   #copyright

Trinity

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Divinities

   Within Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a
   single Being who exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a
   perichoresis of three persons (hypostases, personae): Father (the
   Source, the Eternal Majesty); the Son (the eternal Logos or Word,
   incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth); and the Holy Spirit (the Paraclete or
   advocate). Since the 4th Century, in both Eastern and Western
   Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "One God in Three
   Persons," all three of whom, as distinct and co-eternal "persons" or "
   hypostases," share a single Divine essence, being, or nature.
   Supporting the doctrine of the Trinity is known as Trinitarianism, and
   is opposed to the positions of Binitarianism (two
   deities/persons/aspects), Unitarianism (one deity/person/aspect), the
   Godhead (Mormonism) (three separate beings) and Modalism ( Oneness)
   which are held by some Christian groups.

Scripture and tradition

   The word "Trinity" comes from "Trinitas", a Latin abstract noun that
   most literally means "three-ness" (or "the property of occurring three
   at once"). Or, simply put, "three are one". The first recorded use of
   this Latin word was by Tertullian in about 200, to refer to Father, Son
   and Holy Spirit, or, in general, to any set of three things. (
   Theophile of Antioch - 115-181 - introduced the word Trinity in his
   Book 2, chapter 15 on the creation of the 4th day).

   The Greek term used for the Christian Trinity, "Τριάς" (a set of three
   or the number three), has given the English word triad. The Sanskrit
   words, "Trimurti or Trinatha," has a similar meaning, as has
   "Dreifaltigkeit" in German, and many other words in other languages.

   The New Testament does not use the word "Τριάς" (Trinity), but only
   speaks of God (often called "the Father"), of Jesus Christ (often
   called "the Son"), and of the Holy Spirit, and of the relationships
   between them. The word "Trinity" began to be applied to them only in
   the course of later theological reflection.

   The earliest Christians were noted for their insistence on the
   existence of one true God, in contrast to the polytheism of the
   prevailing culture. While maintaining strict monotheism, they believed
   also that the man Jesus Christ was at the same time something more than
   a man (a belief reflected, for instance, in the opening verses of the
   Letter to the Hebrews, which describe him as the brightness of God's
   glory and bearing the express image of God's own being, and, yet more
   explicitly, in the prologue of the Gospel according to John) and also
   with the implications of the presence and power of God that they
   believed was among them and that they referred to as the Holy Spirit.
   The Epistle to the Colossians further states that "in [Jesus] lives all
   the fullness of Deity bodily" ( Colossians 2:9).

   The importance for the first Christians of their faith in God, whom
   they called Father, in Jesus Christ, whom they saw as the Son of God,
   the Word of God (Gospel of John), King, Saviour (Martyrdom of
   Polycarp), Master (First Apology of Justin Martyr), and in the Holy
   Spirit is expressed in formulas that link all three together, such as
   those in the Gospel according to Matthew, the Great Commission: "Go
   therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
   of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" ( Matthew 28:19);
   and in the Second Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians: "The grace of
   the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
   Holy Spirit be with you all" ( 2 Corinthians 13:14).

   Conclusions about how best to explain the association of Jesus Christ
   and the Holy Spirit with the one God developed gradually and
   controversially. Christians had to reconcile their belief in the
   divinity of Jesus Christ with their belief in the one-ness of God. In
   doing so, some stressed the one-ness to the point of considering
   Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit as merely three modes or roles in which
   God shows himself to mankind; others stressed the three-ness to the
   point of positing three divine beings, with only one of them supreme
   and God in the full sense. Only in the fourth century were the
   distinctness of the three and their unity brought together and
   expressed in mainline Christianity in a single doctrine of one essence
   and three persons. Some Christians still debate the differences found
   in the New Testament, where Christ declared "I and my Father are one,"
   but also prayed on the cross, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" (My God,
   my God, why have you forsaken me?), which is often explained that first
   sentence refers to Jesus' divine nature and the second one to his human
   nature; another explanation is that the prayer on the cross quotes
   Psalm 22:1 in order to name the entire Psalm, interpreted as
   prophesying Jesus' crucifixion; most mainstream Christians take the
   view that the prayer comes from Jesus's anguish at being temporarily
   separated from the Trinity "mystic oneness" in order that he could take
   the punishment for sin on behalf of all mankind; and still others (not
   the mainstream view) say that it is a ridiculous notion that this man
   is yelling at himself that he is abandoning himself.

   In 325, the Council of Nicaea adopted a term for the relationship
   between the Son and the Father that from then on was seen as the
   hallmark of orthodoxy; it declared that the Son is "of the same
   substance" ( ὁμοούσιος) as the Father. This was further developed into
   the formula "three persons, one substance". The answer to the question
   "What is God?" indicates the one-ness of the divine nature, while the
   answer to the question "Who is God?" indicates the three-ness of
   "Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

   The Council of Nicaea was reluctant to adopt language not found in
   Scripture, and ultimately did so only after Arius showed how all
   strictly biblical language could also be interpreted to support his
   belief, that there was a time before Jesus was created when he did not
   exist. In adopting non-biblical language, the council's intent was to
   preserve what they thought the Church had always believed that Jesus is
   fully God, coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

   Historically, the lack of an explicit scriptural basis for the Trinity
   was viewed as a disquieting problem, and there is evidence indicating
   that one mediaeval Latin writer, while purporting to quote from the
   First Epistle of John, inserted a passage now known as the Comma
   Johanneum ( 1 John 5:7) which explicitly references the Trinity. It may
   have begun as a marginal note quoting a homily of Cyprian that was
   inadvertently taken into the main body of the text by a copyist. The
   Comma found its way into several later copies, and was eventually
   back-translated into Greek and included in the third edition of the
   Textus Receptus which formed the basis of the King James Version.
   Erasmus, the compiler of the Textus Receptus, noticed that the passage
   was not found in any of the Greek manuscripts at his disposal and
   refused to include it until presented with an example containing it,
   which he rightly suspected was concocted after the fact. Isaac Newton,
   known mainly for his scientific and mathematical discoveries, noted
   that many ancient authorities failed to quote the Comma when it would
   have provided substantial support for their arguments, suggesting it
   was a later addition. Modern textual criticism has since concurred with
   his findings; many modern translations now either omit the passage, or
   make it clear that it is not found in the early manuscripts.

