Procession Of The Holy Ghost

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary

A term made use of in reference to the Holy Ghost, as proceeding from the Father, or from the Father and the Son. It seems to be founded on that passage in John 15:26 . "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, He shall testify of me." The procession of the Holy ghost, it is said, is expressly taught by Christ, in very strong terms, in this text. This procession, it is alleged, is here evidently distinguished from his mission; from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father." If his mission and proceeding were the same thing, there would be a tautology in the words, his mission, according to that interpretation, being mentioned twice in the same verse. Dr. Watts, however, observes, that the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father, respects not his nature or substance, but his mission only; and that no distinct and clear ideas can be formed of this procession; consequently it must be given up as popish, scholastic, inconceivable, and indefensible. But, it is answered, what clear idea can be given us of the originate, self-existent, eternal being of the Father? Shall we, therefore, deny him to be without beginning or end, and to be self-existent, because we know not how he is so? If not, why must we give up the procession of the Spirit, because we know not the mode of it.

We can no more explain the manner how the Spirit proceeds from the Father, than we can explain the eternal generation and hypostatical union of the two natures of the Son. We may say to the objector, as Gregory Nazianzen formerly did to his adversary, "Do you tell me how the Father is unbegotten, and I will attempt to tell you how the Son is begotten, and the Spirit proceeds." The clearest and fullest account of this procession, next to that in the above-mentioned text, is that in 1 Corinthians 2:12 . "The Spirit which is of God;" that is (say the advocates for this doctrine, ) the Spirit which is the same in nature and essence with the Father, and so is said to be of him, or out of him, not as to local separation, but with respect to identity of nature. About the eighth and ninth centuries there was a very warm dispute between the Greek and Latin churches, whether the Spirit proceeded from the Father only, or from the Father and the Son; and the controversy arose to such a height, that they charged one another with heresy and schism, when neither side well understood what they contended for. The Latin church, however, has not scrupled to say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; but the Greek church chooses to express it thus: the Spirit proceeds from the Father by or through the Son, or he receives of the Son, Galatians 4:6 .

See HOLY GHOST; Bishop Pearson on the Creed, p. 324; Watts's Works, 8vo. ed. vol. 5: p. 199; Hurrion on the Holy Spirit, p. 204; Ridgley's div. qu. 11; Dr. Lightfoot's Works, vol. 1:p. 482.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

that doctrine regarding the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity which teaches that as the Son proceeds (or is born) from the Father, so the Holy Ghost proceeds (or emanates) from the Father and from the Son, but as from one principle. The subject has been fully discussed in its historical relations in the art. FILIOQUE CONTROVESY (See Filioque Controvesy) , and as a theological question in the art. HOLY GHOST (See Holy Ghost).

But since the writing of those articles the subject has been revived and taken a new historical form-the formation of a new religious body from the ranks of the Romish Church, now known as the Old Catholics (q.v.). At their second annual conference or synod held in Bonn, Germany, in 1875, preparations were made for a "Union Conference" of the Old Catholic, Oriental, and Anglican churches, and such a conference accordingly convened at Bonn on Aug. 12 of that year and lasted five days. (Those interested in the character and nationality of its distinguished attendants will do well to consult the Methodist Quar. Oct. 1875, p. 673-675.) In the last session of that conference a common formula was adopted respecting the doctrine of the Procession, which Westerns and Orientals alike agreed to; and though it did not finally settle the question, and the controversy is still alive as we write, it is yet a very hopeful sign of an early union of different branches of the Church of Christ which have so little at variance and so much in common. The discussions regarding the subject were long and animated, and for some time the Orientals held out against the adoption of ¶ 3, but by their final adoption of it an enormous step towards completer understanding has been made. The following are the resolutions:

"PRELIMINARY RESOLUTIONS.

"1. We agree together in receiving the cecumenical symbols and the doctrinal decisions of the ancient undivided Church.

"2. We agree together in acknowledging that the addition of the Filioque to the Creed did not take place in an ecclesiastically regular manner.

"3. We acknowledge on all sides the representation of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, as it is set forth by the Fathers of the undivided Church.

"4. We reject every proposition and every method of expression in which in any way the acknowledgment of two principles or ἀρχαί or αὶτίαι in the Trinity may be contained.

"ON THE PROCESSION OF THE HOLY GHOST.

"We accept the teaching of St. John of Damascus respecting the Holy Ghost, as the same is expressed in the following paragraphs, in the sense of the teaching of the ancient undivided Church:

"1. The Holy Ghost goes forth out of the Father (ἐκ τοῦ πατρός ) as the Beginning (ἀρχή ), the Cause (αὶτία ), the Source (πηγή ) of the Godhead (De recta Sententia, n.1; Contra Manich. n. 4).

