Duane Alexander Miller's Blog

These lectures were presented in August of 2025 in Andhra Pradesh by the Rev. Dr. Duane Miller.

Christian Mission And The Test Of Discipleship: The Princeton Lectures 1970 by Shoki Coe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am thankful that someone, many years later, transcribed and shared with us the text of these valuable lectures.

The main work that Coe is known for is his labor with the Theological Education Fund of the World Council of Churches in the mid-1970s. It was during that time that the word ‘contextualisation’ became widely disseminated—though I note the actual word itself does appear in these lectures.

I especially recommend the last lecture which contains some important autobiographical notes that help us to understand the theory of contextualisation, and how it flows from his of life and experience of colonialism (Japanese and Communist Chinese—not British or American) and the great political and cultural tumult of those times.

I recommend this for any scholars of missions and missiology.



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An interview with the David+ Roseberry at his SubStack “The Anglican”

Editor’s note: I love smart people. I am of reasonable intelligence, but I marvel at the brainpower of some leaders God has brought into the Anglican Church. Duane is one of them. He is an expert on a few things that everyone should have an interest in. Namely, Duane knows Islam, and I usually consult him before publishing. (Thank you, Duane.)

He is a missionary in Spain and doing some fantastic work there. I encourage you to 

Read his Substack

Read his blog here.

Read about his books here.

That said, as we have focused on the Trinity this week (Trinity Sunday is just ahead), I asked Duane to explain the famous Filioque Clause. He submitted an article that I found very helpful, which I adapted into an interview format to make it more accessible.

—DHR☩

The Anglican:

Let’s start at the beginning. Most of us have said the words a hundred times: “the Holy Spirit… who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” What exactly is that phrase—“and the Son”—and where did it come from?

Duane Alexander Miller:

That phrase—Filioque in Latin—was not in the original Nicene Creed. The Creed was finalized at the second ecumenical council in Constantinople in A.D. 381, and it simply said the Spirit proceeds from the Father. That’s it.

The addition came about two centuries later at a local council in Toledo, Spain, in 589. At the time, Arianism—a heresy that denied the full divinity of Christ—was still active in that region. To emphasize the full authority of the Son, the bishops added the phrase “and the Son” (Filioque) to the Creed.

So it started as a pastoral response in a particular place, not as a universal declaration. But over time, that addition spread throughout the Latin-speaking West and became standard.

The Anglican:

So what’s the problem? Why has this phrase become such a source of controversy?

Duane:

Because it wasn’t authorized by an ecumenical council, and it altered a creed that was carefully crafted by bishops representing the whole Church—East and West.

The Orthodox Church, which still uses the original version of the Creed, sees the Filioque as a Western innovation that violates the unity and authority of the ecumenical councils. For them, this isn’t just a theological nuance—it’s a breach of trust.

When I lived in the Middle East, where the Orthodox Church is the historic Christian presence, this wasn’t abstract. These are real people, real relationships. When you’re a minority, Christian unity isn’t academic—it’s survival.

The Anglican:

Let’s talk theology. What does the Filioque actually claim—and why do some theologians object?

Duane:

The Creed speaks about what happens eternally within the life of God—not what happens in time. When we say that the Son is “begotten of the Father,” we’re talking about an eternal, metaphysical relationship. Likewise, when we say that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father,” that too is a timeless truth.

Now, in history, yes—Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. We see that in John 15 and 16. But theologians have a term for that. It’s called the economic Trinity—God’s action in time. The Creed is speaking of the ontological Trinity—who God is eternally.

The problem with the Filioque is that it confuses those two categories. It takes something true of history (Jesus sends the Spirit) and inserts it into a statement about eternal divine relationships. That’s poor theological method, even if it’s well-intended.

The Anglican:

Is it heresy?

Duane:

Not technically. But it does lean toward a serious error: subordinationism—the idea that the Spirit is somehow subordinate to the Father and the Son, like third place in a hierarchy. That’s not what the West intends to say. But to many in the Orthodox Church, it sure sounds that way.

It’s like indulgences. Theologically, they weren’t “selling forgiveness.” But the appearance of it caused a real scandal. The Filioque functions the same way. Even if it’s not heretical in intent, it looks like it undermines the Spirit—and that should give us pause.

The Anglican:

So why do Western Christians keep saying it?

Duane:

Some say, “It’s biblical,” citing passages like John 15:26 and John 16:7. But the original Creed is biblical too—and those verses don’t say what people think they say. In John 15:26, Jesus clearly says the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Not from both.

Others say, “It was added to guard against heresy,” and that’s true—for 6th-century Spain. But the Arian threat is long gone. The Filioque addressed a local problem. Is it still solving anything today—or is it creating new problems?

The Anglican:

What would it mean for Anglicans to omit the phrase?

Duane:

Some Anglican provinces and Prayer Books already permit the omission of “and the Son.” In places where Anglicanism lives alongside Orthodoxy—as in the Middle East—it’s often left out to maintain unity and avoid offense.

We can’t simply rewrite the Creed. But we can honor the original form in appropriate settings—especially in ecumenical contexts. It’s a humble and faithful gesture.

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The Anglican:

What’s the pastoral reason for reconsidering this clause?

Duane:

Saint Paul said, “We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited” (2 Cor. 6:3). The Filioque was our addition in the West. If it’s causing division and misunderstanding, we have a duty to rethink it.

It’s not about capitulation—it’s about clarity, unity, and fidelity to the faith we’ve received. Returning to the original Creed isn’t a compromise. It’s correction. 

And it might also be an act of repentance.

About Duane Alexander Miller

Learn more about Duane’s ministry in Spain here. If you’d like to send him a donation, I know it would be gratefully received. Monies given here over the next week will be wired to him directly.

Give a Donation to Dr. Miller’s Ministry

Duane Alexander Miller teaches theology and writes on matters of faith and culture from Madrid, Spain. Follow him on Substack at @duanealexandermiller.

I had always wanted to visit Alhambra near Granada. And after 7+ years in Spain it happened. Some photos.

This is the full text of my book Two Stories of Everything: The Competing Metanarratives of Islam and Christianity, by Duane Alexander Miller, translated into Russian.

You may download and share the PDF as you please. The book is also available in English (at Amazon) and Spanish (at http://www.Solafide.es).

Это полный текст моей книги «Две истории обо всем: конкурирующие метанарративы ислама и христианства», переведенной на русский язык.

Вы можете скачать и поделиться PDF-файлом по своему усмотрению. Книга также доступна на английском (на Amazon) и испанском (на http://www.Solafide.es) языках. Автор этой книги — Дуэйн Александр Миллер.

Две истории обо всем Two Stories of Everything (1)Download

Presented to the Anglican Group in 11/2024 at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, held in San Diego, California.

A sermon I preached on Revelation 13 and Deuteronomy 6 in September of 2024 in Madrid:

A few photos from our family to yours. We were happy to have Sharon’s parents and my father and his lady friend with us.

Un sermón mío sobre esta pregunta:

Shoki Coe: An Ecumenical Life in Context by Jonah Chang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Shoki Coe was an influential and important Christian thinker who impacted ecumenics and was the first proponent of contextualization.

This book fills in the tumultuous biography behind his thoughtful and migratory life: Grew up in Taiwan, studied philosophy in Imperial Japan, then theology in England, and so on. American Christian would go on to use the word “contextualization” without understanding Coe’s original, groundbreaking work.

Any person interested in contextualization should start by reading the 1973 and 1974 articles of Coe in the journal Theological Education.

And then, read this book. I was fortunate to find it on archive.org, which also gives you the option to listen to the text being read to you, though the AI reader is far from perfect.

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