Baptism as the beginning lesson

   Baptism of Christ, by Piero della Francesca, 15th century
   Enlarge
   Baptism of Christ, by Piero della Francesca, 15th century

   Many Christians begin to learn about the Trinity through knowledge of
   Baptism. This is also a starting point for others in comprehending why
   the doctrine matters to so many Christians, even though the doctrine
   itself teaches that the being of God is beyond complete comprehension.
   The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are structured around
   profession of the Trinity, and are solemnly professed by converts to
   Christianity when they receive baptism, and in the Church's liturgy,
   particularly when celebrating the Eucharist. One or both of these
   creeds are often used as brief summations of Christian faith by
   mainstream denominations.

   Baptism itself is generally conferred with the Trinitarian formula, "in
   the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (
   Matthew 28:19); and Basil the Great (330–379) declared: "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." "This is the Faith of our
   baptism", the First Council of Constantinople declared (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."

   Matthew 28:19 may be taken to indicate that baptism was associated with
   this Trinitarian formula from the earliest decades of the Church's
   existence. The formula is found in the Didache, Ignatius, Tertullian,
   Hippolytus, Cyprian, and Gregory Thaumaturgus. Though the formula has
   early attestation, the Acts of the Apostles only mentions believers
   being baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ" (2:38, 10:48) and "in the
   name of the Lord Jesus" (8:16, 19:5). There are no Biblical references
   to baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
   Spirit outside Matthew 28:19, nor references to baptism in the name of
   (the Lord) Jesus (Christ) outside the Acts of the Apostles.

   Commenting on Matthew 28:19, Gerhard Kittel states:

          This threefold relation [of Father, Son and Spirit] soon found
          fixed expression in the triadic formulae in 2 C. 13:13, and in 1
          Cor. 12:4-6. The form is first found in the baptismal formula in
          Mt. 28:19; Did., 7. 1 and 3. . . .[I]t is self-evident that
          Father, Son and Spirit are here linked in an indissoluble
          threefold relationship.

   In the synoptic Gospels the baptism of Jesus himself is often
   interpreted as a manifestation of all three Persons of the Trinity:
   "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).

Scriptural texts cited as implying support

   Many Bible verses imply support for the doctrine that Jesus Christ is
   God and the closely related concept of the trinity. The Gospel of John
   in particular supports Jesus' divinity. This is a partial list of
   supporting Bible verses:

Jesus as God

     * John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
       and the Word was God." together with John 1:14 "The Word became
       flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
       glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace
       and truth." and John 1:18 "No one has ever seen God, but God the
       One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."
     * John 5:21 "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them
       life, even so the Son gives them life to whom he is pleased to give
       it."
     * John 8:23-24: "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this
       world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in
       your sins; if you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be],
       you will indeed die in your sins."
     * John 8:58 "'I tell you the truth', Jesus answered, 'before Abraham
       was born, I am!'"
     * John 10:30: "I and the Father are one."
     * John 10:38: "But if I do it, even though you do not believe me,
       believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the
       Father is in me, and I in the Father."
     * John 12:41: "Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke
       about him." - As the context shows, this implied the Tetragrammaton
       in Isaiah 6:1 refers to Jesus.
     * John 20:28: “Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'”
     * Phillipians 2:5-6: "Your attitude should be the same as that of
       Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,"
     * Colossians 2:9: "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives
       in bodily form"
     * Titus 2:13: "while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious
       appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ."
     * Hebrews 1:8: "But about the Son he [God] says: "Your throne, O God,
       will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter
       of your kingdom."
     * 1.John 5:20: "We know also that the Son of God has come and has
       given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we
       are in him who is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the
       true God and eternal life."
     * Revelation 1:17-18: "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though
       dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be
       afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was
       dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys
       of death and Hades." This is seen as significant when viewed with
       Isaiah 44:6: "This is what the LORD says - Israel's King and
       Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last;
       apart from me there is no God."

God alone is the Saviour and the Saviour is Jesus

     * Jesaja 43:11: I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no
       savior.

     * Titus 2:10: and not to steal from them, but to show that they can
       be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching
       about God our Savior attractive.

     * Titus 3:4: But when the kindness and love of God our Savior
       appeared

   in regard with:
     * Luke 2:11: Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to
       you; he is Christ the Lord.
     * Titus 2:13: while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious
       appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
     * John 4:42: They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just
       because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we
       know that this man [Jesus] really is the Savior of the world."
     * Titus 3:6: whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ
       our Savior.

Other support for the Trinity

     * Matthew 28:19: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
       baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
       Holy Spirit" (see Trinitarian formula).
     * 1_John 5:7: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the
       Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And
       there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the
       water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." This is the
       controversial Comma Johanneum, which did not appear in Greek texts
       before the sixteenth century.

Scriptural texts cited as implying opposition

   Among Bible verses cited by opponents of Trinitarianism are those that
   claim there is only one God, the Father. Other verses state that Jesus
   Christ was a man. Trinitarians explain these apparent contradictions by
   reference to the mystery and paradox of the Trinity itself. This is a
   partial list of verses implying opposition to Trinitarianism:

One God

     * Matthew 4:10: "Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is
       written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."'"
     * John 17:3: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the
       only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
     * 1Corinthians 8:5-6: "For even if there are so-called gods, whether
       in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many
       "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom
       all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord,
       Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we
       live."
     * 1Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God
       and men, the man Christ Jesus"

The Son is subordinate to the Father

     * Mark 13:32:"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the
       angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
     * John 5:19: "Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the
       Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his
       Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."
     * John 14:28: "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming
       back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to
       the Father, for the Father is greater than I."
     * John 17:20-23: "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for
       those who will believe in me through their message, that all of
       them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May
       they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent
       me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be
       one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to
       complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have
       loved them even as you have loved me."
     * Colossians 1:15: "He is the image of the invisible God, the
       firstborn over all creation."
     * 1stCorinthians 15:24-28: "Then the end will come, when he hands
       over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all
       dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put
       all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is
       death. For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says
       that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this
       does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When
       he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him
       who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all."

Jesus is not the old testament God

     * John 2:16: And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things
       hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
     * Acts 3:13: The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God
       of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered
       up...
     * John 20:17: Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet
       ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I
       ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your
       God.
     * Daniel 7:13: I saw in the night visions, and, behold, [one] like
       the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the
       Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
     * Psalms 110:1: Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right
       hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Ontology of the Trinity

Historical view and usage

   The Trinitarian view has been affirmed as an article of faith by the
   Nicene (325/381) and Athanasian creeds (circa 500), which attempted to
   standardize belief in the face of disagreements on the subject. These
   creeds were formulated and ratified by the Church of the third and
   fourth centuries in reaction to heterodox theologies concerning the
   Trinity and/or Christ. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, revised in
   381 by the second of these councils, is professed by Orthodox
   Christianity and, with one addition ( Filioque clause), the Roman
   Catholic Church, and has been retained in some form by most Protestant
   denominations.

