![]() The other three formulae (of 381, 433 and 451) were definitions or explanations (ὅροι) of, yet by no means additions to "the ancient faith of the 318 holy Fathers". The Early Church regarded the Nicene Creed as being "the faith" (ἡ πίστις) or "the symbol" (τὸ σύμβολον). The Fathers' attempts to find new methods of expressing a pneumatology based on the threefold ὁμοούσια demonstrate that the consubstantiality was meant to be extended to the Spirit. Despite some lacunae, modern scholarship established links between the West (Rome), the Antiochene council of 379 and the ecumenical council of 381. This study presents the doctrinal environment of the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum, including its lost Tomus, mentioned by the synodal epistle of 382, in light of which the Creed's theology ought to be explained. In this development, the narrative of Luke-Acts has thoroughly influenced the way in which Christianity developed a new discourse to present itself as old. Its organisation was seen as divinely inspired, because its leaders were thought to be endowed with the Spirit. Its message was presented as old instead of new, as the Holy Spirit had foretold the Christ event. Thus, emerging Christianity legitimised itself and its social structures by the theology of the Holy Spirit. It situates the development of the idea of the Holy Spirit as God's presence in past and present within the social history of the developing Christian movement, and shows how this idea was connected to the concept of apostolic succession. This article reflects on the way in which early Christianity thought about the Holy Spirit and developed a new discourse on the basis of earlier, Jewish traditions. The Trinitarian discourse of the 4th and 5th centuries grew out of earlier developments, whilst at the same time reflecting a renewal over against the language of the earliest Christian sources.
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