Oliver Langworthy: The Holy Spirit and the Synod of Constantinople (383)

This paper will consider the Pneumatologies present in several of the documents
related to the Synod of Constantinople (383) and argue for their significance
in understanding both the Synod and the Council of Constantinople. The Holy Spirit
has received little of the limited scholarly attention devoted to this
conference of the sects called by Theodosius in the aftermath of the Council of
Constantinople. This is understandable as the few accounts of the Synod, the
ecclesiastical histories of Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen, do not make particular
mention of the Spirit. Nevertheless, the Spirit figures prominently in two
confessional documents related to the Synod: the Eunomian profession of faith,
and the statement attributed to Wulfila on his deathbed by Auxentius of
Durostorum. By building on Martin Wallraff and Thomas Graumann’s reassessments
of Socrates’ discussion of the Synod the Pneumatologies presented in these statements
of faith will be examined in light of the later accounts of the Synod and in
their own right. Related texts such as Gregory of Nazianzus’ contemporary letters, Gregory of Nyssa’s criticism of Eunomius’ exposition of faith, and
the text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as put forward at Chalcedon in 451
will be considered in tension with them.