   The Nicene Creed, which is a classic formulation of the doctrine of the
   Trinity, uses " homoousios" ( Greek: of the same essence) of the
   relation of the Son's relationship with the Father. This word differs
   from that used by non-trinitarians of the time, "homoiousios" (Greek:
   of similar essence), by a single Greek letter, "one iota", a fact
   proverbially used to speak of deep divisions, especially in theology,
   expressed by seemingly small verbal differences.

   One of the (probably three) Church councils that in 264-266 condemned
   Paul of Samosata for his Adoptionist theology also condemned the term
   "homoousios" in the sense he used it, with the result that, as the
   Catholic Encyclopedia article about him remarks, "The objectors to the
   Nicene doctrine in the fourth century made copious use of this
   disapproval of the Nicene word by a famous council."

   Moreover, the meanings of "ousia" and " hypostasis" overlapped at the
   time, so that the latter term for some meant essence and for others
   person. Athanasius of Alexandria (293-373) helped to clarify the terms.

   The terminology of Godhead concerns the nature of God and so is largely
   distinct from that which concerns specifically the interrelations of
   Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

One God

   God is one, and the Godhead a single being: The Hebrew Scriptures lift
   this one article of faith above others, and surround it with stern
   warnings against departure from this central issue of faith, and of
   faithfulness to the covenant God had made with them. "Hear, O Israel:
   The LORD our God is one LORD" ( Deuteronomy 6:4) (the Shema), "Thou
   shalt have no other gods before me" ( Deuteronomy 5:7) and, "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." ( Isaiah
   44:6). Any formulation of an article of faith which does not insist
   that God is solitary, that divides worship between God and any other,
   or that imagines God coming into existence rather than being God
   eternally, is not capable of directing people toward the knowledge of
   God, according to the Trinitarian understanding of the Old Testament.
   The same insistence is found in the New Testament: "...there is none
   other God but one" ( 1 Corinthians 8:4). The "other gods" warned
   against are therefore not gods at all, but substitutes for God, and so
   are, according to St. Paul, simply mythological or are demons.

   So, in the Trinitarian view, the common conception which thinks of the
   Father and Christ as two separate beings is incorrect. The central and
   crucial affirmation of Christian faith is that there is one savior,
   God, and one salvation, manifest in Jesus Christ, to which there is
   access only because of the Holy Spirit. The God of the Old is still the
   same as the God of the New. In Christianity, it is understood that
   statements about a solitary god are intended to distinguish the Hebraic
   understanding from the polytheistic view, which see divine power as
   shared by several separate beings, beings which can, and do, disagree
   and have conflicts with each other. The concept of Many comprising One
   is quite visible in the Gospel of John, chapter 17, verses 20 through
   23.

God exists in three persons

   The "Shield of the Trinity" or "Scutum Fidei" diagram of traditional
   Western Christian symbolism.
   The "Shield of the Trinity" or "Scutum Fidei" diagram of traditional
   Western Christian symbolism.

   This one God however exists in three persons, or in the Greek
   hypostases. God has but a single divine nature. Chalcedonians — Roman
   Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants — hold that, in addition, the
   Second Person of the Trinity — God the Son, Jesus — assumed human
   nature, so that he has two natures (and hence two wills), and is really
   and fully both true God and true human. In the Oriental Orthodox
   theology, the Chalcedonian formulation is rejected in favour of the
   position that the union of the two natures, though unconfused, births a
   third nature: redeemed humanity, the new creation.

   In the Trinity, the Three are said to be co-equal and co-eternal, one
   in essence, nature, power, action, and will. However, as laid out in
   the Athanasian Creed, only the Father is unbegotten and non-proceeding.
   The Son is begotten from (or "generated by") the Father. The Spirit
   proceeds from the Father (or from the Father and through the Son — see
   filioque clause for the distinction).

   It has been stated that because God exists in three persons, God has
   always loved, and there has always existed perfectly harmonious
   communion between the three persons of the Trinity. One consequence of
   this teaching is that God could not have created Man in order to have
   someone to talk to or to love: God "already" enjoyed personal
   communion; being perfect, He did not create Man because of any lack or
   inadequacy He had. Another consequence, according to Rev. Thomas Hopko,
   is that if God were not a trinity, He could not have loved prior to
   creating other beings on whom to bestow his love. Thus we find God
   saying in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image." For
   Trinitarians, emphasis in Genesis 1:26 is on the plurality in the
   Deity, and in 1:27 on the unity of the divine Essence. A possible
   interpretation of Genesis 1:26 is that God's relationships in the
   Trinity is mirrored in man by the ideal relationship between husband
   and wife, two persons becoming one flesh, as described in Eve's
   creation later in the chapter. Some Trinitarian Christians support
   their position with the Comma Johanneum described above even though it
   is widely regarded as inauthentic and was not used patristically.

Mutually indwelling

   A useful explanation of the relationship of the distinguishable persons
   of God is called perichoresis, from Greek going around, envelopment
   (written with a long O, omega - some mistakenly associate it with the
   Greek word for dance, which however is spelled with a short O,
   omicron). This concept refers for its basis to John 14-17, where Jesus
   is instructing the disciples concerning the meaning of his departure.
   His going to the Father, he says, is for their sake; so that he might
   come to them when the "other comforter" is given to them. At that time,
   he says, his disciples will dwell in him, as he dwells in the Father,
   and the Father dwells in him, and the Father will dwell in them. This
   is so, according to the theory of perichoresis, because the persons of
   the Trinity "reciprocally contain one another, so that one permanently
   envelopes and is permanently enveloped by, the other whom he yet
   envelopes." ( Hilary of Poitiers, Concerning the Trinity 3:1).

   This co-indwelling may also be helpful in illustrating the Trinitarian
   conception of salvation. The first doctrinal benefit is that it
   effectively excludes the idea that God has parts. Trinitarians affirm
   that God is a simple, not an aggregate, being. God is not parceled out
   into three portions, as modalists and others contend. The second
   doctrinal benefit, is that it harmonizes well with the doctrine that
   the Christian's union with the Son in his humanity brings him into
   union with one who contains in himself, in St. Paul's words, "all the
   fullness of deity" and not a part. (See also: Theosis). Perichoresis
   provides an intuitive figure of what this might mean. The Son, the
   eternal Word, is from all eternity the dwelling place of God; he is,
   himself, the "Father's house", just as the Son dwells in the Father and
   the Spirit; so that, when the Spirit is "given", then it happens as
   Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans; for I will come to you."

