Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy

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1 Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology and Philosophy Aggregated to the Pontifical Urbaniana University Higher Institute of Religious Sciences The dogma of the Holy Trinity: how it is already foreshadowed in the economy of the Old Testament; how it is fully revealed in the New Testament; which principal Councils defined its essential elements; which could be the most commonly accepted theological explanations. KWOK CHI KEUNG (10908) RD409 Course Paper Moderator: Fr. Peter Choy HONG KONG January 31, 2013.

2 I. Introduction Similar to Judaism, Christianity confesses that there is only ONE God. Different from Judaism, Christianity professes that there are THREE PERSONS in their God. This is best summarized in the Apostles Creed which appears to be a confession of faith before baptism. 1 However, this article of faith goes against common sense and Christians of all generations have been struggling to articulate it in the most appropriate expression. Some have achieved partial successes and many others have fallen. Throughout the history of the development of this doctrine, one can see that most of the time, this dogma is a negative outcome of defence against heresies. What else can Christians expect when their God is a mystery? It is through blocking the wrong-turns that Christians begin to build up the correct path of understanding. This paper attempts to delineate the major outcomes of such a heroic theological endeavour. It will state the major conclusions reached in some principal Councils, trace the heresies that starts off the debate. Then the Biblical foundation of the dogma is lay down. To conclude, a sample of newer attempts will be briefly examined. 1 And when he who is being baptized goes down into the 12 water, he who baptizes him, putting his hand on him, shall say thus: Dost thou believe in God, the Father Almighty? And he who is being baptized shall say: 13 I believe. Then 14 holding his hand placed on his head, he shall baptize him once. And then he shall say: 15 Dost thou believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the quick and the dead? And when he says: 16 I believe, he is baptized again. And again he shall say: 17 Dost thou believe in [the] Holy Ghost, and the holy church, and the resurrection of the flesh? He who is being baptized shall say accordingly: 18 I believe, and so he is baptized a third time. (The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome, Chapter 21. ca. A.D.215). 2

3 II. Some heresies and principal councils A. Heresies Heresies come in a wide variety of attempts to combine/harmonize the one and three, unity and distinction of the Holy Trinity. Parallel to the Trinity controversy, the dual natures of Christ also aroused debates and the conclusions drawn directly affect the understanding of the Trinity. In preaching to people that there are three persons in one God, they will easily misunderstand it as Tritheism, which says that there are three separate gods who share the same substance. This is obviously non-christian and will not be considered here. Partialism taught that Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are components of the one God. Each is only part God, together they are fully God. Such an attempt to defend monotheism in Christianity is unsatisfactory. Unitarianism, which says that there is only one God in the Father, denies the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, goes against the Christian experience. These three are broad categories of controversies. Others are more subtle variants. Gnosticism, which is a kind of dualistic philosophy (good vs. evil, spirit vs. matter, light vs. darkness etc. coexist), views matter as evil. Therefore, it rejects the incarnation of God the Son. The Logos could not take flesh and lived among us. For Gnostics, salvation was attained through secret knowledge. Docestism is a variety of Gnosticism. Given that the Son of God incarnated, he must be purely divine. He only appears to be human. By denying the humanity of Christ, there would not be any distinction 3

4 in the Trinity. Ebionitism is the very opposite of Docestism. Jesus Christ is purely human. Only that he was endowed with particular charismatic gifts. By denying the divinity of Christ, Christianity would not be much different from Judaism. Modalism (Sabellianism, Patripassianism), a variant of Unitarianism, says that the same Person took up different roles of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Subordinationism, which was yet another variant of Unitarianism, says that the Son and thus the Holy Spirit are subordinate to the Father. Adoptionism denies the divinity of Christ who was born human and adopted by God at his baptism/resurrection. The Trinity would not be fully Trinity from the very beginning. Arianism argues that the Son did not exist before he was generated by the Father. So, the Son is less fully God than the Father. B. The First Nicaea Council (A.D. 325) and First Constantinople Council (A.D. 381) The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is what we are reciting in Sunday masses. It is a declaration against heresies confronted by the Church before the 5 th century. The God Christians believe in is one. We believe in one God to fight against Tritheism and Partialism. There are three Persons. First, the Father created all things visible and invisible. Thus, the Father is uncreated. Second, And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God deals with Adoptionism. Therefore, Jesus was not an adopted son when he was 4

