Quiz 10 Study Guide: Trinity

Key Terms, Theologians & Concepts

• Distincti non divisi

  • Means "distinct, yet not divided."

• Discreti non separati

  • Means "different, yet not separate or independent."

• Arrobon

  • Greek term (ἀρραβών) referring to a pledge, guarantee, or ernest money particularly in a spiritual context as the Holy Spirit's role as a guarantee of believers' inheritance. It signifies a deposit or down payment securing a future transaction or promise.

• Doxology

  • Derived from Greek "doxa" (glory) and "logos" (“word or speaking”), it is a hymn or verse glorifying God, common in Christian liturgy. It is the general term for expressions of praise.

• Macedonianism

  • Heresy that teaches the Holy Spirit is a created being.

• Modalism

  • Heresy stating that teaches the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are just different modes of the one God, rather than distinct persons. A typical ____ approach is to regard God as the Father in creation, the Son in redemption, and the Spirit in sanctification.

• Oikonomia

  • Greek for "economy". the economy of salvation is “the way in which one God has ordered the salvation of humanity in history.”

• Perichoresis

  • Greek meaning "make space around"; theologically describes the divine dance of the three Persons of the Trinity, emphasizing mutual indwelling yet distinct individuality.

• Social Trinity

  • Jurgen Moltmann's view of God as a collective reality — a group or a society, bound together by mutual love, accord, and self-giving of its members.

• Tritheism

  • Heresy asserting the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three independent divine beings instead of one God in three separate gods who share the ‘same substance’.

Theological Problems Addressed by the Doctrine of the Trinity

• • How can Christians witness God’s presence which they experiencde in Jesus Christ and maintain their belief in God as one?

  • How can God be three and one simultaneously?

• Resources for Theological Problems

  • Scripture

  • Tradition

  • Reason

  • Experience

The Doctrine of the Trinity

• Understanding

  • God exists as one being in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit.

  • These persons share the same nature, essence, and character but are distinct and indivisible.

Religious and Philosophical Context

• Influences from:

  • Jewish Monotheism

  • Pagan Polytheism

  • Greek Metaphysics (spirit/matter dualism)

• God in Early Modern Categories

  • God as a timeless immaterial substance

  • God as absolute subjectivity (single subject)

  • God as the first cause of all things

The Christian Theological Vision of God

1. God created the world with order and form

2. God redeemed the world through Jesus Christ

3. God is present in the world here and now, guiding and encouraging believers

“The shape of the trinitarian doctrine”

Quote: "The shape of trinitarian doctrine is dictated by the pattern of redemption: everything comes from God, is made known and redeemed through Jesus Christ, and is consummated by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Patterns of Divine Activity in Scripture

• The Father's Revelation

  • The Father is known in Christ through the Spirit.

  • The NT witnesses God's presence and actions through the Son and Spirit.

Critique of Western Doctrine of the Trinity by Lorenzen

• The trinity is diconnceted from and no longer integrated with a Christian theological understanding of salvation, the church, and understaning of Jesus as the Christ and God.

• The divine essence if “robustly relational”

  • The divine essence is robustly relational

  • The divine essence is the dynamic relations of the persons in and through one another

  • God is relationship

Themes in Feminist Theology

• God's Approach

  • God persuades vs. coerces

  • God and humans inter-relatedness and cooperation

  • Here and now

  • Cosmological: all of creation

  • Mother, Lover, Friend

  • Sin is not participating in the process of salvation, thus refusing to enter intio relationship with God