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{{Short description|Christian doctrine that God exists in three persons}}
{{redirect-several|dab=off|Holy Trinity (disambiguation)|Trinity (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Shield of Trinity in hexagon English.svg-squared.png|thumb|A compact diagram of the Trinity, known as the "[[Shield of the Trinity]]", consisting of [[God the Father]], [[God the Son]] (Jesus), and [[God the Holy Spirit]] (the Shield is generally not intended to be a schematic diagram of the structure of God, but it presents a series of statements about the relationship between the persons of the Trinity)]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Christianity}}
{{God}}
{{Historical Christian theology}}

The '''Trinity'''<!-- Do not add the word "holy" --> ({{Langx|la|Trinitas|lit=triad}}, from {{lang|la|trinus}} 'threefold')<ref name="oxforddictionaries.com" /> is the [[Christian doctrine]] concerning the nature of [[God in Christianity|God]], which defines [[one God]] existing in three, {{linktext|coeternal}}, [[consubstantial]] [[prosopon|divine persons]]:{{sfn|Daley|2009|pp=323–350}}{{sfn|Ramelli|2012}} [[God the Father (Christianity)|God the Father]], [[God the Son]] ([[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus Christ]]) and [[God the Holy Spirit]], three distinct persons (''[[Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)|hypostases]]'') sharing one essence/substance/nature (''[[homoousion]]'').<ref name="def-lateran1" />

As the [[Fourth Lateran Council]] declared, it is the Father who {{linktext|beget}}s, the Son who is {{linktext|begotten}}, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds.<ref name="Fourth Lateran Council">{{cite book |url=https://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/lateran4.htm |title=Fourth Lateran Council (1215) List of Constitutions: 2. On the error of abbot Joachim |access-date=7 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707222231/https://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/lateran4.htm |archive-date=7 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Greek and Latin Traditions Regarding the Procession of the Holy Spirit {{!}} EWTN |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/greek-and-latin-traditions-regarding-the-procession-of-the-holy-spirit-2349 |access-date=24 December 2022 |website=EWTN Global Catholic Television Network |archive-date=3 September 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040903132523/http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PCCUFILQ.HTM |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fathers |first1=Council |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum12-2.htm |title=Fourth Lateran Council: 1215 Council Fathers |date=11 November 1215 |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224233054/https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum12-2.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> In this context, one essence/nature defines {{em|what}} God is, while the three persons define {{em|who}} God is.<ref name="thelogy-sanity" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sheed |first1=Frank J. |author-link1=Frank Sheed |title=Theology & Sanity |date=11 January 1978 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5kS8XXWKmwC |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |publication-date=1978 |isbn=978-0-8264-3882-9 |access-date=21 December 2021 |quote=Nature answers the question what we are; person answers the question who we are. [...] Nature is the source of our operations, person does them.}}</ref> This expresses at once their distinction and their indissoluble unity. Thus, the entire process of creation and [[grace in Christianity|grace]] is viewed as a single shared action of the three divine persons, in which each person manifests the attributes unique to them in the Trinity, thereby proving that everything comes "from the Father", "through the Son", and "in the Holy Spirit".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blanch |first=Jorge |date=2024-11-24 |title=The Trinity: Historical Development and Debates |url=https://themythiccross.com/the-trinity-historical-development |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=The Mythic Cross |archive-date=1 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241201205659/https://themythiccross.com/the-trinity-historical-development |url-status=live}}</ref>

This doctrine is called '''Trinitarianism,''' and its adherents are called '''Trinitarians''', while its opponents are called [[Nontrinitarianism|antitrinitarians or nontrinitarians]] and are considered non-Christian by most mainline groups. Nontrinitarian positions include [[Unitarianism]], [[binitarianism]] and [[modalism]]. The theological study of the Trinity is called "triadology" or "Trinitarian theology".<ref>{{Citation |last=Januariy |first=Archimandrite |title=The Elements of Triadology in the New Testament |date=2003 |work=The Trinity: East/West Dialogue |pages=99–106 |editor-last=Stewart |editor-first=Melville Y. |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-0393-2_10 |access-date=2025-03-07 |place=Dordrecht |publisher=Springer Netherlands |doi=10.1007/978-94-017-0393-2_10 |doi-broken-date=24 March 2025 |isbn=978-94-017-0393-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Westhuizen |first=Henco van der |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2WnEAAAQBAJ |title=Reader in Trinitarian Theology |date=2022-12-15 |publisher=UJ Press |isbn=978-1-77641-949-4}}</ref>

While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the [[Books of the Bible|books]] that constitute the [[New Testament]], it is implicit in [[Gospel of John|John]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Attridge |first=Harold |title=The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology |publisher=The Catholic University of America Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0813229959 |pages=83}}</ref> and the New Testament possesses a [[triad (religion)|triadic]] understanding of God{{sfn|Hurtado|2010|pp=99–110}} and contains a number of [[Trinitarian formula]]s.{{sfn|Januariy|2013|p=99}}<ref>{{cite book |author1=Archimandrite Janurariy (Ivliev) |editor-last1=Stewart |editor-first1=Melville Y. |editor-link1=Melville Y. Stewart |orig-date=2003 |location=Dordrecht |chapter=The Elements of Triadology in the New Testament |title=The Trinity: East/West Dialogue |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJzdBgAAQBAJ |series=Volume 24 of Studies in Philosophy and Religion |date=9 March 2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |publication-date=2013 |page=100 |isbn=9789401703932 |access-date=21 December 2021 |quote=Trinitarian formulas are found in New Testament books such as 1 Peter 1:2; and 2 Cor 13:13. But the formula used by John the mystery-seer is unique. Perhaps it shows John's original adaptation of Paul's dual formula.}}</ref> The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated among the [[early Christian]]s (mid-2nd century and later) and [[fathers of the Church]] as they attempted to understand the [[Christology|relationship between Jesus and God]] in their scriptural documents and prior traditions.{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=644–648}}

== Old Testament ==
The [[Old Testament]] has been interpreted as referring to the Trinity in many places. For example, in the [[Genesis creation narrative]], the first-person plural [[pronoun]]s in Genesis 1:26–27 and Genesis 3:22 have been used to argue for a Trinitarian understanding of God:

{{blockquote|Then God said, 'Let ''us'' make man in ''our'' image, after ''our'' likeness [...]'|title=Genesis 1:26}}

{{blockquote|Then the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of ''us'' in knowing good and evil [...]'|title=Genesis 3:22}}

A traditional Christian interpretation of these pronouns is that they refer to a plurality of persons within the [[Godhead in Christianity|Godhead]]. Biblical commentator [[Victor P. Hamilton]] outlines several interpretations, including the most widely held among Biblical scholars, which is that the pronouns do not refer to other persons within the Godhead but to the 'heavenly court' of [[Isaiah 6]]. Theologians [[Meredith Kline]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kline |first=Meredith G. |title=Genesis: A New Commentary |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers Marketing |isbn=978-1-61970-852-5 |location=Peabody, Massachusetts |publication-date=2016 |pages=13}}</ref> and [[Gerhard von Rad]] argue for this view; as von Rad says, 'The extraordinary plural ("Let us") is to prevent one from referring God's image too directly to God the Lord. God includes himself among the heavenly beings of his court and thereby conceals himself in this majority.'<ref>{{Cite book |last=von Rad |first=Gerhard |title=Genesis |publisher=W. L. Jenkins |location=Chatham, Kent |publication-date=1961 |pages=57 |translator-last=Marks |translator-first=John H.}}</ref> Hamilton notes that this interpretation assumes that Genesis 1 is at variance with Isaiah 40:13–14, ''Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?'' That is, if the plural pronouns of Genesis 1 teach that God consults and creates with a 'heavenly court', then it contradicts the statement in Isaiah that God seeks the counsel of nobody. According to Hamilton, the best interpretation 'approaches the Trinitarian understanding but employs less direct terminology'.<ref name="Hamilton-1990">{{Cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Victor P. |title=The Book of Genesis: chapters 1–17 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-8028-2521-6 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan}}</ref>{{Rp|page=133}} Following [[D. J. A. Clines]], he states that the plural reveals a 'duality within the Godhead' that recalls the 'Spirit of God' mentioned in verse 2, ''And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.'' Hamilton also says that it is unreasonable to assume that the author of Genesis was too theologically primitive to deal with such a concept as 'plurality within unity';<ref name="Hamilton-1990" />{{Rp|page=134}} Hamilton thus argues for a framework of [[Progressive revelation (Christianity)|progressive revelation]], in which the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed at first obscurely then plainly in the New Testament.

Another of these places is Isaiah 9, where, if interpreted to be about the Messiah, the Messiah is called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace". Some Christians see this verse as meaning the Messiah will represent the Trinity on earth. This is because Counselor is a title for the Holy Spirit (John 14:26), the Trinity is God, Father is a title for God the Father, and Prince of Peace is a title for Jesus. This verse is also used to support the [[Deity of Christ]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=For to Us a Child Is Born: The Meaning of Isaiah 9:6 |url=https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/isaiah-9-6 |access-date=15 July 2022 |website=Zondervan Academic |archive-date=19 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919153312/https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/isaiah-9-6 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Deity of Christ can also be inferred from certain passages in the [[Book of Daniel]]:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Doctrine of the Last Things (Part 1): The Second Coming of Christ |url=https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-3/s3-doctrine-of-the-last-things/doctrine-of-the-last-things-part-1 |access-date=15 July 2022 |website=Reasonable Faith |archive-date=15 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220715195122/https://www.reasonablefaith.org/podcasts/defenders-podcast-series-3/s3-doctrine-of-the-last-things/doctrine-of-the-last-things-part-1 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
|title=Daniel 7:13–14}}

This is because both the [[Ancient of Days]] (God the Father) and the Son of Man (God the Son, Matt 16:13) have an everlasting dominion, which is ascribed to God in Psalm 145:13.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bible Gateway passage: Psalm 145:13 – New International Version |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20145%3A13&version=NIV |access-date=31 July 2022 |website=Bible Gateway |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112021513/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20145%3A13&version=NIV |url-status=live}}</ref>

People also see the Trinity when the Old Testament refers to God's word (Psalm 33:6), His Spirit (Isaiah 61:1), and Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1), as well as narratives such as the appearance of the three men to [[Abraham]].{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=1652}} However, it is generally agreed among Trinitarian Christian scholars that it would go beyond the intention and spirit of the Old Testament to correlate these notions directly with later Trinitarian doctrine.{{sfn|Joyce|1912}}

Some [[Church Fathers]] believed that a knowledge of the mystery was granted to the [[prophet]]s and [[saint]]s of the Old Testament and that they identified the [[Angel of the Lord|divine messenger]] of Genesis 16:7, Genesis 21:17, Genesis 31:11, Exodus 3:2, and [[Wisdom (personification)|Wisdom]] of the [[Wisdom literature#Biblical wisdom literature and Jewish texts|sapiential books]] with the Son, and "the spirit of the Lord" with the Holy Spirit.{{sfn|Joyce|1912}}

Other Church Fathers, such as [[Gregory Nazianzen]], argued in his ''Orations'' that the revelation was gradual, claiming that the Father was proclaimed in the Old Testament openly, but the Son only obscurely, because "it was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son".<ref name="nazianzen" />

Genesis 18–19 has been interpreted by Christians as a Trinitarian text. The narrative has the Lord appearing to Abraham, who was visited by three men.<ref>{{bibleref2|Genesis|18:1–2|esv}}</ref> In Genesis 19, "the two angels" visited [[Lot (Bible)|Lot]] at Sodom.<ref>{{bibleref2|Genesis|19|esv}}</ref> The interplay between Abraham on the one hand and the Lord/three men/the two angels on the other was an intriguing text for those who believed in a single God in three persons. [[Justin Martyr]] and [[John Calvin]] similarly interpreted it as such that Abraham was visited by God, who was accompanied by two angels.<ref name="Watson" /> Justin supposed that the God who visited Abraham was distinguishable from the God who remains in the heavens but was nevertheless identified as the (monotheistic) God. Justin interpreted the God who visited Abraham as Jesus, the second person of the Trinity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Church Fathers: Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 55-68 (Justin Martyr) |url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01285.htm |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=New Advent}}</ref>

Augustine, in contrast, held that the three visitors to Abraham were the three persons of the Trinity.<ref name="Watson" /> He saw no indication that the visitors were unequal, as would be the case in Justin's reading. Then, in Genesis 19, two of the visitors were addressed by Lot in the singular: "Lot said to them, 'Not so, my lord{{' "}} (Gen. 19:18).<ref name="Watson" /> Augustine saw that Lot could address them as one because they had a single substance despite the plurality of persons.{{efn|name=Augustine3}}