5 baptized or after resurrection. He was begotten from the Father before all ages, thus fighting against Arianism. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made of the same substance as the Father is spelt out to affirm the full divinity of the Son, thus condemns Gnosticism and Ebionitism at the same time. Third, And in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is together worshipped and together glorified aims at Subordinationism. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is not perfect. Questions remain because the Trinity is beyond our ability to fathom. For the moment, let us turn to the root of this Trinity experience in the Bible. III. Biblical foundation of the Holy Trinity A. The Old Testament The Old Testament hands down the belief in One God. Everyday a Jew has to recite a creed, the Shema Israel. 2 However, there are already allusions to the three Persons of God. 3 Unlike other deities in the Near East, the God of Israel is transcendental and thus, asexual. He forbade the Israelites from making images to represent Him lest they fell into idolatry. Yet, we found many verbal images 4 and anthropomorphism such as mother 2 3 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4) The OT contains, in anticipation, categories used to express and elaborate the Trinity. Gerald O Collins, The Tripersonal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity (New York:Paulist Press, 1999), pg 11 4 The fear of a plastic image of Yahweh is in marked contrast with the lack of restraint in employing verbal images. Yahweh has a countenance, eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils, hands, feet. He speaks, hears, smells, laughs, hisses, whistles, strikes, writes, walks. He feels delight, joy, anger, hatred, love, disgust, regret, compassion. The OT never speaks of Yahweh without attributing human traits 5

6 (Isaiah 42:14; 49:15; 66:13 etc.), king (Psalm 47:7, Isaiah 44:6; Jeremiah 37:7 etc.) lover/husband (Jeremiah 3:14; Ezekiel 16:8-13; Hosea 2:14-23). The image of Father also stands out prominently (Deuteronomy 32:6; 2 Samuel 7:12-15, Psalm 2, 68; Isaiah 63:16, Jeremiah 3:19). Thus, all divine activities of Yahweh are mediated through personified agents such as Wisdom, Word and Spirit. According to O Collins, the word wisdom ח כ מ ה occurs 318 times in the OT and more than 75% of these turn up in the Wisdom Literature. 5 Unlike other Asian civilizations such as Chinese and Indian cultures, wisdom of the OT is not a human achievement, but a divine gift. Wisdom/Sophia existed before everything and was begotten / possessed נ ה ק as God s firstborn (Proverbs 8:22-26, Ben Sirach 24:3-11). She took part in creation (Proverbs 8:27-31, Wisdom 7:21). Listening to her words brings salvation (Proverbs 3:13-18). Wisdom is thus a personified image in anticipation of the Logos/Son of God in the New Testament. Spirit,רוּח which appears nearly 400 times in the OT, is another medium through which Yahweh s creative, revelatory and redemptive activities are mediated in the OT. It was the wind which hovered above waters before Creation (Genesis 1:2), the breath of life that re-animates the dead (Ezekiel 37) or inspiration which comes upon the prophets. Moreover, this creative Spirit is indistinguishable from the Word in creation (Psalm 33:6, 147:18). Thus, these OT personifications of Wisdom/Word and Spirit provide to him. John McKenzie, Aspects of Old Testament Thought, Jerome Biblical Commentary, ed. Raymond Brown, Jeseph Fitzmyer, Roland Murphy O Carm (New Jersey:Prentice Hall, 1968.) 77, 21 5 Gerald O Collins, pg 23 6

7 us with the language to articulate the mystery of Trinity in subsequent generations. 6 B. The New Testament What was anticipatory in the OT found its full revelation in NT writings which were products of the communities from where they originated. The passion and resurrection of Jesus produced these communities. The Easter experience revealed a new dimension in the one God they believed: the Christian God is tri-personal. Thus, the mandate of baptism in the name of the Trinity 7 reflects the belief of the Matthean community in particular and all other Christian communities in general. Due to the limitation of space, the present author would only sample from Pauline writings and the gospels. Pauline epistles will be dealt with first for chronological reason. There are a lot of triadic formulae in the epistles of Paul, such as The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14; Romans 1:1-4; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 2:18 and 3:14-17 etc.) From a monotheistic Jewish background, Paul reflected on the resurrection experience and identified God with the Father and the 6 The vivid personifications of Wisdom/Word and Spirit, inasmuch as they were both identified with God and the divine activity and distinguished from God, opened up the way toward recognizing God to be tripersonal. The leap from mere personifications to distinct persons is always, to be sure, a giant one. Nevertheless, without these OT personifications (and the Father/Son language applied to God), the acknowledgment of the Trinity would not have been so well and providentially prepared --- by foreshadowings and by an already existing terminology. Gerald O Collins, pg Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19) 7

