It is worthwhile to consider the logic of double procession since few discuss the relative (pun-intended) benefits of the doctrine today. The basic argument is that double procession ensures that each person in God has one relational difference from the other. The point is to ensure that we can distinguish the Father, Son, and Spirit. 

Double procession refers to how the Spirit relates to the Father and Son. It is said to be “double” because both the Father and the Son spirate (breathe out) the Spirit. The Spirit comes from both. Others find it better to say: the Spirit only proceeds from the Father in order to maintain the monarchy of the Father.

While both positions overlap, it is worthwhile to consider the logic of double procession since few discuss the relative (pun-intended) benefits of the doctrine today. The basic argument is that double procession ensures that each person in God has one relational difference from the other. The point is to ensure that we can distinguish the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Here is how this works. 

Relations of Origin

The key issue in the early church was worship. Christians received the threefold name of God in baptism (Matt 28:19). They further worshipped the man Jesus Christ while confessing one God. So they had to think through how to explain their worship.

The first solution came by way of Logos theology. Following John (John 1:1), early Christians understood Jesus to be the Word of God, or the Father, as in the Reason in God. Just as our thoughts our in us but can be distinguished from us, so the Word is in God and can be distinguished from him.

And while the Logos analogy works, the primary metaphor for the Son and Father in Scripture is Son and Father. These names define their relationship in terms of origin.

The Son is Son because the Father begat him; the Father is Father because he begat the Son. So their distinguishing relationship according to the biblical idiom was to be one of paternity and filiation, of eternal begetting (because the Son always was the Son and was not begotten in time).

These relationships say very little about the inner-life of God but use biblical notions to describe the Father and Son as one divine being with distinguishable attributes. Christians coined these relations of origin, therefore, not to impute any sort of positive difference between the Father and Son beyond merely defining how they can be distinguished. Hence, they succeeded in giving words to their worship of the Son while remaining monotheists.

Read More