The Nature of God and the Trinity
Belief in the Trinity is a central tenet of Christianity
Christians believe that God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. In other words,
God is all-knowing, all powerful and always present. Christians also believe that God is
One but embodied in three persons, God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit as
sanctifier. Belief in the Trinity is a central tenet of Christianity. God's promise of salvation
has been fulfilled through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit. In other words, God is revealed as the trinity. God the Father is revealed in the
Hebrew Scriptures, God the Son in the Christian scriptures and God the Spirit is revealed
through the Church.
Trinitarian doctrine
This plurality in God is evident in the way Jesus calls God "abba" which means Father.
Similarly early Christian practice indicates a liturgical use of this Trinitarian formula, "In
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit". The Trinitarian doctrine states that there are
three co-eternal, equal persons in one God. This doctrine was further developed and defined
at the councils of Nicaea in 325 CE and Constantinople in 381 CE. The difficulty is
reconciling monotheism with the notion of the three persons.
The various heresies and the councils which followed reflect a process of refining the
understanding of the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the
fourth century there was considerable debate and discussion on how God was One and yet
also three persons. In other words, how can unity co-exist with the notion of trinity? As
this issue was debated a further question emerged, that is, the question of whether God is
three only in terms of economy or is God three at an intra-divine level (immanence).
Cappadocian theology
In response to this, during the second half of the fourth century, the Cappadocian Fathers
led by people such as Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and
Gregory, the younger brother of Basil, Bishop of Nyssa, made important contributions.
These theologians claimed that God was of one essence (ousia) but three separate and
distinct persons (hypostaseis). This divine essence is expressed through its embodiment in
all three persons. It follows then that because there is a single divine essence which unites
the three persons, the three persons actually dwell within each other, a state known as
circumincession.
Furthermore, because the three persons are of one essence the actions of any particular
person can be attributed to all persons. However, whilst this divine essence and nature is a
common denominator for all three persons, the three persons had unique attributes which
distinguished them. That is, fatherhood for the Father, sonship for the Son and sanctifying
power for the Holy Spirit. Implicitly, Cappadocian theology adopts the concept of mutual
relations which is the idea that the terms Father and Son are not names or titles but rather
expressions of a relationship. For example, the Father is only Father in relation to the Son.
Whilst there is a numerical order in the procession of Father, Son and Spirit, such an order
does not imply "greater than" or "before" in a temporal sense. In fact, Cappadocian theology
asserts the notion that all three persons are co-equal and co-eternal. The notion that the
three persons are co-eternal means that there was never a time when the Son and the Spirit
did not exist alongside the Father. The notional of co-equality suggests that the notion of
trinity is compatible with the concept of unity within community.
In the development of this Trinitarian theology the West tended to focus on the immanent
trinity, that is, the interrelationship between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. The East on
the other hand, tended to focus on economic trinity, that is, the role of trinity in relation to
ourselves.
These differences in the conceptualisation of the Trinity between the East and the West
continued in the filioque controversy. Essentially, this debate is concerned with whether
the Father breathes forth the Holy Spirit through the Son, as the East argues or whether both
Father and Son breathe forth the Spirit, as Western Christianity claims.