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Course 8 · Lesson 4.4

Constantinople in 381 and the deity of the Holy Spirit

12 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 8 outline

Module 1: Speaking About God

  1. What systematic theology is and what it can claim
  2. Naming God: analogy, negation and the limits of language
  3. Classical theism defined and compared with alternatives
  4. Beyond the world and present in it: transcendence and immanence

Module 2: The Classical Attributes

  1. Divine simplicity: God is not made of parts
  2. Divine immutability: does God change?
  3. Divine eternity: timeless or everlasting?
  4. Divine omniscience and human freedom

Module 3: The Trinity in Scripture and the Early Church

  1. One God: the Shema and the Old Testament background
  2. Father, Son and Spirit in the New Testament
  3. Early Trinitarian language: Justin, Irenaeus and Tertullian
  4. Two early errors: modalism and subordinationism

Module 4: Arius, Athanasius and Nicaea

  1. What Arius taught and why it spread
  2. The Council of Nicaea in 325 and the word homoousios
  3. The long fight after Nicaea and the role of Athanasius
  4. Constantinople in 381 and the deity of the Holy Spirit

Module 5: The Cappadocians and the Shape of Trinitarian Thought

  1. One ousia, three hypostases: the Cappadocian vocabulary
  2. Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa
  3. Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. The filioque and the monarchy of the Father

Module 6: Creation from Nothing

  1. Creation in Scripture
  2. Rivals to creation from nothing: eternal matter and emanation
  3. The doctrine of creation ex nihilo and its development
  4. Creation, the goodness of matter and the Trinity

Module 7: Providence, Sovereignty and Evil

  1. Providence: preservation, concurrence and governance
  2. Divine sovereignty and human freedom across the traditions
  3. The problem of evil: logical and evidential forms
  4. Christian responses: free will, privation and the suffering God
  5. Evaluating the responses and living with what remains unanswered

All courses

Program / Course 8: God, Trinity, and Creation / Lesson 4.4

What you will learn

  • Explain why the question of the Holy Spirit arose after Nicaea.
  • Describe the arguments of Athanasius and Basil for the Spirit’s divinity.
  • Summarize what the Council of Constantinople in 381 did and what the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed says about the Spirit.
  • Recognize the debate over how much the council itself said and how the creed was received.

The big idea

Nicaea said little about the Holy Spirit, and the fight over the Son left the Spirit’s status open. By the 360s some who accepted the full divinity of the Son still called the Spirit a creature or hesitated to call him God. Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus answered that the Spirit shares the divine nature, since he is worshiped, he gives life and he sanctifies. The Council of Constantinople in 381 confirmed Nicaea, and the creed associated with it describes the Spirit as Lord, giver of life, proceeding from the Father, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son.

Key terms

Pneumatomachian
From Greek for fighters against the Spirit. A name for those who denied the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. Also called Macedonians.
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
The creed used by most Christians today, commonly called the Nicene Creed. Tradition connects it with the council of 381.
Doxology
A short formula of praise to God, such as Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Procession
The term used for the Spirit’s coming from the Father, from John 15:26. Distinct from begetting, which is said of the Son.
Theodosius I
Roman emperor from 379 to 395, a supporter of Nicene faith, who called the council.
Gregory of Nazianzus
A bishop and theologian called the Theologian, who presided for a time at Constantinople in 381.
Apollinarianism
A fourth-century teaching that Christ had a human body but not a human mind. Condemned at Constantinople.
Ecumenical
Of the whole inhabited world. The council of 381 was later received as the second ecumenical council.

Background

Once the Son’s divinity was widely accepted, the question of the Spirit became unavoidable. Baptism was in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and prayer and praise often joined the three. The Bible says much about the Spirit but nowhere says plainly that the Spirit is God, in the sense of the Nicene debate. Some groups, called Pneumatomachians, held that the Spirit was a creature, or perhaps an angelic being, or hesitated to say.

Athanasius wrote letters to Serapion, a bishop in Egypt, in the 350s, arguing that the Spirit shares the nature of the Father and the Son. Basil of Caesarea, his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil’s brother Gregory of Nyssa then carried the argument forward. Basil’s treatise On the Holy Spirit, written around 375, was a response to a charge that he had changed the prayer of praise from through the Son in the Spirit to with the Son and with the Spirit. He defended the usage by the tradition of the church.