Christians interpret the [[theophanies]], or appearances of the [[Angel of the Lord]], as revelations of a person distinct from God, who is nonetheless called God. This interpretation is found in Christianity as early as Justin Martyr and [[Melito of Sardis]] and reflects ideas that were already present in [[Philo]].{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=573–578}} The Old Testament theophanies were thus seen as [[Christophanies]], each a "preincarnate appearance of the Messiah".<ref name="bakerdict" />

== New Testament ==
According to Januariy and [[Gordon Fee|Fee]], while the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the [[New Testament]], the New Testament contains several [[Trinitarian formula]]s, including Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 4:4–6, 1 Peter 1:2, and Revelation 1:4–6.{{sfn|Januariy|2013|p=99}}{{sfn|Fee|2002|p=52}} James Barker argues that important aspects of Trinitarianism are present in the New Testament, with an economic Trinity being present in the [[Gospel of John]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barker |first=James |title=Writing and Rewriting the Gospels |publisher=Eerdmans |year=2025 |isbn=978-0802874528 |pages=289}}</ref> Reflection by early Christians on passages such as the [[Great Commission]]: "Go therefore and make [[Disciple (Christianity)|disciples]] of all nations, [[baptizing]] them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" and [[Paul the Apostle]]'s blessing: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the [[Love of God in Christianity|love of God]] and the [[Koinonia|fellowship]] of the Holy Spirit be with you all", lead to attempts to articulate the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Margerie |first=Bertrand de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UU8qAQAAMAAJ |title=The Christian Trinity in History |date=1982 |publisher=St. Bede's Publications |isbn=978-0-932506-14-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Eventually, the diverse references to God, Jesus, and the Spirit found in the New Testament were brought together to form the concept of the Trinity—one [[Godhead in Christianity|Godhead]] subsisting in three persons and one [[Consubstantiality|substance]]. The concept of the Trinity was used to oppose alternative views of how the three are related and to defend the church against charges of worshiping two or three gods.{{sfn|Metzger|Coogan|1993|pp=782–783}}

=== 1 John 5:7 ===
Modern Biblical scholarship largely agrees that 1 John 5:7, which was seen in Latin and Greek texts after the 4th century and found in later translations such as the [[King James Version|King James Translation]] due to its inclusion in the [[Textus Receptus]], cannot be found in the oldest Greek and Latin texts. Verse 7 is known as the [[Johannine Comma]], which most scholars agree to be a later addition by a later copyist or what is termed a [[Bible gloss|textual gloss]]{{sfn|Metzger|Ehrman|1968|p=101}} and not part of the original text. This verse reads:

{{blockquote|Because there are three in Heaven that testify—the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit—and these three are one.|source=1 John 5:7}}

This verse is absent from the Ethiopic, Aramaic, Syriac, early Slavic, early Armenian, Georgian, and Arabic translations of the Greek New Testament. It is primarily found in Latin manuscripts, although a minority of Greek, late Slavonic, and late Armenian manuscripts contain it.<ref name="McDonald-2011">{{Cite thesis |last=McDonald |first=G. R. |date=2011 |title=Raising the ghost of Arius: Erasmus, the Johannine comma and religious difference in early modern Europe |publisher=Leiden University |type=Doctoral dissertation |hdl=1887/16486}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Scrivener |first=Frederick H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GJKAwAAQBAJ&dq=If+these+two+passages+be+taken+together+(the+first+is+manifestly+much+the+stronger),+it+is+surely+safer+and+more+candid+to+admit+that+Cyprian+read+verse+7+in+his+copies,+than+to+resort+to+the+explanation+of+Facundus,+that+the+holy+Bishop+was+merely+putting+on+verse+8+a+spiritual+meaning&pg=PA405 |title=A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 2 Volumes |date=1997-11-12 |publisher=Wipf and Stock |isbn=978-1-57910-071-1 |archive-date=1 December 2024 |access-date=27 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241201205557/https://books.google.com/books?id=5GJKAwAAQBAJ&dq=If+these+two+passages+be+taken+together+(the+first+is+manifestly+much+the+stronger),+it+is+surely+safer+and+more+candid+to+admit+that+Cyprian+read+verse+7+in+his+copies,+than+to+resort+to+the+explanation+of+Facundus,+that+the+holy+Bishop+was+merely+putting+on+verse+8+a+spiritual+meaning&pg=PA405 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="www.newadvent.org">{{Cite web |title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Epistles of Saint John |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08435a.htm |access-date=2024-05-24 |website=New Advent |quote=The Armenian manuscripts, which favour the reading of the Vulgate, are admitted to represent a Latin influence which dates from the twelfth century |archive-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229105718/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08435a.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

Perhaps the earliest mention of the Johannine Comma comes from the writings of [[Cyprian|Cyprian of Carthage]] (210 - 258ad), although this may have been an allegorical interpretation of the undisputed part of the verse. Nevertheless, the comma was often used in many later Latin-speaking authors such as [[Priscillian]] (4th century), [[Against Varimadus|Contra Varimadum]] (5th century), [[Donation of Constantine]] (8th), [[Peter Lombard]] (12th century), [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] (12th century), [[Thomas Aquinas]] (13th century) and [[William of Ockham]] (14th century), alongside having found its way into the earliest printed editions of the New Testament such as the [[Complutensian Polyglot Bible|Complutensian Polyglot]] and the [[Textus Receptus]] in the 16th century, causing the comma to become a part of most Reformation-era vernacular translations.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Scrivener |first=Frederick Henry Ambrose |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7H0PEMjlcPAC&dq=If+these+two+passages+be+taken+together+(the+first+is+manifestly+much+the+stronger),+it+is+surely+safer+and+more+candid+to+admit+that+Cyprian+read+verse+7+in+his+copies,+than+to+resort+to+the+explanation+of+Facundus,+that+the+holy+Bishop+was+merely+putting+on+verse+8+a+spiritual+meaning&pg=PA405 |title=A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament for the Use of Biblical Students |date=1894 |publisher=G. Bell |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":23">{{Cite thesis |last=McDonald |first=G. R |title=Raising the ghost of Arius : Erasmus, the Johannine comma and religious difference in early modern Europe |date=2011 |type=Doctoral dissertation |publisher=Leiden University |hdl=1887/16486}}</ref><ref>[[iarchive:introductionton00zahngoog/page/n383|''Introduction to the New Testament'']], p. 372, Vol. 3, 1909.</ref>

=== Jesus in the New Testament ===
[[File:Meister Bertram von Minden 009.jpg|thumb|God in the person of the Son confronts [[Adam and Eve]], by [[Master Bertram]] (d. c. 1415)]]
In the [[Pauline epistles]], the public, collective devotional patterns towards Jesus in the early Christian community are reflective of Paul's perspective on the divine status of Jesus in what scholars have termed a "binitarian" pattern or shape of devotional practice (worship) in the New Testament, in which "God" and Jesus are thematized and invoked.{{sfn|Hurtado|2010|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0aCaqJGgJvAC&q=binitarian+pattern]}} Jesus receives prayer (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 12:8–9), the presence of Jesus is confessionally invoked by believers (1 Corinthians 16:22; Romans 10:9–13; Philippians 2:10–11), people are baptized in Jesus' name (1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 6:3), Jesus is the reference in Christian fellowship for a religious ritual meal (the [[Lord's Supper]]; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34).{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=134–152}} Jesus is described as "existing in the very form of God" (Philippians 2:6), and having the "fullness of the Deity [living] in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). Jesus is also in some verses directly called God (Romans 9:5,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Is Jesus God? (Romans 9:5) |url=https://www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/jesus-god-rom-9-5 |access-date=15 July 2022 |website=billmounce.com |archive-date=23 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623213806/https://www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/jesus-god-rom-9-5 |url-status=live}}</ref> Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1).

The Gospels depict Jesus as human through most of their narrative, but "[o]ne eventually discovers that he is a divine being manifest in flesh, and the point of the texts is in part to make his higher nature known in a kind of intellectual epiphany".{{sfn|Litwa|2019|p=53}} In the Gospels Jesus is described as forgiving sins, leading some theologians to believe Jesus is portrayed as God.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |title=Mere Christianity |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2001 |pages=51–52}}</ref> This is because Jesus forgives sins on behalf of others; people normally only forgive transgressions against themselves. The teachers of the law next to Jesus recognized this and said:

{{Blockquote|text=Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?|title=Mark 2:7}}Jesus also receives {{lang|grc|προσκύνησις}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|[[proskynesis]]}}) in the aftermath of the resurrection, a Greek term that either expresses the contemporary social gesture of bowing to a superior, either on one's knees or in full prostration (in Matthew 18:26 a slave performs {{lang|grc|προσκύνησις}} to his master so that he would not be sold after being unable to pay his debts). The term can also refer to the religious act of devotion towards a deity. While Jesus receives {{lang|grc|προσκύνησις}} a number of times in the [[synoptic Gospels]], only a few can be said to refer to divine worship.{{sfn|Kupp|1996|p=226}}

This includes Matthew 28:16–20, an account of the resurrected Jesus receiving worship from his [[Disciple (Christianity)|disciples]] after proclaiming his authority over the cosmos and his ever-continuing presence with the disciples (forming an inclusion with the beginning of the Gospel, where Jesus is given the name Emmanuel, "God with us", a name that alludes to the God of Israel's ongoing presence with his followers throughout the Old Testament (Genesis 28:15; Deuteronomy 20:1).{{sfn|Hays|2014|pp=44–45}}{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=337–338}} Whereas some have argued that [[Matthew 28:19]] was an interpolation on account of its absence from the first few centuries of early Christian quotations, scholars largely accept the passage as authentic due to its supporting manuscript evidence and that it does appear to be either quoted in the [[Didache]] (7:1–3){{sfn|Ferguson|2009|pp=134–135}} or at least reflected in the Didache as part of a common tradition from which both Matthew and the Didache emerged.{{sfn|Sim|Repschinski|2008|pp=124–125}} Jesus receiving divine worship in the post-resurrection accounts is further mirrored in Luke 24:52.{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|p=345}}{{sfn|Bauckham|2017|pp=516–519}}{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|p=345}}

In Acts, it is common for individual Christians to "call" upon the name of Jesus (9:14, 21; 22:16), an idea precedented in the Old Testament descriptions of calling on the name of YHWH as a form of prayer. The story of Stephen depicts Stephen invoking and crying out to Jesus in the final moments of his life to receive his spirit (7:59–60). Acts further describes a common ritual practice of inducting new members into the early Jesus sect by baptizing them in Jesus' name (2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5).{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=194–206}} According to [[Dale Allison]], Acts depicts the appearances of Jesus to Paul as a divine [[theophany]], styled on and identified with the God responsible for the theophany of [[Ezekiel]] in the Old Testament.{{sfn|Allison|2016|pp=807–826}}

The [[Gospel of John]] has been seen as especially aimed at emphasizing Jesus' divinity, presenting Jesus as the ''[[Logos (Christianity)|Logos]]'', pre-existent and divine, from its first words: "[[John 1:1|In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God]]" (John 1:1).<ref name="bbc-john" /> The Gospel of John ends with Thomas's declaration that he believed Jesus was God, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).{{sfn|Metzger|Coogan|1993|pp=782–783}} Modern scholars agree that John 1:1 and John 20:28 identify Jesus with God.{{sfn|Brown|1970|pp=1026, 1032}}  However, in a 1973 [[Journal of Biblical Literature]] article, Philip B. Harner, [[Professor Emeritus]] of Religion at [[Heidelberg College]], claimed that the traditional translation of John 1:1c ("and the Word was God") is incorrect. He endorses the [[New English Bible]] translation of John 1:1c, "and what God was, the Word was".<ref>Harner, Philip B., "Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1", ''[[Journal of Biblical Literature]]'' 92, 1 (March 1973),</ref> However, other scholars have criticized Harner's claim.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://bible.org/article/revisiting-colwell-construction-light-masscount-nouns |date=2004-07-07 |title=Revisiting the Colwell Construction in Light of Mass/Count Nouns |last=Hartley |first=Donald |website=bible.org |access-date=1 November 2022 |archive-date=31 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031194604/https://bible.org/article/revisiting-colwell-construction-light-masscount-nouns |url-status=live}}</ref> In the same article, Harner also noted that, "Perhaps the clause could be translated, 'the Word had the same nature as God'. This would be one way of representing John's thought, which is, as I understand it, that [the] ''logos'', no less than [the] ''theos'', had the nature of ''theos''", which in his case means the Word is as fully God as the person called "God".<ref>{{cite journal |first=Philip B. |last=Harner |date=March 1973 |title=Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |publisher=The Society of Biblical Literature |volume=92 |issue=1 |pages=75–87 |doi=10.2307/3262756 |jstor=3262756 |issn=0021-9231}}</ref><ref name="Rhodes">Rhodes, Ron. "Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses" Harvest House Publishers, 2009, p. 104-105.</ref> John also portrays Jesus as the agent of creation of the universe.{{sfn|Hoskyns|1967|p=142}}

