The word Trinity is not in the Bible.  It was first used by the church Father Tertullian in the late second century.  The church fought tooth and nail over the doctrine of what we call the Trinity throughout the second, third and fourth centuries of church history.

This fighting begin to calm down in 325 C.E. with the doctrinal formulation of Trinitarian thought in the Council of Nicea which was called by the Emporer Constantine.  He wanted the Council to decide once and for all on the Trinity what the church believed.  This would then be enforced as the standard creed and stop, hopefully all the fighting.  Constantine did not really care what the Council decided.  He simply wanted to unify the church so as to better unify his Empire.

At Nicea the classical orthodox (majority opinion) definition of the Trinity was set in concrete and remains today.  Backed then by the Civil authority of Rome the Nicean Creed soon squelched all opposing ideas and views on the Trinity.  There have been heresies since but they have never been major as they were in the pre-Nicean days.

The Nicean Creed says, “In God there is one substance and three persons.  Three persons but one God.”  It is in my opinion a rather sticky mess.

It is also more the product of Greek philosophy than it is of biblical thought.  It is a fact that these early church leaders were deeply in love with Greek philosophy.  This is not a bad thing.  A great deal of good came of this affection.  But it needs to be recognized so that we will be aware of where Greek philosopy too strongly influenced these early church leaders.  For being human they too are open to criticism.

Perhaps instead of Trinity we should use the term Mystery.  We could then say that  the Mystery of God in the Christian tradition  is expressed through the manifestations of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We could say that and leave it at that.  Leave it at that.  Just declare Father, Son and Holy Spirit and never bother to explain it.  I think that might be a very wise course and would be very biblical.  Let people reflect on what Father, Son and Spirit might mean but make no definitive creeds that people are forced to believe to be Christian.

According to the best historical analysis Jesus never taught or said anything trinitarian.  The baptismal formula of Matt. 28: 19 is a formulation of the church placed on the lips of Jesus.  I practice it but I do not believe Jesus said it.  The Gospel of John statement that alleges Jesus as saying, “I and the Father are one,”  is also the later belief of the church and something Jesus would not have ever said.  I believe that what Jesus was and taught reveals God clearly but not that he ever claimed to be one with God.  So I do not think that Jesus ever taught anything directly trinitarian.  I think that Trinitarianism is the thought of the church as they tried to understand things that were present in their faith in Jesus.

This does not make Trinitarianism all wrong.  It just means there is room for us to keep thinking about it.  It and all of God is a mystery.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are more in the realm of poetry than the realm of philosophical conceptualizations for me.  I do not like the word Trinity all that much.  It immediately conjures up images that detract for me from the feeling of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What I do know is this.  When I sense God as transcendant (more than this life or world) and I yearn for Him to hear me, I instinctively cry out, “Father.”  When I feel God’s immanence, His nearness and His presence within me I cry out, “O, Thou Holy Spirit.”  And when I focus on obeying God, living His way in my life, I look to Jesus and often picture him walking beside me, my Example and Light in the way.  This is the Mystery I know.  It is as far as I go in trying to explain it.        

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.