Christian Trinity: A Constructive Christian Theology

Running head: CHRISTIAN TRINITY
CHRISTIAN TRINITY
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Author Note

1CHRISTIAN TRINITY
Christianity is a monotheistic faith but the presence of God as per the tenets of the
religion is dispensed in three elements, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three
elements of the trinity are but manifestation of the Supreme God as per the Christian theological
doctrine, hence that does not make Christianity a polytheistic religion. The element of Son from
the trinity is however of the utmost importance as it represents Christ, the one unto whom the
religion traces its origin. In this essay the discussion shall be focusing upon the central content of
the doctrine of the Trinity in Christian theology, and discuss its function within Christian
theology as a whole on the basis of the ideas propounded by Kärkkäinen (2014) in the book
‘Trinity and revelation. A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World’.
The central content of the Christian Trinity and the functional aspect of Trinity in the
Christian traditions and theology as per the views espoused by Kärkkäinen (2014) are
intertwined to each other and are essentially a departure from the mainstream theological
explanations and justifications. The basic aim of Kärkkäinen (2014) have been to relate the
experiences and realities of the world to the theological concept of Trinity, by means of
attempting to find the discrepancies between the traditional and the contemporary methodology
used in understanding Trinitarian theology. The influences of the works of Tillich, Moltmann
and Pannenberg can be found in the views which he had espoused but apart from that the
element of science and an inter faith approach employed by him shows that Kärkkäinen (2014)
has gone beyond the abstract and other worldly theological explanations which one can find in
the mainstream theological explanations.
The central argument thus as per Kärkkäinen (2014) is that Trinity is symbolic of the
interaction of God with human beings and the element of it is very much evident from the
structurization of the Trinity itself. By hinting at the inextricable connection between God and