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Trinity

Table of contents
1 Introduction
2 Biblical Discussion
3 The Trinity
4 Orthodox and Catholic viewpoints
5 One God, Three Persons
6 Importance of the Doctrine for the Christian Faith
7 External links
8 Trinitarial Concepts in Non-Abrahamic Religions

Introduction


Famous Orthodox Icon representing three angels
that visited Abraham as a symbol of the Trinity.
15th century AD.''Larger

In religion, the Trinity is a central doctrine of most branches of Christianity; it says that God is one God, existing in three distinct persons, usually referred to as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Historically, this has been described by the Nicene (325 A.D.), Apostles' (200 A.D.), and Athanasian Creeds (mid 300's A.D.) although it is not explicitly described in the Bible. These creeds were created and endorsed by the orthodox, catholic Church of the third and fourth centuries, and later retained in some form by most Protestants.

The Nicene Creed, which is a classic formulation of this doctrine, used "homousia" (Gk of same substance) to define the relationship among the members of the Godhead. The spelling of this word differs by a single Greek letter, "one iota", from the word used by non-trinitarians at the time, "homoiousia", (of similar substance): a fact which has since become proverbial, representing the deep divisions occasioned by seemingly small imprecisions, especially in theology.

Biblical Discussion

The word, Trinity, does not appear in the Bible, and indeed, it apparently did not exist until Tertullian coined the word in the early third century. Nevertheless, although trinitarian Christians grant that the modern words and formulas are later developments, they still believe that this doctrine is found systematically throughout the Bible, and in the creeds and doctrines, and in other traditions of the Christian Church. It is considered a biblical doctrine "only on the principle that the sense of Scripture is Scripture". [1]

Belief in the God symbolized by the doctrine is considered essential by Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and orthodox Protestantism. However, understanding it is not essential to the Christian faith. Or more precisely, it must be understood that God is a Trinity, for the sake of knowing who God is, and for understanding the salvation he has accomplished. But beyond such practical issues, speculation regarding a theory of divine being is discouraged.

Baptism the practical starting point

A practical understanding of the Trinity centers upon Christian Baptism. This is the starting point, to apprehend why the doctrine matters to so many Christians, even though what the doctrine teaches about the being of God is that, it is beyond comprehension. The Apostles' Creed, for example, has been commonly used as a brief summation of Christian faith, to be professed by converts to Christianity when they receive baptism, and at other times in the liturgy of the church.

Christians are baptized "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. More recently, some concerned about the masculine terms have begun using a non-gender specific formula, such as "In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier" (it is matter of controversy, whether these terms are equivalent). The Christian life, and the Christian understanding of salvation, begins with a declaration of the Trinity. Basil the Great (A.D 330-379)explains:

"We are bound to be baptized in the terms we have received, and to profess faith in the terms in which we have been baptized"

At the baptism of Jesus Christ, again the Trinity appears: And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:16-17, RSV). Thus to trinitarians the three persons of the Trinity were made manifest at once, in connection with baptism.

"This is the Faith of our baptism", the council of Constantinople declared (A.D 382, "that teaches us to believe in the Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". According to this Faith there is one Godhead, Power, and Being of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". The Trinity is deemed important by trinitarians, because this singleness of God's being, and multiplicity of persons, accounts for the nature of Christian salvation, and discloses the gift of eternal life. "Through the Son we have access to the Father in one Spirt" (Eph 2:18). This communion with the Father is the goal of the Christian faith, and is eternal life. It is acheived through God's union with human nature, in Jesus Christ who having in himself the fullness of deity died for sinners; and this forgiveness and friendship with God is made accessible through the gift to the church of the Holy Spirit, who raised Christ from the dead, and who, being God, knows God intimately and leads and empowers the Christian to fulfill the will of God. Thus, this doctrine touches on every aspect of the trinitarian Christian's faith and life; and that accounts for why it has been so earnestly contended for, throught Christian history despite the difficulty inherent in explaining the doctrine.

