From whom does the Holy Spirit eternally proceed?
a passage states it a passage rules it out
Common ground
These are affirmed by more than one position, so a passage saying only this counts for none of them.
- The Spirit proceeds from the Father (John 15:26)
- The Spirit proceeds 'from the Father through the Son' (claimed by both positions; never a position by itself, since no tradition here defines it as one)
- The Spirit is called the Spirit of the Son or of Christ
- The Son sends the Spirit into the world (temporal mission)
- The Spirit is consubstantial with Father and Son
- The Father is the source of the Godhead
From the Father as sole source
Orthodoxthe Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, and consubstantial with the Father and the Son.Confession of Dositheus (Synod of Jerusalem), Decree 1 (1672)
What sets it apart: The passage says the Father alone is the cause or source of the Spirit's existence, or denies that the Spirit has his being from the Son.
Formally defined: Photius (9th c.); Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848)
No early passage in the library states it yet.
From the Father and the Son as one principle
Catholic Lutheran Reformed Anglicanthe holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son, and has his essence and his subsistent being from the Father together with the Son, and proceeds from both eternally as from one principle and a single spiration.Council of Florence, Laetentur Caeli (1439)
What sets it apart: The passage says the Spirit eternally proceeds from, or has his being from, both the Father and the Son.
Formally defined: Third Council of Toledo (589, local); Council of Lyon II (1274); Council of Florence (1439)
No early passage in the library states it yet.
Every deciding passage, earliest first
- No early passage decides between these positions yet.