Trinity

Trinity [Lat.,=threefoldness], fundamental doctrine in Christianity, by which God is considered as existing in three persons. While the doctrine is not explicitly taught in the New Testament, early Christian communities testified to a perception that Jesus was God in the flesh; the idea of the Trinity has been inferred from the Gospel of St. John. The developed doctrine of the Trinity purports that God exists in three coequal and coeternal elements—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (see creed 1 ). It sees these "persons" as constituted by their mutual relations, yet does not mean that God in his essence is Father, or a male deity. Jesus spoke of a relation of mutual giving and love with the Father, which believers could also enjoy through the Spirit. The Trinity is commemorated liturgically in the Western Church on Trinity Sunday . For systems denying the Trinity, see Unitarianism .

Bibliography: See studies by L. Hodgson (1960) and A. W. Wainwright (1962); G. L. Prestige, God in Patristic Thought (repr. 1964); J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (1977); E. Jüngel, God as the Mystery of the World (1983).

Trinity Central doctrine of Christianity, according to which God is three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. There is only one God, but he exists as ‘three in one and one in three’. The nature of the Trinity is held to be a mystery that cannot be fully comprehended. The doctrine of the Trinity was stated in early Christian creeds to counter heresies such as Gnosticism. See also Apostles' Creed; Athanasian Creed; Jesus Christ; Nicene Creed

trinity (T-) being of God in three Persons XIII; (t-) set of three. — (O)F. trinité :- L. trīnitās, -tāt-, triad, trio, f. trīnus TRINE; see -ITY.
So trinitarian XVI. The earliest uses are † (1) holding unorthodox opinious about the Trinity, (2) belonging to the order of the Holy Trinity XVII; since XVIII the sense ‘relating to the Trinity, holding the doctrine of the Trinity’ has been established. f. modL. trīnitārius.