   Some forms of human union are considered to be not identical but
   analogous to the Trinitarian concept, as found for example in Jesus'
   words about marriage. Mark 10:7-8 "For this cause shall a man leave his
   father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one
   flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh." According to the
   words of Jesus, married persons are in some sense no longer two, but
   joined into one. Therefore, Orthodox theologians also see the marriage
   relationship as an image, or "ikon" of the Trinity, relationships of
   communion in which, in the words of St. Paul, participants are "members
   one of another." As with marriage, the unity of the church with Christ
   is similarly considered in some sense analogous to the unity of the
   Trinity, following the prayer of Jesus to the Father, for the church,
   that "they may be one, even as we are one". John 17:22

Eternal generation and procession

   Trinitarianism affirms that the Son is "begotten" (or "generated") of
   the Father and that the Spirit "proceeds" from the Father, but the
   Father is "neither begotten nor proceeds." The argument over whether
   the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, or from the Father and the
   Son, was one of the catalysts of the Great Schism, in this case
   concerning the Western addition of the Filioque clause to the Nicene
   Creed.

   This language is often considered difficult because, if used regarding
   humans or other created things, it would necessarily imply time and
   change; when used here, no beginning, change in being, or process
   within time is intended and is in fact excluded. The Son is generated
   ("born" or "begotten"), and the Spirit proceeds, eternally. Augustine
   of Hippo explains, "Thy years are one day, and Thy day is not daily,
   but today; because Thy today yields not to tomorrow, for neither does
   it follow yesterday. Thy today is eternity; therefore Thou begat the
   Co-eternal, to whom Thou saidst, 'This day have I begotten Thee."
   {Psalm 2:7}

Economic versus Ontological Trinity

     * Economic Trinity: This refers to the acts of the triune God with
       respect to the creation, history, salvation, the formation of the
       Church, the daily lives of believers, etc. and describes how the
       Trinity operates within history in terms of the roles or functions
       performed by each of the Persons of the Trinity - God's
       relationship with creation.
     * Ontological (or immanent) Trinity: This speaks of the interior life
       of the Trinity "within itself" ( John 1:1-2) - the reciprocal
       relationships of Father, Son and Spirit to each other.

   Or more simply - the ontological Trinity (who God is) and the economic
   Trinity (what God does). Most Christians believe the economic reflects
   and reveals the ontological. Catholic theologian Karl Rahner went so
   far as to say "The 'economic' Trinity is the 'immanent' Trinity, and
   vice versa."

   The members of the trinity are equal ontologically, but not necessarily
   economically. In other words, the trinity is not symmetrical in terms
   of function, or in relationship to one another. The roles of each
   differ both among themselves, and in relationship to creation.
   Furthermore, the trinity is not symmetrical with regards to origin. The
   Son is begotten of the Father ( John 3:16). The Spirit proceeds from
   the Father ( John 15:26). Only the Father is neither begotten nor
   proceeding (See Athanasian Creed), but is alone "unoriginate" and
   eternally communicates the Divine Being to the Word, the Son, by
   "generation" and to the Spirit by "spiration," in that the Spirit
   "proceeds from the Father" and in the words of some {Eastern}
   theologians, "rests on the Son" as seen in the baptism of Jesus.

   Economical subordination is implied by the genitive of terms like
   "Father of", "Son of", and "Spirit of". While orthodox Trinitarianism
   rejects ontological subordination, it affirms that the Father, being
   the source of all that is, created and uncreated, has a monarchical
   relation to the Son and the Spirit. Or, in other terms, it is from the
   Father that the mission of the Breath and Word originate: whatever God
   does, it is the Father that does it, and always through the Son, by the
   Spirit. The Father is seen as the "source" or "fountainhead" from which
   the Son is born and the Spirit proceeds, much as one might observe
   water bubbling out of a spring without worrying about when it began
   doing so. However, this language is hemmed in with qualifications so
   severe that the analogy in view is easily lost, and is a source of
   perpetual controversy. The main points, however, are that "there is one
   God because there is one Father" and that, while the Son and Spirit
   both derive their existence from the Father, the communion between the
   Three, being a relationship of Divine Love, is such that there is no
   subordination according to substance. As one transcendent Being, the
   Three are perfectly united in love, consciousness, will, and operation.
   Thus, it is possible to speak of the Trinity as a
   "hierarchy-in-equality."

   This concept is considered to be of momentous practical importance to
   the Christian life because, again, it points to the nature of the
   Christian's reconciliation with God. The excruciatingly fine
   distinctions can issue in grand differences of emphasis in worship,
   teaching, and government, as large as the difference between East and
   West, which for centuries have been considered practically
   insurmountable.

   Western Theologian Catherine Mowry LaCugna finds common ground with
   Eastern scholarship through rejecting modern individualist notions of
   personhood and emphasising the self-communication of God. Following on
   from Rahner, she says that God is known ontologically only through
   God's self-revelation in the economy of salvation, and that "Theories
   about what God is apart from God's self-communication in salvation
   history remain unverifiable and ultimately untheological." She says
   faithful Trinitarian theology must be practical and include an
   understanding of our own personhood in relationship with God and each
   other - "Living God's life with one another".

Son begotten, not created

   Because the Son is begotten, not made, the substance of his person is
   that of Yahweh, of deity. The creation is brought into being through
   the Son, but the Son Himself is not part of it except through His
   incarnation.

   The church fathers used a number of analogies to express this thought.
   St. Irenaeus of Lyons was the final major theologian of the second
   century. He writes "the Father is God, and the Son is God, for whatever
   is begotten of God is God."

   Extending the analogy, it might be said, similarly, that whatever is
   generated (procreated) of humans is human. Thus, given that humanity
   is, in the words of the Bible, "created in the image and likeness of
   God," an analogy can be drawn between the Divine Essence and human
   nature, between the Divine Persons and human persons. However, given
   the fall, this analogy is far from perfect, even though, like the
   Divine Persons, human persons are characterized by being "loci of
   relationship." For Trinitarian Christians, this analogy is particularly
   important with regard to the Church, which St. Paul calls "the body of
   Christ" and whose members are, because they are "members of Christ,"
   also "members one of another."

