This question popped up on another site, Quora.com, which I enjoy messing around with.
It gave me a chance to do sort of a theological “geek-out” on the “filioque” clause in the Nicene creed. I enjoy making an attempt at this because it lets me try something really hard in language that is very street-level. And that lets me see what it is I really think. (C.S. Lewis said that “any fool can write ‘learned’ language.” The real test is to see if you can translate the ideas into the everyday speech)
I am going to copy from myself: my original answer is copied below, but the original (along with the answers of others) is HERE:
There have been very good answers given, quoting Augustine and Thomas. I believe them, and my thoughts arise from them through the teachers I have sat under. I have to confess that I am entirely “western” in my thought, although I know at least a LITTLE of the orthodox position.
So as not to simply repeat what has been said, here is my understanding…
“Proceeds from” can mean two things.
One would mean “Comes to us through an action by a certain party.” As in “I (Jesus) will ask the Father, and He will send to you another comforter” from John 14. Using this meaning of proceeds from (the giver of the gift), it seems clear that the Father alone is the giver. “HE will send to you…”
About all I understand of the Orthodox position is contained in this verse. But i assume that they can say more and better.
The other meaning would be -not the giver of the gift- but what caused this good thing to exist in the first place. How does the Holy Spirit come to be, regardless of how the Holy Spirit comes to the Church? Or to Christians? Or simply to people? Why IS there a “Holy Spirit”?
I think this is what is spoken to in the western use of the phrase “I believe in the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father…” and completes that with the “filioque” – “…and the Son”
The implication to me is that we are not concerning ourselves with the giver of the gift, but with the Triune nature of the Godhead. And the assertion of the creed is that the Spirit eternally arises from the relationship – the interaction of- the Father and the Son. It, like the Father and the Son, has no beginning, because they do not. There was always the relationship between them.
In human terms, a relationship – a friendship, a marriage, a corporation – has a certain “style” almost a personality apart from that of the individuals making up that union. It can be loving, it can be critical. It can be open and welcoming, or harsh and judgemental. If the relationship is not very important or substantial, that corporate culture can be pretty much irrelevant. Or if that relationship is itself very powerful, that spirit will be very intense. Perhaps that is even what I mean by a “powerful relationship”
I don’t know if this is really what I mean by the Spirit arising from the relationship between the Father and the Son, or if it simply a picture, a metaphor to help me wrap my head around the idea. I suspect the metaphor idea is probably right. But I do see from that how a relationship can be so intense that it is reasonable to speak of that interaction almost as a third party in the relationship. And perhaps even farther.
Not just “is reasonable…almost…”
but simply “is”
I do know from this picture better how to understand the HS as a spirit of love, and of truth. Of the things that I understand as being of the nature of the Trinity.
The other thing that commends this to me, other than that it comes to me through my betters (proceeds to me?), is that it asks the question in context of the Holy Trinity. And finds its answer within that context.
I think this is almost always the right approach.
By the way, if anyone actually read all the way to the bottom of this (and I assume either promises of reward or threats of punishment would have been involved) there is at least a chance that you might want to see what other nonsense I am up to over there.
Here is a link to my profile page, with a list of all my answers- about all sorts of topics from serious to silly. My answers are like that as well, and they don’t always match up.
Random Musings 