{"id":10189,"date":"2025-11-12T08:16:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10189"},"modified":"2025-11-12T08:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:16:35","slug":"what-is-the-filioque-controversy-in-the-nicene-creed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10189","title":{"rendered":"What is the Filioque Controversy in the Nicene Creed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The spectacular interior of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia.<\/span>\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nicene Creed was formulated 1,700 years ago in AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea. Later, one clause in it called the Filioque was a cause of division between the Eastern and Western Church. This is the story \u2026<\/p>\n

What is the Nicene Creed?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Creed was first developed 1,700 years at the Council of Nicaea but was finalised at the Council of Constantinople in AD 381. As such it is sometimes called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed but usually just as the Nicene Creed. As read in the Church of England, the Creed is:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in one God,\u00a0the Father, the Almighty,\u00a0maker of heaven and earth,\u00a0of all that is, seen and unseen.\u00a0We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,\u00a0the only Son of God,\u00a0eternally begotten of the Father,\u00a0God from God, Light from Light,\u00a0true God from true God,\u00a0begotten, not made,\u00a0of one Being with the Father;\u00a0through him all things were made.\u00a0For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,\u00a0was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary\u00a0and was made man.\u00a0For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;\u00a0he suffered death and was buried.\u00a0On the third day he rose again\u00a0in accordance with the Scriptures;\u00a0he ascended into heaven\u00a0and is seated at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,\u00a0and his kingdom will have no end.\u00a0We believe in the Holy Spirit,\u00a0the Lord, the giver of life,\u00a0who proceeds from the Father and the Son,\u00a0who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,\u00a0who has spoken through the prophets.\u00a0We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.\u00a0We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.\u00a0We look for the resurrection of the dead,\u00a0and the life of the world to come.\u00a0Amen.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

How is it used?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Latin the first word is Credo (meaning \u201cI believe\u201d) which gives us the English word \u201cCreed.\u201d The Nicene Creed is read regularly in Orthodox every Sunday during Divine Liturgy and by Catholic Churches every Sunday during Mass, and sometimes also on major feast days. Most traditional Lutheran, Anglican and Episcopal churches also recite the Nicene Creed at the Eucharist (Holy Communion) every Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, in the free church tradition it is seldom if ever read, although that does not imply that they disagree with it. As a result, the Nicene Creed is well known to Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Lutherans but so well-known beyond. Evangelical Christians emphasise the\u00a0authority of the Bible alone (sola scriptura), and so they tend to regard creeds like the Nicene Creed as\u00a0helpful summaries rather than as absolute or binding doctrines.<\/p>\n

Evangelical Christians within the historic Christian Churches will be used to saying the Nicene Creed, but for most evangelical Christians it is an important document of Church history which they can agree with, but not one they feel the need to recite on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Filioque Clause<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nicene Creed is almost the same for the whole Church.\u00a0 However, there is a minor difference, which proved important during the Great Schism. The original Creed had the line \u201cI believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.\u201d\u00a0 The Eastern Orthodox tradition stops there, and the Western Church added \u201cand the Son,\u201d to read \u201cI believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.\u201d\u00a0 In Latin, the word for \u201cand from the Son\u201d is \u201cfilioque\u201d and so the dispute around this clause has been known as the Filioque Controversy.<\/p>\n

To most people this seems a pedantic point, whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, or rather from the Father, through the Son. However, it was a point of dispute during the arguments leading up to the Great Schism in 1054, when the Church split into the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) spheres. It was a matter of theology and authority.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Theology<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lines in the Nicene Creed all have a biblical basis. Although it is post-biblical it is a summary of the theology deduced from the Bible. The basis for the statement \u201cI believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father\u201d comes from two verses a chapter apart in John. The first is in John 14:26 when Jesus says: \u201c\u2026the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you\u201d (NKJV). The wording in the Creed echoes John 15:36 which reads: \u201cBut when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me\u201d (NKJV).<\/p>\n

History of the Filioque<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Latin word Filioque meaning \u201cand from the Son\u201d, was added to the Latin form of the Creed by the Third Council of Toledo in 589 AD.\u00a0 It was for local use in Spain to combat Arianism, although there is some evidence it was also used earlier in the Church of the East in Persia. The new line in Latin read \u201cEt in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.\u201d It was added because Arianists believe that Jesus was not God. The idea of adding the Filioque was to emphasise the Trinity, that the Holy Spirit shares its origin from the Father and the Son, and upholds the full divinity of the Spirit. The clause was a local clarification which gradually spread to other Latin-using churches over the following centuries. In AD 890 Pope Leo III, rejected the idea of officially adding Filioque to the Creed, but it became widespread in the Western Church by the 11th century. In AD 1024 the Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict VIII gave it its approval, but he had no authority in the Eastern Church. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Theology of the Filioque<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the perspective of the Eastern Church the Father alone is the source of the Holy Spirit and adding \u201cand the Son\u201d risks subordinating the Spirit as secondary to the Father and the Son. The idea that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son is suggested in Galatians 4:6 where Paul wrote \u201cGod has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts\u201d (NKJV), and in Romans 8:9 \u201cNow if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His\u201c, Philippians 1:19 where it is called \u201cthe Spirit of Jesus Christ\u201d, and Revelation 22:1 where the Holy Spirit referred to as the \u201cpure river of water of life\u201d is talked of \u201cproceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.\u201d From the Catholic perspective they had not fundamentally altered the Creed but added a biblically justified clarification, which protected the unity of faith and emphasised the Trinity.<\/p>\n

Authority<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the Orthodox perspective whether the addition is theologically justified or biblically correct is beside the point. It is not an issue of being correct or not, but rather an issue of tradition, authority, and honour. The point is that the Nicene Creed was agreed at a Church-wide Council in AD 325. The Orthodox perspective is that one section of the Church does not have the right to unilaterally alter what was agreed by all. This leads to unnecessary disputes and division. The question of authority contributed to Church tensions and was one of the factors, but not by any means the only one, which led to the Great Schism of 1054. Although it may seem trivial and pedantic to most evangelicals, the dispute over the Filioque was emblematic of the broader issues of theology and authority between the Eastern and Western Church that led to the Great Schism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cultural Differences<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is easy to see both sides in this dispute. It comes down to a matter of emphasis, and also partly reflects the general cultural way of thinking between the western perspective emphasising being correct and right or wrong and the right to individual thinking on the one hand; and the eastern perspective emphasising honour and respecting traditions and collective agreement on the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Filioque Controversy Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

The dispute remains an issue for ecumenical dialogue between Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches, although most lay Christians would be oblivious to the issues. Today some Christians will hold hard and fast to the Filioque, while others might be happy to drop it for the sake of unity, arguing along the lines of Romans 12:8 where St Paul encouraged believers to live at peace with everyone, and Romans 14:21, where St Paul says they should avoid anything which is the cause of offending a fellow Christian. The Church of England actually states that an alternative \u201ctext of the Nicene Creed, which omits the phrase \u2018and the Son\u2019 in the third paragraph, may be used on suitable ecumenical occasions”.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The spectacular interior of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia.\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock) The Nicene Creed was formulated 1,700 years ago in AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea. Later, one clause in it called the Filioque was a cause of division between the Eastern and Western Church. This is the story \u2026 What<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1950,1952,1949,1951],"class_list":["post-10189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-controversy","tag-creed","tag-filioque","tag-nicene"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}