Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Filioque ('and the Son')

The Western addition to the creed: the Spirit proceeds 'from the Father and the Son'.

Latin filioque, 'and from the Son'.

Defended from John 15:26 (the Son sends the Spirit), John 16:14–15, and the Spirit being called 'the Spirit of Christ' (Rom 8:9).

Appeared in Spain (Third Council of Toledo, 589), spread through the Frankish church, and was in the Roman creed by the eleventh century — without an ecumenical council. A major factor in the 1054 East–West schism.

The West says it guards the Son's full divinity and the Spirit's relation to him; the East says it either introduces two sources in the Godhead or collapses the persons, and objects above all to changing an ecumenical creed unilaterally.

Unresolved, though modern dialogues have narrowed it; some Western churches now recite the creed without the clause.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.