This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (May 20th – July 31st 325), one of the formative councils of the early Christian Church.
This council was called in part to settle the Arian controversy, which had recently arisen – Arius, a presbyter from Cyrene in Eastern Libya, claimed that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was not co-eternal with the Father, but was created rather than eternally begotten. The Nicene Creed was drawn up to counter this false belief and to stress the divinity and co-eternal nature of the Son with the Father.
The original Nicene Creed contains these lines:
“…And [we believe] in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
begotten from the Father,
only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God, begotten not made,
of one substance with the Father…”
which makes clear the orthodox position and definitively refutes the Arian belief.
It continues “…And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit.” [the third person of the Holy Trinity].
A later version of the Nicene Creed, agreed at the 1st Council of Constantinople (AD 381), has this last statement expanded to:
“…And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost… who proceedeth from the Father…”,
this addition being based on John 15:26 where Christ at the Last Supper, speaking to His disciples regarding His imminent betrayal and crucifixion, says to them, “When the Helper (or Comforter) 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, and you will testify also.. etc”.
The Filioque Added
In the late 6th Century, some of the Latin-speaking churches added the word “filio-que”, ie “and the Son” to this part of the creed, this reading
“…And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost… who proceedeth from the Father and the Son…”
The Eastern Church rejected this addition, & the resulting controversy was aggravated when Pope Benedict VIIIth in the 11th Century ratified the Filioque. The issue then was not only regarding Trinitarian theology, but about the authority of the Roman church. This led to the schism in 1054 between the Eastern and Western churches, and the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople mutually excommunicated each other.
It may be intuited, even by those with no formal knowledge of Trinitarian theology, that to claim the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son might cause the Trinity to be considered “lopsided”, and might make of the Father and the Son a dyad.
In his Cogitatio, Jim Overbeck makes a number of statements regarding the filioque, which appear particularly in pp 47 – 49 of his work The Autobiography of God Almighty, and which clarify and expand on the above.
The Filioque is Arian Vengeance
Some key statements are reproduced here:
164. The filioque is a defence of the Son’s co-eternity: it is not an express statement of the Trinity. (The Arian Visigoths misconstrued part of the truth as the whole truth, and thus converted those who converted them).
165. The filioque is Arian vengeance.
167. The Holy Ghost is not a lesser God, with the Father and the Son as a ditheistic cause. Psychologically, the filioque foists off the subordination of one hypostasis onto man.
182. Filioquism gives rise to either monadic or dyadic first principle.
183. God is neither monad nor dyad.
185. Filioquism is the theology of imbeciles.
186. It is impossible to maintain filioquism after meeting Christ.
190. Filioquism blurs the eternal distinction of Father and Son.
191. Filioquism confuses the hypostases of Father and Son as cause. E.g. the Son is made co-cause, and co-cause is denied to the Holy Ghost. The Father as begetter is cause, and the Father as unbegotten is beyond cause. There is no co-cause in the Trinity. We attribute cause to the Father who is without cause.
205. Filioquism over-emphasizes God as monad.
206. Filioquism over-emphasizes God as dyad.
For a more complete picture, please refer to the relevant section of Cogitatio, available on the home page.