==== Jesus in later Christian theology ====
Some have suggested that John presents a hierarchy{{sfn|Clarke|1900|pp=161ff.}}{{sfn|Polkinghorne|2008|pp=395–396}} when he quotes Jesus as saying, "The Father is greater than I", a statement which was appealed to by [[nontrinitarian]] groups such as [[Arianism]].{{sfn|Simonetti|Oden|2002|p=}} However, influential theologians such as [[Augustine of Hippo]] and [[Thomas Aquinas]] argued this statement was to be understood as Jesus speaking about his human nature.<ref name="de-trinitate1" /><ref name="dhspriory.org">{{cite book |last1=Aquinas |first1=Thomas |title=Summa Contra Gentiles Book Four Chapter 8 |url=https://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles4.htm#8 |access-date=11 January 2019 |archive-date=28 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728185342/http://dhspriory.org/thomas/ContraGentiles4.htm#8 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Holy Spirit in the New Testament ===
Prior Israelite theology held that the Spirit is merely the divine presence of God himself,{{sfn|Goodman|Blumberg|2002|p=36}} whereas [[Orthodoxy|orthodox]] [[Christian theology]] holds that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of God the Father himself. This development begins early in the New Testament, as the Spirit of God receives much more emphasis and description comparably than it had in earlier Jewish writing. Whereas there are 75 references to the Spirit within the [[Old Testament]] and 35 identified in the non-biblical [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], the New Testament, despite its significantly shorter length, mentions the Spirit 275 times. In addition to its larger emphasis and importance placed on the Spirit in the New Testament, the Spirit is also described in much more personalized and individualized terms than earlier.{{sfn|Hurtado|2018|p=62}} [[Larry Hurtado]] writes:
{{blockquote|Moreover, the New Testament references often portray actions that seem to give the Spirit an intensely personal quality, probably more so than in Old Testament or ancient Jewish texts. So, for example, the Spirit "drove" Jesus into the wilderness (Mk 1:12; compare "led" in Mt. 4:1/Lk 4:1), and Paul refers to the Spirit interceding for believers (Romans 8:26–27) and witnessing to believers about their filial status with God (Romans 8:14–16). To cite other examples of this, in Acts the Spirit alerts Peter to the arrival of visitors from Cornelius (10:19), directs the church in Antioch to send forth Barnabas and Saul (13:2–4), guides the Jerusalem council to a decision about Gentile converts (15:28), at one point forbids Paul to missionize in Asia (16:6), and at another point warns Paul (via prophetic oracles) of trouble ahead in Jerusalem (21:11).{{sfn|Hurtado|2018|p=62}} }}

The Holy Spirit is described as God in the book of the [[Acts of the Apostles]]:{{Blockquote|text=But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God". Acts 5:3–4}}In the New Testament, the Spirit is not portrayed as the recipient of [[cultic]] devotion, which, instead, is typically offered to God the Father and to the risen/glorified Jesus. Although what became mainstream Christianity subsequently affirmed the propriety of including the Spirit as the recipient of worship as reflected in the developed form of the [[Nicene Creed]], perhaps the closest to this in the New Testament is in Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14, which describe the Spirit as the subject of religious ritual.{{sfn|Hurtado|2018|p=64}}

==== Holy Spirit in later Christian theology ====
As the [[Arian controversy]] was dissipating, the debate moved from the deity of Jesus Christ to the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son. On one hand, the [[Pneumatomachi]] sect declared that the Holy Spirit was an inferior person to the Father and Son. On the other hand, the [[Cappadocian Fathers]] argued that the Holy Spirit was equal to the Father and Son in nature or substance.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Buck |first=George |date=1960-01-01 |title=A Study of the Trinity in the Cappadocian Fathers |url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/grtheses/440/ |journal=Graduate Thesis Collection}}</ref>

Although the main text used in defense of the deity of the Holy Spirit was Matthew 28:19, the Cappadocian Fathers argued from other verses such as: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host" (Psalm 33:6). According to their understanding, because "breath" and "spirit" in Hebrew are both {{Lang|he|רוּחַ}} ({{Lang|he-Latn|ruach}}), Psalm 33:6 is revealing the roles of the Son and Holy Spirit as co-creators. And since, according to them, because only the holy God can create holy beings such as the angels, the Son and Holy Spirit must be God.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 16}}

Yet another argument from the Cappadocian Fathers to prove that the Holy Spirit is of the same nature as the Father and Son comes from "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11). They reasoned that this passage proves that the Holy Spirit has the same relationship to God as the spirit within us has to us.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 16}}

The Cappadocian Fathers also quoted, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16) and reasoned that it would be blasphemous for an inferior being to take up residence in a temple of God, thus proving that the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 19}}

They also combined "the servant does not know what his master is doing" (John 15:15) with 1 Corinthians 2:11 in an attempt to show that the Holy Spirit is not the slave of God and therefore, his equal.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 21}}

The Pneumatomachi contradicted the Cappadocian Fathers by quoting, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14) in effect arguing that the Holy Spirit is no different from other created angelic spirits.{{sfn|Arendzen|1911}} The Church Fathers disagreed, saying that the Holy Spirit is greater than the angels since the Holy Spirit is the one who grants the foreknowledge for prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:8–10) so that the angels could announce events to come.{{sfn|Basil of Caesarea|1980|loc=Ch. 16}}

== Early Christianity ==
{{further|Trinitarianism in the Church Fathers}}

=== Before the Council of Nicaea ===
[[File:Dogmatic sarcophagus.JPG|thumb|right|Detail of the [[Early Christian art and architecture|earliest known artwork]] of the Trinity, the [[Dogmatic Sarcophagus|Dogmatic or Trinity Sarcophagus]], {{circa|350}} ([[Vatican Museums]]).

Three similar figures, representing the Trinity, are involved in the creation of [[Eve]], whose much smaller figure is cut off at lower right; to her right, [[Adam]] lies on the ground.{{sfn|Milburn|1991|p=68}}]]

The developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the [[New Testament]], though it is implicit in John,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Attridge |first=Harold |title=The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology |publisher=The Catholic University of America Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0813229959 |pages=83}}</ref> and it was first formulated as early Christians attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions.{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=644–648}} According to Margaret Baker, Trinitarian theology has roots in pre-Christian Palestinian beliefs about angels.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Margaret |title=The Great Angel: A Study of Israel's Second God |date=1992 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn=978-0-664-25395-0 |page=3}}</ref>

An early reference to the three "persons" of later Trinitarian doctrines appears towards the end of the first century, where [[Clement of Rome]] rhetorically asks in his [[First Epistle of Clement|epistle]] as to why corruption exists among some in the Christian community; "Do we not have one God, and one Christ, and one gracious Spirit that has been poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ?" (1 Clement 46:6).<ref>Ehrman, Bart D. ''The Apostolic Fathers''. Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library, 2003, 119. Ehrman further notes (fn. 97) Clement is alluding to Ephesians 4:4–6. Also see 1 Clement 58:2.</ref> A similar example is found in the first-century [[Didache]], which directs Christians to "baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".<ref>Ehrman, Bart. ''The Apostolic Fathers'', Vol. 1. Harvard University Press, 2003, pp. 411, 429.</ref>

[[Ignatius of Antioch]] similarly refers to all three persons around AD&nbsp;110, exhorting obedience to "Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit".<ref name="ignatius" />

The pseudonymous [[Ascension of Isaiah]], written sometime between the end of the first century and the beginning of the third century, possesses a "proto-Trinitarian" view, such as in its narrative of how the inhabitants of the sixth heaven sing praises to "the primal Father and his Beloved Christ, and the Holy Spirit".{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=595–599}}

[[Justin Martyr]] (AD&nbsp;100&nbsp;– c.&nbsp;165) also writes, "in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit".<ref name="first-apology" /> Justin Martyr is the first to use much of the terminology that would later become widespread in codified Trinitarian theology. For example, he describes that the Son and Father are the same "being" ({{lang|grc-Latn|ousia}}) and yet are also distinct faces ({{lang|grc-Latn|prosopa}}), anticipating the three persons ({{lang|grc-Latn|hypostases}}) that come with [[Tertullian]] and later authors. Justin describes how Jesus, the Son, is distinguishable from the Father but also derives from the Father, using the analogy of a fire (representing the Son) that is lit from its source, a torch (representing the Father).{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|pp=646}} At another point, Justin Martyr wrote that "we worship him [Jesus Christ] with reason, since we have learned that he is the Son of the living God himself, and believe him to be in second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third" (1 Apology 13, cf. ch. 60).
About the [[Baptism|Christian Baptism]], he wrote that "in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water", highlighting the liturgical use of a Trinitarian formula.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Church Fathers: The First Apology (St. Justin Martyr) |url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm |website=www.newadvent.org |access-date=24 May 2024 |archive-date=22 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422130016/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Justin Martyr produced a rudimentary version of the Trinitarian doctrine.<ref name="v276">{{cite book | last=Lohse | first=Bernhard | title=A Short History of Christian Doctrine | publisher=Fortress Press | date=1966 | isbn=978-1-4514-0423-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_SAE5-K_l8C&dq=justin+martyr+trinity&pg=PA43 | access-date=2025-04-12 | pages=43–44}}</ref><ref name="e267">{{cite book | last=Bucur | first=Bogdan Gabriel | title=Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses | publisher=BRILL | date=2009 | isbn=978-90-04-17414-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VdmiRxSJ-OcC&dq=justin+martyr+trinity&pg=PA139 | access-date=2025-04-12 | page=139}}</ref>

Some authors state that Justin's texts were Binitarian, and the same applies to the texts of [[Tertullian]] and [[Eusebius|Eusebius of Caesarea]].<ref name="w106">{{cite book | last=Kim | first=Young Richard | title=The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Nicaea | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=7 January 2021 | isbn=978-1-108-61746-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxgXEAAAQBAJ&dq=Nicaea+binitarian&pg=PA139 | access-date=12 April 2025 | pages=137, 139, 206 fn. 13}}</ref>

[[File:Albrecht Dürer - Adoration of the Trinity (Landauer Altar) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|The ''Adoration of the Trinity'' by [[Albrecht Dürer]] (1511)

From top to bottom: Holy Spirit (dove), God the Father and Christ on the cross]]
The first of the early Church Fathers to be recorded using the word "Trinity" was [[Theophilus of Antioch]], writing in the late 2nd century. He defines the Trinity as God, his Word ({{lang|la|Logos}}), and his Wisdom ({{lang|la|Sophia}})<ref name="theophilus2" /> in the context of a discussion of the first three days of creation, following the early Christian practice of identifying the Holy Spirit as the Wisdom of God.<ref>Theophilus, ''To Autolycus'', 1.7 Cf. Irenaeus, ''Against Heresies'', 4.20.1, pg. 3<br />''Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching'', pg. 5</ref>

The first defense of the doctrine of the Trinity was by [[Tertullian]], who was born around AD 150–160, explicitly "defined" the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and defended his theology against [[Praxeas]],<ref name="tertullian" /><ref name="v466">{{cite book | last=Osborn | first=Eric | title=Tertullian, First Theologian of the West | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=2003-12-04 | isbn=978-0-521-52495-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZW7O0D9E4xQC&dq=tertullian+trinity&pg=PA121 | access-date=2025-04-12 | pages=121–122}}</ref><ref name="p285">{{cite book | last1=McGowan | first1=Andrew Brian | last2=Daley | first2=Brian Edward | last3=Gaden | first3=Timothy J. | title=God in Early Christian Thought: Essays in Memory of Lloyd G. Patterson | publisher=BRILL | date=2009 | isbn=978-90-04-17412-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9bAyYn_QkbkC&dq=tertullian+trinity&pg=PA61 | access-date=2025-04-12 | page=61}}</ref> although he noted that the majority of the believers in his day found issue with his doctrine.<ref name="against-praxeas1" /><ref name="y421">{{cite book | last1=Still | first1=Todd D. | last2=Wilhite | first2=David E. | title=Tertullian and Paul | publisher=A&C Black | date=2012-12-20 | isbn=978-0-567-55411-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXnQjPvrDZUC&dq=tertullian+trinity&pg=PA4 | access-date=2025-04-12 | page=4}}</ref> Tertullian confession, although it implies a Trinity, is binitarian in structure.<ref name="w106"/>

