Trinitarian theology

Definition

Trinitarian theology names the theological grammar by which the doctrine of the Trinity is stated and defended: the rule that God is one in essence and three in person, the three related to one another by real, eternal relations of origin rather than by degree or role, holding the doctrine’s own language together without collapsing it into tritheism or modalism.¹

Historical Development

Much of this grammar was fixed by the councils and theologians who worked out the doctrine’s settled vocabulary, distinguishing what “person” and “essence” mean when applied to God from what they mean applied to creatures.² Carter observes that a rule like divine simplicity functions primarily as a negative assertion, ruling out a mistaken way of picturing God (as composed of separable parts) rather than adding a new positive fact to the list of his attributes.¹ The same holds for Trinitarian grammar: calling Father, Son, and Spirit three “persons” who share one “essence” is not naming three components alongside a fourth, but stating, negatively, that no one of the persons can be collapsed into another and, positively, that none is less than fully God.

Related Doctrines

• Trinity
• Development of Trinitarian theology
• Person
• Essence
• Homoousios

References

1. Craig A. Carter, Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), chap. 7, “What Is Trinitarian Classical Theism?” ↩ ↩²

2. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 9, “The Triune God and His Counsel.” ↩