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Filioque, Latin for "and (from) the Son", is a phrase found in the form of Nicene Creed in use in the Latin Church. It is not present in the Greek text of the Nicene Creed as originally formulated at the First Council of Constantinople, which says only that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father"
The filioque is meant as a theological explanation of the relationship between the Spirit and the Son. The Bible tells us that the Son is begotten from the Father, and that the Spirit proceeds from the Father, but any curious Trinitarian is going to wonder what the Spirit-Son relationship is.
This filioque clause first appeared in the translation issued by the Council of Toledo, Spain, in 589. During the Carolingian Dynasty, Charlemagne petitioned Pope Leo III at the Synod of Aachen (809) to have the filioque clause accepted universally; the Pope declined, hesitating to add anything, however appropriate, to the official text of a conciliar creed.
The filioque distorts Orthodox Triadology by making the Spirit a subordinate member of the Trinity. Traditional Triadology consists in the notion that for any given trait, it must be either common to all Persons of the Trinity or unique to one of them.
First, to clarify: The Filioque refers to the Latin phrase "and the son," to describe the internal "economy" of the Trinity. It describes the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father and the Son, as opposed to from the Father only. The Council of Nicaea [325] required only that a believer stipulate "I believe in the Holy Spirit."
The driving conflict for the 1054 Great Schism was over the insertion of the filioque (and from the Son) into the Nicene Creed. The Western, largely Latin speaking churches said that "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son " while the Eastern, largely Greek-speaking said simply "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father".
Filioque is a Latin word meaning "and the Son" which was added to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. This inclusion in the Creedal article regarding the Holy Spirit thus states that the Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son." (Orthodox Wiki, 2015).
Filioque is a Latin word meaning "and the Son" which was added to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed ...
The filioque affects the very core of the Christian life--union and communion with the Triune God. Addendum, if anyone has a subscription to WTJ (perhaps also available through your theological library or even interlibrary loan), they could see more than the first page of this article which is specifically on the importance of the filioque for Reformed theology.
Thus the filioque, far from dividing the Godhead into two separate sources, safeguards its fundamental unity. Even though the Spirit does not proceed from the Son in the same way as from the Father, it is vitally necessary that we name the Father and the Son together in affirming his procession; otherwise we might exclude the Spirit from the ontologically fundamental unity.