[[File:Bartolomé Esteban Murillo - The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities - 1681-82.jpg|thumb|The "Heavenly Trinity" joined to the "[[Holy Family|Earthly Trinity]]" through the [[Incarnation (Christianity)|Incarnation]] of the [[God the Son|Son]]–''[[The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities]]'' by [[Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo|Murillo]] (c.&nbsp;1677)]]

St. Justin and Clement of Alexandria referenced all three persons of the Trinity in their [[Doxology|doxologies]] and [[St. Basil]] likewise, in the evening lighting of lamps.{{sfn|Mulhern|1967|p=205}}

[[Origen of Alexandria]] (AD&nbsp;185&nbsp;– c.&nbsp;253) has often been interpreted as [[Subordinationist]]—believing in shared divinity of the three persons but not in co-equality. However, some modern researchers have argued that Origen might have actually been anti-Subordinationist and that his own Trinitarian theology inspired the Trinitarian theology of the later [[Cappadocian Fathers]].{{sfn|Ramelli|2011a}}{{sfn|Barnard|1970|pp=172–188}}

The concept of the Trinity can be seen as developing significantly during the first four centuries by the [[Church Fathers]] in reaction to theological interpretations known as [[Adoptionism]], [[Sabellianism]], and [[Arianism]]. In 269, the [[Synods of Antioch]] condemned [[Paul of Samosata]] for his Adoptionist theology and also condemned the term {{lang|grc-Latn|[[homoousios]]}} ({{lang|grc|ὁμοούσιος}}, "of the same being") in the [[Modalistic Monarchianism|modalist]] sense in which he used it.{{sfn|Chapman|1913}}

=== First Council of Nicaea (325) ===
{{Main|First Council of Nicaea}}
[[File:Glória de São Nicolau - António Manuel da Fonseca (Igreja de São Nicolau, Lisboa), cropped.png|thumb|''The Glory of Saint Nicholas'', by [[António Manuel da Fonseca]]; [[Nicholas of Myra]], a participant in the First Council of Nicaea, achieves the [[beatific vision]] in the shape of the Holy Trinity.]]
In the fourth century, [[Arianism]], as traditionally understood,{{efn |name=Arius}} taught that the Father existed prior to the Son, who was not, by nature, God but rather a changeable creature who was granted the dignity of becoming "Son of God".{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=100}} In 325, the [[First Council of Nicaea]] adopted the Nicene Creed which described Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father", and the "Holy Ghost" as the one by which "[[Incarnation (Christianity)|was incarnate]]&nbsp;... of the [[Virgin birth of Jesus|Virgin Mary]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.iv.iii.html |title=Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes |volume=I. The History of Creeds |website=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |access-date=2 June 2014 |archive-date=6 December 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031206143317/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.iv.iii.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.creeds.net/ancient/niceneg.htm |title=The Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed |first=Michael |last=Anderson |website=creeds.net |access-date=2 June 2014 |archive-date=17 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117041739/http://www.creeds.net/ancient/niceneg.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> ("the [[Logos#Christianity|Word]] was made flesh and dwelled among us"). About the Father and the Son, the creed used the term {{lang|grc-Latn|homoousios}} (of one substance) to define the relationship between the Father and the Son. After more than fifty years of debate, {{lang|grc-Latn|homoousios}} was recognized as the hallmark of orthodoxy and was further developed into the formula of "three persons, one being".

The Confession of the First Council of Nicaea, the Nicene Creed, said little about the Holy Spirit.<ref name="BEoWR" /> At the First Council of Nicea (325) all attention was focused on the relationship between the Father and the Son, without making any similar statement about the Holy Spirit. In the words of the creed:

{{blockquote|We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God,] Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; ... And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost. }}

The Nicene Creed of 325 is also considered binitarian (although it passingly mentions the Holy Spirit).<ref name="h502">{{cite book | last=Steenberg | first=M. C. | title=Of God and Man: Theology as Anthropology from Irenaeus to Athanasius | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | date=1 January 2009 | isbn=978-0-567-60047-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JvcRBwAAQBAJ&dq=Nicaea+binitarian&pg=PA106 | access-date=12 April 2025 | page=106 | quote=Thomas Smail’s comments on attention to the Spirit in the Constantinopolitan revision of Nicaea seem even more pertinent as to the Nicene original: Attention is so concentrated on the binitarian question of the right relationship of the Father to the Son that the properly trinitarian question that deals with the relating of the Spirit to both the Father and the Son is dealt with in a way that lacks focus and specifi city and that, on any reckoning, is quite inadequate to the rich biblical and especially New Testament material that deals with the pre- and post-Pentecostal activity of the Spirit among God’s people.}}</ref><ref name="g092">{{cite book | last=Ngong | first=David Tonghou | title=The Holy Spirit and Salvation in African Christian Theology: Imagining a More Hopeful Future for Africa | publisher=Peter Lang | date=2010 | isbn=978-1-4331-0941-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-PZz-TKJakC&dq=Nicaea+binitarian&pg=PA131 | access-date=12 April 2025 | pages=131, 153 fn. 35 | quote=That is why the creed drawn at Nicaea in 325 was fundamentally a binitarian creed as it dwelled on the Father and the Son, mentioning the Spirit only in passing.{{sup|35}} 35 See, R. P. C. Hanson, ''The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God'' (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988), 163-72; John Behr, ''Formation of Christian Theology: The Way to Nicaea'', Vol. 1 (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2001); Oberdorfer, "The Holy Spirit," 29.}}</ref>

=== First Council of Constantinople (381) ===
{{Main|First Council of Constantinople}}
Later, at the [[First Council of Constantinople]] (381), the Nicene Creed would be expanded, known as Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, by saying that the Holy Spirit is worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son ({{lang|grc|συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον}}), suggesting that he was also consubstantial with them:

{{blockquote|We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; ... And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets ...<ref>See [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.iv.iii.html Creeds of Christendom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031206143317/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.iv.iii.html |date=6 December 2003 }}.</ref>}}

The doctrine of the divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit was developed by Athanasius in the last decades of his life.{{sfn|Hornblower|Spawforth|Eidinow|2012|p=193}} He defended and refined the Nicene formula.<ref name="BEoWR" /> By the end of the 4th century, under the leadership of [[Basil of Caesarea]], [[Gregory of Nyssa]], and [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] (the [[Cappadocian Fathers]]), the doctrine had reached substantially its current form.<ref name="BEoWR" />

=== Middle Ages ===
Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Basil the Great account for the Trinity saw that the distinctions between the three divine persons were solely in their inner divine relations. There are not three gods; God is one divine Being in three persons.<ref name="auto">{{ cite book |last1=Shelley |first1=Bruce L. |title=Church History in Plain Language |pages=113 |year=2013}}</ref> Where the Cappadocian Fathers used social analogies to describe the triune nature of God, Augustine of Hippo used psychological analogy. He believed that if man is created in the image of God, he is created in the image of the Trinity. Augustine's analogy for the Trinity is the memory, intelligence, and will in the mind of a man. In short, Christians do not have to think of three persons when they think of God; they may think of one person.<ref name="auto" />

In the late 6th century, some Latin-speaking churches added the words "and from the Son" ({{lang|la|[[Filioque]]}}) to the description of the procession of the Holy Spirit, words that were not included in the text by either the Council of Nicaea or that of Constantinople.<ref>For a different view, see e.g. [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.x.xvi.xi.html Excursus on the Words πίστιν ἑτέραν] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721224314/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.x.xvi.xi.html |date=21 July 2015 }}</ref> This was incorporated into the liturgical practice of Rome in 1014.<ref>{{cite book |title=Greek and Latin Traditions on Holy Spirit |url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PCCUFILQ.HTM |access-date=18 January 2019 |archive-date=3 September 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040903132523/http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PCCUFILQ.HTM |url-status=live}}</ref> {{lang|la|Filioque}} eventually became one of the main causes for the [[East–West Schism]] in 1054 and the failures of the repeated union attempts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heath |first=R. G. |date=1972 |title=The Western Schism of the Franks and the 'Filioque' |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=97–113 |doi=10.1017/S0022046900055779 |s2cid=163123385 |issn=0022-0469}}</ref>

Gregory of Nazianzus would say of the Trinity, "No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Three than I am carried back into the One. When I think of any of the Three, I think of Him as the Whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light."<ref>Gregory of Nazianzus, ''Orations'' 40.41</ref>

== Theology ==
{{redirect2|Trinitarian|Trinitarianism}}
=== Baptismal formula ===
{{Main|Trinitarian formula}}
[[File:Piero, battesimo di cristo 04.jpg|thumb|left|''[[The Baptism of Christ (Piero della Francesca)|The Baptism of Christ]]'', by [[Piero della Francesca]], 15th century]]
Baptism is generally conferred with the [[Trinitarian formula]], "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit".<ref>{{bibleverse|Mt|28:19|esv}}</ref> Trinitarians identify this name with the Christian faith into which baptism is an initiation, as seen, for example, in the statement of [[Basil the Great]] (330–379): "We are bound to be baptized in the terms we have received, and to profess faith in the terms in which we have been baptized." The [[First Council of Constantinople]] (381) also says, "This is the Faith of our baptism that teaches us to believe in the Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. According to this Faith there is one Godhead, Power, and Being of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."<ref>{{bibleref2|Matthew|28:19|esv}}</ref> This may be taken to indicate that baptism was associated with this formula from the earliest decades of the Church's existence. Other Trinitarian formulas found in the New Testament include 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Corinthians 12:4–6, Ephesians 4:4–6, 1 Peter 1:2, and Revelation 1:4–5.{{sfn|Januariy|2013|p=99}}{{sfn|Fee|2002|p=52}}

[[Oneness Pentecostals]] demur from the Trinitarian view of baptism and emphasize baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ" only, what they hold to be the original apostolic formula.{{sfn|Vondey|2012|p=78}} For this reason, they often focus on the baptisms in Acts. Those who place great emphasis on the baptisms in Acts often likewise question the authenticity of Matthew 28:19 in its present form.<ref>Wilson, Jake. (2021). The Supersessionist Forgery of Matthew 28:19.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Finnegan |first=Sean |date=2018-01-01 |title=Is Matthew 28:19 Authentic or a Forgery? |url=https://www.academia.edu/51163779 |journal=Restitutio}}</ref> Most scholars of New Testament [[textual criticism]] accept the authenticity of the passage since there are no variant manuscripts regarding the formula,{{sfn|Ferguson|2009|pp=134–135}} and the extant form of the passage is attested in the [[Didache]]<ref name="patristics" /> and other [[patristic]] works of the 1st and 2nd centuries: [[Ignatius of Antioch|Ignatius]],<ref name="patristics1" /> [[Tertullian]],<ref name="patristics2" /> [[Hippolytus (writer)|Hippolytus]],<ref name="patristics3" /> [[Cyprian]],<ref name="patristics4" /> and [[Gregory Thaumaturgus]].<ref name="patristics5" />

Commenting on Matthew 28:19, [[Gerhard Kittel]] states:

{{blockquote|This threefold relation [of Father, Son and Spirit] soon found fixed expression in the triadic formulae in 2 Corinthians 13:14<ref>{{bibleref2|2 Cor.|13:14|esv}}</ref> and in 1 Corinthians 12:4–6.<ref>{{bibleref2|1Cor|12:4–6|esv}}</ref> The form is first found in the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 Did., 7. 1 and 3.&nbsp;... [I]t is self-evident that Father, Son and Spirit are here linked in an indissoluble threefold relationship.<ref>Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (Eds.). (1985). ''Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: abridged in one volume'' (Vol. 1). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.</ref>}}

=== Economic and immanent Trinity ===
The term "immanent Trinity" focuses on who God is; the term "economic Trinity" focuses on what God does. According to the [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]:

{{blockquote|The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology ({{lang|grc-Latn|theologia}}) and economy ({{lang|grc-Latn|oikonomia}}). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the {{lang|grc-Latn|oikonomia}} the {{lang|grc-Latn|theologia}} is revealed to us; but conversely, the {{lang|grc-Latn|theologia}} illuminates the whole {{lang|grc-Latn|oikonomia}}. God's works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human persons. A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM ''CCC'' §&nbsp;236] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303003725/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM |date=3 March 2013 }}.</ref>}}

