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From: af664@yfn.ysu.edu (Frank DeCenso, Jr.)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: MAJOR VIEWS OF THE TRINITY
Message-ID: <Apr.24.18.56.56.1993.4584@geneva.rutgers.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 93 22:56:57 GMT
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[With Frank's permission, I have added some information here (and in
one case changed the order of his contributions) in order to clarify
the historical relationship of the views.  My comments are based
primarily on William Rusch's historical summary in "The Trinitarian
Controversy", Fortress.  I'm going to save this as an FAQ.  --clh]

MAJOR VIEWS OF THE TRINITY
 
[SECOND CENTURY

The writers of the 2nd Cent. are important, because they set up much
of the context for the later discussions.  Justin Martyr, Aristides,
Athenagoras, Tatian, and Theophilus of Antioch are known as the
"Apologists".  Their theology has often been described as "Logos
theology".  Based strongly on wording in John, they took more or less
a two-phase approach.  Through eternity, the Logos was with the
Father, as his mind or thought.  This "immanent Word" became
"expressed" as God revealed himself in history, ultimately in Jesus.
Thus Jesus' full distinction from the Father only became visible in
history, though the Logos had been present in God from eternity.
Rusch regards this view is containing many of the emphases of the
final orthodox position, but in a form which is less sophisticated,
because it did not have the technical language to properly deal with
the eternal plurality in the Godhead.

Irenaeus held views somewhat similar to the Apologists.  However he
was uncomfortable with the two-stage approach.  He still viewed God as
one personage, with distinctions that did not become fully visible
except through his process of self-revelation (the "economy").  The
distinctions are present in his essential nature.  Irenaeus emphasized
the Holy Spirit more than the Apologists.  Irenaeus' views should
probably be called "economic trinitarianism", though that term is
normally used (as below) to refer to later developments.


THIRD CENTURY

--clh]

Dynamic Monarchianism
 
Source: Theodotus
Adherents: Paul of Samosota, Artemon, Socinus, Modern Unitarians
Perception of God's Essence: The unity of God denotes both oneness of nature
and oneness of person. The Son and the Holy Spirit therefore are
consubstantial with the Father's divine essence only as impersonal attributes.
The divine dunamis came upon the man Jesus, but he was not God in the strict
sense of the word.
Perception of God's Subsistence: The notion of a subsistent God is a palpable
impossibility, since his perfect unity is perfectly indivisible. The
'diversity' of God is apparent and not real, since the Christ event and the
work of the Holy Spirit attest only to a dynamic operation within God, not to
a hypostatic union.
Asignation of Deity/Eternality:
 Father: Unique originator of the universe. He is eternal, self-existent, and
without beginning or end.
 Son: A virtuous (but finite) man in whose life God was dynamically present in
a unique way; Christ definitely was not deity though his humanity was deified.
 Holy Spirit: An impersonal attribute of the Godhead. No deity or eternality
is ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
Criticism(s): Elevates reason above the witness of biblical revelation
concerning the Trinity. Categorically denies the deity of Christ and of the
Holy Spirit, thereby undermining the theological undergirding for the biblical
doctrine of salvation.
[In summary, this probably best thought of as not being Trinitarianism
at all.  God is an undifferentiated one.  Son and Holy Spirit are seen
as simply names for the man Jesus and the grace of God active in the
Church.  --clh]

 
Modalistic Monarchianism
 
Source: Praxeas
Adherents: Noatus, Sabellius, Swedenborg, Scleiermacher, United Pentecostals
(Jesus Only)
Perception of God's Essence: The unity of God is ultra-simplex. He is
qualitatively characterized in his essence by one nature and person.  This
essence may be designated interchangeably as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
They are different names for but identical with the unified, simplex God. The
three names are the three modes by which God reveals Himself.
Perception of God's Subsistence: The concept of a subsistent God is erroneous
and confounds the real issue of the phenomenon of God's modalistic manifesting
of himself. The paradox of a subsisting "three in oneness" is refuted by
recognizing that God is not three persons but one person with three different
names and corresponding roles following one another like parts of a drama.
Asignation of Deity/Eternality:
 Father: Fully God and fully eternal as the primal mode or manifestation of
the only unique and unitary God
 Son: Full deity/eternality ascribed only in the sense of his being another
mode of the one God and identical with his essence. he is the same God
manifested in temporal sequence specific to a role (incarnation).
 Holy Spirit: Eternal God only as the tile designates the phase in which the
one God, in temporal sequence, manifested himself pursuant to the role of
regeneration and sanctification.
Criticism(s): Depersonalizes the Godhead. To compensate for its Trinitarian
deficiencies, this view propounds ideas that are clearly heretical. Its
concept of successive manifestations of the Godhead cannot account for such
simultaneous appearances of the three persons as at Christ's baptism.
[Rusch comments that evidence on these beliefs is sketchy.  There are
actually two slightly different groups included: Noetus and his
followers, and Sabellius.  Noetus was apparently more extreme.
Sabellius followed him, and attempted to use some features of economic
Trinitarianism to create a more sophisticated view.  Unfortunately,
information about Sabellius comes from a century later, and there
seems to be some confusion between him and Marcellus of Ancyra. --clh]
 
[I've moved the following description to be with the other
third-century views.  It originally appeared near the end.  --clh]

