Triune God

Shekinah

"Dwelling;" the suffering divine presence that follows God's people into exile, and which sympathetically remains with them awaiting deliverance.

"Parichoresis"

"Mutual Indwelling," "Interpenetration," "Fellowship," and functions to shore up the Unity of the Trinity in Light of the Distinction of Persons.

Immanuel Kant's view of the doctrine of the Trinity

"The doctrine of the Trinity, taken literally, has no practical relevance at all, even if we think we understand it; and it is even more clearly irrelevant if we realize that it transcends all our concepts.

The "Wisdom of God" in the Old Testament

(See Proverbs 8-9) Closely related to God's law, personified, and as one who helps Yahweh create and structure creation. "Lady Wisdom" is immanent within the nature of things, through which she makes a personal appeal, as if in the public square, for people to heed her counsel.

Practical Advantages of the Social Trinity Model

1. Affords a better definition of human personhood. While the trinitarian members are distinct and irreducible persons, they are not autonomous "individuals," but each exists in relationship to the other; 2. Trinity becomes an exemplary model for human community - including the church, the family, and society at large ("imitation of the Trinity"); 3. Better clarifies the fundamental Christian vision of God.

The Three Forms of Unity in the "Social Trinity" model

1. Essential divine unity; 2. Quasi-genetic unity; and 3. The "perichoretic unity of persons in community."

Two weaknesses of the "neo-modal Trinity" model

1. Its apparent depreciation of the distinction of the trinitarian persons; 2. Barth's and Rahner's very similar constructs also tend to "confuse the persons;" 3. If the Father and the Son were the same person, per the modalistic hypothesis, it would make a mockery of the Father-Son relationship as presented in the gospels.

The three basic reasons why the three persons in the "Western Paradoxical Trinity" model appear to collapse into one person.

1. Monotheistic intuition - belief in one God entails that God is one single thing or person; 2. Divine simplicity - if the three persons are identical to the one divine substance, and therefore identical to one another, then they appear to be one; 3. Influenced by Augustine's psychological analogy of three faculties of one rational soul.

The three strengths of the "Western Paradoxical Trinity" model

1. Strongly traditional; 2. Strong unity claim; 3. Preserves strong sense of the mystery of the Trinity.

Weaknesses of the "Western Paradoxical Trinity" model

1. The Trinity appears to be a mathematical conumdrum of three equaling one; 2. This model of the Trinity presupposes divine simplicity, the idea that God is a single, simple being, which leaves a rather indeterminate place for the three persons. The divine persons end up being reduced to sheer relations of fatherhood, sonship, and spiration.

The 3 Major NT Lines of Argument for Christ's Deity

1. The titles he is given (God (Theos), Son of Man, Son of God, Lord (kyrios)); 2. Divine functions (creating, judging, and saving), and 3. The worship he receives.

"Mystery of Communion"

A mystery in which our relationships with other persons, whether human or divine, constitute an inviting horizon of mystery (e.g., "It is the deepest of all mysteries when two people come so near that they love one another"). This view is eminently compatible with a robust and coherent doctrine of the Trinity.

Considered the "Patriarch of the Western Doctrine of the Trinity?"

Augustine of Hippo

"The Cappadocian fathers"

Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus.

How Did the Cappadocian Fathers Settle the Trinitarian Question?

Clarified the Status of the Holy Spirit as Being "Homoousios" as the Father and Son; Clarified the Essential Logic & Terminology for Trinity Doctrine, Distinguishing "Ousia" for the One (General) Divine Essence that Father, Son, and Spirit Share and "Hypostasis" for each (Particular) of the Three Persons. Thus, the Technical Trinitarian Formula Became "Three "Hypostaseis (Persons) and One "Ousia" (Essence).

Athanasius' Contribution to the Development of Trinity Doctrine?

Clarifies key Trinitarian issues in response to the heresy of Arianism (the Son is Subordinate to God the Father). Christ is equal to the Father because he is "homoousios" as the Father, not "homoiousios;" complies with the scope of biblical teaching. Also, God could not be "Father" by nature unless he eternally had a "Son," which implies the Son's deity.

Origen's Contribution to the Development of Trinity Doctrine?

Clarifies personal distinction in the eternal Trinity itself by describing each Trinity member as a "hypostasis," a term originally synonymous with "ousia" as a word for "essence," considering each a distinct individual existence in the Godhead, and secures the "immanent Trinity" - the Son and the Spirit were "never at any time non-existent," and their procession are eternal. God is Father, Son, and Spirit by nature, not by will or decision.

The "Word of God" in the Old Testament

Communicated in creation and effects the divine purpose (e.g., productive of creation itself as testified in Gen. 1: "and God said..." and in the means of prophetic utterance: "the Word of the Lord came to...").

