Procession of the Holy Spirit
How the Spirit eternally proceeds within the Trinity — the heart of the filioque divide
The procession of the Holy Spirit concerns the eternal origination of the Spirit within the Trinity. The Council of Constantinople and Gregory of Nazianzus shaped its expression. The traditions differ on the crucial question of source: the Eastern churches confess that the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, while the Western tradition added that he proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is the long-standing filioque dispute.
How it traveled
- JohnEphesus · c. 100 CEexplains
- De Spiritu SanctoCaesarea (Cappadocia) · c. 379 CEexplains
- The Second Ecumenical Council: The First Council of ConstantinopleConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 381 CEexplains
- The Catechetical Lectures of S. CyrilJerusalem · c. 386 CEexplains
- Select Orations of Saint Gregory NazianzenNazianzus · c. 390 CEexplains
- On the Holy SpiritMilan · c. 397 CEexplains
- On the Holy TrinityHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox FaithDamascus · c. 749 CEexplains
- MonologiumCanterbury · c. 1109 CEexplains
- Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43])Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
“When the Counselorhas come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo
Tractate XCIX. Chapter XVI. 13. 1. What is this that the Lord said of the Holy Spirit, when promising that He would come and teach His disciples all truth, or guide them into all truth: “For He shal
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On the Holy Trinity · Augustine of Hippo
27. We have sufficiently spoken of the Father and of the Son, so far as was possible for us to see through this glass and in this enigma. We must now treat of the Holy Spirit, so far as by God’s gift
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 2: Further, every nature possesses but one mode of self-communication; because operations derive unity and diversity from their terms. But procession in God is only by way of communication o
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 1: It would seem that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from the Son. For as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. i): "We must not dare to say anything concerning the substantial Divinity except what has
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
We derive a knowledge of the same truth from the very order of nature itself. For we nowhere find that several things proceed from one without order except in those which differ only by their matter;
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 4: When anyone is said to work through anything, the converse proposition is not always true. For we do not say that the mallet works through the carpenter; whereas we can say that
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
We proceed to treat of what belongs to the person of the Holy Ghost, Who is called not only the Holy Ghost, but also the Love and Gift of God. Concerning the name "Holy Ghost" there are four points of
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John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith · John of Damascus
For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heavenHe sent His Word and healed themThou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are createdBy the word of the Lord were the heavens made: and all the host of them by
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 6: For the reason that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father perfectly, not only is it not superfluous to say He proceeds from the Son, but rather it is absolutely necessary. Fora
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170. And as there is a light of the divine countenance, so, too, does fire shine forth from the countenance of God, for it is written: “A fire shall burn in His sight.” Ps. l. [xlix.] 3. The Holy Sp
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84. But how great is that grace which makes even the lower nature of the lot of men equal to the gifts received by Angels, as the Lord Himself promised, saying: “Ye shall be as the Angels in heaven.”
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116. The Spirit, also, is indeed said to be sent, but the Seraph to one, the Spirit to all. The Seraph is sent to minister, the Spirit works a mystery. The Seraph performs what is commanded, the Spiri
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On the Holy Trinity · Augustine of Hippo
46. But the reason why, after His resurrection, He both gave the Holy Spirit, first on earth,i.e. ten days after the Lord ascended into heaven. How, therefore, is He not God, who gives the Holy Spirit
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On the Holy Trinity · Augustine of Hippo
15. But in their mutual relation to one another in the Trinity itself, if the begetter is a beginning in relation to that which he begets, the Father is a beginning in relation to the Son, because He
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Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus
The Fifth Theological Oration. On the Holy Spirit. I. Such then is the account of the Son, and in this manner He has escaped those who would stone Him, passing through the midst of them. Luke iv. 2
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Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus
John xv. 26. “It did not fall within this Father’s (Greg. Naz.) province to develop the doctrine of the Procession. He is content to shew that the Spirit was not Generated, seeing that according to Ch
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
Having considered what belongs to the unity of the divine essence, it remains to treat of what belongs to the Trinity of the persons in God. And because the divine Persons are distinguished from each
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 2: Likeness belongs in a different way to the word and to love. It belongs to the word as being the likeness of the object understood, as the thing generated is the likeness of the
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Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 2: Although to understand, and to will, and to love signify actions passing on to their objects, nevertheless they are actions that remain in the agents, as stated above (Q[14], A[4
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