Monday, July 6, 2026

It is the 6th of July 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

A happy Monday to you all- we are back, as is our custom, with a mailbag question sent in today from Harrison in Richmond, Virginia. And sure, that’s the home of Gwar. But I also learned about Joybubbles- the man born blind with perfect pitch who could whittle the various pitches used on the phone lines to make free long-distance calls… it was called “phone phreaking”- fascinating. Also, fascinating, for Harrison, is a question about the Nicene Creed- he asked (as has been asked a number of times)-

 

“If the Catholic Church inserted the “And the Son” phrase into the Creed and this is the reason the Eastern Orthodox Church split, would it make sense for Protestants to stop saying “and the Son”? Can I close my mouth doing that part of the Creed?

 

Ok- Harrison- different church bodies will require different levels of assent to certain doctrines and creeds. The Churches of the Magisterial Reformation (your Lutheran and Reformed with parallels to the Anglicans) are going to generally say “we hold to the 3 ecumenical creeds”- Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian.

 

The Apostles… well, it’s got that “descended into Hell”- which is unfortunate- it seems he went to the place of the dead, not damned… oh well…

 

The Athanasian- usually only recited on Trinity Sunday and then the pastor has to explain why the stuff at the end doesn’t mean what it kinda sounds like it is….

 

And then the Nicene… ok, probably the most important because it really lays out the person of Christ and the Trinity- and it’s probably the most ecumenical- most widely used of all the creeds. Except, we really say the Nicene-Constantinopolitan… it needed some smoothing out there in the late 300s… still… good and unifying.

 

What Harrison wrote about the “And the Son” splitting the Catholic and Eastern church is maybe half true. It was the Western church saying in the creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds “from the Father” and adding “and the Son,” which was a formal complaint when the two church heads excommunicated each other back in 1054. But it was the spirit of changing the creed unilaterally which was opposed- the two churches would not submit to the authority of the other- that’s why they split. BUT- what about this “and the son” clause- in Latin: “Filioque”?

 

At the time of the Reformation, the “protestant” churches were breaking from Rome- which had included the “And the Son”- and so Protestant churches that kept the Nicene creed kept the ‘And the Son”. Moreover, many theologians- including John Calvin- wrote defenses of the “and the son” saying that however it was added later- it is better theology.

 

If we say the creed primarily to “say it together- as is one of the purposes, we might do well to ask what everyone else is going to do and to honor that. In fact, the Vatican itself has told Eastern Catholics that they are free to omit the “and the son,” and if the creed is spoken in Greek, the “and the son” is to be omitted by Catholics.

 

If we say the creed primarily to “get it right”- as is one of the purposes- we do well to say “and the Son”- the Spirit Proceeds from the Father- and/or through the Son. So, I guess I’ve added another option- say it as it was originally (no, and the Son), say it as the Western church does traditionally (so, “and the Son”), or do it as theologically precise as possible and say “through the Son”- I think John 15:26 seems to affirm that reading.

 

I love the old creeds- but they are just tools- and if we use tools as mere decorations, we’re doing it wrong. We can investigate, question, innovate if you want… but at the core of the creed is saying “God has told us who he is and what he is doing,” and a creed is one way of saying it back to God… and of saying it “together”.

 

I’m gonna stand by the old idea that Creeds, at their best, are like lighthouses- when we are being tossed about by different ideas as to who Christ is, and how he is God, and the Spirit is God- these old creeds help us stay the course- keeping God God and humans, human. Don’t use it like a cudgel to beat others over the head with, but see it- “filioque” or not- as a guide to knowing our 3 Person God all the better.

 

Thanks, Harrison, for the question!

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Song of Songs… that’s right…

Listen! My beloved!
 Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
 bounding over the hills.

9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
 Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
 peering through the lattice.

10 My beloved spoke and said to me,
 “Arise, my darling,
 my beautiful one, come with me.

11 See! The winter is past;
 the rains are over and gone.

12 Flowers appear on the earth;
 the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
 is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
 the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
 my beautiful one, come with me.”

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 6th of July 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man, like a gazelle, a young stag…gazing through the windows? What? He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who thought both the Romans and Genesis readings were a little opaque… not like that verse! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.