In 379 Theodosius became emperor in the East and favored the Nicene party. In 380 he issued an edict ordering that all subjects hold the faith of Rome and Alexandria, the faith of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In 381 he called a council in Constantinople, attended by about 150 bishops, all from the East. It was not planned as a general council, and the bishop of Rome did not send representatives. Only later was it counted as ecumenical.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Arguments for the Spirit’s divinity

Athanasius reasoned from the Spirit’s work. The Spirit sanctifies, makes believers sharers in the divine nature, and gives life. A creature cannot do these. The Spirit is also joined with the Father and Son in baptism and in the apostolic blessing, so he must belong with them and not with creatures. He argued that if the Spirit were a creature, the Triad would have a creature added to it.

Basil added the argument from worship. The church glorifies the Spirit with the Father and the Son, and worship belongs to God alone. He appealed to unwritten customs as well as Scripture, and he cited texts such as Acts 5:3 to 4, where lying to the Spirit is lying to God, and 1 Corinthians 2:10 to 11, where the Spirit searches the deep things of God. He was cautious, however, in his public use of the word God for the Spirit, and this drew criticism. Gregory of Nazianzus was bolder and said it plainly in his Theological Orations, around 380.

Step 2: The council of 381

The council confirmed the faith of Nicaea, condemned various groups including the Pneumatomachians and Apollinarians, and issued canons on church order. One canon gave the bishop of Constantinople the first place of honor after the bishop of Rome, because Constantinople was the new Rome. This canon was later disputed by Rome. The first president of the council, Meletius of Antioch, died during it, and Gregory of Nazianzus took his place for a time before resigning. Nectarius was then appointed bishop of Constantinople.

The documents of the council do not survive in full, and what the council actually wrote about the Spirit is debated. The creed that bears its name is first attested at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which read it as the faith of the 150 fathers of Constantinople. Some scholars suggest that it was composed earlier and adopted at the council, while others suggest it was a local baptismal creed. What is clear is that by 451 the church regarded it as an authoritative statement of the Nicene faith.

Step 3: What the creed says about the Spirit

The creed says: and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets. In the original text, the Spirit is called Lord, a title the Old Testament used for God. He is the giver of life, as only God gives life. He proceeds from the Father, a phrase from John 15:26. And he is worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, which is the language of worship.

The creed does not use the word God of the Spirit or the word homoousios. Many scholars see this as the caution of Basil, who wanted to avoid dividing the allies of Nicaea. The meaning was nevertheless understood, and within a few years teachers such as Gregory and Ambrose spoke explicitly. The creed also does not say that the Spirit proceeds from the Son, which became the subject of a later dispute between East and West, discussed in module 5.

Step 4: The settlement and what remained

After 381 the structure of the Trinitarian faith was in place: one God in three persons, the Father unbegotten, the Son begotten and the Spirit proceeding. Arian groups continued among some Germanic peoples for another two centuries, and some in the East kept Pneumatomachian views for a time. But the main churches were united.

Questions remained. How exactly are the persons distinguished? What is the relation of the Spirit to the Son? What do begetting and proceeding mean? Later councils and theologians returned to these, and the Cappadocians and Augustine gave answers that shaped East and West differently.

  1. Why might the church have hesitated to call the Spirit God in so many words?
  2. How does the argument from worship work, and is it a good argument?
  3. What is the significance of calling the Spirit Lord and giver of life?
  4. Why does the creed say proceeds and not begotten?
  5. What do I learn from the fact that the creed was formed over time?
  6. What difference does the Spirit’s divinity make to prayer?

Examples

Praise with and through

Basil was criticized for ending a prayer of praise with the Son together with the Holy Spirit, in place of an older form through the Son in the Holy Spirit. He replied that both forms are traditional and express different truths: the second the order of God’s saving action, the first the equal honor of the three.

Life from the Spirit

Athanasius noted that the Spirit is called the giver of life and that believers are renewed by him. If he were a creature, he would need life from someone else. The argument is that only the source of life can give it.

