Explain the Filioque debate like I’m five years old:

Charles Lincon
1 min readMar 21, 2023

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Western and Eastern view contrasted below.

“Fully God is the Father and the Son; the Holy Spirit also, fully God. Yet, the love between them differs: for the Western view, it proceeds from both, but for the Eastern, from the Father alone, the sole source of the Godhead.” — Rhetorical Chiasmus I asked ChatGPT to make based on the text below.

Western view (Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son):

Premise 1: The Father and the Son are both fully God. Premise 2: The Holy Spirit is also fully God. Premise 3: The Holy Spirit is the love that the Father and the Son have for each other. Conclusion: Therefore, the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.

Eastern view (Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone):

Premise 1: The Father is the sole source of the Godhead. Premise 2: The Son is begotten of the Father. Premise 3: The Holy Spirit is fully God. Conclusion: Therefore, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.

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Charles Lincon

Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, Hegelian dialectics, Attic Greek, masters University of Amsterdam.