   However, any attempt to explain the mystery to some extent must break
   down, and has limited usefulness, being designed, not so much to fully
   explain the Trinity, but to point to the experience of communion with
   the Triune God within the Church as the Body of Christ. The difference
   between those who believe in the Trinity and those who do not, is not
   an issue of understanding the mystery. Rather, the difference is
   primarily one of belief concerning the personal identity of Christ. It
   is a difference in conception of the salvation connected with Christ
   that drives all reactions, either favorable or unfavorable, to the
   doctrine of the Holy Trinity. As it is, the doctrine of the Trinity is
   directly tied up with Christology.

Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant distinctions

   The Western (Roman Catholic) tradition is more prone to make positive
   statements concerning the relationship of persons in the Trinity. It
   should be noted that explanations of the Trinity are not the same thing
   as the doctrine itself; nevertheless the Augustinian West is inclined
   to think in philosophical terms concerning the rationality of God's
   being, and is prone on this basis to be more open than the East to seek
   philosophical formulations which make the doctrine more intelligible.

   The Christian East, for its part, correlates ecclesiology and
   Trinitarian doctrine, and seeks to understand the doctrine of the
   Trinity via the experience of the Church, which it understands to be
   "an ikon of the Trinity" and therefore, when St. Paul writes concerning
   Christians that all are "members one of another," Eastern Christians in
   turn understand this as also applying to the Divine Persons.

   For example, one Western explanation is based on deductive assumptions
   of logical necessity: which hold that God is necessarily a Trinity. On
   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, or generated, 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 person. Therefore, as reflected in the filioque clause
   inserted into the Nicene Creed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy
   Spirit is said to proceed from both the Father "and the Son". (It would
   also be appropriate according to Western teaching that the Holy Spirit
   proceeds from the Father through the Son.)

   The Eastern Orthodox church holds that the filioque clause, i.e., the
   added words "and the Son" (in Latin, filioque), constitutes heresy, or
   at least profound error. One reason for this is that it undermines the
   personhood of the Holy Spirit; is there not also perfect love between
   the Father and the Holy Spirit, and if so, would this love not also
   share the perfection of person? At this rate, there would be an
   infinite number of persons of the Godhead, unless some persons were
   subordinate so that their love were less perfect and therefore need not
   share the perfection of person.

   Anglicans have made a commitment in their Lambeth Conference, to
   provide for the use of the creed without the filioque clause in future
   revisions of their liturgies, in deference to the issues of Conciliar
   authority raised by the Orthodox.

   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 often less exact than is discussed above
   (exceptions being the Presbyterian Westminster Confession 2:3, the
   London Baptist Confession 2:3, and the Lutheran Augsburg Confession
   1:1-6, which specifically address those issues). The clause is often
   understood by Protestants to mean that the Spirit is sent from the
   Father, by the Son — a conception which is not controversial in either
   Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. A representative view of Protestant
   Trinitarian theology is more difficult to provide, given the diverse
   and decentralized nature of the various Protestant churches.

Historical development

   Because Christianity converts cultures from within, the doctrinal
   formulas as they have developed bear the marks of the ages through
   which the church has passed. The rhetorical tools of Greek philosophy,
   especially of Neoplatonism, are evident in the language adopted to
   explain the church's rejection of Arianism and Adoptionism on one hand
   (teaching that Christ is inferior to the Father, or even that he was
   merely human), and Docetism and Sabellianism on the other hand
   (teaching that Christ was identical to God the Father, or an illusion).
   Augustine of Hippo has been noted at the forefront of these
   formulations; and he contributed much to the speculative development of
   the doctrine of the Trinity as it is known today, in the West; the
   Cappadocian Fathers ( Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory
   Nazianzus) are more prominent in the East. The imprint of
   Augustinianism is found, for example, in the western Athanasian Creed,
   which, although it bears the name and reproduces the views of the
   fourth century opponent of Arianism, was probably written much later.

   These controversies were for most purposes settled at the Ecumenical
   councils, whose creeds affirm the doctrine of the Trinity.

   According to the Athanasian Creed, each of these three divine Persons
   is said to be eternal, each almighty, none greater or less than
   another, each God, and yet together being but one God, So are we
   forbidden by the Catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or
   three Lords. — Athanasian Creed, line 20.

   Some contemporary theologians including feminists refer to the persons
   of the Holy Trinity with gender-neutral language, such as "Creator,
   Redeemer, and Sustainer (or Sanctifier)." This is a recent formulation,
   which seeks to redefine the Trinity in terms of three roles in
   salvation or relationships with us, not eternal identities or
   relationships with each other. Since, however, each of the three divine
   persons participates in the acts of creation, redemption, and
   sustaining, traditionalist and other Christians reject this formulation
   as suggesting a new variety of Modalism. Some theologians and
   liturgists prefer the alternate expansive terminology of "Source, and
   Word, and Holy Spirit."

   Responding to feminist concerns, orthodox theology has noted the
   following: a) the names "Father" and "Son" are clearly analogical,
   since all Trinitarians would agree that God has no gender per se (or,
   encompasses all sex and gender and is beyond all sex and gender); b)
   that, in translating the Creed, for example, "born" and "begotten" are
   equally valid translations of the Greek word "gennao," which refers to
   the eternal generation of the Son by the Father: hence, one may refer
   to God "the Father who gives birth"; this is further supported by
   patristic writings which compare and contrast the "birth" of the Divine
   Word "before all ages" (i.e., eternally) from the Father with His birth
   in time from the Virgin Mary; c) Using "Son" to refer to the Second
   Divine Person is most proper only when referring to the Incarnate Word,
   who is Jesus, a human who is clearly male; d) in Semitic languages,
   such as Hebrew and Aramaic, the noun translated "spirit" is
   grammatically feminine and the images of the Holy Spirit in Scripture
   are often feminine as well, as with the Spirit "brooding" over the
   primordial chaos in Genesis 1 and the image of the Holy Spirit as a
   dove in the New Testament.

   Modalists attempted to resolve the mystery of the Trinity by holding
   that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are merely modes, or roles,
   of God Almighty. This anti-Trinitarian view contends that the three
   "Persons" are not distinct Persons, but titles which 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 view is known as
   Sabellianism, and was rejected as heresy by the Ecumenical Councils
   although it is still prevalent today among denominations known as
   "Oneness" and "Apostolic" Pentecostal Christians, the largest of these
   sects being the United Pentecostal Church. Trinitarianism insists that
   the Father, Son and Spirit simultaneously exist, each fully the same
   God.

