The Trinity Theology

This essay discusses the development and importance of the Trinity in Christianity. It explores the history, Ecumenical Councils, Patristics, Cappadocian Fathers, and the perspectives of Saint Augustine and John Calvin. The doctrine of the Trinity is considered important for prayer and worship in the Christian religion.

Running head: THE TRINITY THEOLOGY
The Trinity Theology
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Author Note

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Part 1
Introduction
Trinity is a doctrine which is commonly found in the Christian religion. The concept
of trinity speaks about the Godhead which states that there is only one God but there are three
different representatives of the same God – The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. The
theory states that the one single God is represented by these three incarnations of God
himself. Although there are different views to Trinitarianism, which includes binitarianism
(one deity in two different individuals) as well as Modality Monarchianism (one deity in one
single individual). These various theories have always played an important role in the religion
of Christianity which has been followed by the followers of the particular religion from the
ancient times to the present day. This doctrine of the Trinity was first provided among the
early Christians as well as the preacher in the churches. Later, the doctrine got spread to other
followers of the religion and became known as one of the most important part of the Christian
religion which is to be diligently followed by all Christian people. Thus, it can be said that
Trinity is indeed an important part of the Christian religion.
The purpose of this essay is to provide a discussion of the development of the
Trinity in the world through all of its important elements and also to formulate how the
Trinity can be considered to be very important in the modern world and also how the
doctrine of the Trinity effects its followers.
History
The history of the Trinity extends to the attempts by the early Christians to understand
the relationship that is shared by Jesus Christ wit that of God himself. This has been
mentioned in the New Testament of The Bible itself, which refers to the triadic understanding

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of God as three different incarnates – The Father, The Son as well as The Holy Spirit. The
writings about the trinity can be attributed to the writings of Isaiah, who refers to God as The
Father, The Son as well as the Holy Spirit. Theophilus was one of the first fathers of the
church who also referred to the Trinity as the wisdom of God himself and also advised his
followers of the Church to abide the rules as had been mentioned in the doctrine of the
Trinity in the Bible itself. Thus, from all this information, it can be stated that the Doctrine of
the Trinity forms an important part of the religion followed by the Christians themselves.
The Ecumenical Councils
The Ecumenical Councils refers to the attempts by the Catholic Church organizing a
number of meetings so that they would be able to reach a particular form of orthodox
consensus for the followers of the Christianity in the world itself. The first Ecumenical
Council took place in Nicaea which discussed various topics like those of the Passover,
Arianism as well as the prohibition of keeling on Sundays. The second meeting was held in
the city of Constantinople which discussed about the concepts of Arianism, the Holy Spirit,
and other matters of discussions which were discussed by the members who had participated
in the meetings themselves (Christakyova, 2016). Other councils were held in the cities of
Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon and other areas where meetings were held to discuss the
various teachings of Jesus Christ to his followers and also analyze the meaning of the
teachings which were imparted to the followers by Jesus Christ himself.
Patristics
The concept of patristics is referred to the study of the Christian writers of the earlier
times who were also considered to be the first as well as the earliest Fathers of the church
themselves. This study is also known to the followers as the study of the patrology. The time
period of this time is said to extend from the end of the times of The New Testament to the

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Council of Chalcedon or till the end of the Apostolic Age in the history of the Bible itself.
The most important teachings of the times could be attributed to that of Ignatius, the second
Bishop of Antioch, who had written a letter to the churches in the Asia Minor regions
explaining them about the doctrine of the Trinity and the various ways in which the Doctrine
of the Trinity is important for the Christian religion itself (McGrath, 2018). Moreover, the
patricism also talks about the various ways in which the teachings of the Doctrine is
considered to be important for those of the followers of the teachings of Christianity itself
and the various ways in which the Godhead, i.e. The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit
play an important role in the story of Christianity itself in the country. This is what the
teachings of patricism talks to the followers of the doctrine of Christianity as well as the
doctrine of the Trinity (McGrath, 2014).
Cappadocian Fathers
The Cappadocian Fathers refers to three individuals from the region of Cappadocia in
the country of Turkey, who had led the advancement of the religion of Christianity in the area
itself. These three individuals are named as Basil the Great, the Bishop of Caesarea, his
younger brother Gregory of Nyassa, also the Bishop of Nyassa and the third was Gregory of
Nazianzus, who later became the patriarch of Constantinople itself. These Cappadocians were
responsible for developing and the advancements of the Christian doctrine of Trinity in the
region of Cappadocia, which was once known as the center of early Christian activity, which
was known to have many missions to be undertaken by Paul himself.
As stated by Christakyova (2013), these Cappadocian Fathers demonstrated that
people belonging to the Christian religion was capable of holding intellectual discussions
with those of the Greek people themselves. Apart from that, these fathers also made
important contributions to the definitions of the Trinity as well as contributed to the responses

