The Doctrine of the Trinity ................................................................

Lecture 10

We are starting in this lecture on a series of three lectures on great

classic Christian doctrines: the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of

the Incarnation, the doctrine of Grace.

T

he doctrine of the Trinity is the distinctively Christian conception of
God. It is not about how God is three and one, but about how the
one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Trinity and Incarnation are
the two fundamental doctrines of Christian theology. Both arise because of
the uniquely Christian insistence on the divine identity of Christ. Hence the
doctrine of the Trinity does not often use the human name “Jesus” but rather
speaks of his divine identity using the terms “Word” and “Son of God.”
Unlike the doctrine of Incarnation, the doctrine of the Trinity focuses strictly
on the divinity of Christ, not his humanity.

As Augustine showed, the fundamental logic of the orthodox doctrine of
the Trinity can be stated fairly simply, in seven statements. The ¿ rst three
statements about the Trinity are “the Father is God,” “the Son is God,” and
“the Holy Spirit is God.” Three more statements differentiating the Trinity
are “the Father is not the Son,” “the Son is not
the Holy Spirit,” and “the Holy Spirit is not the
Father.” Then to cap it off, the seventh statement
says, “There is only one God.”

Gentile Christian theologians found it most
congenial to account for Christ’s divinity in terms
of the Word (Logos), the Reason or Wisdom or
Mind of God, which caused problems. Early
Christian “Logos theologians” could say the
Logos was “another God.” In pagan neo Platonism, the Logos or divine Mind
is a kind of intermediary between the Father, the Source of all being, and the
visible world. As intermediary, the Logos is higher than the created world yet
lower than the Father.

Trinity and

Incarnation are the

two fundamental

doctrines of

Christian theology.