The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: Exploring the Mystery of God

This essay explores the history and formulation of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and how it points to the mystery of God. It also discusses the different perspectives and debates surrounding the Trinity nature of God.

Running head: THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY 1
THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Name
Institution Affiliation

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The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity
Topic
“When we speak of God we do not clear up a puzzle; we draw attention to a mystery” (Herbert
McCabe). How does the doctrine of the Trinity try to point to the mystery of God in this way?
Introduction
The Doctrine of Trinity took more than four centuries for it to be formed and the
arguments over the final precise description of Trinity have still been arising in theology and
religious studies. A famous theologist by the name Richard Rohr once said, “Mystery isn't
something that you cannot understand – it is something that you can endlessly understand! There
is no point at which you can say, "I've got it." Always and forever, the mystery gets you!” The
bottom line of McCabe’s writing in the book “God and Evil” is the strain in speaking of God in
expressions that do not beseech yet another question and the transcendence of God (Herbert
McCabe and Brian Davies, 2010). In this paper, we intend to look at the process of the
formulation of the Trinity and occasions that led to its formulation by the Church Fathers, and
debate that the language used to describe the Trinity was the result of the defences against what
the nature of God wasn't rather than what God is. This essay is also going to consider the fine-
tuning of the language used in the language affirmed at the First Council of Constantinople and
the Nicene Creed which was confirmed at the First Council of Nicaea. In the early 5th Century
Augustine of Hippo published a document on the Trinity and this will also be considered briefly
in this essay.
The word Trinity cannot be found anywhere in the Bible both in the New Testament and
the Old Testament. However, both the New Testament and the Old Testament have a scripture
that points to a Trinitarian pattern. Allow me to put more emphasis and concentration on the

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New Testament which is an obvious reference and see how it alludes to the Trinitarian pattern. 2
Cor. 13:13/14 and Matt. 28:19 are some of the well-known and most obvious references to the
Trinitarian pattern found in the New Testament. In both of these passages of the Bible, they have
referred to the Trinitarian pattern, that is, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Richard
Rohr, 2016). In the introduction of the Gospel of John, the divinity of Jesus is portrayed where
Jesus is referred to as the Word and that Jesus was present at the beginning (John 1:1-3 and 1:9-
10). According to the Gospel of Luke Chapter 3 verse 22, it says ““and the Holy Spirit
descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my
Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Further considering the Gospel of Luke we see
that in this book Jesus forgives sin to be specific in Luke 7:48 and Luke 5: 20. In the scripture,
the Holy Spirit has been portrayed as the Truth or the Spirit of God according to John 14:7, Acts
8:29, Acts 11:12, and also Acts 13:2. Apostle Paul in Romans 8: 11 he speaks of the Holy Spirit
and also in many of his letters he has mentioned of the Holy Spirit.
From the several verses in the scripture the Trinitarian pattern can be visualized but that
does not necessarily prove to us that the today Doctrine of Trinity is found in the scripture. "In
fact, the scriptures do not give us the terms used by the churches to express their faith, such as
three Persons, one nature, proceeding, sending and so on. This does not mean the scriptures do
not give us a revelation of the Trinity: they do, fully, but in a different way” (Alister E. Editor
McGrath, 2016). This implies that the origin of the Holy Trinity can be traced from the bible but
we cannot assume that the Doctrine of Trinity is exactly as outlined in the scriptures.
Looking at the history of the Doctrine of Trinity would help us explain that when we
speak of God we do not clear up a puzzle; we draw attention to a mystery. Side-shoots from the
original message and the influence of Greek Philosophy came in as Christianity was spreading

