Main Hermeneutical Strategies Used By Basil

The question is asked what does it mean to claim that God is triune and how does this bear upon human life? Merriam-Webster (2018) defines triune as three in one, or relating to the Trinity, the triune God consisting of three parts, members or aspects (Webster 2018). To claim that God is triune would mean that there is a knowledge as well as a belief in the Trinity of God and that God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is triune has a bearing on Human Life because God is Holy and He is the creator of the world and as humans he has a major effect on the come of each of our lives. But for the believer His ways becomes our ways, therefore it affects how we act, live, think, love, and how we treat others. As well as our character and the way in which we live our lives is affected for the better once we have come into the knowledge and acceptance of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Trinitarian doctrine distinguishes Christianity from other religions and serves as a barometer for measuring orthodox Christian faith. The Athanasian Creed begins its forty-four line doctrinal commitment by stipulating that whoever will be saved hold to the catholic faith “that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.”1 The church accepted these terms and has continued the tradition of affirming a Triune God as described in Scripture. To uphold orthodox Christianity is to affirm trinitarian doctrine. In practice however this doctrine appears irrelevant. German philosopher Immanuel Kant complained that “absolutely nothing worthwhile for the practical life can be made out of the doctrine of the Trinity.” If trinitarian faith

The first four chapters of Genesis indicate that God is the eternal Creator the universe; that God communicates with His creation and evaluates his own work, and that God is sovereign, exercising “supreme authority and absolute power over all things” (Lecture 2, para. 5). There is but one true God, who exists as a Triune Being and is three Persons in one essence; a Divine essence which exists wholly, invisibly, simultaneously and eternally, within three members of the one Godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Lecture 2, para. 7). Harmoniously linked, “each divine figure of the Trinity exercises dominion over creation and is involved in the biblical narrative in its own unique, yet cooperative, way” (Johnson, p. 178). The unity of the Trinity not only illustrates the full divinity of God, the immeasurable power, benevolence, wisdom and omnipresence distinctly setting Him apart from His creation, but also shows that He is the source of all that is good, true, beautiful, loving, just, and

As legend has it, the builders of St. Basil’s Cathedral were blinded by the command of Ivan the Terrible, so they could never create a building greater. There is still the question if St. Basil’s is actually the most beautiful cathedral made in its time. Comparing it to the beautiful Pisa Cathedral and Assumption Cathedral, which were made around the same time, one could find it hard to decide which is the most artistic. Looking at the materials, art, and icons of cathedrals are ways to gauge how beautiful the building is. St. Basil’s Cathedral was the most beautiful cathedral made in its time.

God the Son is revealed in the Christian Scriptures. God the Spirit is revealed in the Church. The Trinitarian doctrine states that there are three co-eternal, equal persons in God, which is the notion of unity within community. The Trinitarian doctrine was further developed and defined at the councils of Nicaea in 325 CE and Constantinople in 381 CE. God was always trinity, however gradually this reality became known through revelation. Jesus calls God and speaks of the spirit which indicates a plurality in God. The difficulty is reconciling the concept of monotheism with the notion of God existing as three persons. The divine essence is common to all three, however the three persons have attributes or properties which distinguished them eg Fatherhood, sonship and sanctifying power. Once essence means that the actions (creation, redemption, sanctification) are attributable to all. Mutual relations is the concept that the terms Father and Son are not titles but expressions of a relationship and thus all three persons are co-equal

Throughout this semester I have learned many of the different christian doctrines. Many of them were challenged and also accepted in my weekend trip throughout Saint Louis. I think one of the most important topics that was discussed during my weekend was the consideration of the Trinity. In the Christian thought the word “trinity” is a term used to talk about the Christian doctrine that God exists as a unity of three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three of the staple thoughts include; God is three person; each person is divine; there is only one God. In their relations to one another, they are stated to be on in all else, co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial. With these three thoughts about the Trinity you also must remember that Christianity is a monotheistic religion.

The word “trinity” is used to describe the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Though all three are used in scripture there is no description of the “trinity.” Throughout this paper the concept of the “trinity” will be examined. First, the paper will have a summary of relevant sections from three sources: the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the older Catholic Encyclopedia, and a peer-reviewed theological article from a contemporary journal. Two concise analyses will follow the summary. In the first analysis there will be a comparison between the older and newer Catholic encyclopedias to see how over time theological reflection has changed. In the second analysis there will be a comparison between the New Catholic Encyclopedia and a contemporary theological article to show the differences between the two theological perspectives.

