[Martin Tell]

I agree with you. The point I was making was that by changing the Nicene Creed to have the Holy Spirit proceed from both the Father AND the Son, the Holy Spirit was placed in a subordinate position to the Father and the Son - a type of junior partner.

I believe the Holy spirit is in fact a full person in the Trinity.

Forgive me, I am not a theologian, but I recall hearing that each member of the Holy Trinity has a role, and that in a type of reciprocity, they are equal. The filique interferes with that, and leads to notions such as the Holy Spirit being God's love or some type of emanation of God. To be clear, I don't believe that.

[ADSUM]

I guess I didn’t read it that way.

Anyway, we can look forward to learning about the mysteries of the Trinity.

[ebb tide]

The same Catholic Nicene Creed contains:

For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Ghost was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

How does this same creed reduce the Holy Ghost to a "junior partner"?

[Flying Circus]

By your logic then the Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Father, though not necessarily the Son. The Filioque was added to counter Semi-Arian ideas that questioned the full divinity of the Son. I don’t think the Filioque, properly understood, reduces the Holy Spirit within the Trinity, but maintains the fullness of the Son’s membership within the Trinity.

Personally I think it would be great if a council could be convened of both the East and West churches to answer the question and come up with a mutually agreeable formulation that neither reduces nor raises any of the divine persons outside their proper role in the Trinity. They should handle a few more of the questions that divide the Church while they are at it.