Historical development

As it exists today the doctrine developed over the centuries as a result of many controversies, such as Arianism, Sabellianism, and Adoptionism. Initially though, the biggest contribution came from the ideas of neoplatonism from philosophers who became Christians. Augustine of Hippo has been noted at the forefront of these ideas and contributed much to the speculative development of the doctrine of the Trinity as it is known today. This has been coined as the Neoplatonic Hypostases or Neoplatonic Logos philosophies. These controversies were for most purposes settled at the Ecumenical Councils, whose creeds affirm the doctrine of the Trinity. Constantine the Great being the first to call the first council in 325 AD arguably had political motives for settling the issue rather than religious reasons as he personally favored the minority of Arianism.

According to the Athanasian Creed, each of these three divine Persons are said to be eternal, each said to be almighty, none greater or less than another, each said to be God, and yet together being but one God. According to the teachings of orthodox Christianity, the three persons of the Holy Trinity are said to share one Divine Nature, thus preserving their belief in one God. So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords. -- Athanasian Creed, line 20

Opponents of this view contend that these three "Persons" are not separate and distinct individuals. They hold that God is numerically one and that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are merely modes, roles or manifestations of God Almighty. These titles describe how humanity has interacted with or had experiences with God. In the Role of The Father, God is the provider and creator of all. In the mode of The Son, man experiences God in the flesh, as a human, fully man and fully God. God manifests Himself as the Holy Spirit by his actions on Earth and within the lives of Christians. This is sometimes known as Modalism or Sabellianism, and was rejected as heresy by the Ecumenical Councils although it is still prevelant today in some Christian denominationss.

Some feminist theologians refer to the persons of the Holy Trinity with more gender-neutral language, such as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer (or Sanctifier). This is a very recent formulation, and emphasizes their roles rather than their personhood. Since, however, each of the three divine persons participates in the acts of creation, redemption, and sustaining, traditional Christians reject this formulation as simply a new variety of Modalism.

The Trinity

The Father is often thought of as the God who acts throughout the Old Testament and talks to and through Christ in the New Testament. However, all three persons of the Trinity are believed to be clearly present and active in the Creation as described in Genesis 1 and 2. Eastern Orthodox theologians also believe that Abraham's visit by three angels was in fact a visit by the three persons of the Holy Trinity. The Eastern Orthodox icon of the three youths in the fiery furnace (event recorded in the Book of Daniël indicates that the angel walking with them in the furnace was Jesus Christ, the preincarnate second person of the Holy Trinity. The Catholic Church, while accepting these angelic visitations as symbolic of the Trinity, does not identify the angels with the persons of the Trinity themselves.

The Son is Christ, who is described in the book of Hebrews chapter 1:2-3 as ...appointed heir of all things, through whom also He (meaning God) made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person..., whose sacrifice on the cross and subsequent resurrection ransomed souls from hell, opened the portal to heaven for those who want to go or both, depending on which Christian tradition one consults. As the Son, Christ is co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At the Incarnation, the Son took on human flesh and human nature, and was known to the world as Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, he was both God and man, not considered to be some kind of phantasm or soulless possessed being, but was just like other humans except for also being God. The Chalcedonian Creed spells out the distinctions between Christ's divine nature and his human nature. Within orthodox Christianity, both Christ's divine nature and human nature are theologically necessary. Without Christ's divine nature, it would be possible to view Christ as simply an ordinary human being which would open up questions about why one should worship Him. Without Christ's human nature, then the sacrifice of Christ of his own life would be rendered meaningless within the context of Christian theology.

The Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost) is sometimes thought of as the essence of God embodied as divine or inspired wisdom in people's lives, telling them the proper way to deal with the universe. Many believe that the Holy Spirit is within everyone, the part of God that communicates directly with humans. The traditional Trinitarian view is that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person, co-eternal with the Father and the Son, no more or less eminent than the Father and the Son.

Orthodox and Catholic viewpoints

In Eastern Orthodox theology, the distinction is often described as follows. The three persons of the Trinity share the same divine essence, the same divine nature. (Because there is only one Divine Essence, and the three persons are undivided, there is only one God; thus Trinitarian Christianity remains monotheistic.) The difference between them is only that the Father begets the Son, and the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father. The Son does not beget or proceed; the Father neither proceeds nor is begotten; the Holy Spirit nether begets nor is it begotten. There are no other differences.