Saint Augustine, one of the best scholars of the early church, portrayed the Trinity as practically identical to the three sections of an individual: personality, soul, and will. They are three unmistakable viewpoints, yet they are conjoined and together constitute one bound together individual. The purpose of this research paper is to further emphasize, highlight, and defend St. Augustine’s conclusion that the Holy Trinity is one God existing in three persons according to the meeting at the Council of Nicea 325.

As Christians, we confess the Shema—“God is one.” Yet, this creator God has “revealed himself” as Triune: “Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one in essence and power.” To say that God is Triune is not to confess three gods, but rather one God in three persons. This central teaching of Christianity asserts the worship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one God in unity and simplicity. Charles Wesley proclaims this co-dignity of worship to the three distinct persons of one Triune God in his Hymns on the Trinity 1767:

Migliore defines the Christian confession of God as triune as a “summary description of the witness of Scripture to God’s unfathomable love incarnate in Jesus Christ and experienced and celebrated in the community of faith” (Migliore 67). He is quick to explain that “the doctrine of the Trinity is not a revealed doctrine…[because it] did not descend miraculously from heaven, nor was it written by God on tablets of stone”’; rather it is “the product of the meditation and reflection of the church on the gospel message over many centuries” (67). That said, Migliore believes that a confession of the triune God has both a biblical and experiential basis. He states “if talk of the triune God is not to be wild speculation, it will always find its basis and its limit both in the biblical narrative of God that comes to the world through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the actual

Scripture never states the word “Trinity,” instead it was Tertullian who coined the term for our triune God as well as elucidated, “God is one substance in three persons.” While groundbreaking, Tertullian’s work on the Trinity introduced a theological controversy that caused schisms throughout Christianity. In order to solve the controversies of which Trinitarian doctrines are authentic and heretical theories of the trinity, Christian leaders used Scripture and tradition to form the boundaries of Trinitarian theology through their statement of faith in the Nicene Creed. The work of Tertullian and the Nicene Creed acknowledge the roles of the persons of the Trinity forming a doctrine of the economic trinity; however, after the Council of Nicaea Trinitarian debates continued questioning the ontology of the

The Holy Trinity is the main mystery of faith and life, of God himself. Theology refers to God’s life within the Trinity and economy refers to the acts that God reveals Himself. The mysteries cannot be known unless they are revealed by God. There are two processions in God, Filiation, and Spiration. The Father begets the Son and in unbegotten, and both spirate the Spirit. Each person is in the Others. The Persons don’t share Divine Nature, it is not divided, each is Divine Nature. The Divine Persons also cannot be separated. The Trinity only has one nature.

In spite of a few shortcomings, Chandler’s book is well written and easy to understand. He shows that the Trinity Doctrine is related to Gnostic heresies that the Church condemns. Like most of the Gnostic heresies, the Trinity Doctrine developed from Greek philosophy and Egyptian paganism, especially Hermeticism. The notion of Christ as God has its origins in Gnosticism instead of the New Testament. Thus, he shows that the Trinity Doctrine is essentially a Gnostic creed.

The “with” is impossible for the fact that no con-division and therefore no con-dividuality is producible, otherwise the essence should be absurdly tripled. A divine person neither substantiate other two persons, nor can con-join with them, if not as pure complete co-identification with the essence alone. These considerations lead to argue that no iterability is possible and solely where two is numerical consequence of one, the iteration becomes a process of individuation and so of constituting an individual relating to a dividuum two. In trinity’s relation, the two can never divide itself from one, but not even one from itself in that one is never different from one with the unique and always self-identifying essence. One is the same one in being the two essentially and exclusively in the same mode in which both of them manage themselves with regard to the

In the Christian faith triune God is very significant. “Christian” is Trinitarian, describing Jesus as the one whom the Father anoints (christos) with the Spirit so that the Spirit may anoint our own lives (16). Christians confess Jesus as the risen Lord of the universe, but is proclaimed to be inseparable from the one who sent him, the one Jesus knew intimately as “Abba,” or “dear Father.” The ultimate paradox of Christianity is Jesus. Having Jesus at its very center disclosed as the source, the meaning, and the definitive answer to all of human longings causes this ultimate paradox. Fatula goes on to discuss, that although Jesus is the triune God, many of the people would not identify this God as the living God we actually experience in our own daily lives.