   The doctrine developed into its present form precisely through this
   kind of confrontation with alternatives; and the process of refinement
   continues in the same way. Even now, ecumenical dialogue between
   Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Assyrian
   Church of the East and Trinitarian Protestants, seeks an expression of
   Trinitarian and Christological doctrine which will overcome the
   extremely subtle differences that have largely contributed to dividing
   them into separate communities. The doctrine of the Trinity is
   therefore symbolic, somewhat paradoxically, of both division and unity.

Dissent from the doctrine

   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, a number of nontrinitarian groups,
   both throughout history and today, identify themselves as Christians
   but reject the doctrine of the Trinity in any form, arguing that theirs
   was the original pre-Nicean understanding. Some ancient sects, such as
   the Ebionites, said that Jesus was not a "Son of God", but rather an
   ordinary man who was a prophet. Many modern groups also teach various
   nontrinitarian understandings of God. These include Jehovah's
   Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the
   Christadelphians, Christian Scientists, the Unification Church, the
   Christian Unitarians, Oneness Pentecostals, and Iglesia ni Cristo,
   among others. These groups differ from one another in their view of
   God, but all alike reject the doctrine of the Trinity.

   Main Points of Dissent

   1. The Essential Mystery of the Trinity

   Criticism of the doctrine includes the argument that its "mystery" is
   essentially an inherent irrationality, where the persons of God are
   claimed to share completely a single divine substance, the "being of
   God", and yet not partake of each others' identity. It is also pointed
   out that many polytheistic pre-Christian religions arranged many of
   their gods in trinities, and that this doctrine may been promoted by
   Church leaders to make Christendom more acceptable to surrounding
   cultures.

   2. The Lack of Direct Scriptural Support

   Critics also argue the doctrine, for a teaching described as
   fundamental, lacks direct scriptural support, and even some proponents
   of the doctrine acknowledge such direct or formal support is lacking.
   The New Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, says, "The doctrine of the
   Holy Trinity is not taught [explicitly] in the [Old Testament]"[14],
   "The formulation 'one God in three Persons' was not solidly established
   [by a council]...prior to the end of the 4th century", and The Columbia
   Electronic Encyclopedia adds, "The doctrine is not explicitly taught in
   the New Testament"[citation needed]. The question, however, of why such
   a supposedly central doctrine to the Christian faith would never have
   been explicitly stated in scripture or taught in detail by Jesus
   himself was sufficiently important to 16th century historical figures
   such as Michael Servetus as to lead them to argue the question. The
   Geneva City Council, in accord with the judgment of the cantons of
   Zürich, Bern, Basel, and Schaffhausen, condemned Servetus to be burned
   at the stake for this, and for his opposition to infant baptism.

   3. The Divinity of Jesus Christ

   For some, debate over the biblical basis of the doctrine tends to
   revolve chiefly over the question of the deity of Jesus (see
   Christology). Those who reject the divinity of Jesus argue among other
   things that Jesus rejected being called so little as good in deference
   to God (versus "the Father") (Mark 10:18), disavowed omniscience as the
   Son, "learned obedience" (Hebrews 5:8), and referred to ascending unto
   "my Father, and to your Father; and to my God, and to your God" (John
   20:17). They also dispute that "Elohim" denotes plurality, noting that
   this name in nearly all circumstances takes a singular verb and arguing
   that where it seems to suggest plurality, Hebrew grammar still
   indicates against it. They also point to statements by Jesus such as
   his declaration that the Father was greater than he or that he was not
   omniscient, in his statement that of a final day and hour not even he
   knew, but the Father (Mark 13:32), and to Jesus' being called the
   firstborn of creation (Colossians 1:15) and 'the beginning of God's
   creation,' (Revelation 3:14) which argues against his being eternal. In
   Theological Studies #26 (1965) p.545-73, Does the NT call Jesus God?,
   Raymond E. Brown wrote that Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19, Matthew 19:17, Mark
   15:34, Matthew 27:46, John 20:17, Ephesians 1:17, 2 Corinthians 1:3, 1
   Peter 1:3, John 17:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:4-6, 1 Corinthians
   12:4-6, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Timothy 2:5, John 14:28, Mark 13:32,
   Philippians 2:5-10, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 are "texts that seem to
   imply that the title God was not used for Jesus" and are "negative
   evidence which is often somewhat neglected in Catholic treatments of
   the subject."

   Trinitarians, and some non-Trinitarians such as the Modalists who also
   hold to the divinity of Jesus Christ, claim that these statements are
   based on the fact that Jesus existed as the Son of God in human flesh.
   Thus he is both God and man, who became "lower than the angels, for our
   sake" (Hebrews 2:6-8, Psalm 8:4-6) and who was tempted as humans are
   tempted, but did not sin (Hebrews 4:14-16). Some Nontrinitarians
   counter the belief that the Son was limited only during his earthly
   life (Trinitarians believe, instead, that Christ retains full human
   nature even after his resurrection), by citing 1 Corinthians 11:3 ("the
   head of Christ [is] God" [KJV]), written after Jesus had returned to
   Heaven, thus placing him still in an inferior relation to the Father.
   Additionally, they refer to Acts 5:31 and Philippians 2:9, indicating
   that Jesus became exalted after ascension to Heaven, and to Hebrews
   9:24, Acts 7:55, 1 Corinthians 15:24, 28, regarding Jesus as a distinct
   personality in Heaven, all after his ascension.

   4. Usage of Non-Biblical Terminology

   Christian Unitarians, Restorationists, and others question the doctrine
   of the Trinity because it relies on non-Biblical terminology. The term
   "Trinity" is not found in scripture and the number three is never
   associated with God in any sense other than within the Comma Johanneum.
   Detractors hold that the only number ascribed to God in the Bible is
   One and that the Trinity, literally meaning three-in-one, ascribes a
   threeness to God that is not Biblical.

   Several other examples of terms not found in the Bible include multiple
   “Persons” in relation to God, the terms “God the Son” and “God the Holy
   Spirit”, and “eternally” begotten. For instance, a basic tenet of
   Trinitarianism is that God is made up of three distinct Persons
   (hypostasis). The term hypostasis is used only one time Biblically in
   reference to God ( Hebrews 1:3), where it states that Jesus is the
   express image of God's person (hypostasis). The Bible never uses the
   term in relation to the Holy Spirit or explicitly mentions the Son
   having a distinct hypostasis from the Father.

   Trinitarians maintain that these ideas are implied within scripture and
   were necessary additions of the Nicene Era to counter the doctrine of
   Arianism.

