Entering the Orthodox Church · Lesson 16 of 20
Why Did the Church Define the Spirit’s Divinity?
The Second Ecumenical Council (Constantinople, 381) concerned itself chiefly with the divinity of the Holy Spirit, because in that generation it was being openly questioned. The council’s answer stands in the Creed’s three titles: “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life.” Each title belongs to God alone — and each is shared by all three Persons of the Holy Trinity, who together created and together give life to all creation.
That the Spirit is named third implies no inferiority, just as the Son’s second place implies none. The three Persons are one essence, one honor, one glory — equal, like the sides of an equilateral triangle. The Father is named first as the cause: from Him the Son is begotten and the Spirit proceeds; the Son second, because He became man and is nearest to our experience. And Scripture itself freely varies the order to reveal their equality — “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” [2 Corinthians 13:14] puts Christ first.
What Does “Who Proceeds from the Father” Mean?
The Son is begotten of the Father; the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Reason cannot penetrate what begetting and procession are — but Christ Himself revealed the fact: “when the Comforter comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” [John 15:26]. The sentence is exact: the Spirit proceeds — eternally — from the Father, and is sent — to us, in time — by the Son. And the purpose of the sending is Christ Himself: the Spirit bears witness to Christ, and it is through the Holy Spirit that Christ is formed within us [Galatians 4:19].
Why Does the Orthodox Church Reject the Filioque?
In the West a phrase was later inserted into the Creed — the filioque: “who proceeds from the Father and from the Son.” The Orthodox Church has always regarded this as a serious error, for reasons Metropolitan Hierotheos lays out plainly. First, no one had the right to alter the Creed: the Third Ecumenical Council decreed that nothing be added to it or taken from it. Second, it confuses the personal properties of the Trinity: as the Son is begotten of the Father alone, so the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone. If the Spirit proceeded from both Father and Son, He would be made less than they — the only Person not sharing in causing another — or else the hypostatic properties would dissolve entirely, and the Trinity’s very order would unravel.
Metropolitan Hierotheos places this discussion within the Orthodox understanding of theology as both faithful confession and life in communion with God. The doctrinal disagreement should be explained carefully, without making judgments about the sincerity or spiritual life of individual Christians.
What Do the Remaining Phrases Confess?
“Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified”: the Spirit receives the same worship as the Father and the Son — the liturgical proof of His divinity. Every doxology of the Church rises to the Three together.
“Who spoke by the prophets”: the Holy Spirit spoke to the prophets and revealed the truths of the faith to them. The Old Testament revelations are revelations of the not-yet-incarnate Word — occurring through the Holy Spirit; for the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit are never separate. Christ sends forth the Spirit, and the Spirit forms Christ in our hearts.
How Do We Experience the Holy Spirit?
Not as a doctrine only, but as life. The heart is purified and united to Christ through the Holy Spirit; and so long as we remain united to Christ, we feel the Spirit’s gifts — peace, joy, prayer, love. Every sacrament of the Church is His working: He consecrates the waters of Baptism, He is given as seal in Chrismation, He changes the Gifts in the Liturgy. The Christian life, from the catechumen’s first prayer to the last breath of the saint, is life in the Holy Spirit — which is why the Church begins nearly every service by calling on Him: “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth… come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.”
This article is drawn from Entering the Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos, a guide to the catechism and baptism of adults, and is part of a series presenting its teaching.
