

At the end of October 2017 theologians from the Anglican Communion and Oriental Orthodox Churches signed an agreement on the Holy Spirit. This is the culmination of discussions which began in 2015. The statement of agreement confirms the omission of the Filioque clause.^[256]

World Council of Churches

In 1979, a study group of the World Council of Churches examined the Filioque question and recommended that "the original form of the Creed, without the Filioque, should everywhere be recognized as the normative one and restored, so that the whole Christian people may be able ... to confess their common faith in the Holy Spirit".^[257] However, nearly a decade later, the WCC lamented that very few member churches had implemented this recommendation.^[186]

Roman Catholic Church

Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have recited the Nicene Creed jointly with Patriarchs Demetrius I and Bartholomew I in Greek without the Filioque clause.^[46][258]

Joint statement of Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians

The Filioque was discussed at the 62nd meeting of the North American Orthodox–Catholic Theological Consultation, in 2002. As a result of these contemporary discussions between both churches, it has been suggested that the orthodox could accept an "economic" filioque that states that the Holy Spirit, who originates in the Father alone, was sent to the Church "through the Son" (as the Paraclete), but it would not be the official orthodox doctrine, but what the Fathers called a theologoumenon, a theological opinion.

In October 2003, the Consultation issued an agreed statement, The Filioque: a Church-dividing issue?, which provides an extensive review of Scripture, history, and theology.^[46] The recommendations include:

1. That all involved in such dialogue expressly recognize the limitations of our ability to make definitive assertions about the inner life of God.
2. That, in the future, because of the progress in mutual understanding that has come about in recent decades, Orthodox and Catholics refrain from labeling as heretical the traditions of the other side on the subject of the procession of the Holy Spirit.
3. That Orthodox and Catholic theologians distinguish more clearly between the divinity and hypostatic identity of the Holy Spirit (which is a received dogma of our Churches) and the manner of the Spirit's origin, which still awaits full and final ecumenical resolution.
4. That those engaged in dialogue on this issue distinguish, as far as possible, the theological issues of the origin of the Holy Spirit from the ecclesiological issues of primacy and doctrinal authority in the Church, even as we pursue both questions seriously, together.
5. That the theological dialogue between our Churches also give careful consideration to the status of later councils held in both our Churches after those seven generally received as ecumenical.
6. That the Catholic Church, as a consequence of the normative and irrevocable dogmatic value of the Creed of 381, use the original Greek text alone in making translations of that Creed for catechetical and liturgical use.
7. That the Catholic Church, following a growing theological consensus, and in particular the statements made by Pope Paul VI, declare that the condemnation made at the Second Council of Lyons (1274) of those "who presume to deny that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son" is no longer applicable.

In the judgment of the consultation, the question of the Filioque is no longer a "Church-dividing" issue, which would impede full reconciliation and full communion. It is for the bishops of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to review this work and to make whatever decisions would be appropriate.^[46]

Notes

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Further reading