This past weekend we witnessed a stunt between Rome and Constantinople that tried to make it look like something merely as piddly as eternal dogma on the Trinity was the block between unification of East and West. I commented on Twitter: “The goal of all this is to make us all Unitarians, not to clarify the Trinity. The most solid Eastern Orthodox I know out there believe their differences with me on the Filioque actually MATTER. That’s because they put objective truth ahead of this false-ecumenism.”
I then added: “And yes, I know the Filioque was added late in the Creed. That’s a totally different debate from whom the Holy Spirit actually proceeds from… which is then a totally different debate from if the Trinity actually matters (which it does to the best of the Orthodox—but not to leftists like Patriarch Bart or Leo.)”
Below is a reprint of my earlier article on my main site explaining why the Filioque still matters more than Rome capitulating on her own teaching for a fake-union with the East. I hold to this, as much as I love the solid Eastern Orthodox who are alive today…
On my YouTube video series Roman Catechism of Trent (RCT) we have been discussing the Trinity lately, especially “the Filioque.” The Filioque is Latin for “and the Son,” as you say in the Nicene Creed. This means that you believe “in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, proceeding from the Father and the Son” (et in Spíritum Sanctum… qui ex Patre Filióque procédit.) However, most Eastern Orthodox insist the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father. Thus, most Eastern Orthodox reject the Filioque statement.
To be sure, there are two debates at hand (not just two sides) but actually two debates. The first debate (upon which this article will spend little time) is essentially this: “Can a Pope change a Creed?” I admit there are two good sides to this debate. It goes as follows:
The Nicene Creed (AD 325) became the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed in 381. By this point, the Creed spoken at the liturgy did not contain the Filioque in East or West. By the late 6th century, some Western dioceses added the Filioque to the Creed. However, it was not until the 11th century that Rome officially added the Filioque to the Latin Creed. Of course, the Eastern Orthodox up until today insist it was wrong for Rome to unilaterally change a creed 700 years after its Patristic formulation. I’m sympathetic to this argument since I don’t like people changing liturgy. But it’s secondary to the more important debate. The more important debate goes as follows:
Does the Holy Spirit proceed in reality from both the Father and the Son? Notice this Trinitarian debate on reality is much more important than a debate on the etiquette of credal evolution. To this question, the Eastern Orthodox still answer in the negative.
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