S
"THE POLITICAL REASONS FOR THE IMPOSITION OF THE FILIOQUE." "The domination of the
doctrine of the Filioque in the West was due not only to the presuppositions of St.
Augustine, but also and, indeed, to a larger extent, to the military and political struggle
between Franco-Latin and Franco-German on the one hand (i.e., the contemporary French
and Germans) and the Greeks on the other. The Franks stressed the Filioque in order to
prove to the Slavs and the Latins that the Greeks are heretics and should be excluded
from any relation with them and be regarded as enemies. In Italy, the Franks established
military supremacy and imposed their views on the people by raising Popes and Bishops,
who were either Francophiles or accepted the Frankish theological doctrines. This is why
Italians are for the Greeks of today included among the Franks, although they were
Southern Latins, who together with the Greeks shared the name Romans. It should be
noted that the name "Roman" was a great name at the time when the Franks made their
appearance, and this is why they wanted to usurp it for themselves. Something similar
applied to the Slavs, who tried to turn Moscow into a third Rome, successor to the second
Rome, i.e. to Constantinople.
"That the struggle over the Filioque was not only theological, but also political and
military, does not mean that theology was based on politics. It means, rather, that the
line of the Franks was such that they mixed theology with politics and militarism so that
they might accuse the Greeks of heresy and curtail their influence in Eastern Europe and
Italy. This was particularly the case in Italy, where the people had been divided into two
parties, which fought to gain dominance in the Italian region. ...." (page 43: An Outline of
Patristic Dogmatics [Epitomos Orthdoxos Paterike Dogmatike]. Orthodox Theological
Library 1. by Protopresbyter John Romanides, University of Thessaloniki. English-Greek
edition. Edited and Translated by Protopresbyter George Dion. Dragas. Copyright 2004.
Rollinsford, NH: Orthodox Research Institute.).
THEOLOGICAL TRUTH.
"Theological truth is not, in the first instance, a product of personal inquiry, neither is it
the result of historical circumstance. (1) Theology comes to the Church from God, a part
of the original deposit, included in the teachings of the Lord to His Apostles, "handed
over" to every generation of Orthodox in "the Faith once delivered to the Saints."
Theology does not develop with or like the sciences and, therefore, none may claim a new
"knowledge" greater than "those who disputed this matter before us." There is no new
Christian doctrine, only new forms and formulations of ancient truth. The study of the
Trinity begins with personal and living faith, a disposition of the soul which presupposes
the Father of the Church, "the Faith of the Fathers."
"Reading St. Photius' Discourse on the Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit (2) is not the same
thing as reading Augustine's De Trinitate. They have different "minds." Not by accident,
then, did the former choose the word "mystagogy" ("to initiate into the mysteries") for
his work on the Third Person; and not by chance is the concept missing entirely from
Augustine's book. If, then, St. Photius and the other Fathers are right about "the
procession of the Holy Spirit," it is not by the weight of superior logic and research, but
because the Orthodox Church is right about it, and right because her Faith is right, and her
Faith is right because her Tradition is right and her Tradition is right, because it originated
with the Apostles, and right because the Holy Spirit preserves and guides it. If Augustine
and those who follow him are wrong about the filioque, it is because their theology and
tradition is wrong, and it is wrong because the Apostles are not the source of it, and the
Holy Spirit dwells only where the Church is. ..." (page 82: ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS:
AN ORTHODOX APOLOGY FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM. by Fr. Michael Azkoul. Copyright
2000, St. Nectarios Press, Seattle, WA.).
Notes.
1. Augustine's was "a Neo-Platonist reflecting on the word of God," writes Margerie. His
doctrine of the Spirit as the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son, and "the filioque as
both a condition and cause of this" depended on bishop "Augustine's intuition." " It is not
at all astonishing that the Church had to wait until the end of the fourth century to begin
to suspect that the doctrine pertained to the deposit of Revelation. ..." (The Christian
Trinity in History, pp. 121 [n. 14], 320).
2. On the Mystagogy and its place in the history of the debate between St. Photius, and
the Carolingians, see the Intro. to the Holy Transfiguration Monastery translation, pp.
3-27.
In Erie PA August 2011 AD Scott R. Harrington