{{blockquote|The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle." However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are". It is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM ''CCC'' §&nbsp;258] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303003725/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM |date=3 March 2013 }}.</ref>}}

The ancient [[Nicene Christianity|Nicene theologians]] argued that everything the Trinity does is done by Father, Son, and Spirit working in unity with one will. The three persons of the Trinity always work inseparably, for their work is always the work of the one God. The Son's will cannot be different from the Father's because it is the Father's. They have but one will as they have but one being. Otherwise, they would not be one God. On this point [[St. Basil]] said:

{{blockquote|When then He says, "I have not spoken of myself", and again, "As the Father said unto me, so I speak", and "The word which ye hear is not mine, but [the Father's] which sent me", and in another place, "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do", it is not because He lacks deliberate purpose or power of initiation, nor yet because He has to wait for the preconcerted key-note, that he employs language of this kind. His object is to make it plain that His own will is connected in indissoluble union with the Father. Do not then let us understand by what is called a "commandment" a peremptory mandate delivered by organs of speech, and giving orders to the Son, as to a subordinate, concerning what He ought to do. Let us rather, in a sense befitting the Godhead, perceive a transmission of will, like the reflexion of an object in a mirror, passing without note of time from Father to Son.<ref name="despiritu" />}}

According to [[Thomas Aquinas]] the Son prayed to the Father, became a minor to the angels, became incarnate, obeyed the Father as to his human nature; as to his divine nature the Son remained God: "Thus, then, the fact that the Father glorifies, raises up, and exalts the Son does not show that the Son is less than the Father, except in His human nature. For, in the divine nature by which He is equal to the Father, the power of the Father and the Son is the same and their operation is the same."<ref name="dhspriory.org" /> Aquinas stated that the mystery of the Son cannot be explicitly believed to be true without faith in the Trinity (''ST'' IIa IIae, 2.7 resp. and 8 resp.).<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Took |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4XhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 |title=Conversations with Kenelm: Essays on the Theology of the Commedia |page=66 |publisher=[[Ubiquity Press]] |date=15 May 2016 |isbn=978-1-909188-08-2 |oclc=1054304886}} Quote (in [[Latin]]): "mysterium Christi explicite credi non potest sine fide Trinitatis..."</ref>

[[File:Hierarch panagia episcopi cropped.jpg|thumb|A Greek [[fresco]] of Athanasius of Alexandria, the chief architect of the Nicene Creed, formulated at Nicaea]]
[[Athanasius of Alexandria]] explained that the Son is eternally one in being with the Father, temporally and voluntarily subordinate in his incarnate ministry.<ref name="athanasius3" /> Such human traits, he argued, were not to be read back into the eternal Trinity. Likewise, the [[Cappadocian Fathers]] also insisted there was no economic inequality present within the Trinity. As Basil wrote: "We perceive the operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be one and the same, in no respect showing differences or variation; from this identity of operation we necessarily infer the unity of nature."<ref name="basil" />

The traditional theory of "appropriation" consists in attributing certain names, qualities, or operations to one of the Persons of the Trinity, not, however, to the exclusion of the others, but in preference to the others. This theory was established by the Latin Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries, especially by [[Hilary of Poitiers]], [[Augustine]], and [[Leo the Great]]. In the Middle Ages, the theory was systematically taught by the [[Schoolmen]] such as [[Bonaventure]].{{sfn|Sauvage|1907}}

=== Love ===
Augustine "coupled the doctrine of the Trinity with [[Christian anthropology|anthropology]]. Proceeding from the idea that humans are created by God according to the divine image, he attempted to explain the mystery of the Trinity by uncovering traces of the Trinity in the human personality".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Stefon |first=Matt |title=Christianity – The Holy Trinity |at=Attempts to define the Trinity |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity/The-Holy-Trinity#ref67486 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |date=10 December 2015}}</ref> The first key of his exegesis is an interpersonal analogy of mutual love. In {{lang|la|[[De trinitate]]}} (399–419) he wrote:

{{blockquote|We are now eager to see whether that most excellent love is proper to the Holy Spirit, and if it is not so, whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Trinity itself is love, since we cannot contradict the most certain faith and the most weighty authority of Scripture which says: "God is love".{{efn|name=Augustine1}}{{sfn|Augustine of Hippo|2002|p=25}} }}

One must, therefore, ask if love itself is triune. Augustine found that it is, and consists of "three: the lover, the beloved, and the love".{{efn|name=Augustine2}}{{sfn|Augustine of Hippo|2002|p=26}}

Reaffirming the [[theopaschite formula]] {{lang|la|unus de trinitate passus est carne}} (meaning "One of the Trinity suffered in the flesh"),{{sfn|Pool|2011|p=398}} Thomas Aquinas wrote that Jesus suffered and died as to his human nature, as to his divine nature he could not suffer or die. "But the commandment to suffer clearly pertains to the Son only in His human nature. ... And the way in which Christ was raised up is like the way He suffered and died, that is, in the flesh. For it says in 1 Peter (4:1): 'Christ having suffered in the flesh' ... then, the fact that the Father glorifies, raises up, and exalts the Son does not show that the Son is less than the Father, except in His human nature. For, in the divine nature by which He is equal to the Father."{{sfn|Aquinas|1975|p=91}}

In the 1900s the recovery of a substantially different formula of [[theopaschism]] took place: at least {{lang|la|unus de Trinitate passus est}} (meaning "not only in the flesh").<ref>{{in lang|la}} ''DS'' [http://catho.org/9.php?d=bxo#bew 401] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250120023000/http://www.catho.org/9.php?d=bxo#bew |date=20 January 2025 }} ([[Pope John II]], letter ''Olim quidem'' addressed to the senators of Constantinople, March 534).</ref> More specifically, [[World War II]] had an impact not only on the [[theodicy]] of [[Judaism]] with the [[Holocaust theology]], but also on that of Christianity with a profound rethinking of its [[dogmatic theology]]. Deeply affected by the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bomb event]],{{sfn|Yewangoe|1987|p=273}} as early as 1946 the [[Lutheran]] theologian [[Kazoh Kitamori]] published ''Theology of the Pain of God'',{{sfn|Kitamori|2005|p=v}} a [[theology of the Cross]] pushed up to the immanent Trinity. This concept was later taken by both [[Reformed churches|Reformed]] and [[Catholic theology]]: in 1971 by [[Jürgen Moltmann]]'s ''The Crucified God''; in the 1972 "Preface to the Second Edition" of his 1969 [[German language|German]] book {{lang|de|italic=yes|Theologie der drei Tage}} (English translation: {{lang|la|italic=yes|[[Mysterium Paschale|The Mystery of Easter]]}}) by [[Hans Urs von Balthasar]], who took a cue from [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]] 13:8 ([[Vulgate]]: {{lang|la|agni qui occisus est ab origine mundi}}, [[NIV]]: "the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world") to explore the "God is love" idea as an "[[eternal super-kenosis]]".{{sfn|von Balthasar|2000|p=vii}} In the words of von Balthasar: "At this point, where the subject undergoing the 'hour' is the Son speaking with the Father, the controversial 'Theopaschist formula' has its proper place: 'One of the Trinity has suffered.' The formula can already be found in [[Gregory Nazianzen]]: 'We needed a&nbsp;... crucified God'."{{sfn|von Balthasar|1992|p=55}} But if theopaschism indicates only a Christological kenosis (or kenotic Christology), instead von Balthasar supports a Trinitarian kenosis:{{sfn|Mobley|2021|p=202}} "The persons of the Trinity constitute themselves as who they are through the very act of pouring themselves out for each other".{{sfn|Dimech|2019|p=103}} This allows to clearly distinguish his idea from [[Subordinationism]].

Furthermore, following the concepts developed by [[Scholasticism]], the underlying question is whether the three Persons of the Trinity can experience [[self-love]] ({{lang|la|amor sui}}), as well as whether for them, with the conciliar dogmatic formulation in terms that today we would call [[ontotheological]], it is possible for [[aseity]] ({{lang|la|[[causa sui]]}}) to be valid. If the Father is not the Son or the Spirit since the generator/begetter is not the generated/begotten nor the generation/generative process and vice versa, and since the lover is neither the beloved nor the love dynamic between them and vice versa. As a response, Christianity has provided an [[oblation|oblative]], sacrificial, martyrizing, crucifying, and precisely kenotic concept of divine ontology.{{sfn|Carson |2000|loc=chpt. 9}}<ref>Also published in {{cite journal |title=On Distorting the Love of God |url=https://media.thegospelcoalition.org/documents/carson/1999_distorting_the_love_of_God.pdf |journal=[[Bibliotheca Sacra]] |volume=156 |issue=January–March 1999 |pages=3–12 |access-date=September 9, 2024 |archive-date=26 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926062802/https://media.thegospelcoalition.org/documents/carson/1999_distorting_the_love_of_God.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== One God in three persons === <!--Linked from [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]-->
In Trinitarian doctrine, God exists as three persons but is one being, having a single divine [[Physis (Christian theology)|nature]].{{sfn|Grudem|1994|p=226}} The members of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal, one in essence, nature, power, action, and will. As stated in the [[Athanasian Creed]], the Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Spirit is uncreated, and all three are eternal without beginning.<ref name="athanasian-creed" /> "The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" are not names for different parts of God, but one name for God{{sfn|Barth|1975|pp=348–349}} because three persons exist in God as one entity.{{sfn|Pegis|1997|pp=307–309}} They cannot be separate from one another. Each person is understood as having the identical essence or nature, not merely similar natures.{{sfn|De Smet|2010|p=}}

According to the [[Eleventh Council of Toledo]] (675) "For, when we say: He who is the Father is not the Son, we refer to the distinction of persons; but when we say: the Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, and the Holy Spirit that which the Father is and the Son is, this clearly refers to the nature or substance".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Eleventh Council of Toledo (675) |url=https://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/TOLEDO.HTM |access-date=11 January 2019 |archive-date=6 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106235622/http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/TOLEDO.HTM |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Fourth Lateran Council]] (1215) adds: "Therefore in God there is only a Trinity, not a quaternity, since each of the three persons is that reality—that is to say substance, essence or divine nature-which alone is the principle of all things, besides which no other principle can be found. This reality neither begets nor is begotten nor proceeds; the Father begets, the Son is begotten and the holy Spirit proceeds. Thus there is a distinction of persons but a unity of nature. Although therefore the Father is one person, the Son another person and the holy Spirit another person, they are not different realities, but rather that which is the Father is the Son and the holy Spirit, altogether the same; thus according to the orthodox and catholic faith they are believed to be consubstantial. "<ref>{{cite book |title=Fourth Lateran Council (1215) List of Constitutions: 2. On the error of abbot Joachim |url=https://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/lateran4.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707222231/https://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/lateran4.htm |access-date=7 July 2019 |archive-date=7 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fathers |first1=Council |title=Fourth Lateran Council: 1215 Council Fathers |date=11 November 1215 |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum12-2.htm |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224233054/https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum12-2.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

Clarification of the relationships among the three Trinitarian Persons (divine persons, different from the sense of a "human self") advanced in the Magisterial statement promulgated by the [[Council of Florence]] (1431–1449), though its formulation precedes the council: "These three persons are one God and not three gods, for the three are one substance, one essence, one nature, one Godhead, one infinity, one eternity, and everything (in them) is one
where there is no opposition of relationship [{{lang|la|relationis oppositio}}]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Denzinger |first=Heinrich |url=https://archive.org/details/enchiridionsymbo00denz/page/n5/mode/2up |title=Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum |date=1911 |publisher=Herder |location=Friburg |language=la |others=PIMS – University of Toronto}}</ref>

=== ''Perichoresis'' ===
{{Main|Perichoresis}}
[[File:THE FIRST COUNCIL OF NICEA.jpg|thumb|A depiction of the [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicaea]] in AD&nbsp;325, at which the Deity of Christ was declared orthodox and [[Arianism]] condemned|left]]
{{lang|grc-Latn|Perichoresis}} (from [[Greek language|Greek]], 'going around', 'envelopment') is a term used by some scholars to describe the relationship among the members of the Trinity. The Latin equivalent for this term is {{lang|la|circumincessio}}. This concept refers for its basis to John 10:38,14:11,14:20,<ref>{{bibleref2|John|10:38,14:11,14:20|esv}}</ref> where Jesus is instructing the disciples concerning the meaning of his departure. His going to the Father, he says, is for their sake; so that he might come to them when the "other comforter" is given to them. Then, he says, his disciples will dwell in him, as he dwells in the Father, and the Father dwells in him, and the Father will dwell in them. This is so, according to the theory of {{lang|grc-Latn|perichoresis}}, because the persons of the Trinity "reciprocally contain one another, so that one permanently envelopes and is permanently enveloped by, the other whom he yet envelopes" ([[Hilary of Poitiers]], ''Concerning the Trinity'' 3:1).<ref name="hilary-john" /> The most prominent exponent of {{lang|grc-Latn|perichoresis}} was [[John of Damascus]] (d. 749) who employed the concept as a technical term to describe both the interpenetration of the divine and human natures of Christ and the relationship between the hypostases of the Trinity.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Cross |editor-first=F. L. |title=Cicumincession |dictionary=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1974}}</ref>

