Talk:Trinity/discussion
Maybe the most troublesome Christian doctrine of all - "God in three persons, blessed Trinity"
The doctrine of the Trinity is often presented as purely theoretical; a doctrine that can be safely left alone by "ordinary Christians" whilst those with too much time on their hands can furrow their brows over it.
What it is easy to forget is that the doctrine of the Trinity has its origins in Christian experience. It isn't that a few philosophers sat down to see if they could come up with the most complicated way possible to speak about God. Instead Christians wrestled with their fundamental belief in one God
- Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord Deut. 6: 4 (The Shema)
whilst knowing that his followers had experienced the divine in Jesus and knew his continued presence through the Holy Spirit. To make sense of this experience the early church borrowed some of the language of Greek philosophy, but the origins of the doctrine of the Trinity do not lie in philosophy. The Christian "understanding" of the Trinity begins with the self-revelation of God in Jesus of Nazareth and the continuing life of his Church.
The Trinity also may be one of the most important Christian doctrines.
The doctrine of the Trinity is like the foundation of a building, out of sight, often forgotten about and apparently irrelevant to the functioning of the building. Yet the foundations of a building profoundly determine its depth, breadth, height and weight. Similarly, the doctrine of the Trinity underpins much of Christian thought, giving it a shape and a feel different from pure monotheistic religions.
With the Trinity we are able to say that
- 1. God (the Father) is the source of all things, holy and transcendant. and
- 2. God (the Son) comes to us in our humanity, and is along side us in our suffering and sin. and
- 3. God (the Spirit) is among us and within us, empowering, sanctifying and renewing.
The key problem of the doctrine of the Trinity is also a key problem of the whole of theology. It is the problem of language, imagery and concept. How shall we describe God? God is so much more than we can grasp even with our whole wealth of arts and sciences. As soon as we try to complete the sentence "God is like ... ", we fall short. All theological language is inadaquate, it is at best an approximation.
"We may define the doctrine of the Trinity as follows: God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God." (Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem, p.226)
Not all Christians are Trinitarians. Michael Servetus (1511-1553) for one (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Servetus) rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, and was executed for this position (as well as for his rejection of infant baptism). The term "Trinity" occurs nowhere in Scripture and the doctrine itself did not receive its final formulation until the fourth century (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity), almost 300 years after Christ's ministry.
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