Trinity

The Trinity is a theological concept that makes the claim that the Christian God is three distinct persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--yet is entirely whole or one. This is a doctrine that arises out of the reconciling of various passages of Scripture, some claiming that God is one, and many claiming each the Father, Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit are God. It arose in earliest Christianity and was affirmed by the earliest Ecumenical Church Councils.

Early Debate

The concept of the Trinity in conventional Christianity is as set out in the Nicene Creed, that Christ is "begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father" , that God (the Creator and Father), the Son, (Jesus the Christ) and the Holy Spirit are one Essence or substance (in Greek, homoousios) and Three Persons (in Greek, hypostasis). This is accepted doctrine in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and nearly all Protestant denominations. There are, however, some differences of interpretation, (see Filoque).

The question of the Trinity and the closely related question of the nature of Christ were hotly debated from about the third to fifth century. Several alternate interpretations were supported by some bishops, but condemned as heresies:

• Appolinarian; the Logos, or divine nature in Christ, took the place of the rational human soul or mind of Christ; the body of Christ was a spiritualized and glorified form of humanity.
• Arian: the Son was inferior, and was created (i.e. literally begotten) as opposed to "eternally begotten". This position is pointedly rejected in the Nicene Creed.
• Nestorian: Jesus united two natures, human & divine, as opposed to being divinity incarnate.
• Monophysite: Christ had a divine nature but no human nature.

Variants

Sabellianism, Unitarianism, Godhead (Mormonism), Dual Characteristics (Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church).