{{lang|grc-Latn|Perichoresis}} effectively excludes the idea that God has parts, but rather is a [[divine simplicity|simple being]]. It also harmonizes well with the doctrine that the Christian's union with the Son in his humanity brings him into union with one who contains in himself, in Paul's words, "all the fullness of deity" and not a part.{{efn|See also [[Divinization (Christian)]]}} {{lang|grc-Latn|Perichoresis}} provides an intuitive figure of what this might mean. The Son, the eternal Word, is from all eternity the dwelling place of God; he is the "Father's house", just as the Son dwells in the Father and the Spirit; so that, when the Spirit is "given", then it happens as Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans; for I will come to you."<ref>{{bibleverse|John|14:18|esv}}</ref>

=== Relationship between the persons ===
Although all Trinitarians agree that there exists one God in three persons, Trinitarian theologians have differed on how to explain the relationships of the persons of the Trinity, among them are the [[eternal generation of the Son]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Giles |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lo42zEOKobwC&dq=eternal+generation+wayne+grudem&pg=PA147 |title=The Eternal Generation of the Son: Maintaining Orthodoxy in Trinitarian Theology |date=2012-05-07 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-3965-0 |language=en}}</ref> [[Eternal functional subordination|the functional subordination of the Son]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Erickson |first=Millard J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNVTBmnZTlUC&dq=J.+Oliver+Buswell+eternal+generation&pg=PA61 |title=Who's Tampering with the Trinity?: An Assessment of the Subordination Debate |date=2009 |publisher=Kregel Academic |isbn=978-0-8254-9918-0 |language=en}}</ref> the [[Eternal procession of the Holy Spirit|eternal procession of the Spirit]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ryrie |first=Charles C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F55Dx_kFcZIC |title=Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth |date=1999-01-11 |publisher=Moody Publishers |isbn=978-1-57567-498-8}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Waldron |first=Sam |date=2011-12-07 |title=Who's Tampering with the Trinity? (Part 17) The Eternal Procession of the Holy Spirit Proved |url=https://cbtseminary.org/the-trinity-17/ |access-date=2024-10-16 |website=Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary |language=en-US |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161843/https://cbtseminary.org/the-trinity-17/ |url-status=live}}</ref> the [[Filioque]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Filioque |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06073a.htm |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=www.newadvent.org |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161847/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06073a.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[subordinationism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beisner |first=E. Calvin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cgFLAwAAQBAJ&dq=Subordinationism+and+Arianism&pg=PA107 |title=God in Three Persons |date=2004-02-10 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-59244-545-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ramelli |first1=Ilaria L. E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyJIEAAAQBAJ&dq=Origen+Subordinationism+and+Arianism&pg=PA435 |title=T&T Clark Handbook of the Early Church |last2=McGuckin |first2=J. A. |last3=Ashwin-Siejkowski |first3=Piotr |date=2021-12-16 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-567-68039-6}}</ref>
[[File:The church of SS Peter and Paul in Brockdish - stained glass - The Holy Trinity.png|thumb|The Holy Trinity on the stained glass windows of the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in [[Brockdish]]|left]]
The doctrine of eternal generation is defined as a necessary and eternal act of [[God the Father]], in which he generates (or begets) [[God the Son]] by communicating the whole divine essence to the Son. Generation is not defined as an act of the will, but is by necessity of nature.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2019-12-01 |title=God the Son |url=https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2019/12/god-the-son/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |magazine=Tabletalk |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161843/https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2019/12/god-the-son/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hodge |first=Charles |title=Outlines of Theology |quote=The eternal generation of the Son is commonly defined to be an eternal personal act of the Father, wherein by necessity of nature, not by choice of will, he generates the person (not the essence) of the Son, by communicating to him the whole indivisible substance of the Godhead, without division, alienation, or change, so that the Son is the express image of His Father’s person, and eternally continues, not from the Father, but in the Father, and the Father in the Son}}</ref> This doctrine has been affirmed by the [[Athanasian creed]],<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |title=The Blessed Trinity |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm |access-date=2023-11-20 |via=New Advent |archive-date=1 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001144038/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> the [[Nicene creed]]<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Parkison |first=Samuel |title=The Only Begotten God |magazine=Credo |url=https://credomag.com/article/the-only-begotten-god/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |archive-date=28 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128110542/https://credomag.com/article/the-only-begotten-god/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and by church fathers such as [[Athanasius of Alexandria]], [[Augustine]], and [[Basil of Caesarea]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trinitarian Agency and the Eternal Subordination of the Son: An Augustinian Perspective |first1=Keith E. |last1=Johnson |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/trinitarian-agency-and-the-eternal-subordination-of-the-son-an-augustinian-perspective/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=The Gospel Coalition |archive-date=1 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501100658/https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/trinitarian-agency-and-the-eternal-subordination-of-the-son-an-augustinian-perspective/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wedgeworth |first=Steven |date=2020-04-15 |title=Athanasius on the Simple God And Eternal Generation |url=https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/athanasius-on-the-simple-god-and-eternal-generation/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=The Gospel Coalition |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161843/https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/athanasius-on-the-simple-god-and-eternal-generation/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Graham |first=Wyatt |date=2022-02-13 |title=Impassibility Makes Sense of Our Faith in the Father and Son |url=https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/detrinitate/impassibility-makes-sense-of-our-faith-in-father-and-son/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=The Gospel Coalition {{!}} Canada |language=en-US |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161843/https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/detrinitate/impassibility-makes-sense-of-our-faith-in-father-and-son/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Giles |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lo42zEOKobwC&dq=Eternal+generation+early+church&pg=PA87 |title=The Eternal Generation of the Son: Maintaining Orthodoxy in Trinitarian Theology |date=2012-05-07 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-3965-0 |language=en}}</ref> being mentioned explicitly first by [[Origen]] of Alexandria.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-08-28 |title=Bavinck On Eternal Generation |url=https://heidelblog.net/2014/08/bavinck-on-eternal-generation/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=[[The Heidelblog]] |language=en-US |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161844/https://heidelblog.net/2014/08/bavinck-on-eternal-generation/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Those who teach the traditional doctrine of eternal generation have often used biblical texts such as Proverbs 8:23,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Proverbs 8:23, the Eternal Generation of the Son and the History of Reformed Exegesis |url=https://www.reformation21.org/blogs/proverbs-823-the-eternal-gener.php |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=reformation21.org |language=en |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161843/https://www.reformation21.org/blogs/proverbs-823-the-eternal-gener.php |url-status=live}}</ref> Psalm 2:7, Micah 5:2, John 5:26, John 1:18, 3:16, Colossians 1:15, 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Hebrews 1:3 to establish their understanding of eternal generation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is the Doctrine of Eternal Generation? |url=https://ps.edu/eternal-generation/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=Phoenix Seminary |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last1=Sanders |first1=Fred |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dGVDDgAAQBAJ&dq=Micah+5%3A2+eternal+generation&pg=PA73 |title=Retrieving Eternal Generation |last2=Swain |first2=Scott R. |date=2017-11-21 |publisher=Zondervan Academic |isbn=978-0-310-53788-5 |language=en |archive-date=19 January 2025 |access-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119141627/https://books.google.com/books?id=dGVDDgAAQBAJ&dq=Micah%205%3A2%20eternal%20generation&pg=PA73 |url-status=live}}</ref> However, some modern theologians reject the doctrines of eternal generation and procession, disputing the idea that these texts teach the doctrine of eternal generation. To reject eternal generation, [[William Lane Craig]] has argued, is to introduce subordinationism into the Trinity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Is God the Son Begotten in His Divine Nature? {{!}} Reasonable Faith |url=http://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/christian-doctrines/is-god-the-son-begotten-in-his-divine-nature/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=reasonablefaith.org |language=en |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161910/https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/christian-doctrines/is-god-the-son-begotten-in-his-divine-nature |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

Among modern Trinitarian debates, the issue of [[Social trinitarianism|social Trinitarianism]] is often discussed.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Stephen R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pl9tAgAAQBAJ |title=Two Views on the Doctrine of the Trinity |last2=Molnar |first2=Paul D. |last3=McCall |first3=Thomas H. |last4=Fiddes |first4=Paul |date=2014-09-02 |publisher=Zondervan Academic |isbn=978-0-310-49813-1 |language=en |archive-date=19 January 2025 |access-date=1 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119141849/https://books.google.com/books?id=Pl9tAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> Although it is a diverse theological movement, many of its advocates argue that each person of the Trinity has their own center of consciousness and own will united in a loving relationship.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Monothelitism and the Trinity {{!}} Reasonable Faith |url=https://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer/P50/monothelitism-and-the-trinity |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=www.reasonablefaith.org |language=en |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225161843/https://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer/P50/monothelitism-and-the-trinity |url-status=live}}</ref> Critics argue it risks veering into tritheism (belief in three gods) by overemphasizing the distinctness of the persons, while proponents say it better reflects the biblical portrayal of the Trinity as relational and active in history. Social Trinitarianism is in contrast to what is often called "[[Classical trinitarianism|classical Trinitarianism]]" due to its association with many classical theologians such as Augustine, which instead distinguishes the persons by their eternal relations of begetting and procession.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=Matthew |title=Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit |publisher=Baker Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5409-0007-4 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |pages=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-n2EAAAQBAJ&dq=classical+vs+social+trinitarianism&pg=PP438 |title=On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving the Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God |date=2024-10-01 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-1-5140-0035-9 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Nontrinitarianism ===
{{Main|Nontrinitarianism}}
[[Nontrinitarianism]] (or antitrinitarianism) refers to Christian belief systems that reject the doctrine of the Trinity as found in the Nicene Creed as not having a scriptural origin. Nontrinitarian views differ widely on the nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. 

Various nontrinitarian views, such as [[Adoptionism]] and [[Arianism]], existed prior to the formal definition of the Trinity doctrine in AD&nbsp;325, 360, and 431 at the Councils of [[First Council of Nicaea|Nicaea]], [[Council of Constantinople (360)|Constantinople]], and [[Council of Ephesus|Ephesus]], respectively.<ref name="vonharnack" /> Adoptionists believed that Jesus became divine only at his baptism, resurrection, or ascension.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coonrad |first=Sharon Watters |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hrIHAAACAAJ |title=Adoptionism: The History of a Doctrine |date=1999 |publisher=University of Iowa |language=en}}</ref> Adherents of Arianism postulated that only God has independent existence. Since the Son is dependent, he should, therefore, be called a creature.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gregg |first=Robert C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8d6GQAACAAJ |title=Arianism: Historical and Theological Reassessments: Papers from The Ninth International Conference on Patristic Studies |date=2006-10-19 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-59752-961-7 |language=en}}</ref>

Arianism was condemned as [[Heresy#Christianity|heretical]] by the [[First Council of Nicaea#Arian controversy#Result of the debate|First Council of Nicaea]] and, lastly, with [[Sabellianism]] by the [[Second Ecumenical Council]].{{sfn|Olson|1999|p=173}} Adoptionism was declared as heretical by the Ecumenical Council of Frankfurt, convened by the Emperor Charlemagne in 794 for the Latin West Church.{{sfn|Meens|2016|p=64}} Following the adoption of trinitarianism at [[First Council of Constantinople|Constantinople in 381]], [[Arianism]] was driven from the Empire, retaining a foothold amongst the Germanic tribes. When the [[Franks]] converted to Catholicism in 496, however, it gradually faded out.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=100}} Nontrinitarianism was later renewed in the [[Gnosticism]] of the [[Cathars]] in the 11th through 13th centuries, in the [[Age of Enlightenment]] of the 18th century, and in some groups arising during the [[Second Great Awakening]] of the 19th century.{{efn|See also [[binitarianism]]}}

