The Athanasian Creed on the Holy Spirit: Proceeding from Father and Son

Of all the doctrines in the Athanasian Creed, the teaching on the Holy Spirit is the most ecumenically contested. The Creed affirms that the Spirit is “from the Father and the Son, not made, not created, not begotten, but proceeding.” That phrase — “from the Father and the Son” — became the Filioque, the theological fault line that contributed to the Great Schism of 1054 and still divides Eastern and Western Christianity.

The Filioque Explained

The Latin word Filioque means “and the Son.” The Athanasian Creed includes it explicitly: the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This was accepted without controversy in the Western church for centuries. But the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed originally stated only that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father” — following John 15:26 directly. The Western church gradually inserted “and the Son” into the Nicene Creed without an ecumenical council, which the Eastern church regarded as an unauthorized and theologically dangerous alteration.

What the Creed Teaches About the Spirit

The Athanasian Creed’s section on the Spirit goes beyond the Filioque to affirm the Spirit’s full equality with Father and Son. The Spirit is Lord and God — the same divine status — yet a distinct person who is neither confused with nor divided from the Father and Son. The Creed insists on the Trinitarian paradox: not three Gods but one God, not three persons merged into one but one God in three persons. The Filioque is one element within this larger framework of Trinitarian confession.

Eastern Orthodox Objections

Eastern Orthodox theologians object to the Filioque on theological and ecclesial grounds. Theologically, making the Son a co-principle of the Spirit’s procession threatens the monarchy of the Father — his role as the sole source of divinity within the Trinity. Ecclesially, the Western insertion violated the conciliar authority that the Nicene formula represented. The Athanasian Creed predates the formal schism but represents the Western tradition the East would eventually reject.

The Filioque Today

Modern ecumenical dialogue has revisited the Filioque with new seriousness. Some Western theologians propose that “and the Son” can be understood as describing the Spirit’s temporal mission rather than his eternal procession, in a way compatible with Eastern theology. The Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation have both issued statements acknowledging the complexity of the dispute. Understanding the Athanasian Creed’s pneumatology remains essential to engaging the oldest unresolved doctrinal division in Christendom.