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S15 reasoning: Filioque

Reasoning steps: Filioque

Verdicts: S15 · Filioque. Shared notes and post-750 development: trinity.

S15.1 (was trinity/T2): The procession of the Holy Spirit

Step S15.1.1: Scripture

John 15:26: the Spirit ‘who proceeds (ἐκπορεύεται) from the Father’, whom the Son ‘will send’. John 16:14–15: the Spirit takes ‘what is mine’. Gal 4:6: ’the Spirit of his Son’. The eternal procession is stated only from the Father; the Son’s role is stated as sending and giving.

Step S15.1.2: Patristic evidence

Gregory Nazianzen: the Spirit ‘proceeds from the Father’. The 381 creed: ‘who proceeds from the Father’. John of Damascus: ‘we do not speak of the Spirit as from the Son’, yet the Spirit is ‘of the Son’ and comes ’through the Son’. Augustine (T3): the Spirit proceeds ‘principally’ from the Father and ‘from the Son also’. Sources: constantinople-i-tri-s1 · gregory-nazianzen-tri-s1 · augustine-tri-s1 · augustine-tri-s2 · john-of-damascus-tri-s1.

Step S15.1.3: Weighing decision

The witness is split. East (Gregory, the 381 creed, John of Damascus): from the Father, through the Son. West (Augustine): from the Father principally and from the Son. The creed’s own wording (381) has ‘from the Father’ only; the later Western insertion of filioque into the creed (Toledo 589; Rome c. 1014) departs from the conciliar text. The later Eastern ‘from the Father alone’ (Photius) sharpens beyond ’through the Son’.

  • Confidence: Medium.

Step S15.1.4: Source-proximity weighing

  • Scripture (benchmark): John 15:26 states eternal procession from the Father; the Son sends the Spirit (15:26; 16:7) and the Spirit is ‘of the Son’ (Gal 4:6). An eternal procession from the Son is an inference, not a statement. (Scripture confidence: medium)
  • Assessment: All patristic evidence is T3–T4; Scripture is the decisive measure and states procession from the Father. Inserting filioque into the creed lacks early and conciliar support; ‘from the Father alone’ as a polemical formula is post-750.

S15.2: Could the Filioque lawfully be added to the creed?

Step S15.2.1: Scripture

Not a Scripture question: it concerns conciliar authority over a creed’s text.

Step S15.2.2: Patristic evidence

Ephesus 431, canon 7 (Era III): ‘it is unlawful for any man to bring forward, or to write, or to compose a different (ἑτέραν) Faith as a rival to that established by the holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Ghost in Nicæa’. Sources: ephesus-s15x-s1.

Step S15.2.3: Weighing decision

The canon forbids a rival creed; whether an explanatory addition is a ‘different faith’ is the dispute. The East reads it as barring unilateral change; Florence held the addition licit. Verdict: the Era III canon favours no unilateral change of the conciliar text.

  • Confidence: Medium.

Step S15.2.4: Source-proximity weighing

  • Scripture (benchmark): Not applicable. (Scripture confidence: n/a)
  • Assessment: Not a Scripture question; scored on the Era III canon only.

S15.2 by tradition

  • Catholic (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): Florence: the addition was made ’lawfully and with reason’ (verified decree).
  • Orthodox (fathers 4/4; Scripture n/a/4): Rejects the addition: Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848) on the Creed’s ‘interdicted under dread anathemas … all addition, or diminution, or alteration’ (verified, Wayback copy of orthodoxinfo.com).
  • Oriental Orthodox (fathers 4/4; Scripture n/a/4): Creed recited without it.
  • Lutheran (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): Recites the Western creed with it (Book of Concord).
  • Anglican (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): 1662 BCP Nicene Creed includes it.
  • Presbyterian (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): Western text received.
  • Reformed Baptist (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): Western text received.
  • General Baptist (fathers 2/4; Scripture n/a/4): Orthodox Creed 38 receives the Athanasian Creed: ‘The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son … proceeding’ (verified, EEBO OCR).
  • Anabaptist (fathers n/a/4; Scripture n/a/4): Not addressed.