=== Judaism ===
While [[Judaism]] traditionally rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, some Jewish mystical texts have expressed ideas that bear a resemblance to trinitarian concepts. For example, the ''[[Zohar]]'' (AD 1286), a foundational work of [[Jewish mysticism]], states that "God is they, and they are it."<ref name=":1" /> This passage has been interpreted by some as referencing a kind of "kabbalistic trinity," describing "three hidden lights" within "the root of all roots"—a unified essence and origin. The parallels between these mystical notions and Christian trinitarianism were striking enough that some medieval Jewish thinkers suggested the Christian Trinity may have arisen from a misinterpretation of Kabbalistic teachings. However, some recent Jewish scholars{{weasel inline|date=June 2025}} instead view the ''Zohar'' as being influenced by Christian trinitarianism. Nevertheless, some later Jewish Aristotelians borrowed from the trinitarian analogies of [[Augustine of Hippo]], making the claim that God is a thinker, thinking, and thought itself.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Trinity > Judaic and Islamic Objections (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/judaic-islamic-trinity.html |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=plato.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref>

According to [[Philo]] (20 BC – c.&nbsp;AD 50), the ''Logos''—or divine reason—was the instrument through which God created the world. For Philo, the ultimate Being possesses two primary attributes: goodness and authority. The ''Logos'' represents the union of these two powers. As pure being, this ultimate source is called the Father; in relation to goodness, he is called God; and in his rule over creation, he is called Lord. The ''Logos'' is sometimes portrayed not only as the combination of goodness and authority within the Father but also as existing above and between them, thereby being identified with the Supreme Being itself. In this way, Philo presents a kind of trinitarian view of the divine, though it differs from the Christian concept of the Trinity. Scholars continue to debate whether Philo viewed the ''Logos'' as a distinct person or as an impersonal force.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSMIAQAAIAAJ&dq=Philo+the+Jew+trinity&pg=PA614 |title=The Jewish Quarterly Review |date=1895 |publisher=Macmillan |language=en}}</ref>

== Architecture ==
[[File:ClevelandCathedral.jpg|thumb|Three doors representing the trinity at [[Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (Cleveland, Ohio)|a cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio]]<ref>{{cite web |website=The Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist |location=Cleveland, Ohio |url=https://saintjohncathedral.com/the-front-entrance |title=The Front Entrance |quote=A central doctrine of the Catholic Faith is symbolized in the three arches of the entrance the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. The center door symbolizes the Father, the north door the Son, and the south door the Holy Spirit. |access-date=13 January 2025 |archive-date=1 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230301230355/https://saintjohncathedral.com/the-front-entrance |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

Almost every detail of [[Gothic architecture|Gothic cathedrals]]—the cruciform plan, the use of light, the statuary, the representation of the Trinity in [[trefoil]]s and of the [[Four Evangelists|four evangelists]] in [[quatrefoil]]s, and so on—reveals design decisions that are explicitly theological. However elaborate or simple the architecture, whether purpose-built for Christian use or not, the spaces used for Christian worship speak of theological meanings and values.<ref>Rae, M. A. (2023). Architecture and Christian Theology. St Andrews.</ref>

Many Christian churches have three doors symbolizing the Trinity. Other architectural features, such as windows or steps, are also grouped into three for this reason.<ref name=1919Kennedy>{{cite book |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFwyAQAAMAAJ |title=Christian Symbols: Some Notes on Their Origin and Meaning |first=Katherine |last=Kennedy |year=1919 |publisher=A. R. Mowbray}}</ref> This practice originated in [[spolia]] churches that were built from, and on top of, the remains of ancient pre-Christian holy structures.<ref>{{cite book |page=59 |title=The Spolia Churches of Rome: Recycling Antiquity in the Middle Ages |first=Maria Fabricius |last=Hansen |year=2015}}</ref>

Examples are the three [[royal doors]] inside Eastern churches and the trio of doors in the [[façade]] of many [[cathedral]]s. A triangular floor plan can also symbolize the Trinity, as in [[Heiligen-Geist-Kapelle, Bruck|Heiligen-Geist-Kapelle]] in Austria.<ref name="Bruck">{{cite web |url=https://www.bruckmur.at/hgk/index.htm |title=Sanierung Heiligen-Geist-Kapelle, Bruck an der Mur |publisher=Bruck an der Mur |language=de |access-date=27 May 2020 |archive-date=22 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122124942/https://www.bruckmur.at/hgk/index.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Artistic depictions ==
{{Main|The Trinity in art}}

The Trinity is most commonly seen in [[Christian art]] with the Spirit represented by a dove, as specified in the gospel accounts of the [[baptism of Christ]]; he is nearly always shown with wings outspread. However, depictions using three human figures appear occasionally in most periods of art.{{sfn|Schiller|1971|loc=figs 1; 5–16}}

The Father and the Son are usually differentiated by age and later by dress, but this too is not always the case. The usual depiction of the Father as an older man with a white beard may derive from the biblical [[Ancient of Days]], which is often cited in defense of this sometimes controversial representation. However, in [[Eastern Orthodoxy]], the Ancient of Days is usually understood to be God the Son, not God the Father (see below)—early [[Byzantine]] images show Christ as the Ancient of Days,{{sfn|Cartlidge|Elliott|2001|p=240}} but this [[iconography]] became rare. When the Father is depicted in art, he is sometimes shown with a [[Halo (religious iconography)|halo]] shaped like an [[equilateral triangle]] instead of a circle. The Son is often shown at the Father's right hand (Acts 7:56). He may be represented by a symbol—typically the Lamb ({{lang|la|[[agnus dei]]}}) or a cross—or on a [[crucifix]], so that the Father is the only human figure shown at full size. In early medieval art, the Father may be represented by a hand appearing from a cloud in a blessing gesture, for example, in scenes of the [[Baptism of Christ]]. Later, in the West, the Throne of Mercy (or "Throne of Grace") became a common depiction. In this style, the Father (sometimes seated on a [[throne]]) is shown supporting either a [[crucifix]]{{sfn|Schiller|1971| pp= 122–124 and figs 409–414}} or, later, a slumped crucified Son, similar to the [[Pietà]] (this type is distinguished in German as the {{lang|de|Not Gottes}}){{sfn|Schiller|1971|pp= 219–224 and figs 768–804}} in his outstretched arms, while the Dove hovers above or in between them. This subject continued to be popular until at least the 18th century.

By the end of the 15th century, larger representations, other than the Throne of Mercy, became effectively standardized, showing an older figure in plain robes for the Father, Christ with his torso partly bare to display the wounds of his [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion]], and the dove above or around them. In earlier representations, both Father, especially, and Son often wear elaborate robes and crowns. Sometimes the Father alone wears a crown or even a [[papal tiara]].

In the later part of the [[Christian Era]], in Renaissance European iconography, the [[Eye of Providence]] began to be used as an explicit image of the Christian Trinity and associated with the concept of [[Divine Providence]]. Seventeenth-century depictions of the Eye of Providence sometimes show it surrounded by clouds or [[sunburst]]s.{{sfn|Potts|1982|pp=68–78}}

<gallery>
File:France Paris St-Denis Trinity-CROPPED.jpg|Depiction of Trinity from [[Saint Denis Basilica]] in Paris (12th century)
File:Llanbeblig Hours (f. 4v.) God, The Holy Spirit, and Christ Crucified.jpg|The Father, The Holy Spirit, and Christ crucified, depicted in a [[Wales|Welsh]] manuscript {{circa|1390–1400}}
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. - Trinity - WGA05656.jpg|The Holy Trinity in an angelic glory over a landscape, by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]] (d. 1553)
File:Francesco Albani - Baptism of Christ.jpg|God the Father (top), and the Holy Spirit (represented by a dove) depicted above Jesus Painting by [[Francesco Albani]] (d. 1660)
File:MurilloTrinity.jpg|God the Father (top), the Holy Spirit (a dove), and the child Jesus, painting by [[Bartolomé Esteban Murillo]] (d. 1682)
File:Giovanni Battista Tiepolo 016.jpg|Pope [[Clement I]] prays to the Trinity, in a typical post-Renaissance depiction by [[Gianbattista Tiepolo]] (d. 1770).
File:Fridolin Leiber - Holy Trinity.jpg|Atypical depiction of the Trinity where the Son is identified by a lamb, the Father an [[Eye of Providence]], and the Spirit a dove
File:Roman de la Rose f. 138r (The Trinity).jpg|13th-century depiction of the Trinity from a {{lang|fro|[[Roman de la Rose]]}} manuscript
File:EpitaphDreieinigkeit-BremerDom.jpg|Representation of the Trinity in the form of the [[mercy seat]] (epitaph from 1549)
File:Andrey Rublev - Св. Троица - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Trinity (Andrei Rublev)|The Trinity]]'' by Russian icon painter [[Andrei Rublev]], early 15th century: this portrayal of the three [[angel]]s who visited [[Abraham]] at the [[Oak of Mamre]] (Genesis 18:1-8)
File:Trinity by Jeronimo Cosida.jpg|Renaissance painting by [[Jerónimo Cosida]] depicting Jesus as a [[triple deity]]  Inner text: The Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God
File:Anonymous Cusco School - Trifacial Trinity - Google Art Project.jpg|An anonymous 18th century Catholic painting from the Peruvian [[Cuzco School]]. This work depicts the Holy Triune God; one in essence, with three persons.
</gallery>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Christianity}}
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Ahura#Younger Avesta|Ahuric triad]]
* [[Ayyavazhi Trinity]]
* [[Formal distinction]]
* [[Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)]]
* [[Islamic view of the Trinity]]
* [[Saint Patrick#Legends|Saint Patrick]]
* [[Social trinitarianism]]
* [[Three Pure Ones]]
* [[Trikaya]], the three Buddha bodies
* [[Trimurti]], Hinduism
* [[Tridevi]], Hinduism
* [[Trinitarian Order]]
* [[Trinitarian universalism]]
* [[Trinity Sunday]], a day to celebrate the doctrine
* [[Triple deity]], an associated term in [[comparative religion]]
* [[Triquetra]], a symbol sometimes used to represent the Trinity
* [[Tritheism]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==

=== Footnotes ===
{{notelist|30em|refs=
{{efn|name=Augustine1|{{in lang|la}} [https://www.augustinus.it/latino/trinita/trinita_09.htm {{lang|la|Veluti nunc cupimus videre utrum illa excellentissima caritas proprie Spiritus Sanctus sit. Quod si non est, aut Pater est caritas, aut Filius, aut ipsa Trinitas, quoniam resistere non possumus certissimae fidei, et validissimae auctoritati Scripturae dicentis: 'Deus caritas est'.}}]}}

{{efn|name=Augustine2|{{in lang|la}} [https://www.augustinus.it/latino/trinita/trinita_09.htm {{lang|la|Tria ergo sunt: amans, et quod amatur, et amor}}].}}

{{efn|name=Augustine3|Augustine had poor knowledge of the Greek language, and no knowledge of Hebrew. So he trusted the Septuagint, which differentiates between {{lang|grc|κύριοι}} ('lords', vocative plural) and {{lang|grc|κύριε}} ('lord', vocative singular), even if the Hebrew verbal form, {{lang|he|נא-אדני}} ({{tlit|he|na-adoni}}), is exactly the same in both cases.}}

{{efn |name=Arius |Very little of [[Arius]]' own writings have survived. We depend largely on quotations made by opponents which reflect what they thought he was saying. Furthermore, there was no single Arian party or agenda but rather various critics of the Nicene formula working from distinct perspectives.{{harv|Williams|2001}} }}

}}

=== Citations ===
{{reflist|22em|refs=

<ref name=oxforddictionaries.com>{{cite dictionary |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/trinity |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121226195336/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/trinity |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 December 2012 |entry=Trinity |dictionary=Oxford Dictionaries |title=Definition of trinity - deity, theology and numbered group (British & World English) }}</ref>

<ref name="thelogy-sanity">{{cite web |url=http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/fsheed_trinityts_may2011.asp |title=Frank Sheed, ''Theology and Sanity'' |publisher=Ignatiusinsight.com |access-date=3 November 2013 |archive-date=30 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730135009/http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/fsheed_trinityts_may2011.asp |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="def-lateran1">Definition of the [[Fourth Lateran Council]] quoted in ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'' [https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM §&nbsp;253] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303003725/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P17.HTM |date=3 March 2013 }}. {{langx|la|substantia, essentia seu natura divina}} (''[[Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum|DS]]'' [http://catho.org/9.php?d=bxw#bpd 804] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213530/http://catho.org/9.php?d=bxw#bpd |date=27 September 2007 }}).</ref>

