The Most Holy Trinity B

2022/2023

Trinity in the New Testament.2.

“At various times in the past, and in various ways, God spoke to our
ancestors through the prophets, but in our own time the last days, he has
spoken to us through his son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit
everything and through whom he has made everything there is. He is the
radiant light of God’s glory and a perfect copy of his nature”. (Heb. 1:2).
However, the New Testament does bring God (Father), the Son (Jesus Christ) and
the Holy Spirit together in such a way as to strongly imply the Trinitarian nature of
God.
It is Christ that gradually revealed this great Truth to his twelve Apostles.
First,he taught them to recognize in Himself the Eternal Son of God. When His
ministry was drawing to a close, He promised that the Father would send another
Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, in His place. Finally after His resurrection,
He revealed the doctrine in explicit terms, bidding them "go and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:18). The force of this passage is decisive. For this
is
the climax of his revelation.
That "the Father" and "the Son" are distinct Persons follows
from the terms
themselves, which are mutually exclusive. The mention of the Holy Spirit in the same
series, the names being connected one with the other by the conjunctions "and
...
and" is evidence that we have here a Third Person co-ordinate with the Father
and
the Son, and excludes altogether the supposition that the Apostles understood
the Holy Spirit not as a distinct Person, but as God viewed in His action on creatures.
The phrase "in the name" (eis to onoma) affirms the Godhead of
the Persons alike
and their unity of nature.
Among the Jews and in the Apostolic Church the Divine name was representative
of God. He who had a right to use it was invested with vast authority: the person
using this name is invested with supernatural authority and power. The phrase
"in
the name", is here deliberately employed to underscore the fact that all
the Persons mentioned are equally divine. Moreover, the use of the singular,
"name,"
and not the plural, shows that these Three Persons are that One Omnipotent God in
whom the Apostles believed. Indeed the unity of God is so fundamental a tenet alike
of the Hebrew and of the Christian religion, and is affirmed in such countless
passages of the Old and New Testaments, that any explanation inconsistent with
this doctrine would be altogether inadmissible.
Three Scripture passages are quoted below as a summary of the various
other biblical passages that bring together the three Persons of the

Godhead. One Scripture passage is from the Gospels, another is from

the apostle Paul and a third is from Peter. The words in each passage
referring to each of the three Persons are italicized to emphasize their
Trinitarian implication:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14).
To God’s elect…who have been chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work
of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his
blood (1 Peter 1:1-2).

These three passages, one on the lips of Jesus, and the other two from leading
Apostles.
The foundations of the doctrine of the Trinity are to be found in the pervasive pattern
of divine activity to which the New Testament bears witness…. There is the closest
of connections between the Father, Son, and Spirit in the New Testament writings.
Time after time, New Testament passages link together these three elements as part
of a greater whole. The totality of God’s saving presence and power can only, it
would seem, be expressed by involving all three elements
The Bible reveals that the Father is God, Jesus the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is
God, and yet the Bible also insists that this is only one God. These biblical teachings
led the early church to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity.
We can confidently say that the Trinity, as a truth regarding God’s essential being,
has always been a reality. It was not completely clear in the Old Testament. But the
Incarnation of the Son of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit revealed that God
was Triune. This revelation was made in concrete fact, in that the Son and the Holy
Spirit broke into our world at definite points in history. The Triune revelation of God in
historical time was later described in the word of God we call the New Testament.
“The Trinity is a doctrine not revealed merely in words but instead in the very action
of the Triune God in redemption itself! We know who God is by what He has done in
bringing us to himself!”
The name Father in the revelation of the New Testament is understood to mean the
one God of the Jewish faith. This name integrates all the attributes that the OT gave
to the Lord God. He is the Creator of the world; the personal God; the Unique and
Immortal, the Provident; the Ruler and King; the Judge and the Father who blesses.

