Skip to content
Wellsprings
christian-pneumatologyfeatured in 10 works

Procession of the Holy Spirit

How the Spirit eternally proceeds within the Trinity — the heart of the filioque divide

The procession of the Holy Spirit concerns the eternal origination of the Spirit within the Trinity. The Council of Constantinople and Gregory of Nazianzus shaped its expression. The traditions differ on the crucial question of source: the Eastern churches confess that the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, while the Western tradition added that he proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is the long-standing filioque dispute.

How it traveled

  1. John
    Ephesus · 100
    explains
  2. De Spiritu Sancto
    Caesarea (Cappadocia) · 379
    explains
  3. The Second Ecumenical Council: The First Council of Constantinople
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 381
    explains
  4. The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril
    Jerusalem · 386
    explains
  5. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen
    Nazianzus · 390
    explains
  6. On the Holy Spirit
    Milan · 397
    explains
  7. On the Holy Trinity
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  8. John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
    Damascus · 749
    explains
  9. Monologium
    Canterbury · 1109
    explains
  10. Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43])
    Paris · 1274
    explains

Key passages(20)

John 15:26↗explains

John · John the Apostle

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John — Chapter XVI. 13.↗explains

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
On the Holy Trinity — He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. — part 11↗explains

On the Holy Trinity · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 27 - The Procession of the Divine Persons (Five Articles) — part 3↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 36 - OF THE PERSON OF THE HOLY GHOST (FOUR ARTICLES) — part 2↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 36 - OF THE PERSON OF THE HOLY GHOST (FOUR ARTICLES) — part 3↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 36 - OF THE PERSON OF THE HOLY GHOST (FOUR ARTICLES) — part 5↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 36 - OF THE PERSON OF THE HOLY GHOST (FOUR ARTICLES) — part 1↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith — An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. — Book I — part 3↗explains

John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith · John of Damascus

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 36 - OF THE PERSON OF THE HOLY GHOST (FOUR ARTICLES) — part 4↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
On the Holy Spirit — Book I. — part 11↗explains

On the Holy Spirit · Ambrose of Milan

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
On the Holy Spirit — Book I. — part 7↗explains

On the Holy Spirit · Ambrose of Milan

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
On the Holy Spirit — Book I. — part 9↗explains

On the Holy Spirit · Ambrose of Milan

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
On the Holy Trinity — He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. — part 15↗explains

On the Holy Trinity · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
On the Holy Trinity — He proceeds to refute those arguments which the heretics put forward, not out of the Scriptures, but from their own conceptions. And first he refutes the objection, that to beget and to be begotten, or that to be begotten and not-begotten, being different, are therefore different substances, and shows that these things are spoken of God relatively, and not according to substance. — part 5↗explains

On the Holy Trinity · Augustine of Hippo

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen — The Fifth Theological Oration. On the Holy Spirit. — part 1↗explains

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen — The Fifth Theological Oration. On the Holy Spirit. — part 2↗explains

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 27 - The Procession of the Divine Persons (Five Articles) — part 1↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 27 - The Procession of the Divine Persons (Five Articles) — part 4↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high
Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) — Question. 37 - OF THE NAME OF THE HOLY GHOST---LOVE (TWO ARTICLES) — part 2↗explains

Treatise on The Most Holy Trinity (QQ[27-43]) · Thomas Aquinas

Read in Sefaria →
Very high