This collection of ten recent essays on various matters by the head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity offers analyses of the dogmatic status of important Vatican and ecumenical documents, a thorough review and evaluation of the
filioque controversy, and musings on the impact of postmodern pluralism on church unity.
All this is a long way from the
filioque and forms of church government which so interested the venerable founders of the Faith and Order movement in 1927.
Thus, he recognized that the Catholic Church admits the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist, through its teaching on transubstantiation "or through something similar to the changing of the bread and the wine, just as the Orthodox Church." (73) (So even though Staniloae had reservations about the theory of transubstantiation, he considered this teaching an attempt to explain what both Catholic and Orthodox churches hold in common, namely, that the eucharist is the body and blood of Christ.) Moreover, he affirmed that the Catholic Church, just like the Orthodox Church, has preserved the faith in the Trinity and Christ, even if it has also added to the church's ancient faith the dogma of papal primacy, papal infallibility,
Filioque, and purgatory.
And it is what has been valiantly tried in various attempts at explaining the meaning of the
Filioque. (57) Does saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son necessarily jeopardize the monarchy of the Father?
The divine persons are distinct precisely by relation of origin, and the Father is the Unoriginate from whom Son and (leaving the
filioque aside for now) Spirit proceed.
Part of the Baptist (and, for that matter, the broader noncreedal) tradition is the dictum, "We have no creed but the Bible," which is sometimes worded "No creed but Christ." (1) Deleting the taboo creeds from our collective liturgy and polity, and unfortunately also from our collective memory, often includes circumnavigating or altogether disregarding certain creed-related theological controversies--such as the
Filioque clause, the phrase translated "and the Son," which the West added to the 381 Creed.
For propaedeutic aim of this article these primary lines of the Trinitarian pattern will be considered, along with the major conceptual schism of
filioque, but further discussions could be extended to encompass the complex and subtle differences from the extensive treatises of systematic theology (e.g.
El primer capitulo: <<De la Ecclesia esposa a la Ecclesia espiritual>>, analiza el periodo comprendido entre la alta edad media hasta la Escolastica; aqui comparecen las discusiones sobre el
Filioque, la teologia espiritual del monacato, la figura de Joaquin de Fiore, el pensamiento de san Buenaventura y de santo Tomas de Aquino.
4), considering the question of the
filioque as a "new doctrine." Nevertheless, one should remember that this encyclical does not have the authority of a conciliar decision.
The council, however, became mired in doctrinal disputes, ranging from the arcane (
Filioque and Purgatory) to the seemingly mundane (circumcision and unleavened bread).