Philip Schaff · 52 of 60
The Old Catholic Agreement on the Filioque Controversy. A.D. 1875.
[At the second Döllinger Union Conference between Old Catholics, Orientals, and Anglo-Catholics, held at Bonn, Prussia, Aug. 10–16, 1875, the following agreement on the old Filioque Controversy, essentially in favor of the Greek view, was adopted, but, like the agreement of the preceding Conference, it still waits for the official sanction of the Churches therein represented. The German text is the original, and is taken from the Secretary's Bericht über die vom 10–16. Aug, 1875 zu Bonn gehaltenen Unions-Conferenzen, im Auftrage des Vorsitzenden Dr. von Döllinger herausgegeben von Dr. Fr. Heinrich Reusch, Prof. der Theologie, Bonn, 1875, pp. 80, 92, and 93. An English translation of this report by Rev. Dr. Samuel Buel, Prof. of Divinity in the Gen. Theol. Sem. of the Prot. Episcopal Church at N.Y., with a Preface by Rev. Dr. Robert J. Nevin, Rector of the American Episcopal Church in Rome, was published In New York (1876), and another translation, with an Introduction by Canon Liddon, in London (1876).]
[The following additional Articles are explanatory of Art. 3, and were adopted at the request of the Greek and Russian delegates:]
NOTES.
1. The Filioque controversy, which is now a thousand years old, refers only to the metaphysical question of the eternal procession ( ἐκπόρευσις ) of the Holy Spirit (John xv. 26); the Greek Church, in the interest of the monarchia of the Father, maintains the single procession from the Father alone; the Latin Church, since Augustine, in the interest of the homoousia of the Son, the double procession from the Father and the Son. About the temporal mission ( πέμψις ) of the Spirit from the Father and the Son (John xiv. 26; xv. 26; xvi. 7), and the practical question of the work of the Spirit in the and of believers, there has been no controversy between the Greek and Latin Churches. See Vol. I. p. 26.
2. John of Damascus, or Joannes Damascenus (surnamed Chrysorrhoas, gold-pouring; also called by the Arabs Mansur, i.e., λελυτρωμένος ), born at Damascus (then under Saracen rule), monk in the convent of St. Sabas near Jerusalem, died after 754, is the last of the Greek fathers, and the greatest and most authoritative of the divines of the Oriental Church. He may be called the Thomas Aquinas of the East. Inferior in productive genius and originality to Origen, Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, and Gregory of Nyssa, he is more comprehensive in his range of teaching, and more uniformly orthodox in his dogmatic statements. His chief work is his 'Exposition of the Orthodox Faith' ( ἔκδοσις ἀκριβὴς τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως ), which sums up under a hundred heads the results of the theological labors of the Greek fathers and councils down to the seventh century. It was the first complete system of divinity, and by the use of Aristotelian dialectics ushered in the scholastic period. He distinguished himself also by his hymns, and by his eloquent defense of images against the iconoclasts, for which he was highly lauded by the second Council of Nicæa (787). The best edition of his works has been issued by Le Quien, Paris, 1712, two vols. folio, reproduced in Migne's Patrologia Græca, Vols. XCIV.–XCVI., Paris, 1857.
3. After reading this agreement, the aged Dr. Döllinger, who is the head of these Union conferences, added the following hopeful remarks: 'So far then are we agreed, and the theologians know that the question of the Holy Spirit is herewith properly exhausted. A dogmatic conflict concerning this question no longer exists between us. May God grant that what we have here adjusted be received by the Churches of the East in the spirit of peace and discrimination between dogma and theological opinion. What we have accomplished furnishes a new ground of hope that our efforts are blessed by God, and that we shall succeed still further; while the history of former union transactions makes the impression that God's blessing did not rest on them. I think it no presumption to believe that here we perceive the blessing of God, there the absence of his blessing ( Gottes Unsegen ). Let us remember how much deception and fraud, what a tissue of falsifications, how much ambitious violence were employed at the Councils of Lyons and Florence, how both parties were always conscious of aiming at something else than agreement in the great truths of the Christian faith. I hope we shall be able to continue these international conferences next year. What a joy, if then the Orientals bring the glad tidings—Our Bishops, Synods, and Churches have approved our agreement.'
