Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 29:1 (Spring 2025)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

Book Reviews

Rethinking the Filioque with the Greek Fathers. By Giulio Maspero. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2023, 336 pp., $49.99.

Giulio Maspero is a professor of theology at the Pontifical University. His work has specialized in two areas: Gregory of Nyssa and rethinking the traditional doctrines surrounding the Trinity. Thus, his most important works prior to this one are The Trinity and Man, Rethinking the Trinity, and serving as the coeditor of The Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa. In this work, he brings that expertise and spirit to bear on the question of the Spirit’s procession and how it was perceived in the early church to argue that we should return to a premedieval version of the filioque.

Maspero begins his work with the thought of Origen since his works have a profound effect on the writers who came after him. Although there are questions of subordinationism in the writings of Origen, Maspero shows that Origen places the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit on the Creator side of the Creator-creature distinction. He does this through a combination of two models: the linear and the triangular (43). However, Origen lacked the metaphysical tool of Physis-theology. To examine this development, Maspero transitions from Origen to his reception by thinkers such as Eusebius and Athanasius (45). It is Athanasius in particular who marks a clear shift from the Logos-theology of early thinkers to the Physis-theology that would come to dominate Christian thought (53). While this turning point is remembered positively by orthodox Christians, it was not without controversy. The interactions with the Pneumatomachians both highlighted these growing pains and gave the church the opportunity to clarify its thoughts on the relationship between the divine persons. Maspero sees this interaction reaching its zenith in the work of Gregory of Nyssa. It is Nyssen’s emphasis on glory and Schesis-theology that allows for a truly “active but not causal” role of the Son in the procession of the Spirit (140). This role allows the Greek fathers to place the Spirit between the Father and the Son who acts as the bond between the Father and Son (173).

With the view of the Greek fathers laid out, Maspero turns to the Syriac tradition to show that many of the developments of Latin theology with

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regard to the filioque are present there as well. This is particularly important as Syriac, like Latin and unlike Greek, has a single word for procession (177). Yet, this is not the only surprising similarity that Maspero will pull out between traditions. While some have claimed Augustine’s filioque comes from his psychological analysis, Maspero shows that these analogies are also present in the...