The Western (Catholic) tradition is less abstract. In this view, the Son is the Father's perfect conception of his own self. Since existence is among the Father's perfections, his self-conception must also exist. Since the Father is one, there can be but one perfect self-conception: the Son. Thus the Son is begotten by the Father in an act of intellectual generation. By contrast, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the perfect love that exists between the Father and the Son: and as in the case of the Son, this love must share the perfection of real existence. Therefore, as reflected in the filioque clause inserted into the Nicene Creed by the Catholic Church, the Holy Spirit is said to proceed from both the Father "and the Son." The Eastern Orthodox church holds that the filioque clause, i.e., the added words "and the Son" (in Latin, filioque), constitutes heresy. Most Protestant groups that use the creed also include the filioque clause. However, the issue is usually not controversial among them because, their conception is generally less exact than is discussed above. The clause is often understood by Protestants to mean that the Spirit is sent from the Father, by the Son.

One God, Three Persons

Despite this concept of the Trinity, Trinitarian Christians consider theirs a monotheistic faith: the Trinity is regarded as three individual persons, but one God. Several Bible passages suggest this:

This doctrine is also suggested by the Theophanies, especially the "Angel of the Lord", and the plural names of the Deity, e.g. Elohim

Several Jewish and Islamic as well as some Christian theologians have criticized this arithmetic, regarding the doctrine of the Trinity as bordering on, or indeed transgressing into, polytheism (tritheism) and reference passages in the Bible such as:

However, trinitarians point out that these passages literally read, 'Hear O Israel! The Lord our god the lord is a union!'. ('echad'). This is the same word used to describe Adam and Eve as being 'one' (echad) flesh. (Gen. 2:24) In Numbers 13:23 there is one (echad) cluster of grapes. In Gen. 1:5, evening and morning together make up 'yom echad', or one day. In Ezra 2:64 the whole assembly is as 'one' (echad). And so on.

On the other hand, in Exodus 22:20, 'He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only ('biti'), he shall be utterly destroyed.' Thus, if Moses had intended to teach that there is only one indivisible divine personality, he would have expressed himself differently.

Some Muslim scholars have theorized that the Christian viewpoint is a misunderstanding with the terms father and son in the bible being terms of respect as opposed to implying an actual paternal relationship. One argument for this viewpoint is the numerous uses of the phrase "our father" with respect to humanity. This view reflects the Islamic view, which is inconsistent with orthodox Christianity, that Christ was a prophet of God but was not divine himself.

Importance of the Doctrine for the Christian Faith

Many Christians believe that the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is so central to the Christian faith, that to deny it is to reject the Christian faith entirely. However there have been a number of groups both historical and current which identify themselves as Christians but yet have an alternative view of the trinity. One ancient sect, called Ebionism, said that Jesus was not a "Son of God," but rather an ordinary man who was a prophet -- a view of Jesus shared by Islam. Other groups have an understanding of the Trinity that differs from orthodox formulation shared by Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox. These include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses (who reject the Trinity doctrine entirely), Christian Science, the Unification Church, Unitarian Universalists and Oneness Pentecostals (Who believe that there is one God with no essential divisions in His nature. He is not a plurality of persons, but He does have a plurality of manifestations, roles, titles, attributes, or relationships to man. Furthermore, these are not limited to three).

External links

Trinitarial Concepts in Non-Abrahamic Religions

In the religion Dianic Wicca as well as other branches of Neopaganism, trinity refers to the Maiden, Mother and Crone (or Virgin, Mother and Crone), three versions of the Goddess and the three stages of a woman's life. This concept is itself derived from much earlier mythologies such as the multi-faceted aspect of Morrigan in Irish mythology and Frigg in Norse mythology. Trinity is also used by Egyptologists to describe the Ancient Egypt deities Osiris, Isis, and Horus.

Many Neopagans' concept of all Gods and Goddesses as aspects of a single divine being is similar to the Christian concept of the Trinity, but Neopaganism is not considered monotheistic. Many Hindus also believe that all their Gods and Goddesses are all aspects or part of a single divine being, but Hinduism is not considered monotheistic either.

A trinity also exists in Hindu tradition (The Trimurti): Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma, the three main gods. Brahma is the God of Creation, the one who has created the world, Vishnu is the Preserver or the one who sustains the world and Shiva is the God of Destruction, the one who destroys the world, after which the whole cycle of creation, preservation and destruction starts all over again.