   5. Lacking of Holy Spirit in Many Trinitarian Scriptural Citations

   It is also argued that the vast majority of scriptures that
   Trinitarians offer in support of their beliefs refer to the Father and
   to Jesus, but not to the Holy Spirit. This suggests that the concept of
   the trinity was not well-established in the early Christian community.

   6. Not Held by the Monotheistic Religions of Judaism and Islam to be a
   True Monotheism

   The teaching is also pivotal to inter-religious disagreements with two
   of the other major faiths, Judaism and Islam; the former reject Jesus'
   divine mission entirely, the latter accepts Jesus as a human prophet
   just like Muhammad but rejects altogether the deity of Jesus. Many
   within Judaism and Islam also accuse Christian Trinitarians of
   practicing polytheism, of believing in three gods rather than just one.
   Islam holds that because Allah is unique and absolute (the concept of
   tawhid) the Trinity is impossible and has even been condemned as
   polytheistic. This is emphasised in the Qur'an which states "He (Allah)
   does not beget, nor is He begotten, And (there is) none like Him."
   (Qur'an, 112:1-4)

Alternate views to the Trinity

   There have been numerous other views of the relations of the Father,
   Son and Holy Spirit; the most prominent include:
     * Arius believed that the Son was subordinate to the Father,
       firstborn of all Creation. However, the Son did have Divine status.
       This view is very close to that of Jehovah's Witnesses.
     * Ebionites believed that the Son was subordinate to the Father and
       nothing more than a special human.
     * Marcion believed that there were two Deities, one of Creation /
       Hebrew Bible and one of the New Testament.
     * Modalism states that God has taken numerous forms in both the
       Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and that God has manifested
       Himself in three primary modes in regards to the salvation of
       mankind. Thus God is Father in creation (God created or begat a Son
       through the virgin birth), Son in redemption (God manifested
       Himself into or indwelt the begotten man Christ Jesus for the
       purpose of His death upon the cross), and Holy Spirit in
       regeneration (God's indwelling Spirit within the souls of Christian
       believers). In light of this view, God is not three separate
       Persons, but rather one God manifesting Himself in multiple ways.
       It is held by its proponents that this view maintains the strict
       monotheism found in Judaism and the Old Testament scriptures.
     * Swedenborgianism holds that the Trinity exists in One Person, the
       Lord God Jesus Christ. The Father, the Being or soul of God, was
       born into the world and put on a body from Mary. Throughout His
       life, Jesus put away all the merely human desires and tendencies
       inherited from Mary until He was completely Divine, even as to His
       flesh. After the resurrection He influences the world through the
       Holy Spirit, which is His activity. Thus Jesus Christ is the one
       God; the Father as to His soul, the Son as to His body, and the
       Holy Spirit as to His activity in the world.
     * The Urantia Book teaches that God is the first "Uncaused Cause" who
       is a personality that is omniscient, omnipresent, transcendent,
       infinite, eternal and omnipotent, but He is also a person of the
       Original Trinity - "The Paradise Trinity" who are the "First Source
       and Center, Second Source and Center, and Third Source and Centre"
       or otherwise described as "God, The Eternal Son, and The Divine
       Holy Spirit". These personalities are not to be confused with Jesus
       who is also one with God, but not one of the Original Personalities
       of His Original Paradise Trinity. Each one of the Original Holy
       Trinity is a separate personality, but acting in function as a
       divine and First Trinity.
     * The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka "Mormons,"
       hold that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate and
       distinct individuals ( Covenant 130:22), but can and do act
       together in perfect unity as a single monotheistic entity (the "
       Godhead") for the common purpose of saving mankind, Jesus Christ
       having received divine investiture of authority from Heavenly
       Father in the pre-existence. The Latter-day Saint doctrine on the
       Godhead comes directly from the First Vision of the Prophet Joseph
       Smith ( History:11). They believe this view to be supported by New
       Testament scriptures, including the circumstances surrounding the
       baptism of Jesus ( Matthew 3:16-17) and Christ's prayers to God.
       Christ's statement that He and His Father are "one" is interpeted
       to mean one in purpose, which purpose they believe the Apostles
       were also to join (after their resurrection) as Christ prayed in
       His intercessory prayer: "...that they may be one, as we are."
     * Docetism comes from the Greek: δοκηο (doceo), meaning "to seem."
       This view holds that Jesus only seemed to be human and only
       appeared to die.
     * Adoptionism holds that Jesus was chosen on the event of his baptism
       to be anointed by the Holy Spirit and became divine upon
       resurrection.
     * Rastafarians accept Haile Selassie I, the former (and last) emperor
       of Ethiopia, as Jah (the Rasta name for God incarnate, from a
       shortened form of Jehovah found in Psalms 68:4 in the King James
       Version of the Bible), and part of the Holy Trinity as the messiah
       promised to return in the Bible.
     * Islam's Holy Book, the Quran, denounces:
          + the term "Trinity" ( Sura 4:171)
          + a Trinity composed of Father, Son and Mary ( Sura 5:116).
            Inclusion of Mary in the presumed trinity may have been due to
            either a quasi-Christian sect known as the Collyridians in
            Arabia who apparently believed that Mary was divine, or use of
            the title " Mother of God" to refer to Mary.

Theory of pagan origin and influence

   Nontrinitarian Christians have long contended that the doctrine of the
   Trinity is a prime example of Christian borrowing from pagan sources.
   According to this view, a simpler idea of God was lost very early in
   the history of the Church, through accommodation to pagan ideas, and
   the "incomprehensible" doctrine of the Trinity took its place. As
   evidence of this process, a comparison is often drawn between the
   Trinity and notions of a divine triad, found in pagan religions and
   Hinduism. Hinduism has a triad, i.e., Trimurti.

   As far back as Babylonia, the worship of pagan gods grouped in threes,
   or triads, was common. This influence was also evident in Egypt,
   Greece, and Rome in the centuries before, during, and after Christ.
   After the death of the apostles, many nontrinitarians contend that
   these pagan beliefs began to invade Christianity. (First and second
   century Christian writings reflect a certain belief that Jesus was one
   with God the Father, but anti-Trinitarians contend it was at this point
   that the nature of the oneness evolved from pervasive coexistence to
   identity.)

   Some find a direct link between the doctrine of the Trinity, and the
   Egyptian theologians of Alexandria, for example. They suggest that
   Alexandrian theology, with its strong emphasis on the deity of Christ,
   was an intermediary between the Egyptian religious heritage and
   Christianity.

