As I mentioned earlier, the Great Schism is centered on the use of the filioque clause in the confession of faith. This Latin term is included in the Creed of the Roman Catholic Church, but not in the Eastern Orthodox traditions. “Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.” Yes, I know, more annoying Latin. It translates to, “and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” The original Creed did not contain the filioque, referencing the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father alone. This was ultimately seen by the western theologians as a disruption of the perfectly balanced perichoresis doctrine, and so at the Council of Toledo they added the filioque. This addition has been accepted by the Roman Catholic, Anglican and most Protestant churches, but the Orthodox Church refuses to this day to put Father and Son on equal footing in this one instance.
Modern Christian movements are varied on belief in the Trinity to this day. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supports the Trinity, though they consider the Trinity to be three distinctly separate beings united in a similar cause. Then there are the Unitarian faith systems, which say they are Christian but heavily modify or openly reject traditional Trinitarian teaching. There is a movement within Pentecostalism that teaches a doctrine known as Oneness. It shares a root with the modalism once taught by the Sabellian movement in the early Church. Modalism teaches that the different persons within the Trinity are only ‘masks’ for the one, true God and not distinct hypostases. Oneness Pentecostalism agrees with this assertion, thus putting it in conflict with traditional Trinitarian theology. Baptism in an Oneness tradition is done exclusively in the name of Jesus Christ.
The question of the true nature (or even the validity) of the Trinity shows no sign of abating, and promises to remain a major source of debate in the Christian community for centuries to come.