8 Yahweh/the Lord with Jesus, the Son. 8 Through baptism, believers have their sins removed, are sanctified and justified in the name of the risen Lord and in the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 6:11). The Holy Spirit dwells in them (Romans 8:9). God the Father has sent the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of the believers (Galatians 4:6). Thus, through baptism, believers partake in the Trinitarian life. O Collins concludes that Paul did not abandon his monotheism but had introduced Christological and pneumatological dimensions into it. 9 Gospels are biographies of Jesus Christ whose entire life discloses a Trinitarian God. 10 First of all, O Collins points out that the narrative of virginal conception of Jesus not only points to the divine origin and identity of Jesus, the Son of God, but also his relation with the Father in the Spirit. 11 His baptism narrative in the Synoptic Gospels is Trinitarian in that it indicates both his identity as the beloved Son of the Father and the consecration of his ministry by the Holy Spirit. During his ministry, Jesus was animated by the Holy Spirit and delighted in his relation with the Father (Luke 10:21-24). While Christians are baptized to attain an adopted sonship with God the 8 That Paul s resurrection faith entailed Trinitarian, or at least binitarian, belief also emerged clearly when he split the confession of monotheism expressed in that central Jewish prayer, the Shema, or Hear, O Israel (Dt 6:4-5). The apostle glossed God with Father and Lord with Jesus Christ to put Jesus as risen and exalted Lord alongside God the Father: For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things and through whom we exist (1 Cor 8:6) Gerald O Collins, pg 55 9 Ibid, pg from the beginning to the end, there is a trinitarian face to the story of Jesus Christ. His total history discloses the God who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Ibid, pg Ibid, pp

9 Father, Jesus sonship with the Father is unique (Matthew 11:27). Jesus often addressed the Father in his prayers intimately as Abba. Not only did Jesus speak but also acted as the Son. 12 In his last supper with the apostles, he prayed that the Father sent the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to continue teaching and guiding the disciples (John 14:16-17). In the last gospel, Jesus declares without reservation that he is God in the seven I-am sayings (John 6:51, 8:12; 10:7, 11; 11:25; 14:6 and 15:1) The Acts of the Apostles can be regarded as the sequel to the Gospel according to Luke. Some dub it the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. Superficially, the major protagonists are Peter and Paul but behind them all is a gradual perception of the Person of the Holy Spirit. The authors of the NT employed narrative languages instead of philosophical languages because they were telling the readers their experience, in particular, the Easter experience. They did not have to deal with the questions such as the nature, the substance, the Persons, the unity, distinction and the inner life of the Trinity etc. which arose when Christians attempted to preach their good news to the civilizations they lived in. C. Church Fathers and Councils Many Church Fathers had to defend the orthodoxy of Trinity against heresies within the Church. Their opinions were adopted in ecumenical and regional councils and promulgated in creeds. E.g. the 12 in knowing and revealing the truth about God, in changing the divine law, in forgiving sins (outside the normal channels of temple sacrifices and the ministry of the levitical priesthood), in being the one through whom others could become children of God and in acting with total obedience as the agent for God s final kingdom. Ibid, pp

10 Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, and the Athanasian Creed etc. Due to the limitation of space, the present author could only write about the teachings of ante-nicaean Church Fathers who wrote during a time when the canon of the Bible was not yet fixed. Justin Martyr (A.D ) made it his mission to defend the reasonableness of Christianity with Greek philosophy which was the prevalent culture of his days. To deal with Gnosticism, Justin Martyr identifies Logos, the rational force operative in the universe, with the historical Christ. The Son/Word is distinct from the Father and yet he was of the same essence/substance as the Father. He was sent forth by the Father just like the sun sends forth its rays. This teaching of light from light has entered the Nicean Creed. 13 Justin affirms the pre-existence of both the Father and the Son. He had provided the language for further discussion but he was not yet ready to clarify how the Father generated the Son. 14 Marcion taught a version of Gnosticism, in which the god of the OT was a god of justice to the point of cruelty, that he could not be the same merciful good God Jesus taught. Fighting against this, Ireneaus (A.D ) taught that the Jewish Creator God of the OT was the Gerald O Collins, pg 89 The Word is numerically distinct from the Father (Dialogue with Trypho ; cf. Dialogue with Trypho 56, 62). He was born of the very substance of the Father, not that this substance was divided, but He proceeds from it as one fire does from another at which it is lit (Dialogue with Trypho 128,61); this form of production (procession) is compared also with that of human speech (Dialogue with Trypho 61). The Word (Logos) is therefore the Son: much more, He alone may properly be called Son (II Apol., vi, 3); He is the monogenes, the unigenitus (Dialogue with Trypho 105). Jules Lebreton, St. Justin Martyr, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 8. New York:Arobert Appleton Company,

