Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Trinity

One God who exists eternally as three distinct persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Latin trinitas, first used by Tertullian (c. 213); Greek trias, in Theophilus of Antioch (c. 180).

The word is not in the Bible; the pattern is — one God (Deut 6:4; 1 Cor 8:6), three persons named together (Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14), each of them God (John 1:1; Acts 5:3–4).

Confessed in worship from the start; given precise language against Arianism (Nicaea 325) and against denial of the Spirit's deity (Constantinople 381); systematised by the Cappadocians in the East and Augustine in the West.

Not three gods (tritheism) and not one god in three modes (modalism): one divine being (ousia) in three persons (hypostaseis) who are distinguished by their relations of origin.

East and West differ on the filioque and on emphasis (the East begins from the three and the Father's monarchy; the West from the one essence). Unitarian and Oneness groups reject the doctrine entirely.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.