220

Irish Theological Quarterly 81(2)

In many respects, missionary styles and strategies have changed significantly, and yet
they remain unchanged for those who hear the call to missionary service and social jus-
tice whether at home or abroad. In a very moving way, Ronan Scully shares his memo-
ries and reflections after facing the challenges of working in Calcutta, especially among
poor children. He asked God ‘how can you let these children live in this poverty?’ God
replied to him in prayer, ‘how can you?’ (p. 267). We are called to reflect on the fact that
today in western societies there are the ‘new poor’ such as refugees and asylum seekers,
victims of substance abuse and domestic violence, the reality of suicide and mental ill-
ness and those who fall through the cracks of rapid social and economic change.
Ryan is to be commended for this volume that completes the trilogy and for helping
the reader to see how there is a little bit of Ireland in almost every corner of the earth.

Ecumenical Perspectives on the Filioque for the 21st Century. Edited by Myk Habets.
London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Pp. 240. Price $45.50 (hbk). ISBN 978-0-567-50072-4.

Reviewed by: Viorel Coman, KU Leuven

In spite of the 20th-century impressive degree of consensus between the East and the
West on the filioque, the issue of the Spirit’s eternal origination still remains a doctrinal
point of division on the path towards Christian unity. Over the last decades, the discus-
sions on the filioque within the ecumenical structure and individual churches have been,
however, overshadowed by the importance of the debates on primacy. Theological arti-
cles and books continue, though, to investigate possible solutions that could bring an end
to the controversy in question. Edited by Myk Habets (a Baptist theologian and professor
from Auckland, New Zeland), the volume entitled Ecumenical Perspectives on the
Filioque for the 21st Century gathers together the contributions of 14 theologians who
intend to remind the churches that the question of the Spirit’s eternal procession is still
an ecumenical problem. The publication of this collection of essays is highly laudable in
many respects. On the one hand, it engages ecumenically minded theologians and schol-
ars of different Christian tradition, including Free Church and Pentecostal, to revisit the
long-lasting pneumatological controversy and suggest constructive proposals on how to
go beyond and resolve the question of the filioque. On the other hand, this ecumenical set
of investigations commits itself to urge Christian churches and communities to recon-
sider their lack of active reception of the recommendations advanced in the past by dif-
ferent bi-lateral or multi-lateral dialogues, especially the final report of the Kingenthal
consultations (1978–1979).
The essays of the volume are grouped into three main parts. In order to understand the
complexities of the issue at hand, the three chapters included in Part I seek to place the
filioque controversy within both a comprehensive theological and historical framework.
That being so, Edward Siecisnsky surveys the entire history of the filioque debate in a
clear and condensed manner. Paul Molnar analyzes, in dialogue with Thomas F.
Torrance’s Trinitarian insights, the main theological issues associated with the filioque.
David Guretzki provides the readers with interesting Free Church contributions to the
pneumatological debate.
Book Reviews 221

The five chapters of Part II explore the doctrine of the filioque and its subsidiary
theological issues from the point of view of various Christian traditions. Drawing from
the theology of Gregory II of Cyprus, and keeping with the Orthodox emphasis on the
monarchy of the Father, Theodoros Alexopoulos argues that the inner-Trinitarian rela-
tionship between the Son and the Spirit can only be explained in terms of consubstanti-
ality and expressed through the idea that the Spirit is manifested eternally through the
Son. On the Reformed side, both Brannon Ellis and Christopher Holmes appropriate the
theology of John Calvin as a means to further the dialogue on the filioque. Brannon Ellis
draws our attention to the doctrine of the Son’s aseity in Calvin’s theology whereas
Christopher Holmes considers Calvin’s theology of Christ’s tria munera as relevant for
the understanding of the inner-Trinitarian relationships. The last two chapters of Part II
comprise Free Church contributions to the discussions on the Spirit’s eternal proces-
sion. David Wilhite suggests points of contact where Baptist theology may engage with
the Trinitarian debates under discussion, while Frank Macchia offers a response to the
filioque controversy through the lens of Pentecostal Spirit-baptism theology.
As for Part III, its five chapters propose possible ecumenical pathways through the
doctrinal filioque impasse. The Lutheran theologian Robert W. Jenson focuses on the
notion of the Spirit as vinculum amoris in order to highlight the important role that
dynamic language describing the Trinity could play in solving the pneumatological con-
troversy. On the Presbyterian side, John McDowell revisits the theological issues that
surrounds the filioque through a Trinitarian discourse which attempts to avoid any
abstraction of the Spirit from the giving of the Father’s life in the Son. Thomas G.
Weinandy (Roman Catholic) advocates the need of a new Trinitarian paradigm that
emphasizes the co-inherent and reciprocal personing of each of the divine persons.
Equally interesting is the contribution of Kathryn Tanner (Episcopalian), who argues that
a closer attention to the relationships among the three persons of the Trinity as these are
narrated in the New Testament account of Christ’s life and death could provide a solution
to the East–West divide. Last but not least, Myk Habets advocates theology’s need to
develop a more solid perichoretic doctrine of Trinity.
The reviewer of this volume regrets, however, the fact that a deep analysis of the agreed
statements of the past 40 years on the question of the filioque is missing from the articles of
this book. References to the Joint-Statement of the North American Orthodox-Catholic
Theological Consultation from 2003, or to the document issued by the Vatican in 1995, are
still present in most of the articles, but none of them provide us with a detailed and much
needed presentation of the achievements of the theological dialogues on the issue of the
Spirit’s eternal procession. There are theologians who claim that after the publication of the
2003 agreed statement of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Consultation the filioque
should no longer be perceived as a Church dividing issue. Equally regrettable is the fact that
Part III does not include any Orthodox constructive proposal on how to move beyond the
pneumatological controversy that has tormented Christianity for more than a millennium.
Minor criticism aside, Myk Habets’s volume is an excellent addition to the literature
on the filioque. The editor and the contributors deserve a huge note of thanks not only
from readers wanting to familiarize themselves with the history and the theological
issues that surround the filioque, but from anyone interested in contemporary rich reflec-
tions on the topic of the Spirit’s eternal procession.