The Horrendous Filioque: Chapter 3-5

Dionysius the Aeropagite

St. Dionysius, who is mentioned in Acts 17:34, was converted by St. Paul the Apostle. Dionysius was a great theologian and writes against those who believe in the Filioque:

“Each of the Divine Persons possesses without confusion Its own distinct existence), but also that the Attributes of the Super-Essential Divine Generation are not interchangeable. The Father alone is the Fount of the Super-Essential Godhead (Μόνη δὲ πηγὴ τῆς ὑπερουσίου θεότητος ὁ πατὴρ), and the Father is not a Son, nor is the Son a Father; for the Divine Persons all preserve, Each without alloy, His own particular Attributes of praise. Such, then, are the instances of Undifference and of Differentiation in the Ineffable Unity and Subsistence of God […] the Father is Fontal Deity (πηγαία θεότης ὁ πατήρ) while Jesus and the Spirit are (so to speak) Divine Off-shoots of the Paternal Godhead, and, as it were, Blossoms and Super-Essential Shinings. Thereof we learn from Holy Scripture; but how these things are so we cannot say, nor yet conceive.”

[St. Dionysius the Aeropagite; De Divinis Nominibus II.5-7, PG 3:641D-645B]

John The 'Golden-Mouthed'

In the Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, there is not such a place where he speaks of the filioque, but rather that the Spirit Proceeds from the Father:

"He shall be worthy of belief, for He is the Spirit of Truth. On account He called it not Holy Spirit, but Spirit of Truth. But He, proceeds from the Father, shows that he knows all things exactly, as Christ also says of Himself, that I know whence cometh and whither I go (John 8:14), speaking in that place also concerning truth. Whom will send. Behold, it is no longer the Father alone, but also the Son who sends."

[St. John Chrysostom; Homily on John 15:26-27]

What is meant that the Son sends the Spirit? Behold, sending is not the same as Procession and he clarifies the Son sends the Spirit but not hypostatically being an origin of the Spirit. [see On the Psalms, Psalm 44]

"Just as He said, 'The Spirit of God', and the Scripture added, 'Who is from God,' so too is it said, 'The Spirit of the Father'; and lest you think that this is said according to property, the Savior confirms: 'When the Paraclete comes, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.' There, 'from God'; here, 'from the Father.' What He had attributed to Himself, 'I came forth from the Father,' He also ascribes to the Holy Spirit: 'Who proceeds from the Father.' Therefore, the Spirit is both from God and the Spirit of the Father and proceeds from the Father.. It is said, therefore (let me repeat), the Spirit of God, and the Spirit from God, the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit who is from the Father, the Spirit of the Lord (the Spirit of God, the Spirit from God, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit who proceeds from the Father, the Spirit of the Lord), the Spirit of the Son."

[St. John Chrysostom; Homily on the Holy Spirit, Volume VI of the Paris-Heidelberg Greek-Latin edition of his works, p. 205]

While St. John Chrysostom says the Spirit is of the Father and from the Father he also proclaims that the Spirit is of the Son, and does NOT claim that the Spirit is from the Son.

"Believe that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, and the Spirit is also consubstantial. For if He proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son, the Spirit is not different from the essence of God."

[St. John Chrysostom; Sermon on the Trinity, Volume VI of the Paris-Heidelberg Greek-Latin edition of his works, p.200]

and again:

"Macedonius refused to worship the Spirit, who proceeds ineffably from the Father."

[St. John Chrysostom; Volume V of the Paris Latin Edition of Chrysostom's works (1588), column 1029]

once more this is repeated:

"The Macedonians did not believe that the Holy Spirit, who proceeds ineffably from the Father, is God."

[St. John Chrysostom; Homily on Psalm 115, Volume I of the Paris Latin edition of Chrysostom's works, column 977]

Athanasius the Apostolic, Bishop of Alexandria

In the Confession of faith written by St. Athanasius we read the following:

"But the Holy Spirit, being that which proceeds from the Father, is ever in the hands of the Father Who sends and of the Son Who conveys him, by Whose means He filled all things."

[St. Athanasius of Alexandria; Statement of Faith, Beginning of Statement 4]

So while we read the Son conveys the Spirit, he (the Holy Spirit) does not proceed from the Son as he does the Father; rather, the Spirit eternally manifests through the Son.

"For, as the illustration shows, we do not introduce three Origins or three Fathers, as the followers of Marcion and Manichaeus; since we have not suggested the image of three suns, but sun and radiance. And one is the light from the sun in the radiance; and so we know of but one Origin.."

[St. Athanasius of Alexandria; Discursus Contra Arianos, III.15]

There is one Origin, that being the Father, Who is the cause of each alone.

and again we read of conveying as we did earlier in Athanasius' Statement of Faith:

"As the Son, the living Word, is one, so must the vital activity and gift whereby he sanctifies and enlightens be one perfect and complete; which is said to proceed from the Father because it is from the Word, who is confessed to be from the Father, that it [the Holy Spirit] shines forth and is sent and is given [to the Son]."

[St. Athanasius of Alexandria; Epistle 1 to Serapion, 20]

"They [the Jews] think that the Father alone is God, because He alone is the source of Deity, that is, of the Son and the Holy Spirit."

[St. Athanasius of Alexandria; Against the Sabellians]

and On the Trinity he speaks:

"Anom: We also say all things are from God
 Ortho: But some things indeed are from his command as created, the Son however is from His   hypostasis as generated, the Spirit however as proceeding."

[St. Athanasius of Alexandria; Dialogue I on the Trinity, Volume II, p. 160]

and from the same:

"The Holy Spirit however does not have the Father: for He was not begottenl he has no maker to whom he refers his origin: for He was not made; but He has God as cause, whose Spirit He is, from Whom He also proceeds."

[St. Athanasius of Alexandria; Ibid, Volume II, p. 176]