Comparative Theology · Textual History & Manuscripts
The Council of Constantinople (381 CE) & Deity of the Holy Spirit
In short
- 1.The Holy Spirit was not declared a co-equal third person until 381 CE at the Council of Constantinople.
- 2.Early Church Fathers such as Origen and Tertullian held subordinationist views: the Son below the Father, the Spirit below the Son.
- 3.The was a gradual 400-year evolution shaped by Greco-Roman council politics.
The claim being examined
The Holy Spirit was always confessed as the co-equal third person of God.
The Islamic position
The Spirit's co-equality was only defined in 381 CE — a further fifty-six years after Nicaea.
Analysis
Nicaea's original creed said only "and in the Holy Spirit" with no elaboration. The Pneumatomachi ("Spirit-fighters") were a substantial party until Constantinople; the Cappadocian Fathers supplied the philosophical vocabulary that finally defined the Spirit's status.
From the Qur'an
وَإِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَـٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ سُبْحَـٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ ۚ إِن كُنتُ قُلْتُهُۥ فَقَدْ عَلِمْتَهُۥ ۚ تَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِى وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِكَ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ
wa-idh qāla l-lahu yāʿīsā ib'na maryama a-anta qul'ta lilnnāsi ittakhidhūnī wa-ummiya ilāhayni min dūni l-lahi qāla sub'ḥānaka mā yakūnu lī an aqūla mā laysa lī biḥaqqin in kuntu qul'tuhu faqad ʿalim'tahu taʿlamu mā fī nafsī walā aʿlamu mā fī nafsika innaka anta ʿallāmu l-ghuyūbi
Did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah'?
From the Bible
εἷς θεὸς ὁ πατήρ
Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came.
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