Tertullian's Contribution to the Development of Trinity Doctrine/

Considerably advanced Trinity doctrine by clarifying key Trinitarian concepts: 1. Coins the term "Trinity" (trinitas); 2. Coins the theological term "Person" (Lat. persona = Gk. prosopon, most literally "face") as the threeness or differentiation term for Father, Son, and Spirit, by which he means a distinct individual existence; 3. Introduces the term "Substance" (Substantia) to express the divine unity - what Father and Son possess in common.

Irenaeus of Lyons' Contribution to the Development of Trinity Doctrine?

Equating the Son with the OT "word" and the Spirit with OT "wisdom," Irenaeus elaborates their roles in the divine "economy," the way God administers creation and salvation through the Son and the Spirit. Overall though, Irenaeus does not provide a substantial or consistent statement on the doctrine of the Trinity.

The "neo-modal Trinity" model

God-as-Trinity is supremely one person; One Person existent as Father, Son, and Spirit (1). The trinitarian "persons" are thought of as God's eternal "modes of being" (Barth) or "manners of subsisting" (Rahner).

Friedrich Schleiermacher's approach to the doctrine of the Trinity

He made little use of the doctrine of the Trinity due to its ostensible (i.e., apparent) logical problems and lack of immediacy to Christian piety.

The "perichoretic unity of persons in community"

Holds that Father, Son, and Spirit are united in purpose, fellowship, and love.

The "Social Trinity" model

Holds that God is three such persons - three discrete centers of thought, will, and consciousness analogous to a family, a community, or society of persons. Thus, Three Persons - Father, Son, and Spirit - who together comprise the one true God.

Augustine of Hippo's "Rational Soul" Analogy of the Imago Dei

Human beings bear the image of God by virtue of their rationality - a rational soul - consisting of a three part division of mind, knowledge, and love (or memory, understanding, and will)

Karl Barth's contribution to a "Trinitarian Renaissance" of the twentieth century

Instigated the reconsideration and renewal of Trinity doctrine by making it "part and parcel" of his emphasis upon God's self-revelation as the theological point of departure.

Two strengths of the "neo-modal Trinity" model

Its coherence and its unity claim.

Introduced the Trinitarian Notion of "Perichoresis"

John of Damascus (Eighth-century).

Tertullian attempts to rule out what heresy?

Modalism (Christ as a mere manifestation of God the Father) by arguing that the Trinitarian members were distinct agents, persons that can be counted, but of the same substance.

The Creedal Parameters Regarding the Trinity as Summarized in Verse 4 of the Athanasian Creed

One must neither blend the persons (modalism), nor divide the essence (Arianism/Tritheism).

The Various Writings and Influence of the Cappadocian Fathers upon what Ecumenical Council Settled the Trinitarian Question Confessionally for the Church?

Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 AD.

"Mystery of Salvation"

Something that was hidden, but is now revealed for our salvation. This type of mystery is acceptable to the social trinitarian.

"Logical Mystery"

That which is mystery because of its paradoxical or illogical assumption. This is not acceptable to the social trinitarian.

"Mystery Strictly Speaking"

That which is undiscoverable by human reason alone and therefore requires revelation. This type of mystery is acceptable to the social trinitarian.

Title given to Friedrich Schleiermacher

The "father of modern theology."

Secondary Essence

The "sort of thing" something is - that is, its kind or class.

Primary Essence

The "thing itself;" the single, particular thing something is.

In the NT, The Spirit's Deity can be Implied from ...

The "triadic formulae" (i.e., Matt. 28:19 - "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

Augustine of Hippo's view of the Trinitarian Persons

The Augustinian View is that the Trinitarian "Persons" or "Hypostases" are not Ultimately Discrete Entities, but Reduce to Sheer "Relations" within the One Divine Substance.

"Quasi-genetic Unity"

The Trinitarian members share a sort of genetic unity or family bond (familial relationship of derivation). This relational unity means that the divine persons cannot exist without one another.

"Divine Personhood"

The central issue related to the Trinity.

"Essential Divine Unity"

The divine essence is that which the three persons possess in common and which makes them divine, and is typically described in terms of attributes; essence is subordinated to personhood. Therefore, the "social trinity" model views the three persons as three primary essences united in one divine secondary essence.

Karl Rahner's Rule

The economic Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit in there dynamic work of creation and redemption) is the immanent Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit in their essential relationships with one another, even apart from creation) and vice versa; that is to say, the God who is revealed to us in the history of salvation as Father, Son, and Spirit (the economic Trinity) is truely who God is eternally, apart from creation, in God's self (the Immanent Trinity)

The "Spirit of God" in the Old Testament

The impersonal force by which God variously animates creation, empowers special agents such as prophets (and the coming Messiah), and renews the earth in righteousness and the personal force who guides, teaches, and grieves.

The "Western 'Paradoxical' Trinity"

Three Persons - Father, Son, and Spirit - who are also One (Person?) (3=1)