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“Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Mt6:26).
This Father is not only the father to his people or to humankind but he is first and
more fundamentally Father in his unique way to his Son Jesus Christ. It is through
his paternity with respect to Jesus that the Father exercises his paternity in favour of
man and other creatures. The Fatherhood of God is manifested in the person of the
Son.
God is never the Father of Jesus in the same way that he is Father to the other
disciples. His fatherhood to Jesus is superior. This relation is expressed in the prayer
of Jesus “Abba” (Father).
The relationship between Jesus and the father is twofold:
1.
a). Jesus relates all things to his Father (Mk.9:37; 12:6); he prays to the father: he
is sent by the Father (Mk.14:36; Mt.11:25-26; Lk.22:42 and 23:46).
b). He declares that he does not know the date of the Parousia that only the
Father knows (Mk 13:32; Mt 24:36).
c). The gospel shows that he has total freedom and sovereign authority
(Mk1:22; Mt 7:29). He is master of the Sabbath (Mk2:23-28); he is greater than the
Temple (Mt 12:6 and 12:8); he shows his authority concerning the meaning of the
Law (Mt.5-7); he forgives sins (Mk 2:1-12; Lk 7:47-49); he cures by a power that
goes forth from him (Mk 9:23-24); he explains that salvation depends on adhering to
his own person (Mk 8:38; Mt 10:32-33; Lk 9:26; Lk.12:8-9).
d). He is the only person who knows the Father and who can reveal him to
human beings (Mt 11:27; Lk. 10:22).
e).This authority is the expression of the unique relationship that Jesus has with
God his Father.
f). “My Father and your Father”,the ascension of which he speaks will lead to the
gift of the Holy Spirit- “My Father, which through me is also your father
g). St John reports in his gospel ‘to all who receive him he gave power to
become children of God”.
h). His Sonship is the source of the Sonship of those who receive it through him
(Jn 1:12). On the other hand,

2.
a).The name Father indicates also the exclusive origin of Jesus and a close
intimacy of Jesus with his father. This points to a veritable unity.
b). There is reciprocal knowledge and love.” No one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son
chooses to reveal him” (Mt.11:27 and Lk. 10:22). Jesus reveals the Father because
he is the Son. He is the revealer of the Father because he is the Son and the one
sent by the Father. “As the Father Knows me, and I know the Father” (Jn10:15) “He
who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn.14:9) No one has ever seen God, the
only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father has made him known” To see
the son is to know the personal mystery of the Father.
c). There is reciprocal mutual love. “The Father loves the Son and shows him all
that he himself is doing” (Jn. 5:20’) “I do as the Father has commanded me so that
the world may know that I love the Father” (Jn 14:31). This love is manifested at his
baptism in which Jesus is manifested as Son: “This is my beloved Son with whom I
am well pleased” (Mt 3:17) “this is the chosen one of God” (Jn 1:34).
d). There is unity of action and of power. Jesus accomplishes the work of his
Father (Jn. 10:37; Jn. 5:36; 9:4 10:25). He does the divine work of the Father: He
raises the dead and makes alive (Jn. 5:21), he gives eternal life (Jn. 10:28; Jn. 17:2)
he exercises judgment (Jn. 5:22; 5 27. He teaches the doctrine of the Father (Jn.
7:16); the works of Jesus are the works of the Father. This unity of action reveals the
mutual interiority of the Father and the Son “The Father is in me and I am in the
Father” (Jn. 10:38).
e). There is identity of being. The works of Jesus manifest that he receives all
things from the Father in unity, to such a degree that in the action of Jesus, it is the
Father himself who acts.
f). There is reciprocal immanence of the Father and the Son. “He who has seen
me has seen the Father, how can you say, ‘show us the Father; Do you not believe
that I am in the Father and the father is in me? (Jn. 14:9-11) “That they may be one
even as thou, Father art in me and I in thee”. “I and the Father are one” (Jn10:30).
The Trinitarian faith is born in the recognition of the divinity of Jesus and the Holy
Spirit in their distinct relation with the father.
There are passages in which “Ho teos”, (God) is applied to Jesus. Thomas the
Apostle addresses Jesus by saying to him “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28). This is
a confession of Easter faith. Naming Jesus as God is directly connected to the
recognition of his resurrection.
In the light of the resurrection, the Apostles clearly understood that Christ was God.

