Trinity's Common Prayer Analysis

Bonhoeffer, Dietrick. The Cost of Discipleship, New York,NY 10022: The Macmillan Company, Published 1959. 344 pp. $1.95

At the center of the Christian faith is a mystery. This mystery has everything to do with the identity of God, the nature of Christian community, the salvation history and our understanding of Christology. This is the mystery of the Trinity – how is the Godhead fully three persons, and yet one nature? Theophilus was the first to name the ‘triad’ nature of God in his letter To Autolycus in 170 A.D. Tertullian was the first to offer terminology to describe this mystery in Against Praxeas claiming “the Trinity” involved three ‘persons’ of one substance. This theology emerged from the Biblical witness, even though scripture offers no doctrine of the Trinity itself. Even more so, the development of the doctrine of the Trinity grew from the early church’s worship, witness and corporate experience. When faced with a mystery, heresies can’t help but emerge. Docetism and Arianism, Adoptionism and Monarchianism, Nestorianism and Monophysitism are just a few of the heresies that emerged in attempts to explain away the mystery. And yet, theologians from the second century to the twenty-first century are faced with the challenge of witnessing to this mystery in both the theologia and the oikonomia of the Trinity. The church experiences the economic Trinity as new believers are drawn into Trinitarian community through an ongoing

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.

Which agenda then, favors Christ in Liturgy? Which agenda embodies the fullest Tradition of the Greater Church? Which Tradition does the Church generally accepts as a whole.

Religion has had a great impact on our world. It has shaped our thinking and culture. This summer, I had the opportunity to visit St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and Immanuel’s Church, both located in Silver Spring. Immanuel’s Church is an interdenominational church that believes in incorporating different cultures and practices from various denominations. Like Immanuel’s, St. John’s is culturally diverse. Although Immanuel’s is protestant, both churches believe in one God, that he is the Creator and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

For the following part of his Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer drew on a number of medieval sources and yet composed something greater than their sum. The introduction was said by the priest, the prayer by the “whole congregation … kneeling.”

We will no longer be divided in conversation. It’s amazing that God has given us His Spirit, so that we can be one, as He and His Father are one. As the pastor prayed, in undistinguishable syllables (to me), I pictured his words rising up before God’s throne like incense, together with the prayers of other saints. I was reminded of the verse in Revelation 15: “For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.” I will bow before Him one day, together with these very people at Eden Presbyterian Church. And we will worship Him in Spirit and truth, praising Him for His righteous acts. I can’t wait until that

The primary message of 1 Corinthians is Paul identifying the problems in the Corinthian church, so he could offer solutions and teach the believers in the Corinthian church how to face the conflict with the concepts and practices of the pagan world. 1 Corinthians is the most varied in content and style of all the epistles of Paul. Addressing topics ranging from schism to finance and from church decorum to the resurrection. Paul writes to elders of Corinth as if he had been present and having a conversation with them. The theme can be called “the doctrine of the cross in its social application” (Tenney 1985, 297–298).

Many people feel that when it comes to worshiping and praising God, their denomination tends to do it a little better than others.

Muslims believe there is one God, creator of everything. This belief in one God is mutual and brought into Christianity and Islam through their predecessor—Judaism. If we examine the early histories of the children of Judaism we can see that it was Christianity which took a different path, straying (in a sense) from this ideal through a constructed belief in Jesus as part of a Holy Trinity rather than a prophet of God. The Trinity can be just as much of a stumbling block for Muslims as the name Allah is for Christians, though the Trinity is a much more complex concept to explain because it connotes the perception of multiple Gods. How can we explain the Trinity in a manner that creates a bridge of dialogue between the two faiths, instead of

Many would agree that the Trinity is one of the most complex and difficult of the Christian doctrines to fully understand. It is tough for many to process the complete meaning of the Trinity. Is it three different people? Are they all God himself? If we believe that God is “entirely other” it may make it easier to fully understand the concept of the Trinity and to answers these questions that numerous Christian’s have. Often, it is difficult for us to explain Heavenly concepts that we cannot physically see for ourselves. The Trinity is important to understand and to building our faith. Powell writes, “As Christians many of us highly prize the doctrine of the Trinity but have no idea why it is so important.” We should cling to the Trinity but first we must comprehend what is meant by this doctrine.

The doctrine of the trinity is the essence and reality of God in his deepest inner life. The trinity is the highest thing that the human brain can contemplate. The doctrine of the trinity is one of the most mysterious theologies in the Christian faith and it is the heart and soul of its teachings. In the trinity there is one true God but three persons. The father, son, and holy spirit. There are misconceptions or heresies going against this belief that there is one God with three masks or modes in which god reveals himself. In the truth there is one God of the old testament that is in the fullest of reality.

The doctrine of Christianity and the Trinity gives the definition of God existing in three persons or forms. These forms are God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons are distinct in nature. Their existence is perceived to be part of the Christian faith that adores the fullness of God in three persons. Since the creation and evolution of knowledge of God, it has been explored that God is the one who created the universe and all that is in it. The creation stories have provided rudimentary analysis of the procedures and steps that led to the evolution of creation and its end. God being the creator came to the world in the form of a father that was the son. Having given birth through the spirit, and made Jesus take the form of a human natural way of procreation, God demonstrated the essence and distinction between the three people in God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit (Broek 1931, p. 24).

At the beginning of the semester, we started off by answering some personal questions such as: “Discuss some things or someone you need to look at in a fresh was as a reminder of God’s energy or presence in your life and write about one place where you felt the presence of God.” These questions really helped me to look deeper into myself and really reflect on my present spiritual condition and how I felt at the moment. There have been times when I feel alone and unloved, but really being able to focus this semester with all the handouts and meditations, I realized that God has not abandoned me, but rather has been waiting for me to reach out for His help. I am a

Unlike other religions the Christian God is very distinct because He is a part of the Trinity. The Trinity is defined as one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. According to author Michael Reeves, he explains in his book Delighting in The Trinity how each person plays a huge role in the Godhead and yet all three are one God and not three single persons. The most foundational part of God is not some abstract quality, but the fact that he is the Father. Again, and again, the scriptures equate the terms God and Father. For instance, Isaiah prays, “You are our Father…you, O Lord, are our Father”. The prophet Paul writes of “one God, the Father” (1 Corinthians 1:13). In order to be a Father there must be a son, right? The Bible explains how before time the Father loved His Son “you (the father) loved me (the son) before the creation of the world” (Colossians 1:17). How exactly does the Son and Father have this kind of relationship? The answer to this is the final part of the Trinity which is the Holy Spirit. The way the Father makes known his love is precisely through giving his Spirit to the son. In Romans 5:5, for instance, Paul writes on how God pours His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. “and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”. It is, then, through giving him the Spirit that the Father declares his love for the son. Without the Spirit then it could not stir