Filioque

[Neal4Christ]

What is filioque? I am reading [i]Crossing the Tiber[/i] by Stephen Ray and he mentions that it is one of two reasons the EO Church split from the Catholic Church in 1054. What is the Catholic Church's position on this topic?

Thanks for any input!

In Christ,
Neal

[cappie]

It is a latin word meaning [i]and from the son[/i] which signifies the theological view that the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son. This phrase was added to the Nicene Creed in the sixth century; the Greek Orthoxod Church strongly objected to its inclusion.

The Pope when he says the Creed with the Orthodox usually on the 29th June at a service of evening prayer in St Peter's omits the phrase.

[Carson Weber]

Neal,

[u]Crossing the Tiber[/u] is an excellent book, and I'm shocked that you're reading it; kudos to you. My housemate, Robert Corzine, is mentioned on page 87. Steve Ray visited the St. Paul Center (where I work) and Rob a couple of weeks ago and I had him autograph my copies of [u]Crossing the Tiber[/u], [u]Upon This Rock[/u], and his new commentary on the Gospel of John.

[i]Filioque[/i] is a Greek term that means "And the Son". Essentially, the Filioque protects, upholds, and helps explain the Fatherhood of God. Denial of the Filioque is disastrous for a proper Trinitarian theology.

Let me explain.

The Father is "Father" because he fathers the Son. This means that he gives everything he has to the Son and holds nothing back. The Son is "Son" because the son receives this gift of life from the Father and reciprocates this gift back to the Father wholly and completely. There is nothing held back in the Son's reciprocal gift of life, which is the same gift the Father gives.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father [u]and the Son[/u] as the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.

If the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father and not from the Son as well, then the Father is holding something back from the Son that he gives to the Holy Spirit, which would indicate that God the Father isn't really Father but something else (e.g. Monarch).

For more, read this article:

[url="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06073a.htm"]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06073a.htm[/url]