When the Homily is about Immunology

The Arianism of the Filioque

Why do we Orthodox make such a big ecumenical sticking point of the filioque?

Well in general we understand that God the Father is the "first cause" of the Holy Trinity; the fountainhead and source. Therefore the Son is eternally begotten by, and the Holy Spirit is eternally proceeding from, the Father (as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed states.) I don't think anyone knows for sure exactly why the pre-schism wetsern church originally inserted the filioque (lit: "and the Son"), though I've heard it was to further affirm the divinity of Christ against a new breed of Arianism in the area of Spain (7th or 8th century if memory serves..as it so often doesn't.) Anyway, by the 9th or 10th century the creed began to widely be recited in the West as: "And in the Holy Spirit...who proceeds from the Father and the Son"

In the Eastern mind, this turned the balance of the Trinity on its side. God the Father was no longer the "first cause."

But here is another interesting tidbit brought up by Fr. Breck in his book Scripture and Tradition: The filioque can actually manifest (albeit it perhaps unintentionally) a sort of Arianism in regards to the Holy Spirit. Consider that if the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son then it tends to imply something outside of eternity and bound by time. In other words, the Father begets the Son and then through the Son the Holy Spirit proceeds. One could almost say that if the filioque is true, then there must have been a time when the Holy Spirit wasn't.

It is an fascinating point I thought.