Trinity
For other uses of trinity, please see the disambiguation page. This entry refers to the religious, spiritual, or philosophical uses of the word.
Introduction
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.), Apostle's (200 A.D.), and Athanasian Creeds (mid 300's A.D.) although it is not explicitly described in the Bible. These creeds were created by the Roman Catholic Church, and later carried over by the Protestants by default when they broke away.
The word "Trinity" is often used interchangeably with another term, the "Triune" which means "three in one substance (homoousia)". Since the Nicene Creed used "homousia" to define the relationship among the members of the Godhead, they are considered to be synonymous. The spelling of the 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 and Theological Discussions
The doctrine of the Trinity does not appear explicitly in the Bible, indeed not even the word itself is found there as the word did not exist until later when Tertullian coined the word in the early third century. There are many passages trinitarians point to as implying the existence of the Trinity. One of the most-cited is the baptism of Jesus Christ: 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. To others however, this clearly violates "three in one substance" as all three manifestations are clearly not of the same matter. This seperaton and distinction is more similar to the Mormon view of God. This baptisim is commemorated each year in the West as the Baptism of our Lord on the Sunday following Epiphany, and in the East as the Feast of Theophany on January 6.
Christian opponents of the teaching in their turn argue it would be an egregious matter to lack explicitness and point among other things to Biblical passages such as Jesus' reference to "my God and your God" (John 20:17, KJV), his avowed non-omniscience as Son (Mark 13:32), and his words, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God" (Mark 10:18, KJV). Such opponents are a minority among Christians, and have been for most of Christianity's history.
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 denominations.
Some feminist theologians refer to the persons of the Holy Trinity with more gender-neutral language, such as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. 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:
- Genesis 1:26: Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
- Genesis 3:22: Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever."
- Genesis 11:7: "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."
- Isaiah 6:8: Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
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 and reference passages in the Bible such as:
- Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.
- Isaiah 44:6: Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
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
- "The Oneness of God" by David K. Bernard (Series in Pentecostal Theology, Volume 1)
- [1] Andrei Rublev's icon of the Trinity, with discussion of the history of the Trinity in iconography.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, chapter on the Creed.
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.
The Yin Yang symbol, that is present in many oriental religions, is representing a trinity too. It has three parts: the Yin, the Yang and the circle that unifies the whole. Its signification is simple, this is the unity of the love, the lover and the loved one (Ruzbehan de Chiraz).
The main advantage of this system is that it has no inherent hierarchy. Another advantage is at it can represent anybody or any problematic in the life, like the Chinese have done in the book "the Yi-King", the book of the changes.