Chungman Lee: Similar ideas of Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine about the procession of the Holy Spirit

Discussing two issues regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit, the Father’s being the cause and the role of the Son, I argue that Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine had similar ideas. My research focuses on Gregory’s Contra Eunomium and Augusinte’s De Trinitate. Related to the Father’s being aitia or principium, I argue that Augustine’s attributing the term principium to the Son did not contradict his view of the Father’s monarchy, which Gregory expressed in his treatise, based on the following argumentation. First, Augustine's attributing the term to the Son was connected to explain the property, not the cause, of the Spirit’s hypostasis as communio between Father and Son. In this regard, Augustine used terminologies principaliter and communiter also. Second, the Father is the cause who makes the Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son and be communio between Them. Lastly, Augustine did not stick principium within the limits of defining what ‘being Father’ is, but he emphasized a relational connotation of the term. Regarding the role of the Son in the procession, I argue that Gregory distinguished the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit from that of the Son and expressed its property by using the expression ‘manifested through the Son’ as Augustine did by attributing principium to the Son. Their Christocentric approach to explain the Trinity and the Spirit’s works in oikonomia is commensurate with this argumentation.