Division and Unity Among Christians
This third, most misunderstood person of the Trinity has historically been the person of the Godhead around which true Christians have had the most disagreement.
In 1054, the "great schism" that divided Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism from one another had many causes, not least of which was the insertion by the Roman Pope Benedict VIII of one Latin word into the Nicene Creed regarding the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the other two members of the Godhead. One word! Granted, there was a constellation of other stresses and conflicts that went into the splitting of Christ's church into two major branches, but this illustrates how seriously people have taken their search to understand the Holy Spirit and how difficult it has been at times to describe Him well.
Because the Holy Spirit is the "empowering and doing" Person of the Godhead, Christ's church has always wanted to see Him move through their particular activities, which is a good thing! However, an honest critic of Church History has to admit that a great number of silly things have been attributed to the activity of the Holy Spirit over time, especially in some of the histories that come to us from the Dark Ages' monastic records.
This led many Protestant reformers to include in their reformations of Catholic doctrines a revision of what they expected to see the Holy Spirit doing today in the church. From their influence, a doctrinal stream called "cessationism" arose, which teaches that the gifts of power that feature so prominently in the book of Acts were a feature of the ministry of the Apostles, were unique to their age, and are not to be expected in our age. Most reformational churches agree with this doctrinal perspective today.
In reaction to this growing sentiment among Protestants, several groups broke off of their cessationist roots in different stages of church history as far back as the 17th century and began praying for and practicing all the gifts of the Spirit in their assemblies. These groups would call themselves continuationists, in contrast to cessationism. The largest point of origin for these movements was in the early 1900s in California, Florida, and Tennessee, sparking what today are referred to as the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements.
All of these groups: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Cessationist, and Continuationist Protestants, all agree on the central tenets of Christian theology about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. They all affirm everything that has been presented in the creeds and affirmed by true Christians throughout time. Especially within the two Protestant branches, differences occur in where they expect to see the Holy Spirit working today and how they position themselves to be a part of that work.