The Nicene Creed affirms that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father.” However, the Western Church added the filioque clause, “and from the Son,” which led to significant disagreement with the Eastern Church. Specifically, the Eastern Church maintained belief in a procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father only, emphasizing the monarchy of the Father. In contrast, with the addition of the filioque clause, the Western Church upheld a double procession, asserting that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.
Although Christian history has witnessed several attempts to reconcile the East and the West, those efforts have achieved little in healing the schism. The fundamental difficulty lies in the interpretation of John 15:26, the key text regarding the Spirit’s procession. This essay argues that the Eastern church overlooked Jesus’ active role in sending the Spirit, while conversely, the Western church made an argumentative leap in its exegesis on polemical and apologetic grounds to counter Arianism, a heresy that undermines Christ’s deity.
Given the exegetical and theological tension between the East and the West, this paper presents the thesis that a robust interpretation of John 15:26 alongside John 20:22 and Revelation 22:1-2 supports the view that the Holy Spirit’s procession is “from the Father through the Son.” From this perspective, the procession of the Spirit is attributed solely to the Father and pertains exclusively to the ontological Trinity. Christ’s active role in sending the Spirit relates to the Economic Trinity.
Regarding methodology, the argument here centers on a theological exegesis of John 15:26, interpreted through a canonical lens of Johannine theology, with special reference to John 20:22 and Revelation 22:1-2. Additionally, historical interactions that support and critique this thesis, involving Augustine of Hippo, the Cappadocian Fathers, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Tarasius of Constantinople, Gregory of Cyprus, and Gregory Palamas, are examined.
This argument here consists of four parts. First, it provides an introductory overview of two dominant perspectives on the procession of the Holy Spirit, along with various attempts to reconcile both sides. Second, it offers a theological exposition of John 15:26, the Johannine locus classicus for the filioque controversy. The third and fourth sections support the theological conclusion of John 15:26 by examining two additional Johannine texts: John 20:22, where Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon His Apostles, and Revelation 22:1-2, which depicts the Spirit as the “river of the water of life” flowing “from the throne of God and the Lamb” (ESV). Finally, the concluding section synthesizes the exegetical and historical discussions to theologically affirm the claim for the procession of the Holy Spirit “from the Father through the Son.”
This essay envisions supporting the line of Evangelical theologians who seek to view the Church as “one, holy, universal, and apostolic” without an East-West divide. It also aims to support recent confessional efforts, as exemplified in the “Common Statement on the Filioque” by the Joint International Commission on Theological Dialogue Between the Lutheran World Federation and the Orthodox Church. The writer hopes that one day Christians from both the East and the West can sing together the Pneumatological formula of the Nicene Creed in unison.