The 150 fathers

At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 the bishops read both the creed of Nicaea and the creed of the 150 fathers of Constantinople, and treated them as one faith. Their joint reading is the earliest sure witness to the creed in its present form.

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catholic Church counts Constantinople I as the second ecumenical council and uses the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass. The Latin text adds the phrase and the Son (filioque) in the West, a matter taken up later in this course.

Orthodox

The Orthodox churches hold that the creed of 381 should be said without addition and treat the council’s text as final. Orthodox writers honor Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus as great teachers of the Trinity and see the council as completing the Trinitarian doctrine of Nicaea.

Protestant

Protestant churches recite the creed in worship and confessions. The Reformers affirmed the deity of the Spirit and the creed. The Westminster Confession and the Lutheran Book of Concord both state it. Some modern Protestants, particularly in free-church traditions, use the creed seldom in worship.

Critical scholarship

Historians dispute how the creed came to be linked with 381. Some argue that it comes from a baptismal creed used in Jerusalem or Cyprus that was adjusted. The question remains open. Few doubt that the council confirmed the divinity of the Spirit in some form.

Non-Trinitarian groups

Some groups, among them Jehovah’s Witnesses, regard the Spirit as God’s active force and not a person. They reply that the Bible does not use the language of the creeds. The main churches reply that the New Testament speaks of the Spirit as a personal agent, as seen in the previous lessons.

Why it matters

The deity of the Spirit is often the least discussed part of the doctrine, yet it governs how Christians pray, worship and understand their own life. The history shows that this belief did not come late as an afterthought but grew from the same reasons as the belief in the divinity of the Son. It also shows the creed to be the product of a long conversation, which helps a student read it with attention.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The Council of Constantinople wrote the creed said in churches today.

Correction: Not exactly. The creed is traditionally linked to the council, but its origin is debated, and it is first clearly attested in 451. It is best called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed because it enlarges the Nicene faith.

Misunderstanding: The creed says the Spirit is God in so many words.

Correction: It does not use that phrase. It says that he is Lord, giver of life, worshiped with the Father and the Son. The conclusion was drawn at the time and affirmed in later teaching.

Misunderstanding: The Spirit was an afterthought in early theology.

Correction: The Spirit was part of baptism and worship from the first. The need to define his status came later, since the earlier controversy was about the Son.

Misunderstanding: The council of 381 ended Arianism everywhere.

Correction: It ended it in the Roman empire as an official position, but Arian Christianity continued among the Goths and others for centuries.

Knowledge check

Why did the question of the Holy Spirit arise after Nicaea?

Nicaea said only that it believed in the Holy Spirit because the dispute was about the Son. Once the Son’s divinity was confirmed, people asked about the third person. Some held that the Spirit was a creature or hesitated to call him God. The argument arose from baptism and worship, which joined the three.

Give two arguments for the Spirit’s divinity.

Athanasius argued from the Spirit’s work: the Spirit sanctifies and gives life, which a creature cannot do. Basil argued from worship: the church glorifies the Spirit with the Father and the Son, and worship belongs only to God. Both used texts like Acts 5:3 to 4 to show that lying to the Spirit is lying to God.

What does the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed say about the Spirit?

It says he is the Lord and giver of life, proceeds from the Father, is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, and spoke through the prophets. It does not use the word homoousios or the word God for him, but its terms are those of divine honor.

What is uncertain about the council of 381?

Its own documents do not survive in full, and the creed that bears its name is first attested at Chalcedon in 451. Historians debate whether the council composed it or adopted an earlier baptismal creed. They agree that the council confirmed Nicaea and affirmed the Spirit’s divine honor.

Think it through

  1. What does it mean to worship the Spirit, and how does it show up in your tradition’s prayers?
  2. Why might it be important that the creed was shaped by pastors concerned with baptism and worship?
  3. How would you answer someone who says the Spirit is only God’s power?

Independent assignment

The third article

In your own notebook, write about 400 words. Copy the third article of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. For each phrase about the Spirit, write down a Bible text from this lesson or the earlier lessons that stands behind it. Then explain in a paragraph why the creed describes the Spirit’s relation to the Father with the word proceeds. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study