On the Trinity

One of the twelve principles of intellectual conduct that T. Edward Damer, a contemporary philosopher, has espoused is called the principle of charity. He discusses it in his brilliantly written textbook called Attacking Faulty Reasoning published by Wadsworth Cengage Learning. The principle of charity teaches us that we should comprehend and reformulate the opponent’s argument as honestly as they would like us to, and we should allow them to amend it in case they impugn its reformulation. Taking the principle of charity as our guiding principle, I intend to very briefly talk about the doctrine of the Trinity, the Christian conception of God.

So, let's begin. The first and most important thing to be cleared in this regard is that Christianity is, or at least claims to be, a monotheistic religion. They don't believe in three gods. Just like Jews and Muslims, they believe in only One God. However, the nature of Christian God is diametrically different from their cousins. It's here we need to have a proper understanding of the Trinity. For this, we need to go back to 325 CE when the Nicene Creed was drawn up and this doctrine was officially formulated in the way it's understood now. I have provided the statement of the Creed below. To summarize, there are often three propositions put forth to define it, namely:

1. There is only One God.

2. God consists of 3 persons.

3. Each person is fully God.

On the surface, this may seem simple, because we may entertain the claim that God is one with 3 manifestations. But that's not what it claims. Had that been the case, we would have the doctrine of Modalism. The third proposition asserts that each person is fully God and each of them is different from the other two. In other words, F=G, S=G, and H=G, but F≠S≠H (Father ≠ Son ≠ Holy Spirit), which, I venture to say on pain of being overconfident or even wrong, clearly violates the law of identity and its corollaries such as laws of symmetry, transitivity, and reflexivity. Hence, the infamous logical problem of the Trinity. Since it’s not a polemic piece, we need not concern ourselves with that for now.  So, going back, we don't have three Gods here either, because that would render this doctrine polytheistic which is a declared heresy in Christianity. Neither is it Subordinationism which means that the three persons are not equal. The three necessary conditions of equality, threeness, and monotheism must remain intact. The absence of any of them renders the doctrine heretical. So One God consisting of three persons who are different from each other and each of whom is fully God. This is the Trinity.

 

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and was made human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come. Amen