<ref name="against-praxeas1">{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.iii.html |title=Against Praxeas, chapter 2 |publisher=Ccel.org |date=1 June 2005 |access-date=19 March 2018 |archive-date=19 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119022850/https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.iii.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="ignatius">{{cite web |url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-magnesians-roberts.html |title=Ignatius's Letter to the Magnesians, Ch. XIII |access-date=21 September 2012 |archive-date=3 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103074659/http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-magnesians-roberts.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="first-apology">{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.ii.lxi.html |title=First Apology, LXI |publisher=Ccel.org |date=13 July 2005 |access-date=3 November 2013 |archive-date=10 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010122211/https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.ii.lxi.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="theophilus2">Theophilus, Apologia ad Autolycum, Book II, Chapter 15</ref>

<ref name="tertullian">Tertullian Against Praxeas</ref>

<ref name="BEoWR">"Trinity". Britannica Encyclopaedia of World Religions. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006.</ref>

<ref name="patristics">7:1, 3 [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617165020/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm |date=17 June 2016 }}</ref>

<ref name="patristics1">''Epistle to the Philippians'', 2:13 [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.xvii.ii.html online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601031930/https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.xvii.ii.html |date=1 June 2023 }}</ref>

<ref name="patristics2">''On Baptism'' 8:6 [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03–49.htm#P11646_3280473 online], ''Against Praxeas'', 26:2 [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0317.htm online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209091153/https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0317.htm |date=9 February 2021 }}</ref>

<ref name="patristics3">''Against Noetus'', 1:14 [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0521.htm online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229105059/https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0521.htm |date=29 December 2022 }}</ref>

<ref name="patristics4">''Seventh Council of Carthage'' {{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05–124.htm#P9402_2932994 |title=online}}</ref>

<ref name="patristics5">''A Sectional Confession of Faith'', 13:2 [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-06/anf06–14.htm#P784_222567 online]</ref>

<ref name="athanasian-creed">{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/creeds/athanasian.creed.html |title=Athanasian Creed |publisher=Ccel.org |access-date=2 January 2012 |archive-date=20 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620172117/https://www.ccel.org/creeds/athanasian.creed.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="hilary-john">{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.ii.v.ii.iii.html |title=NPNF2-09. Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus &#124; Christian Classics Ethereal Library |publisher=Ccel.org |date=13 July 2005 |access-date=2 January 2012 |archive-date=26 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426211317/https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.ii.v.ii.iii.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="despiritu">{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.vii.ix.html |title=Basil the Great, De Spiritu Sancto, NPNF, Vol 8 |publisher=Ccel.org |date=13 July 2005 |access-date=2 January 2012 |archive-date=26 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426204910/https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.vii.ix.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="athanasius3">Athanasius, 3.29 (p. 409)</ref>

<ref name="basil">Basil "Letters", NPNF, Vol 8, 189.7 (p. 32)</ref>

<ref name="bbc-john">{{cite web |url=https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A29321381 |title=The Presentation of Jesus in John's Gospel |access-date=2 January 2012 |date=10 January 2008 |website=h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition}}</ref>

<ref name="de-trinitate1">St. Augustine of Hippo,''De Trinitate'', Book I, Chapter 3.</ref>

<ref name="nazianzen">Gregory Nazianzen, ''Orations'', 31.26</ref>

<ref name="Watson">Watson, Francis. [http://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/back-issues/vol-2-no-3%C2%97-september-2002-a-harmony-of-opposing-voices/abrahams-visitors-prolegomena-to-a-christian-theological-exegesis-of-genesis-18-19/ Abraham's Visitors: Prolegomena to a Christian Theological Exegesis of Genesis 18–19] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202111852/http://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/back-issues/vol-2-no-3%C2%97-september-2002-a-harmony-of-opposing-voices/abrahams-visitors-prolegomena-to-a-christian-theological-exegesis-of-genesis-18-19/ |date=2 December 2022 }}</ref>

<ref name="bakerdict">{{cite web |url=http://www.studylight.org/dic/bed/view.cgi?n=33 |title=Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: ''Angel of the Lord'' |publisher=Studylight.org |access-date=2 January 2012 |archive-date=27 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140127235056/http://www.studylight.org/dic/bed/view.cgi?n=33 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="vonharnack">{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/harnack/dogma1.ii.iii.iii.html |title=History of Dogma |access-date=15 June 2007 |last=von Harnack |first=Adolf |author-link=Adolf von Harnack |date=1 March 1894 |quote=[In the 2nd century,] Jesus was either regarded as the man whom God hath chosen, in whom the Deity or the Spirit of God dwelt, and who, after being tested, was adopted by God and invested with dominion, (Adoptionist Christology); or Jesus was regarded as a heavenly spiritual being (the highest after God) who took flesh, and again returned to heaven after the completion of his work on earth (pneumatic Christology) |archive-date=17 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917232009/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/harnack/dogma1.ii.iii.iii.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
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* {{cite book |last=Vondey |first=Wolfgang |title=Pentecostalism: A Guide for the Perplexed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fvWupHo4i6MC&pg=PA78 |year=2012 |publisher=T&T Clark |isbn=978-0-567-62731-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Warfield |first=Benjamin B. |author-link=Benjamin B. Warfield |editor=James Orr |title=The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HX4PAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA3012 |volume=5 |year=1915 |publisher=Howard-Severance Company |chapter=§&nbsp;20 Trinity: The Question of Subordination}}
* {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Rowan |author-link=Rowan Williams |title=Arius: Heresy and Tradition |publisher=[[SPCK]] |edition=2nd |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-334-02850-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vaO8J3j7mvMC&pg=PA95}}
* {{Cite book |last=Yewangoe |first=Andreas |title=Theologia Crucis in Asia: Asian Christian Views on Suffering in the Face of Overwhelming Poverty and Multifaceted Religiosity in Asia |publisher=Rodopi |year=1987 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VGJ4w6oVqoAC&q=%22Kazoh%20Kitamori%20is%20deeply%20%22inspired%22%20by%20the%20event%20of%20the%20atomic%20bomb%22%22as%20his%20starting%20point%20in%20approaching%20the%20pain%20of%20God%22&pg=PA273 |isbn=978-9062036103}}
* {{Cite book |last=Zebiri |first=Kate |editor-last=Rippin |editor-first=Andrew |chapter=Argumentation |title=The Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4051-7844-0}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Alfeyev |first=Hilarion |chapter=The Trinitarian Teaching of Saint Gregory Nazianzen |editor1-last=Stewart |editor1-first=M. |title=The Trinity: East/West Dialogue |year=2013 |publisher=Springer |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJzdBgAAQBAJ&q=%22The+trinitarian+teaching+of+St.+Gregory+Nazianzen%22&pg=PA107 |isbn=978-9401703932}}
* {{cite book |last=Bates |first=Matthew W. |title=The Birth of the Trinity |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RLHqBgAAQBAJ |isbn=978-0-19-104587-5}}
*{{cite book |chapter=[[s:Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 33|Trinity Sunday: The Holy Trinity.]] |title=Sermons from the Latins |year=1902 |publisher=Benziger Brothers |first=Robert |last=Bellarmine |author-link=Robert Bellarmine}}
* {{cite book |title=The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology |editor1-last=Beeley |editor1-first=Christopher |editor2-last=Weedman |editor2-first=Mark |isbn=978-0-8132-2996-6 |year=2018 |publisher=Catholic University of America Press}}
* {{cite book |last1=Dupuis |first1=Jacques |last2=Neuner |first2=Josef |title=The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TigvAAAAYAAJ |edition=7th |year=2001 |publisher=Alba House |isbn=978-0-8189-0893-4}}
* {{cite book |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity |editor1-last=Emery |editor1-first=Gilles |editor2-last=Levering |editor2-first=Matthew |isbn=978-0-19-955781-3 |year=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{Cite book |last=Grillmeier |first=Aloys |author-link=Aloys Grillmeier |title=Christ in Christian Tradition: From the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon (451) |volume=1 |year=1975 |orig-year=1965 |edition=2nd revised |location=Atlanta |publisher=John Knox Press |isbn=978-0-664-22301-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LH-cBwmmY2cC}}
* [[Fiddes, Paul]], ''Participating in God: a pastoral doctrine of the Trinity'' (London: Darton, Longman, & Todd, 2000).
* Johnson, Thomas K., "What Difference Does the Trinity Make?" (Bonn: Culture and Science Publ., 2009).
* Hillar, Marian, ''From Logos to Trinity. The Evolution of Religious Beliefs from Pythagoras to Tertullian.'' (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
* {{cite book |title=The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity |last=Holmes |first=Stephen R. |isbn=978-0-8308-3986-5 |year=2012 |publisher=InterVarsity Press}}
* La Due, William J., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=0WvgLlSKW7oC The Trinity guide to the Trinity]'' (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003, {{ISBN|978-1563383953}}).
* Morrison, M. (2013). ''Trinitarian Conversations: Interviews With Ten Theologians''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
* {{cite book |title=The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship |last=Letham |first=Robert |year=2004 |publisher=P & R |isbn=978-0-87552-000-1}}
* {{cite book |title=The Tripersonal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity |last=O'Collins |first=Gerald |year=1999 |publisher=Paulist Press |author-link=Gerald O'Collins |isbn=978-0-8091-3887-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/tripersonalgodun0000ocol}}
* {{cite book |title=The Trinity |last1=Olson |first1=Roger E. |last2=Hall |first2=Christopher A. |year=2002 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |author1-link=Roger E. Olson |author2-link=Christopher Hall (theologian) |isbn=978-0-8028-4827-7}}
* {{cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Trinity |editor-last=Phan |editor-first=Peter C. |isbn=978-0-521-87739-8 |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |editor-link=Peter C. Phan}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ramelli |first=Ilaria |author-link=Ilaria Ramelli |chapter=Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian Theology in Illud: Tunc et ipse filius. His Polemic against Arian Subordinationism and the ἀποκατάστασις |title=Gregory of Nyssa: The Minor Treatises on Trinitarian Theology and Apollinarism |year=2011 |location=Leiden-Boston |publisher=Brill |pages=445–478 |isbn=978-9004194144 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOF5DwAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Reynolds |first1=Gabriel Said |title=On the Presentation of Christianity in the Qurʾān and the Many Aspects of Qur'anic Rhetoric |journal=Al-Bayān – Journal of Qurʾān and Ḥadīth Studies |volume=12 |issue=1 |year=2014 |pages=42–54 |issn=2232-1950 |doi=10.1163/22321969-12340003}}
* So, Damon W. K., [http://www.jesus-trinity.co.uk/another-book ''Jesus' Revelation of His Father: A Narrative-Conceptual Study of the Trinity with Special Reference to Karl Barth''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014122655/http://www.jesus-trinity.co.uk/another-book |date=14 October 2012 }} (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2006). {{ISBN|184227323X}}.
*{{cite book |chapter=[[s:Anecdotes and Examples Illustrating The Catholic Catechism/lesson3|Lesson 3: On the Unity and Trinity of God]] |title=Anecdotes and Examples Illustrating The Catholic Catechism |year=1904 |publisher=Benzinger Brothers |first=Francis |last=Spirago |translator=James Baxter}}
* {{citation |last=Reeves |first=Michael |title=Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith |isbn=978-0-8308-4707-5 |date=2022 |publisher=InterVarsity Press}}
* {{citation |last=Tuggy |first=Dale |title=Trinity (History of Trinitarian Doctrines) |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/trinity-history.html |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |date=Summer 2014}}
* {{Cite book |last=Weedman |first=Mark |title=The Trinitarian Theology of Hilary of Poitiers |year=2007 |location=Leiden-Boston |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004162242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z8GhJl6BG8C}}
* [[Eugene Webb|Webb, Eugene]], ''In Search of The Triune God: The Christian Paths of East and West'' (Columbia, MO: [[University of Missouri Press]], 2014)
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Holy Trinity}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140429162944/http://www.reasonablefaith.org/a-formulation-and-defense-of-the-doctrine-of-the-trinity A Formulation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Trinity] – A brief historical survey of patristic Trinitarian thought.
* [https://reading-rooms.tyndale.ca/trinity/ Doctrine of the Trinity Reading Room]: Extensive collection of online sources on the Trinity.
* [https://iep.utm.edu/trinity/ "Trinity"]. ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.
* [https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/trinity/v-1 "Trinity"]. ''[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/ "Trinity"]. ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.
* [http://theopedia.com/Trinity "Trinity"]. ''[[theopedia:|Theopedia]]''.

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