06 — The Trinity and the Filioque
Augustine’s Trinitarian theology — the fifteen books of On the Trinity, with their celebrated “psychological analogies” of the Trinity in the structure of the human mind — and the long shadow it cast over the gravest dogmatic dispute between East and West: the Filioque, the Latin addition to the Creed confessing that the Holy Spirit proceeds “from the Father and the Son.” This section sets out Augustine’s own theology and then the contested question of how his formulations were later invoked for the Filioque, presenting the objection of the Orthodox Church (Photios, Palamas) — which has never received the Filioque — and the Western defense, without polemic.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism West; “Blessed Augustine”)
After grace, the Trinity is the second great field of Augustine’s contested Eastern reception, and it bears directly on the dogmatic question that came to divide the Churches. Augustine’s De Trinitate is a profound and original work, and his Trinitarian theology is not in itself heretical; but certain of its formulations — above all the procession of the Spirit “from the Father and the Son” and the unity of the divine essence as the starting point of Trinitarian reflection — were taken up by the later Latin tradition into the Filioque and its supporting theology, which the East rejected. This section distinguishes carefully between Augustine’s own teaching and the later use made of it, and presents the Eastern critique and the Western defense side by side.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| De Trinitate | On the Trinity (c. 400–426); the unity of the divine essence; the relations within the Godhead; the psychological analogies (memory–understanding–will; mind, knowledge, love) as images of the Trinity in the soul. |
| Augustine and the Filioque | How Augustine’s formulations were later invoked for the Filioque; the objection of the Orthodox Church (the single source of the Father, Photios, Palamas) and the Western defense; the Church’s non-reception of the Filioque stated as such, with Augustine’s own intent distinguished from the later controversy. |
See Also
- Predestination and the Eastern Objection — the companion field of contested reception
- St. Photios the Great — the patriarch who framed the Eastern critique of the Filioque
- St. Gregory Palamas — the essence/energies theology bearing on the question
- The Filioque — the dogmatic question itself
- The Holy Trinity — the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity
References
- Augustine of Hippo. On the Holy Trinity. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 3. 1887.
- Demacopoulos, George E., and Aristotle Papanikolaou, eds. Orthodox Readings of Augustine. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008.
- Louth, Andrew. Greek East and Latin West: The Church AD 681–1071. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007.