The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Orthodox Christianity: start here — lesson 5

The Holy Spirit and Pentecost

How the Church came to confess the Spirit as God, and why Basil argued from the way the Church prays.

  • Dogmatic definitionDefined by an ecumenical council or otherwise confessed by the Church as binding doctrine. Not every sentence a council wrote is a definition: its acts, letters and disciplinary canons are different things.
  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.
  • Liturgical witnessAttested in the Church's worship — in a hymn, a prayer, a rite or a commemoration. Liturgical language is theological rather than casual, but a hymn is not a canon.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (1)
  • Confirm the account of the Filioque against an official Orthodox source.

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What this lesson covers

  • Explain why the Spirit's divinity became a question only after the Son's.
  • Describe Basil's method of argument and why it matters.
  • State the Orthodox position on the Filioque and the two grounds for it.

About 8 minutes to read.

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The fourth century settled the Son first. Only then did the question move: if the Son is God, what of the Holy Spirit? Some who accepted Nicaea on the Son would not say the same of the Spirit, holding him to be a ministering creature.

Basil's argument

Basil of Caesarea's On the Holy Spirit, written in the 370s and archived here in full, is the fullest surviving answer. Its method is as significant as its conclusion: Basil argues largely from what the Church actually does. Christians are baptised into the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Spirit is glorified together with them in the Church's prayer. What is given the worship due to God is God.

That is worship functioning as a theological source — the principle later summarised as the rule of prayer establishing the rule of belief. It is one of the clearest instances of it in the Fathers.

The Council of 381

The Council of Constantinople confessed the Spirit as the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. The formula does not simply repeat homoousios; it assigns the Spirit the worship due to God alone, which settles the question in the way that mattered.

The Filioque

The Creed as the council issued it says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. The Latin addition filioque, and the Son, entered use in the West over subsequent centuries and has never been received by the Orthodox Church.

Pentecost is where this becomes concrete. The Spirit given to the Church is not an influence or an atmosphere but God himself, and the Church's life — its sacraments, its councils, its saints — is his work.

Key Scripture

  • Acts 2:1-4 — The descent of the Spirit at Pentecost.
  • John 15:26 — The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father.
  • Romans 8:26 — The Spirit interceding within our prayer.

On Scripture references. References are given so you can read the passage in the translation your parish uses. This site does not reproduce a modern copyrighted Bible text.

Council and canon connections

Why this matters in lived Orthodoxy

Pentecost is one of the great feasts of the Orthodox year, and the season after Pascha up to and including it is marked by the practice canon XX of Nicaea legislates: prayer standing rather than kneeling, because these are days of resurrection.

The kneeling prayers at Vespers on the evening of Pentecost mark the end of that season — the first time the Church kneels since Pascha.

Review

Why did the Spirit's divinity become a disputed question later than the Son's?
Because the fourth-century argument dealt with the Son first; some who accepted Nicaea on the Son declined to say the same of the Spirit.
What was Basil's method of argument?
He argued from what the Church does — baptising into the threefold name and glorifying the Spirit with the Father and the Son — on the principle that what receives the worship due to God is God.
What are the two Orthodox objections to the Filioque?
A procedural objection, that a conciliar creed was altered without a council; and a theological one, that it obscures the Father as the single source within the Trinity.

Your notes

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Going deeper

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C Basil: Letters and Select Works Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.); Blomfield Jackson (trans.) Basil, On the Holy Spirit translated edition of primary texts Source record
  2. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) The Holy Creed Which the 150 Holy Fathers Set Forth annotated edition of conciliar texts Source record
  3. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Historical Excursus on the Introduction into the Creed of the Words 'and the Son' annotated edition of conciliar texts Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.