The Filioque Impasse

Michelle Coetzee focuses on the underlying causes of the filioque impasse, which remains one of the greatest obstacles to the re-establishment of communion between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics. She argues that there has been a great deal of misunderstanding of the positions of each tradition by the other, partly due to the fact that East and West imbue certain key words, such as 'person' and 'unity', with different meanings. Underlying this difficulty is the problem of divergent approaches to theology, leading to differing responses to the Church's interaction with ancient Hellenic philosophy back in the fourth century and consequently to divergent expositions of the Trinity. Against this backdrop, Coetzee sets about clearing up some of the misunderstandings. But choices still need to be made and, in Coetzee's view, these must ultimately be made on the basis of approach to theology and truth criteria.