The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:34). Rather, everything that one Person is involved in, the other two are also involved in, one way or another. Thus, in the words of the Athanasian Creed: "the Father is God, the Son is God . The Bible is clear that all three Persons are each one-hundred-percent God. (253254). limited, Runtime: Please contact Mrs. Karen Hogan, Recruitment Associate, at khogan@holytrinityhs.org with additional questions. While Jesus and the Father are both God, they are different Persons. Inasmuch as He is the image of Christ, He imprints the likeness of Christ upon us; since Christ is the image of the Father, we too receive the true character of God's children (Athanasius, loc. Day Sixteen introduces our Varsity Kickline performing to "(Everybody's Waiting For) The Man With the Bag" Kickline Lacrosse Soccer Softball Swimming Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Wrestling Please select any/all Art Areas of Interest: The Scholastics seek for Scriptural support for it in the name Holy Spirit. A somewhat similar, though less aggravated, error on the part of Rosmini was condemned, 14 December, 1887 (Denz., 1915). The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is not a contradiction because God is not three in the same way that he is one. Forager Films. It seems needless to give more than a reference to these extravagant views, which serious thinkers of every school reject as destitute of foundation. This is very important: God is one and three at the same time, but not in the same way. Any Christian might be called on to seal with his blood his belief that there is but One God. The controversy with the Eunomians, who declared that the Divine Essence was fully expressed in the absolutely simple notion of "the Innascible" (agennetos), and that this was fully comprehensible by the human mind, led many of the Greek Fathers to insist on the incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature, more especially in regard to the internal processions. Indeed, of all revealed truths this is the most impenetrable to reason. Unity of nature was understood by the Greek Fathers as involving unity of will and unity of action (energeia). ", II, ii, 7, vi, 11). From the fact that there are two processions in Godhead, each involving both a principle and term, it follows that there must be four relations, two origination (paternitas and spiratio) and two of procession (filiatio and processio). God, as the supreme perfection, is from all eternity self-moving, ever adorning Himself with His own attributes: they issue from Him and, being Divine, are not accidents, but subsistent realities. But the eternal regard by which each of the Three Persons is constituted is not an addition to the infinite perfection of the Godhead. St. Augustine suggests that it is because He proceeds from both the Father and the Son, and hence He rightly receives a name applicable to both (On the Trinity XV.37). In view of these facts the opinion of those theologians seems the sounder who regard this explanation of the procession simply as a theological opinion of great probability and harmonizing well with revealed truth. The results to which they led, though not to be reckoned as part of the dogma, were found to throw great light upon the mystery, and to be of vast service in the objections urged against it. ; Cyril of Alexandria, "De Trin. A still higher stage of preparation is found in the doctrine of the Sapiential books regarding the Divine Wisdom. John 1:1 affirms that Jesus is God and, at the same time, that he was with God, thereby indicating that Jesus is a distinct Person from God the Father (see also John 1:18). Early Christians thought Jesus first referred to the. Contact information. It is admirably adapted to assist us to a fuller comprehension of the fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion. Now in regard to these passages it must be borne in mind that there are two ways of considering the Trinity. The writers of that age bear witness that even the unlettered were thoroughly familiar with the truths of faith (cf. The immanence of the Son in the Father and of the Father in the Son is declared in Christ's words to St. Philip: "Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" Here the primary result is simply to attract the subject to the object of his love. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. The three Persons are not each part of God, but are each fully God and equally God. ; Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 31.4). JV Coach : Jennifer DeMeo. The words of Gabriel (Luke 1:35), having regard to the use of the term, "the Spirit," in the Old Testament, to signify God as operative in His creatures, can hardly be said to contain a definite revelation of the doctrine. Yet it seems that the Gospel revelation was needed to render the full meaning of the passages clear. For this reason it has no place in the Liberal Protestantism of today. In the New Testament we find it addressed not alone to God the Father, but to Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 4:18; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:6; Hebrews 13:20-21), and to God the Father and Christ in conjunction (Revelations 5:13, 7:10). as the logos endiathetos, c. x]). These relations, in virtue of their nature as correlatives, are necessarily opposed the one to the other and therefore different. Afterwards it appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian (On Pudicity 21). Hence, both the generation of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit must involve the existence of real and objective relations. As I said earlier, it means the same thing as being. Sometimes the Spirit is treated more like a force than a Person. The former mode of considering them has been the more common since the Arian heresy. This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. By creating an account, you agree to the Carrying this concept over to the Trinity, it is not a contradiction for God to be both three and one because he is not three and one in the same way. A formula often found among the