07 — The Spirit in Scripture and Council

“Who spoke through the prophets,” and “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us.” Two formulas, one from the Creed and one from Acts, carry the whole Orthodox account of how the Spirit relates to the Church’s book and to the Church’s decisions. This section examines both, and it states the difficulties rather than concealing them — the untidiness of the canon’s history, and the fact that assemblies of bishops have erred while claiming the same conjunction.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
inspiration-and-the-spirit-in-tradition.md How little the Church has defined — no council, no mechanism, no doctrine of inerrancy — and how unusual that is; the two patristic idioms, the instrumental figure of the flute and Chrysostom’s synkatabasis, with a structured note on whether inerrancy is required of an Orthodox; why the same Spirit is needed to read what he inspired, and Lossky’s formula that Tradition is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church; the canon as a pneumatic act, with the untidiness stated — Athanasius’ letter of 367 is not a conciliar act, the lists vary, and the Apocalypse has no place in the Byzantine lectionary; and three boundaries that keep the doctrine from expanding
it-seemed-good-to-the-holy-spirit-and-to-us.md The formula of Acts 15:28 and its conciliar afterlife; the problem — Ephesus 449, Hieria 754, and Florence were not procedurally defective and said the same thing; reception as the Orthodox answer, with both of its features stated together, that it is not a vote and that it has no procedure and no timetable; four things the formula does not claim, including that it does not exclude the Spirit’s speaking through a minority of one; what it does assert about the Spirit; and a structured note on whether reception is a criterion or a description after the fact

Why This Belongs to a Pneumatology

Because the Orthodox account of Scripture, canon, council, and Tradition is not a theory about authorities to be ranked but a claim about a person who is present. The Spirit who spoke through the prophets dwells in the assembly that reads them, and is joined to her judgment in a single verb.

The consequence is that Orthodoxy has no mechanical guarantee. That is what one would expect if the guarantee is someone rather than something — and it is a difficulty Orthodox writers have acknowledged rather than solved.

See Also