Trinity
One in Three Perspectives
Creator - Savior - Spirit 

Trinity is .......                       God's own essence seen as three-in-one.
Trinity Complications	Debates in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of Christian history were efforts by the church to explain the experience of the Church with Jesus and strict monotheism. Among the ideas that were doorways to Christian understanding were the following. When the church settled on its idea that the Trinity is God's own essence seen as three-in-one the previous attempts came to be known as heresies. The position of this writer is that these approaches were and are doorways into the Faith for unique sets of believers.     Monarchianism and it's sub-sets:         Adoptionism - Jesus is currently divine and has been so          since his adoption by the Father. Jesus is not equal to          the Father.         Modalism - Son was human part of Jesus and Father           was the Christ part of Jesus.          Patripassianism - A form of Modalism teaching that           The Father came to earth and suffered.           Sabellianism - Reduced the status of the persons of           the trinity to being modes of manifestations of One           God.
Too Complex?	Yes, the belief in Trinity is based on highly complex reasoning based on experience. Complexity is not to be seen as weakness. This web page is an example of complexity since the Internet is founded on the work of thousands of expert people and the investment of billions of dollars over a relatively brief time.  Religious concepts are the product of centuries of disciplined work by highly trained people. The fact that people wish to have a simple and easy to understand explanation without study, preparation and the presence of experienced teachers is a sign of innocence and a start-up phase in the process. Then comes the long time of exploration, learning and drawing of conclusions. It is the opinion of this writer that all individual people are capable of grasping complex religious ideas if there is a willingness to invest time, attention and disciplined study.
Getting at the Causes	As the Christian Church ponders its immediate future there appears to be much diagnosis of symptoms for whatever malaise and inertia are observed. Here is a suggestion for getting at causes.  Consider using the Trinity as a diagnostic tool. By examining the historic and present day uses of the Trinity, including so-called "heretical" complications, patterns of dysfunction in the religious organism will become evident. In that context the Christian community can isolate and deal with elemental causes - even as the early church did in the second and third centuries. The resulting changes will be different than the second and third century results because the evolutionary process in the light of the changed universe in which the church exists in ongoing.   This idea grows out of reading an article by Thomas Goetz in the August, 2007 Wired magazine. The subject is dealing with infections such as TB and HIV. Charles Daitch of Akonni Biosystems is developing the TruDiagnosis system to quickly and cheaply identify deadly pathogens.

The Lord's Prayer is the most widely known prayer for Christians. It was given by Jesus as a guide for believers to use in their prayers. 

The Apostles Creed is one historic statement of belief about Jesus that has stood the test of time and continues to guide and inspire believers. 

The Nicene Creed was created to sharpen the vision of what Jesus was about and continues to challenge thought and imagination.

Return to ChristianitySite  home page 
August 8 2007           © 2001- 2007