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

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

THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES 2
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

THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES 3
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