"Economic" Trinitarianism
 
Source: Hippolytus, Tertullian
Adherents: Various "neo-economic" Trinitarians
Perception of God's Essence: The Godhead is characterized by triunity: Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit are the three manifestations of one identical,
indivisible substance. The perfect unity and consubstantiality are especially
comprehended in such manifest Triadic deeds as creation and redemption.
Perception of God's Subsistence: Subsistence within the Godhead is articulated
by means of such terms as "distinction" and "distribution" dispelling
effectively the notion of separateness or division.
Asignation of Deity/Eternality:
The equal deity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is clearly elucidated in
observation of the simultaneous relational/operational features of the
Godhead. Co-eternality, at times, does not intelligibly surface in this
ambiguous view, but it seems to be a logical implication.
Criticism(s): Is more tentative and ambiguous in its treatment of the
relational aspect of the Trinity.
[Note that this is a development of the Apologists and Irenaeus, as
mentioned above.  As with them, the threeness is visible primarily in
the various ways that God revealed himself in history.  However they
did say that this is a manifestation of a plurality that is somehow
present in the Godhead from the beginning.  Tertullian talks of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being three that are one in
substance.  Many people regard this view as being essentially
orthodox, but with less developed philosophical categories.  --clh]

[Origen, developing further an approach started by Clement, attempted
to apply neo-Platonism to Christian thought.  He set many of the terms
of the coming battle.  In Platonic fashion, he sees the Son as a
mediator, mediating between the absolute One of God and the plurality
of creating beings.  The Son is generated, but he is "eternally
generated".  That is, the relationship between Father and Son is
eternal.  It cannot be said that "there was once when he was not" (a
phrase that will haunt the discussion for centuries).  Having the Son
is intrinsic to his concept of God.  The Father and Son are described
as separate "hypostases", though this may not have quite the meaning
of separate subsistence that it had in some contexts.  The union is
one of love and action, but there is some reason to think that he may
have used the term homoousios ("of the same substance").  The Holy
Spirit is also an active, personal substance, originated by the Father
through the Son.  Origen's intent is trinitarian, not tritheistic, but
he pushes things in the direction of separateness.


FOURTH CENTURY

--clh]

Subordinationism  [often called Arianism --clh]
 
Source: Arius
Major Adherents: Modern Jehovah's Witnesses, and several other lesser known
cults
Perception of God's Essence: The inherent oneness of God's nature is properly
identifiable with the Father only. The Son and the Holy Spirit are discreet
entities who do not share the divine essence.
Perception of God's Subsistence: The unipersonal essence of God precludes the
concept of divine subsistence with a Godhead. "Threeness in oneness" is self-
contradictory and violates biblical principles of a monotheistic God.
Asignation of Deity/Eternality:
 Father: The only one, unbegotten God who is eternal and without beginning.
 Son: A created being and therefore not eternal. Though he is to be venerated,
he is not of the divine essence.
 Holy Spirit: A nonpersonal, noneternal emanation of the Father. He is viewed
as an influence, an expression of God.  Deity is not ascribed to him.
Criticism(s): It is at variance with abundant scriptural testimony respecting
the deity of both Christ and the Holy Spirit. Its hierarchial concept likewise
asserts three essentially separate persons with regard to the Father, Christ,
and the Holy Spirit. This results in a totally confused soteriology.
[Note also that in most versions of this view, the Son is not fully
human either.  He is supernatural and sinless.  That distinguishes this
view from adoptionism.  --clh]
 
Orthodox Trinitarianism
 
Source: Athanasius
Adherents: Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine, Thomas
Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Contemporary orthodox Christianity
Perception of God's Essence: God's being is perfectly unified and simplex: of
one essence.  This essence of deity is held in common by Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. The three persons are consubstantial, coinherent, co-equal, and co-
eternal.
Perception of God's Subsistence: The divine subsistence is said to occur in
three modes of being or hypostases. As such, the Godhead exists "undivided in
divided persons." This view contemplates an identity in nature and cooperation
in function without the denial of distinctions of persons in the Godhead.
Asignation of Deity/Eternality:
In its final distillation, this view unhesitatingly sets forth Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit as co-equal and co-eternal in the Godhead with regard to both
the divine essence and function.
Criticism(s): The only shortcoming has to do with the limitations inherent in
human language and thought itself: the impossibility of totally describing the
ineffable mystery of "three in oneness."
[At least in the 4th Cent, there were several different approaches, all
of which fit the description here, and all regarded as orthodox, but which
are somewhat different in detail.  Nicea was originally held to respond
to Arius.  Arius can be thought of as carrying Origen's thought a bit
too far, to the point of making the Son a separate entity.  In general
the East tended to take an approach based on Origen's, and it was hard
to get acceptance of Nicea in the East.  Its final acceptance was
based on the work of Athanasius with the Cappadocians: Gregory of Nyssa and
Gregory of Nazianzus, among others.  While starting with three,
they show that their unity in nature and and action is such that one
must think of them as being a single God.  This allowed the Council
of Constantinople, in 381, to get wide agreement on the idea of
three hypostatese and one ousia.  --clh]

Adapted from _Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine_, by H. Wayne House.


Frank
-- 
"If one wished to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one time out
 of a thousand."  JOB 9:3
