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Why is the Trinity hard to explain?
The doctrine of the Trinity poses a deep and difficult problem. On the one hand, it says that there are three distinct persons— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and that each of these persons “is God.” On the other hand, it says that there is one and only one God. So it appears to involve a contradiction.
The doctrine of the Trinity poses a deep and difficult problem. On the one hand, it says that there are three distinct persons— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and that each of these persons “is God.” On the other hand, it says that there is one and only one God. So it appears to involve a contradiction.
The Trinity
Christians believe that God is a Trinity of Persons, each omnipotent, omniscient and wholly benevolent, co-equal and fully divine. There are not three gods, however, but one God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Prima facie, the doctrine more commonly known as the Trinity seems gratuitous: why multiply divine beings beyond necessity—especially since one God is hard enough to believe in? For Christians, however, the Trinity doctrine is neither gratuitous nor unmotivated. Claims about Christ’s divinity are difficult to reconcile with the Christian doctrine that there is just one God: Trinitarian theology is an attempt to square the Christian conviction that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine yet distinct from his Father, with the Christian commitment to monotheism. Nevertheless, while the Trinity doctrine purports to solve a range of theological puzzles it poses a number of intriguing logical difficulties akin to those suggested by the identity of spatio-temporal objects through time and across worlds, puzzle cases of personal identity, and problems of identity and constitution. Philosophical discussions of the Trinity have suggested solutions to the Trinity puzzle comparable to solutions proposed to these classic identity puzzles. When it comes to the Trinity puzzle, however, one must determine whether such solutions accord with theological constraints.
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Religion