Trinity

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Holy Trinity (disambiguation), Trinity (disambiguation), and God in Three Persons (album).
The Trinity by Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev, early 15th century. This portrayal of the three angels who visited Abraham at the Oak of Mamre (Genesis 18:1–8) was not intended as a literal or exact representation of the Trinity, but as a meditation upon the relational life of the Trinity through the Biblical narrative.

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The Trinity (Latin: Trinitas, lit. 'triad', from Latin: trinus 'threefold')[1] is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons:[2][3] God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons (hypostases) sharing one essence/substance/nature (homoousion).[4]

As the Fourth Lateran Council declared, it is the Father who begets, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds.[5][6][7] In this context, one essence/nature defines what God is, while the three persons define who God is.[8][9] This expresses at once their distinction and their indissoluble unity. Thus, the entire process of creation and grace is viewed as a single shared action of the three divine persons, in which each person manifests the attributes unique to them in the Trinity, thereby proving that everything comes "from the Father," "through the Son," and "in the Holy Spirit."[10]

This doctrine is called Trinitarianism and its adherents are called Trinitarians, while its opponents are called antitrinitarians or nontrinitarians and considered non-Christian by most mainline groups. Nontrinitarian positions include Unitarianism, Binitarianism and Modalism.

While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament, the New Testament possesses a triadic understanding of God[11] and contains a number of Trinitarian formulas.[12][13] The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated among the early Christians (mid-2nd century and later) and fathers of the Church as they attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions.[14]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference oxforddictionaries.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Daley 2009, pp. 323–350.
  3. ^ Ramelli 2012.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference def-lateran1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Fourth Lateran Council (1215) List of Constitutions: 2. On the error of abbot Joachim. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  6. ^ "Greek and Latin Traditions Regarding the Procession of the Holy Spirit | EWTN". EWTN Global Catholic Television Network. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  7. ^ Fathers, Council (11 November 1215). Fourth Lateran Council : 1215 Council Fathers. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference thelogy-sanity was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Sheed, Frank J. (11 January 1978). Theology & Sanity. Bloomsbury Publishing (published 1978). ISBN 9780826438829. Retrieved 21 December 2021. Nature answers the question what we are; person answers the question who we are. [...] Nature is the source of our operations, person does them.
  10. ^ "Understanding the Holy Trinity: A Deep Dive into Catholicism's Central Mystery – The Lay Monastic". 2 February 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  11. ^ Hurtado 2010, pp. 99–110.
  12. ^ Januariy 2013, p. 99.
  13. ^ Archimandrite Janurariy (Ivliev) (9 March 2013) [2003]. "The Elements of Triadology in the New Testament". In Stewart, Melville Y. (ed.). The Trinity: East/West Dialogue. Volume 24 of Studies in Philosophy and Religion. Dordrecht: Springer Science & Business Media (published 2013). p. 100. ISBN 9789401703932. Retrieved 21 December 2021. Trinitarian formulas are found in New Testament books such as 1 Peter 1:2; and 2 Cor 13:13. But the formula used by John the mystery-seer is unique. Perhaps it shows John's original adaptation of Paul's dual formula.
  14. ^ Hurtado 2005, pp. 644–648.