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throughout the Gentiles of the world specifically the Greeks (Leonardo Boff, 1998). Let take
some instances in the early church where competing messages can be identified. During the time
of St Paul when he was writing his several letters, we can realize that there were already false
messages that may be creeping in the Gospel. St Paul first letter addressed to Timothy is
basically a warning against false teaching. In this letter St Paul says, “I urge you, as I did when I
was on my way to Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not
to teach any different doctrine,” (1Tim. 1:3 NRSV). More details about the false messages are
explained by St Paul in 1Tim. 1: 3-20. Therefore there are several changes that might have
occurred in the scripture to the extent of distorting the Doctrine of Trinity and this creates
mystery when we speak of God.
The inappropriate use of philosophy within Christian theology has been an issue of
concern due to the mystery created and several theologians have spoken against it with Tertullian
(c. 160-c, 200) a famous Roman theologian being one of them. The denial of resurrection and the
different forms of Gnosticism were what Tertullian defences were mainly aiming at. The
traditional theology was also defended against the teachings of Valentinus and Heretic by
Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130 - c.202). The foundation of the Doctrine of the Trinity was mainly
based on this basic shape (Alister E. Editor McGrath, 2016). The basic shape of the Trinity was
laid out by Irenaeus and he referred to this basic shape as the Rule of Our Faith, God the Father
uncreated Word of God (Son), and the Holy Spirit.
The mystery of God can be evidently seen from the Doctrine of Trinity as it try to explain
the Trinitarian concept of God. The mystery of God does not necessarily mean that it is not
possible to understand the concept but it can imply that there is an infinity perspectives to
understand. In the 4th century the First Council of Nicaea in 325 was held to address the many

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profanities that were hounding the Church (Paul Allan Mirecki, 2014). The divinity of Jesus
Christ as son was accepted by most of the Church Fathers of the fourth century CE. However,
the divinity of the Holy Spirit was still not widely accepted and some were against it. There
several theologians whore wrote to defend the divinity of the Holy Spirit and one of them is
Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 293-c. 373) who talked against the ‘Arianism’ and ‘binitarianism’
heresies. Athanasius of Alexandria says that “the Holy Trinity is a unity of essence and equality
in rank with the father and the Son” (The Christian Theology Reader, 2016). The First Council of
Nicaea resulted into several documents and one of them is the Nicene Creed. More than 300 of
the bishops who attended the First Council of Nicaea had ratified the Nicene Creed. A group of
Arian theologians referred to as the Neo-Arians emerged in 350 CE and they had an argument
against the language of the Trinity. They were specifically against the use of the words
hypostasis (person) and homoousios (essence) in relation to God. The arguments and the
differences among the theologians concerning the Doctrine of Trinity is a clear illustration of the
mystery associated with God. Their concept of the Trinity nature of God is not unanimously
accepted by all theologians implying that the nature of God is a mystery that raises several
perspectives.

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Conclusion
In summary, when we speak of God we do not clear up a puzzle; we draw attention to a
mystery. The Doctrine of Trinity and its history can clearly elaborate this concept. We can see
the different perspectives that the early church theologians had in explaining the Trinity nature of
God in the various published articles. There has been a battle even among the current theologians
and Christian religious leaders in describing the mystery of God as Trinity with some seeing the
Holy Spirit and Son being less superior to God. The several languages and doctrines that have
formulated to explain the Trinity nature of God but none of these have the total support of all
theologians. McCabe once said the more we talk about God the more we draw attention to the
mystery (McCabe, God and Evil. 157). Therefore we clearly see that the nature of God is a
mystery and it raise several perspectives some of which are contradicting each other.

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References
“The Christian Theology Reader: 25th Anniversary 5th Edition, 3.10 Athanasius of Alexandria
on the Holy Spirit and the Trinity (166),” (2016; reprint, 5).
“The Christian Theology Reader: 25th Anniversary 5th Edition, 3.15 Augustine of Hippo on the
Trinity. (168),” (2016; reprint, 5).
Alister E. Editor McGrath, (2016). “The Christian Theology Reader: 25th Anniversary 5th
Edition, 1.3 Tertullian on the Relationship between Philisophy and Heresy.”
Alister E. Editor McGrath, (2016). “The Christian Theology Reader: 25th Anniversary 5th
Edition, 3.3 Irenaeus of Lyons on the Trinity (157),”
Herbert McCabe and Brian Davies, (2010) God and Evil : In the Theology of St Thomas
Aquinas / Herbert Mccabe ; Edited and Introduced by Brain Davies ; [Foreword by Terry
Eagleton] (London: London : Continuum, 2010), 128.
Leonardo Boff (1998), Trinity and Society, Liberation and Theology Series Kent: Burns & Oates
McCabe, God and Evil. 157
Paul Allan Mirecki, (2014) “Valentinus,” ed. David Noel Freedman, 3.9 vols. The Anchor Yale
Bible Dictionary. Accordance Electronic Edition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
(782ibid.)
Richard Rohr, (2016).The Divine Dance. Kindle Edition, (London: Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, 2016), Location 356 of 4179.