Why does the filioque clause divide the Orthodox and Western churches, per Martin Palmer?

Martin Palmer explains that filioque means the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The phrase is not in the creeds of Nicaea in 325, Constantinople in 381 or Chalcedon in 451, and it entered Western usage from around the 6th century, probably in Spain. The Orthodox churches refuse it because it makes the Spirit derivative of the other two, bringing a hierarchy into the Godhead.

• The Anglican Book of Common Prayer keeps the phrase.
• Graham Ward adds that Western images such as Bernard of Clairvaux's kiss, with the Spirit as the kiss itself, make the Spirit look smaller.
• Palmer links the split to the Orthodox rejection of original sin, which casts salvation as fulfilment rather than rescue.

▸In their words

“It produces a subservient Holy Spirit.” Martin Palmer · at 28:28 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-10-08). Read the whole episode summary →

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