The Trinity

• Trinity

  • father
  • son
  • holy spirit
• • God the father as creator
  • The son through his incarnation as Jesus
  • The Holy Spirit as the continued presence of God in the world
• Early critics of Christianity argued that the idea of a trinitarian yet monotheistic religion was contradictory
• Perichoresis

  • greek idea used to convey the way that each person in the trinity is related to one another
• Challenges christians have faced

  • lots of ideas about who Jesus was and what he represented
• How did the Doctrine of trinity form

  • strong Biblical evidence that it was probably formulated by early Christians who were trying to understand the relationship between Jesus and God
  • New testament contains references to a triadic interpretation of God
• Jesus said 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations' - Matthew
• ' And the Word became flesh and lived among us' - John
• One of the first major defences of the Trinity as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit didn't occur until the beginning of the third century
• Adoptionism

  • taught that Jesus was 'adopted' by God at his baptism
  • Jesus as the Son is , therefore, not consubstantial or coexistent with God before creation and instead was appointed as God's messenger later in his human life
• Arianism

  • although Jesus is the divine Son of God, he was begotten at a point in time after creation
  • critics say that this suggests there was a time when Jesus did not exist but God did
  • suggesting that the son is not fully God or co-substantial with the Father
  • denial of the trinity
• Sabellianism

  • each part of the Trinity was simply a mode or aspect of God rather than a distinct person who was fully God in his own right
• Issue of Christ's pre - existence

  • Arius insisted that if the father brought into existence the Son, this moment must have been at a time when the Son was not and the Father was
  • Alexander argues that this interpretation was heretical: it denied the doctrine of co-equal trinitarianism, where each person was regarded as one co - eternal divine essence
• Homoiusios - of one substance

  homoiousios - of similar substance
• 'The Father and I are one'

  • could mean that Jesus is literally identifying himself with God
  • also because he is answering the Jews repeated requests for clarification about his identity and whether he is the messiah
• Paul proclaims in 1 Corinthians that there is one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ

  • Jesus and God are the same?
• 'the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation'

  • this passage has been cited as key evidence for Arianism by many of its supporters
  • implies that Christ was the first thing to be created
• Relationship between Christ and God

  • creation of the Son for many early theologians was a necessity in order to effectively differentiate the earthly Son from the eternal, transcendent Father
• The chalcedonian definition

  • agreed with, declared Christ consisted of two natures in one person - without ever quite explaining how these could be applied to events of Jesus' ministry
  • other ideas such as he kenotic model had to be developed in order to account for this definition - these have been questioned by theologians eg. Moltmann
• The Filioque Controversy

  • a set of controversies in the Christian Church centred around the doctrine of procession
  • concerns how the Holy Spirit 'proceeds' within the Trinity and the relationship between the three persons ]
• Council of Nicaea in 325 CE

  • made the Nicene Creed
  • statement that presented the church's orthodox beliefs for all clergy to follow
  • 'we believe in the Holy Spirit'
• First Council of Constantinople in 381 CE

  • attendees discussed the text of the Nicene Creed
  • omitted some phrases and included new ones
  • added new text to the section about the Holy Spirit
  • identified the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father alone
• Later half of sixth century - latin churches

  • began to add 'and from the Son' to descriptions about the procession of the Holy Spirit
• Conflict because of the Filioque Controversy

  • resulted in the filioque clause
  • western catholic church vs eastern orthodox church
• Great Schism

  • the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches
• Differences between east and west churches

  • western churches argued for their inclusion in Christian doctrine and Eastern Churches denounced it as heretica;
• Eastern Theologians

  • pointed out that claiming the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son undermined the importance of the Father
• Although all persons in the trinity are coequal, this equality does not necessitate that there aren't hierarchical relationships between the persons that reveal themselves in the natural divine order
• Disagreements over scriptural evidence

  • those opposing the filioque controversy have often pointed to John 15:26 as substantive confirmation that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone
• 'the spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf' (NRSV)
• For Eastern Orthodox churches, this absence is a clear indication that the filioque clause is heretical, while for Western Christians, it just means the Filioque clause should be inferred from other parts of scripture
• John 20:22 - implied the Holy Spirit can come from the Son

  Galatians 4:6 Refers to the Holy Spirit using phrases such as the 'spirit

  Romans 8:9 of Christ'

  Philippians 1:19