WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? 3

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Session 3: Conversations about God

 

1. Descriptions of the Trinity

► Belief in God as Trinity is considered essential by Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and conservative Protestantism.

► West: St Augustine

 Augustine rejects treating the Son and Spirit as inferior to the Father. Although the Son and the Spirit may appear to be posterior to the Father, this only applies to their role within the process of salvation. Their roles are subordinate to the Father in the process of salvation history (economic Trinity), but in eternity all are co-equal (essential Trinity).

 Augustine’s conception of the Spirit as love which unites the Father and Son also demands attention. He identifies the Son with “wisdom” (sapientia) and the Spirit with “love” (caritas). The Spirit “makes us dwell in God, and God in us.” This identification of the Spirit as the basis of union between God and believers is important, as it points to Augustine’s idea of the Spirit as the giver of community.

 Augustine’s exploration of the Trinity impacted later generations in the West, especially the Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas’ Treatise on the Trinity elegantly restated Augustine’s ideas. John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion almost directly repeated Augustine’s approach in exploring the Trinity.

► East: St Gregory of Nazianzus

 St Gregory of Nazianzus first used the term perichoresis to describe the Trinity.

 Perichoresis is a Greek word which, taken squarely, means “dancing around”.

 Each person of the Holy Trinity exists in a state mutual indwelling with the other two. The One God is therefore a Holy Community of three persons marked by interpenetration, communion, and interdependence.

 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit move and flow and draw life from one another in a bond of perfect love. The Holy Trinity is a divine movement, which is called in Byzantine (Eastern) theology, "The Great Dance”.

► Further observations on differences in explaining the Trinity:

 The Western tradition is inclined to think in philosophical terms concerning the rationality of God's being, and is prone to seek philosophical formulations for clarification. The Eastern tradition tends to state its observations in artistic imagery and is not very generous about making overly definitive statements.

 The Western tradition tends to focus its observations based on what God does (economic Trinity) whereas the Eastern approach tends to focus its observations based on who God is (ontological Trinity).


2. The Two Natures of Jesus Christ

► The controversies surrounding Jesus Christ are found between the Oriental Orthodox Church and both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, rather than between the East and the West.

► The Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus (431) declared that Jesus is one person, not two people. But the council did not determine the actual nature of the one person of Jesus. It took a fourth struggle with heresy (Eutychianism or monophysitism) to bring the position to completion.

► It was at the Fourth Ecumenical Council (451) that a major split took place. The separation resulted in part from the refusal of Pope Dioscorus (the patriarch of Alexandria) to accept the Christological dogmas promulgated by the Council of Chalcedon, which held that Jesus has two natures - one divine and one human.

► In recent times, members of the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches have met together coming to a clear understanding that both families have always loyally maintained the same authentic Christological faith though they may have used Christological terms in different ways. But full communion has not been restored.

3. The Procession of the Holy Spirit

► One of the most significant events in the early history of the Church was agreement throughout the Roman Empire, both East and West, on the Nicene creed.

► However, a disagreement arose over the filioque clause in the Nicene creed (an addition to the part of the text which referred to the HS “proceeding from the Father”).

► The filoque phrase (Latin, “and from the Son”) is first recorded as being added to the creed at the Third Council of Toledo (589), and by the 9th century, it was used in the Western church routinely. The filioque indicated a double procession of the HS and was unacceptable to the Eastern Church.

► The Eastern Church insisted that there was only one source of being within the Trinity. The Father alone was the sole and supreme cause of all things, including the Son and the Spirit within the Trinity. The Son and the Spirit derive from the Father, but in different manners (for if it were in the same manner, this would lead to the Father having two Sons).

► To read more on the filioque controversy, visit http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/ text/history/creed.filioque.txt.

► In the recent past, however, several theologians have considered the filioque anew, with a view to reconciliation of East and West.

4. The Protestants and the Holy Spirit

► The Western Church’s interest in the HS underwent a long period of decline during the 18th and 19th centuries.

► At the close of the 19th century, a major development occurred in Protestantism which gave the HS the pre-eminent role in theology in some particular circles.

► The Orthodox Christians’ position on the Charismatic movement might perhaps be best reflected in the comment made by an Orthodox monk I once met: “We Eastern Christians do not need a Charismatic movement. We have never ceased to experience the mysteries of God in our everyday life.”


Appendix:


WHY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OMITS THE FILIOQUE IN THE EASTERN RITE

Although St Augustine identifies the two ways of understanding the Trinity (through what the Trinity is and what the Trinity does), the two cannot be separated. We can understand what the Trinity is by observing what the Trinity does; otherwise God would not be revealing His true self to us.

In other words, through the Economic Trinity (what the Trinity does), we can know the Essential Trinity (who the Trinity is).

Jesus spoke about sending the Comforter to the disciples from the Father (John 15:16), and this meant that He too somehow had a role in the giving of the Holy Spirit. Although this reflects the Economic Trinity, it would mean that He has the same role in the Essential Trinity too. Therefore, even in eternity (and not just in God’s work in human history), Jesus has a role in the giving of the Spirit.

The procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son is explained by the Western Church as follows: He comes from the Father through the Son. This does not deny the role of the Father as the Source of all things as taught by the Eastern Church. But in addition to that, it also speaks of the eternal communion between the Father and the Son; that the Father and the Son are one and work together in all things.

It is understandable that the Eastern Church does not take into account the role of the Son in the giving of the Spirit. This is because it does not distinguish the Economic Trinity from the Essential Trinity. If it did, the role of Son in the giving of the Spirit would not be dismissed, even if His role is somewhat different from that of the Father’s.

For the Western Church though, it is all right that the filique be omitted by the Eastern Church, because this omission does not deny the validity of the Son’s role. The omission merely affirms the role of the Father as the Source of all things, while remaining silent on the role of the Son.

But the fundamental difference between the Eastern and the Western understanding is this: In taking into account our observation of the Economic Trinity, the role of the Son in the Imminent Trinity becomes clearer. In this light, just because the filioque is omitted does not necessarily mean that the Son has no role in the giving of the Spirit. For the Catholic Church, even when the filioque is omitted, it is automatically implied that the giving of the Spirit from the Father is through the Son.

For this reason, the Catholic Church does not have an issue with the omission of the filioque from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed by the Eastern Church. It becomes then a mere issue of liturgical rubrics and does not compromise the Church’s theological position.