A Fresh Look at the Concept of Trinity

I belong to the Eastern Christian Tradition, and Trinity is a basic faith affirmation in this tradition. An attempt is made here to understand how the concept might have evolved, and how we may explain its meaning.

We don’t see Trinity in the Hebrew Scriptures, nor do we see much in the synoptic gospels. Trinity is presented first in John’s Gospel, which was probably written around 100 CE. John’s Gospel talks about the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We see long monologues explaining the relationship among the three. Reading it today from a different context, we fail to understand what exactly the author meant. It probably originated in a place like Alexandria, where the Christian community was very well aware of the thought of Philo, the great Jewish Philosopher. They were familiar with the terms like logos, light, darkness,life, death etc in their specialized senses in which John uses them.

The idea was explored further in other cities too like Antioch, and by fourth century, the church fathers, trying to explain the Christian faith in the context of the neoplatonist philosophers, further explained the concept. The Cappadocian fathers-- Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa-- affirmed it and explained the concept, and it became the primary affirmation in the Nicene Creed.

In spite of the great work of the Cappadocian fathers, the concept was soon misunderstood. When the concept was carried from the Greek East to the Latin West, they understood it differently, and they altered the creed. They affirmed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the father and the son, but in the original creed, the procession was only from the the father.  

Later when Islam evolved, Trinity became the primary bone of contention between Christianity and Islam. The oneness of God is the primary affirmation of Islam, and they deny the idea of the threeness in trinity. One can see in the online groups of Christian-Islam dialogues how they laugh at the idea of Trinity, and Christians fail miserably to give a satisfactory explanation.

When Christianity evolved from Judaism as a different religion, the primary difference was on the status of Jesus. Christians claimed that Jesus was Christ, but Jews refused such a claim about Jesus. Later, Trinity also evolved as a major point of difference between Judaism and Christianity. Judaism affirms the oneness of God, and they cannot go with the idea of Trinity.

Although Trinity is a part of the faith of my community, it has always remained a mystery to me. I don’t know how this concept of God is more beneficial to us. The saints and prophets before Christ had no concept of Trinity, but they led a saintly life. Although I do not understand it, I wouldn’t dare to deny it or claim that it is false. All I admit is that I do not understand exactly how it was understood by the author of John’s Gospel or by the Cappadocian fathers. I believe that admitting one’s ignorance is the first step in seeking knowledge.

I have been reading Christian theological literature for over forty years, and I haven’t seen a satisfactory explanation of the concept of Trinity. It was a living faith for the author of John’s gospel and for the Cappadocian fathers, but later it became a dead dogma. We don’t know what it means to us. We don’t know how this concept helps us to lead a saintly life. In fact, a dead dogma does more harm than good. Being the primary bone of contention among the Semitic religions, it keeps the humanity split.

Jews and Muslims keep telling us that the idea of Trinity is an offence to the oneness of God, and they keep attacking Christianity everywhere for this one issue. Christianity cannot ignore their challenge. We have to take the responsibility of providing a satisfactory explanation to the Jews and Muslims. There are also Christians who refuse to believe in Trinity, such as Unitarians. They also raise the same challenge. I think Christians all over the world need to accept this challenge from Jews, Muslims, and from the Unitarians, and make attempts to revive the concept of Trinity. Instead of allowing it to remain a dead dogma, we need to propose our theories of how we can relate it to our life, and make it meaningful.

This is the context in which I am making this humble attempt at presenting a theory of what Trinity might mean. This is just a theory-- just something to think, so that we can put our heads together, and evolve far better theories. I am presenting a very short and rough sketch, and we might be able to develop it further.

A few years ago I presented a simplified form of this theory, which was published in my book --Gregorian Vision. I compared the world to an electric train. I argued that for a train to run, there must be two things that do not run-- one, the rails, and two, a constant supply of energy. Similarly, for the world to keep running, it needs the laws that govern its existence, and also a constant supply of energy. The laws and energy exist beyond time-space limits, for they do not run along with the world. The laws and energy come from an unknown super-source. The laws (logos) were established once for all at the very beginning, but the energy keeps flowing from the super-source. In the Christian concept of Trinity, the father is the super-source, the son is the logos (sum total of all the laws that govern the world), and the Holy Spirit is the never-ending supply of energy that makes the world run.

Well, at this point one may ask why Jesus was called Logos in John’s Gospel? Let me offer a simple answer that makes sense to me. Jesus was presented by Paul as the second Adam, the one who obeyed God fully and completely in contrast to the first Adam. As Jesus fully obeyed God, Jesus was seen as a manifestation of the will (laws or logos) of God. This is just this writer’s assumption at this time,which might change as more information is acquired.

Now, after about ten years since I wrote the above paper, I think I have gained more clarity of the concept. I think in the fourth century, the primary question the concept of Trinity was addressing was how the world is related to God. There seems to be three different popular answers to this question at that time:

1. God exists beyond the world, beyond time-space limits.

2. The world is one with God, or in other words, the world is a visible manifestation of God.

3. God exists within the world, managing it and directing it.

As there were very serious discussions in the intellectual circles by both Christian and non-Christian thinkers, they probably formed separate groups arguing against each other. In such a context, the Christian fathers might have intervened with a solution. They probably argued like this: Although God appears in these varied ways to us as we look from different perspectives, there is only one God, not three.

The focus of the fathers was not on the threeness of God but on the oneness. Their goal was not to provide an objective description of how God is really like, for God remains incomprehensible. Their goal was simply to provide a synthesis to the contradictory theories of God so that people may stay united in spite of their differences of understanding. 
Let us see how Trinity is affirmed in our liturgy. 

Priest:- Holy mysteries, for the holy and the undefiled.

People:- None is holy, save the One holy Father, the One holy Son, and the One Holy Spirit, Amen.

Priest:- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the living Holy Spirit, One God for ever and ever.

People:- Amen.

Priest:- With us is the One Holy Father............

People.- Amen.

Priest:- With us is the One Holy Son..............

People:- Amen.

Priest:- With us is the One living Holy Spirit.....

People:- Amen.

This is the most important and clearest affirmation of the traditional Christian church found in the liturgy. It makes the following affirmations of God: 

In spite of God being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

1. God alone is holy

2. God is only one

3. God is with us on our side

The focus here is not on the threeness of God but on the oneness.

I think this explanation can satisfy the Jews and Muslims and the Unitarians. I think Christians all over the world may take initiative to understand this concept and offer an explanation to them. Once they understand the concept, it will pave the way for all of us to unite and explore the concept further to evolve an even better understanding, which will pave the way for a more meaningful human existence and a more peaceful world.