   The Church is charged with adopting these pagan tenets, invented by the
   Egyptians and adapted to Christian thinking by means of Greek
   philosophy. As evidence of this, critics of the doctrine point to the
   widely acknowledged synthesis of Christianity with platonic philosophy,
   which is evident in Trinitarian formulas that appeared by the end of
   the third century. Roman Catholic doctrine became firmly rooted in the
   soil of Hellenism; and thus an essentially pagan idea was forcibly
   imposed on the churches beginning with the Constantinian period. At the
   same time, neo-Platonic trinities, such as that of the One, the Nous
   and the Soul, are not a trinity of consubstantial equals as in orthodox
   Christianity.

   Nontrinitarians assert that Catholics must have recognized the pagan
   roots of the trinity, because the allegation of borrowing was raised by
   some disputants during the time that the Nicene doctrine was being
   formalized and adopted by the bishops. For example, in the 4th century
   Catholic Bishop Marcellus of Ancyra's writings, On the Holy Church,9 :

     "Now with the heresy of the Ariomaniacs, which has corrupted the
     Church of God...These then teach three hypostases, just as
     Valentinus the heresiarch first invented in the book entitled by him
     'On the Three Natures'. For he was the first to invent three
     hypostases and three persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and
     he is discovered to have filched this from Hermes and Plato."
     (Source: Logan A. Marcellus of Ancyra (Pseudo-Anthimus), 'On the
     Holy Church': Text, Translation and Commentary. Verses 8-9. Journal
     of Theological Studies, NS, Volume 51, Pt. 1, April 2000, p.95 ).

   Such a late date for a key term of Nicene Christianity, and attributed
   to a Gnostic, they believe, lends credibility to the charge of pagan
   borrowing. Marcellus was rejected by the Catholic Church for teaching a
   form of Sabellianism.

   The early apologists, including Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Irenaeus,
   frequently discussed the parallels and contrasts between Christianity
   and the pagan and syncretic religions, and answered charges of
   borrowing from paganism in their apologetical writings.

Christian life and the Blessed Trinity

   The Hospitality of Abraham by Andrei Rublev. The three angels symbolize
   the Trinity.
   Enlarge
   The Hospitality of Abraham by Andrei Rublev. The three angels symbolize
   the Trinity.

   The singleness of God's being and the multiplicity of the Divine
   Persons together account for the nature of Christian salvation, and
   disclose the gift of eternal life. "Through the Son we have access to
   the Father in one Spirit" ( Ephesians 2:18). Communion with the Father
   is the goal of the Christian faith and is eternal life. It is given to
   humans through the Divine union with humanity in Jesus Christ who,
   although fully God, died for sinners "in the flesh" to accomplish their
   redemption, and this forgiveness, restoration, and friendship with God
   is made accessible through the gift to the Church of the Holy Spirit,
   who, being God, knows the Divine Essence 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 this explains why it has been so earnestly contended for,
   throughout Christian history. In fact, while the oldest traditions hold
   that it is impossible to speculate concerning the being of God (see
   apophatic theology), yet those same traditions are particularly
   attentive to Trinitarian formulations, so basic to mere Christian faith
   is this doctrine considered to be.

Similarities in the 16th-century Jewish Kabbalah

   In the late Kabbalistic tradition, originating in the city of Safed in
   the 16th century, an essential part of representations of the Tree of
   life or Etz Hayim is a set of three vertical lines of light, each line
   being headed by Sefirot, or degrees of altruistic quality at the top.
   These three Sefirot form a spiritual or heavenly triangle, which rules
   the whole earthly part of the Tree of Life. It is obvious that Sefirot
   of Kether (Crown), Chochmah (Wisdom) and Binah (Understanding), i.e.
   Ancient One, Father and Mother, or even Chochmah, Binah and Tiphereth
   (Glory) as Son also have much similarity with a secret of Trinity.
   These three lines (sheloshah kavim) are an essential and very deep
   spiritual secret of Torah (Torath ha-Sod). Priority, importance and
   secrecy of Trinity and sheloshah kavim (three lines) is obviously
   similar. According to kabbalah through these mysterious lines—kav smol,
   kav yamin and kav emtsa'i— Heaven rules the soul's wishes and destiny.
     * Classical kabbalah book "Shamati" of Yehuda Ashlag about 23,5 hours
       of kav

In popular culture

   Trinity is the central female character in the Matrix trilogy. Some
   believe that the three main characters resemble the holy trinity
   throughout the trilogy. Morpheus as the Father, Neo as the Son, and
   Trinity as the Holy Spirit. Another view is that Morpheus represents
   Elijah, or John the Baptist as the one who sought out and recognized
   that Neo had the dedication to constantly seek truth. It was Morpheus
   who Baptized Neo and announced to the others that Neo was the One,
   while Trinity represents the divine female or Jesus’ female
   counterpart, Mary Magdalene. While none of them are certain of what God
   is, they are certain that what they previously knew to be the truth,
   was indeed a lie to keep mankind from discovering the truth that they
   were being used as energy to fuel their own selfish fantasies while
   keeping all the Agent Smiths "on the payroll".

   In the Valérian comics, The Rage of Hypsis and In Uncertain Times, the
   Trinity appeared as Harry Quinlan, the character played by Orson Welles
   in the 1958 film Touch of Evil, (Father); a hippie (Son) and a broken
   jukebox (Holy Spirit).

   The Irish comedian Dave Allen famously satirised the Trinity as Big
   Daddy (Father), The Kid (Son) and Spook (Holy Spirit).

   In the book Angela's Ashes there is a heart warming scene where Frank
   McCourt, as a child, mistakenly refers to the "Father, the Son, and the
   Holy Toast."

   In the Fritz Lang film Metropolis, the city mayor Joh Fredersen
   represents the Father and the humble city proletariat as the Holy
   Spirit. The son of the mayor, Freder Fredersen, represents the Son. The
   film ends in statement: The intermediator between brain [Father] and
   hands [Holy Spirit] is Heart (Son).

   Also, in Postcolonial Theory, 'The Holy Trinity' is a term coined by
   Professor Robert J.C. Young, a well-known postcolonial critic currently
   based at NYU, with regards to the three main postcolonial theorists
   whose work constitutes much of the debate in this thriving and
   controversial field of study: Edward Said, Homi K Bhabha and Gayatri
   Chakravorty Spivak. (Young, Robert J.C., Colonial Desire: Hybridity in
   Theory, Culture and Race London: Routledge, 1994, p.163)
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