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about the Arianism and that of Apollinarism to the followers of the Christian religion who
wanted to understand the Doctrine of the Trinity.
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Saint Augustine of Hippo was a Roman African early Christian theologian as well as
philosopher from Numidia whose writing is said to influence the Christian philosophy of the
Western World as well as the beliefs which were followed by the Western world on the
religion of Christianity. He also contributed a lot to the formulation of The Trinity in the
religion of Christianity in the world.
St. Augustine stated classical expression to the concept of The Trinity where he had
stated that the image of God that the human beings have in themselves is different from that
of the animals because of the fact that humans have the ability to acknowledge the eternal
forms that they can see for themselves while the animals do not have the ability to
acknowledge those which they see, which is why they cannot see the eternal from
themselves. He also moved from the substance of the Godhead to be a substance of secondary
substance and the persons to be the primary sources of the Godhead (Bouregeault, 2014)
Apart from this, Augustine’s theory of trinity is based on love, he has stated the fact that the it
is love which binds the human beings to the trinity itself and that us why love is the only way
of reaching and connecting with the Holy Trinity itself. These are the contributions which
have been made by Saint Augustine of Hippo to the theory of Trinity in Christianity.
Calvin
John Calvin’s analysis of The Trinity in Christianity is perhaps one of the most
clearest theologies of the concept of theology. John Calvin had always referred to the
theology of the Trinity without showing any kind of interest in the subject matter of Arianism

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or that of the Apollinarism. Instead, the philosopher had focused on the importance of the
subject matter of making the three persons distinct in the subject matter of God himself. H
further points out the fact that the Apostles are the ones who seem to form an image of God
in their minds based on the image of the God that they see for themselves in their minds.
Here, Calvin seems to be in agreement with the statements which were made by that of Saint
Augustine of Hippo that the humans are the only ones who are able to see God for themselves
because of the fact that that they are able to imagine God in the manner that they would like
to (Christakyova, 2013).
Thus, it can be said from the statements that were made by Calvin that he had similar
beliefs to that of Saint Augustine in the sense that they both believed in only the humans
abilities to see god for themselves. However, Calvin also differed from the viewpoints of
other philosophers in the sense that he did not believe in the supernatural elements unlike
those of the other philosophers. Therefore, it can be said that both Augustine as well as
Calvin had provided their own unique perspectives of the subject matter of the Trinity.
Part 2
Why Does the Doctrine of the Trinity Matter?
As stated by McGrath (2013), the Doctrine of the Trinity matters or not has been the
topic of the debate which has continued for ages. While there are supporters who claim the
fact that the Doctrine of the Trinity indeed matters, at the same time, there are also
oppositions to this claim who states the fact that the Trinity is not important and hence, it
does not matter much. However, this discussion will focus on the importance of the doctrine
of the Trinity which is important because of the fact that the whole beliefs and the prayers of
the Christian religion is based on the system of the belief in the holy Trinity. Therefore, the

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Christians are also known to pray to the Holy Trinity regularly. Thus, it can be said that the
doctrine is indeed important because it is the doctrine itself based on which the Christians
pray regularly in the churches.
Another factor why the doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be important is because
of the fact that the prayer that the humans offer to God is also Trinitarian in nature, which
means that the humans provide their knowledge of God in the prayers that offer to the God in
prayer (Christakyova, 2016). Therefore, it can be said that the prayers are a medium for the
individuals to communicate with God himself and because of this purpose itself, the Trinity is
considered to be important for the Christians as they offer their prayers to God Himself.
The third reason why the Trinity is considered to be important is because of the
reason that it gives the humans to worship each of the three parts of the trinity for themselves
– The Father, The Son as well as The Holy Spirit itself. As a result, the Christian people will
be able to offer their prayers to each of the three incarnates of God as well as to God himself.
Thus, the trinity is considered important because it allows the people to offer their prayers to
whoever they want. It also provides a source of choice to the Christian people themselves
about the Trinity whom they would like to worship. Based on all of these above factors that
are mentioned in the information that have been analyzed from the texts above, these are the
reasons why the doctrine of the trinity is considered to be very important by the Christians
(Bourgeault, 2013).
Conclusions
From the above statements, it can be concluded that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
indeed an important part of the religious life of the Christians themselves. It is because of the
trinity and its doctrines that the meaning of the religion of Christianity is considered to be
very important by the human beings who follow the religion of Christianity themselves.

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Thus, it can be said that the Trinity is indeed important in the life of the Christians and it
helps them to choose either God as a whole or a specific trinity whom they would like to
worship themselves.
References List
Bourgeault, C., 2013. The holy trinity and the law of three: Discovering the radical truth at
the heart of christianity. Shambhala Publications.
Chistyakova, O.V., 2016, May. Postmodernism, Christian Patristics, and Values of Peace in
the Modern Cultures In the Context of Educational Process. In 2nd International Conference
on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education. Atlantis Press.
McGrath, A.E., 2016. Christian theology: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Noble, T.A., 2013. Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Theology of Christian Perfecting. Wipf
and Stock Publishers.
Rapp, C., 2013. Holy bishops in late antiquity: the nature of Christian leadership in an age
of transition (Vol. 37). Univ of California Press.

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