11 Father of our Lord Jesus. This teaching becomes the confession of one God, Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth in the Nicene Creed. 15 Ireneaus argued that perfect knowledge, such as how the Father eternally generated the Son, could not be attained in this life. Many questions must be left in the hands of God 16 which he identified with the Son and the Spirit. 17 The Nicene Creed simply confesses the Son to be begotten, not made. Gradually, two tangled theories, Modalism and Subordinationism, arose to explain the relation between the Father and the Son. In its eagerness to defend the unity of God, Modalism argues that God is one who manifests Himself in different aspects (Creator, Redeemer and Counselor). Thus the distinctions of the Trinity are distinctions in modes, not in Persons. So, God the Father appeared on earth as Son and died on the cross! This heresy is called Patripassionism in the West and Sabellianism in the East. 18 Tertullian (A.D ) wrote in Latin and provided a rich vocabulary for the discussion of the Trinity. He invented the term Trinity to describe the Christian God and developed the formula of one substance in three persons. He wrote of the one substance and three distinct but undivided persons of God to defend against modalism. The distinction of persons does not compromise the unity of substance and the true divine monarchy of the Father Gerald O Collins, pg 97. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book II, Chapter XXVIII, 3 Ibid, Book V, Chapter XXVIII, 4 John Chapman. Monarchians, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, Where substance stood for the common fundamental reality shared by 11

12 In explaining the eternal begetting of the Son, Tertullian applies a psychological analogy: The Word/Son is the reason (ratio) in the mind of the Father, the speech (sermo) when the Father speaks. In explaining the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father, Tertullian made use of material analogies of root (Father) shoot (Son) and fruit (Holy Spirit); spring (Father), river (Son), canal (Holy Spirit) and lastly, sun (Father), light (Son) and radiance (Holy Spirit). The Father is the source which begets the Son and the Holy Spirit is the fruit. Tertullian managed to maintain the distinction of persons who share the same substance. However, he could not but fall into the error of Subordinationism which is a natural outcome of the influence of emanationism of neo-platonism. God the Father is the Godhead, the source from which, the Son was born / emanated and the Holy Spirit proceeded. Adoptionism argues that Jesus was born of the virgin as a man. He became the Son of God only after his baptism or resurrection. Origen (A.D ) defended against this heresy. Origen was able to make use of and analyze the ontological concepts of generation and procession clearly. He employed the concept of hypostaseis, i.e. distinct subsistent realities who share in the one divine nature, to describe the three divine persons. He insisted on the eternal generation of the Son, which is like the mind generating the will. The Son coexists eternally with the Father, thus rejecting the opinion that there was a time when he was not. Arius (A.D ) disagreed with Origen and pushed the opinion to the extreme. The First Council Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Tertullian understood person as the principle of operative individuality. Gerald O Collins, pg

13 of Nicaea (A.D. 325) was convoked to condemn Arianism. Augustine (A.D ) elaborated the theology of Trinity against the lingering Arianism and other heresies. His influence can be seen in the most widely adopted and beloved formulation of the Trinitarian doctrine, the Athanasian Creed, the Quicumque vult. 20 Though it sounds repetitive and tedious, the Athanasian Creed is able to articulate with the least ambiguity the basic Trinitarian doctrine. IV. Some newer approaches The theology of Trinity began with external economy, i.e. the creative and redemptive activities of God, the economic Trinity. Gradually, Church Fathers turned their attention to the internal life of the Trinity, the immanent Trinity, which is more difficult to speculate, if not impossible to comprehend. Through centuries of mind joggling, theologians have developed five concepts, viz. the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, generation and spiration; four relations, viz. active generation, passive generation, active spiration and passive spiration; three persons, viz. the Father (principle without principle), the Son (principle from principle) 20 It reads, in part, Now this is the catholic faith: We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another. But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit. Uncreated infinite eternal And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal Almighty is the Father And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty. Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are not three gods, but one God not three lords, but one Lord Dale Tuggy, History of Trinitarian Doctrines, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on January 30, 2013 at The full text can be accessed in both Latin and English from Athanasian Creed, Wikipedia at 13

14 and the Holy Spirit (principle from principle); two actions, viz. generating and spirating; and lastly, one divine nature, ousia. In 1970, Karl Rahner lay down his famous rule that the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity which has ignited a lot of discussions. 21 V. Conclusion The Christian God is a mystery. Had God not revealed Himself to mankind, it would never have been able for mere mortals to comprehend, not even rational beings like men and angels. Through Isaiah, God made it clear to us that with our limited experiences and primitive structure of thoughts, we would never be able to fully fathom His mystery. 22 But the fighting spirit of humankind will never give up until they find rest in the immanent Trinity. Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that Thou resistest the proud, yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee. Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee. Lord, teach me to know and understand which of these should be first, to call on Thee, or to praise Thee; and likewise to know Thee, or to call upon Thee O Lord, my faith calls on Thee, that faith which Thou hast imparted to me, which Thou hast breathed into me through the incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of Thy preacher. (Confessions I, 1) 21 Trinity, Wikipedia. Retrieved on January 30, 2013 at 22 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9, RSV) 14

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