"2. The Holy Ghost goes not forth out of the Son (ἐκ τοῦ υἱοῦ ), because there is in the Godhead but one Beginning (ἀρχή ), one Cause (αὶτία ), through which all that is in the Godhead is produced (De Fide o rthod. i, 8: ἐκ τοῦ νἱοῦ δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα οὐ λέγομεν, πνεῦμα δὲ υἱοῦ ὀνομάζομεν ).

"3. The Holy Ghost goes forth out of the Father through the Son (De Fide orthod. i, 12: τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα τὸ ἃγιον ἐκφαντορικὴ τοῦ κρυφίου τῆς θεότητος δύναμις τοῦ πατρός, ἐκ πατρὸς μὲν δἰ υίοῦ ἐκπορευομένη. Ibid.: υἱοῦ δὲ πνεῦμα, οὐχ ὡς ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς δἰ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον . C. Manich. n. 5: διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ ἐκπορευόμενον. De Hymno Trisag. 1. 28: πνεῦμα τὸ ἃγιον ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ λόγου προϊόν . Hom. in Sabb. s. n. 4: τοῦτ᾿ ἡμῖν ἔστι τὸ λατρευόμενον ...πνεῦμα ἃγιον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρός ὡς ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐκπορευόμενον, ὅπερ καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ λέγεται, ὡς δἰ αὐτοῦ φανερούμενον καὶ τῆ κτίσει μεταδιδόμενον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἔχον τὴν ὕπαρξιν ).

"4. The Holy Ghost is the Image of the Son, who is the Image of the Father (De Fide orthod. i, 13: εἰκών τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ υἱός . καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα ), going forth out of the Father and resting in the Son as the force beaming forth from Him (τοῦ πατρὸς προερχομένην καὶ ἐν τῷ λόγε ἀναπανομένην καὶ αὐτοῦ οὔσαν ἐκφαντικὴν δόναμιν. Ibid. i, 12: πατίρ ...διὰ λόγου προβολεὺς ἐκφαντορικοῦ πνεύματος ).

"5. The Holy Ghost is the personal Production out of the Father, belonging to the Son, but not out of the Son, because he is the Spirit of the Mouth of the Godhead, which speaks forth the Word (De Hymno Trisag. n. 2S: τὸ πνεῦμα ἐνυπόστατον ἐκπόρευμα καὶ πρόβλημα ἐκ πατρὸς μέν, υἱοῦ δέ, καὶ μὴ ἐξ υἱοῦ, ὡς πνεῦμα στόματος θεοῦ, λόγον ἐξαγγελτικόν ).

"6. The Holy Ghost forms the mediation between the Father and the Son, and is bound together to the Father through the Son (De Fide orthod. i, 13: μέσον τοῦ ἀγεννήτου καὶ γεννητοῦ καὶ δἰ υἱοῦ τῷ πατρὶ συναπτόμενον ).

"N. B. — It is to be noted here that the German preposition aus (out of) equals ἐκ or ex. as denoting out of a cause or origin: whereas the word von (from) is equivalent to ἀπό or ab; while drwch (through) denotes Stin or per, through the instrumentaelity of."

Since that conference the Filioque question has been much agitated in England, and it has been asserted, by High-Churchmen especially, that the exclusion of the Filioque from the Creed was granted by Dr. Dollinger and canon Liddon at Bonn. What the conference did may be stated as follows: It declared, as bishop Pearson had already admitted, that the Filioque was inserted in an cecumenical creed by an inadequate authority, and therefore irregularly. It formulated certain propositions which might serve to show that when the Latins accept and the Easterns reject the Filioque they do not differ, as has been too generally supposed; since the Latins reject any assertion of two principles or causes in the Godhead, and the Easterns admit a μεσιτεία of the Son, in the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father. Whatever may have been the hopes and fears of individual members of the conference, no proposition was brought forward respecting the exclusion of the Filioque from the Creed of the Western Church. See Schaff, Creeds (Index in vol. 3); Forbes, Nicene Creed; Neale, Eastern Church (Introd.), 1095-1168; Stanley, Eastern Church; Mag, Hist. des Dogmes (Index in vol. 2); Martensen, Dogmqatics (see Index); Meth. Quar. Jan. and April, 1876; New-Englander, July, 1870. See also Pusey's Letter to Liddon On the Clause "And the Son" (Lond. 1876, 8vo).