Greek Fathers is that all things are from the Father and are effected by the Son in the Spirit (Athanasius, "Ad Serap. Is the Trinity a contradiction? This experience is the term of the internal act. So God is one what but three whos.. The matter seems to be correctly summed up by Epiphanius, when he says: "The One Godhead is above all declared by Moses, and the twofold personality (of Father and Son) is strenuously asserted by the Prophets. by Whom all things were made . He is the seal, Himself impressing on us the Divine image. . Again, were He not a Divine Person it could not have been expedient for the Apostles that Christ should leave them, and the Paraclete take His place (16:7). Didymus even employs expressions which seem to show that he, like the Latins, conceived the Nature as logically antecedent to the Persons. He expressly asserts that the very purpose of his Gospel is to establish the Divinity of Jesus Christ (John 20:31). St. John Damascene assigns a twofold basis for this inexistence of the Persons. Holy Trinity. 4). On the other hand, St. Hippolytus, who combats it in the "Contra Noetum", claims Apostolic tradition for the doctrine of the Catholic Church: "Let us believe, beloved brethren, in accordance with the tradition of the Apostles, that God the Word came down from heaven to the holy Virgin Mary to save man.". Thus the Son and the Spirit are termed "Powers" (Dynameis) of the Father. ", xii, 20. Holy Trinity is a place of vibrant inquiry and exploration, where rigorous academic programs are personalized and structured to meet the students strength in every subject area. Western theologians have never departed from the main lines which he laid down, although in the Golden Age of Scholasticism his system was developed, its details completed, and its terminology perfected. and the Gregory Nazianzen, Fifth Theological Oration 9; John Damascene, Of the Orthodox Faith I.8). The office of the Holy Spirit in thus elevating us to the supernatural order is, however, conceived in a manner somewhat different from that of Western theologians. On the other hand, pneuma was often understood in the light of John 10:22 where Christ, appearing to the Apostles, breathed on them and conferred on them the Holy Spirit. Follow HTHS Athletics on Twitter @HTHS_ATHLETICS. This identification is rejected by Catholic philosophers as altogether misleading. That is the heresy of modalism. Anselm ("Monol. , Left it On the Floor today at comp & we couldnt be more proud! (Cf. Ecclesiastical approbation. He directs the missionary journey of the Apostles: "They attempted to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not" (Acts 16:7; cf. eccl. Hence the attribute of spiration is found in conjunction with each of these, and in virtue of it they are each distinguished from procession. So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. The basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. Hence it was believed by these writers that, having regard to the present disposition of Providence, the theophanies could only have been the work of the Son. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 29.8, Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures XI.19; John Damascene, Of the Orthodox Faith I.8). Hence, at one and the same time He is both substance and relation. As we conceive things, the relations of paternity and filiation are due to an act by which the Father generates the Son; the relations of spiration and procession, to an act by which Father and Son breathe forth the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Son is not one-third of the being of God; he is all of the being of God. The immense majority of the Greek Fathers, as we have already noticed, interpret logos of the spoken word, and consider the significance of the name to lie not in any teaching as to intellectual procession, but in the fact that it implies a mode of generation devoid of all passion. Thus Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Fathers of the Council of Sardica, in their synodical letter, all treat our Lord's words, teaches "The Father is greater than I" as having reference to His Godhead (cf. HT Presents - Virtual Christmas Concert 2020, Candace Carroll - Cross Country and Track & Field, Karen Hogan (P '11) - Girls and Boys Volleyball. Sorry for the bad quality! +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York. To these thinkers, therefore, there was no impossibility in the supposition that God is wise with the Wisdom which is the result of His own immanent action, powerful with the Power which proceeds from Him. . If you love your sport, you will love being a Titan athlete! In the West we more naturally speak of grace as the life of the soul. How can God be both one and three? The terminology is unavoidable because the limitations of our experience force us to represent this relation as due to an act. It is manifest from the narratives of the Evangelists that Christ only made the great truth known to the Twelve step by step. They argue that this suffices to establish that the author of the Gospel held subordinationist views, and they expound in this sense certain texts in which the Son declares His dependence on the Father (5:19; 8:28). (London, 1864). Thus Richard of St. Victor, Alexander of Hales, and St. Bonaventure, while adhering in the main to Western tradition, were more influenced by Greek thought, and give us a system differing somewhat from that of St. Thomas. The Father is not one-third of the being of God; he is all of the being of God. More we know not (cf. (2) Justin (Dialogue with Trypho 60) Irenaeus (Against Heresies IV.20.7-11), Tertullian ("C. dial. Moreover, the Gospel narratives appear to signify that none but Christ and the Baptist were privileged to see the Mystic Dove, and hear the words attesting the Divine sonship of the Messias. before. For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), he cannot be the same person as the Son. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities. The Latin theory is a noble effort of the human reason to penetrate the verities which revelation has left veiled in mystery.