Saint Basil believed that the Spirit is to be worshiped because the Spirit is fully equal to the Father and the Son. In early Christian history, a discussion of the full divinity of the Son led to a consideration of the Holy Spirit. One day they start to ask ‘How does Spirit proceed?’ This happened in Egypt about 360, as we know from St Athanasius’s reply, and in the years 370-380 in Asia Minor.

To make long story short, there was the Peumatomachian who do not want to accept the full divinity of Holy Spirit. This notion was spreading through the ranks of the Homoiousians, introducing another cause of strife.[2] This opinion resembles the Arian reduction of the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. However, Basil the Great of Caesarea asserted that the Spirit is the one in triune God and thus the Spirit is to be worshiped.[3]

Another question was raised, “How does the Spirit proceed from the Father?” Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father “through the Son” (Perfilium)? Or does the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)? It was important question for them. How to put the Holy Spirit in the addition of the Son? It affects the deity of each members of the Trinity and even the basic principles of the Trinity. The Son participates in being the “cause” of the Holy Spirit. Is the Father alone is not the single source or cause within the Godhead? What do you think?

Today, we become more experiential, like impressionists. We want to experience and know how the Spirit touches our “deep-within,” and how the Spirit does and how do we know it is the Holy Spirit.

Back to the early days, some saw that the Father was the cause of the Spirit or the Son. They were thinking in terms of hierarchical society. Would there be the hierarchical sense within the Trinity? Does one dominate the other? The Spirit of God who knows the heart and secret of the Trinity couldn’t be dominated. They are too close to each other, so to speak. Should there be some notion of the authority within triune God-self? Our social system might be foreign to the triune God. However, the language of human being that has this notion of hierarchy has been used to express the nature of God in this way. For example, my hand doesn’t have the notion that it dominates the other parts of body. They just do what they are made for, for my whole body. If we think in terms of our hierarchical society, the head dominates the body. Does it really? Or our whole bodies are only having different functions. At least, the Father does not dominate the other saying “I will think for you just do what I have said.” What do you think? I think that none cause the other, but every part influences the other. That is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equal in depth.

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[2] They believe that Jesus Christ was of the same essence as God the Father.
[3] See also, St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, (Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001).