The first verse of the gospel according to St. John “In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is not just divine, he is
God.
St John associates the Word with God. This is the summit of the teaching of the
New Testament about Jesus. Word manifests the work of creation, providence,
revelation and salvation accomplished by Jesus
Jesus accomplishes the work of God. Jesus is the one who elects (Mk 3:13; Lk.
10:22Mt. 16:18).
“I will build my Church”; he forgives sins Mk 2:7) “who can forgive sins but God
alone” (Lk 7:48). He raises the dead (Mk 5:35- 43); Jn. 11; he saves; he will come to
judge. He gives life. He executes judgment.
- Jesus presents himself as the Son of man, ref Dan 7: 9-14
Jesus no doubt possesses a celestial and transcendent dignity. The title “Son of
man”, indicates a messianic power of Jesus in his passage through suffering and
death and the glory that will manifest at his second coming.
- He is the Son of God.
This signifies the unity of Jesus with his Father the unity that the resurrection fully
manifested
- Jesus is the object of worship.
The disciples worship Jesus (Mt 28:17; Mt 4:10). Jesus is associated with the
worship that Christians render to God the Father; there is the doxologies formulated
in Rev. 5:13 “To him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb be blessing and
honour and glory and might for ever and ever”. Glory is also rendered to the Father
through the Son. “To the only wise God be glory for ever more through Jesus Christ!
Amen (Rom 16:27); “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen”. (2
Peter. 3:18; Rom 9:5; 2 Tim 4:18 Rev. 1:6). In the same way Christian prayers are
addressed principally to the Father, so some prayers are also addressed to Jesus:
“Lord Jesus receive my Spirit” (Acts 7:59)
- The Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is at the heart of the revelation of the Father and Son. The Holy Spirit
is precisely the communion of the Father and the Son: He is at the centre of the
revelation of the Trinity as mystery of the communion.
The Holy Spirit in the gospels appears as the agent of the salvation that is
accomplished in Jesus by Jesus.

It is by the Holy Spirit that the Virgin Mary conceives Jesus (Mt1:18; 1:20; Lk 1:35).
This action of the Holy Spirit accounts for the fact that the one born of Mary is the
Son of God in person.
The Holy Spirit who came down on Mary also inspires Elizabeth and Zachariah.
At baptism, (Mk.1:9-11) the Spirit shows that Jesus is the Messiah come to bring
salvation. The presence of the Spirit indicates the prophetic, priestly and royal dignity
of Jesus. The spirit leads Jesus to the desert (Mk1:12-13); he is the source of the
faithfulness of Jesus.
In the Acts of the Apostles, we see the continuity of between Jesus and the church
under the sign of the Holy Spirit. It procures the expansion of the Church. Poured out
on Pentecost by the exalted Jesus at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33), the
Spirit is the new Law. The gift of the Holy Spirit is normally connected with baptism
(Acts2:38).
The gift of the Spirit accounts for the continuity between the earthly life of Jesus the
foundation of the Church and the continuation of the life of the Church.
The Gospel of John shows the relationship that the Holy Spirit has with the person of
Jesus as Son and as sent from the Father. “It is a characteristic of the text of John
that the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are clearly called persons, the first distinct
from the second and the third, and each of them from one another” (Dominum
Vivificantem)
The Son gives the Spirit. The Spirit remains on Jesus (Jn1:32-33). Jesus possesses
the Spirit in his fullness (Jn 3:34-35) and pours him out upon believers (Jn7:38-39).
Jesus promises the coming of the Spirit, the Paraclete (Jn. 14:16); he gives up the
spirit on the Cross (Jn 19:30 Jn.19:34) and breathes the Spirit on the Apostles for
their ministry after resurrection (Jn 20:22)
The Spirit is the Paraclete (Jn14:16-17; 14:26;16:7) that is, the protector, the
intercessor, the consoler, and the advocate and the interior teacher of doctrine.
The Paraclete makes the work of Christ active in the believers whom he teaches,
helps and protects in fidelity to Jesus. He is the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 14:17;15:26;
16:13)
He abides in the disciples of Jesus (Jn. 14:17) he teaches and calls to mind the
teachings of Jesus (Jn. 14:26). He bears witness to Jesus (Jn15:26) He comes and
establishes the sinfulness of the world (Jn. 16: 7-11). He leads into the whole truth
(Jn16:13). He glorifies Jesus (Jn. 16:14). He reveals what belongs to Jesus
(Jn16:14-15). One can observe a strict parallelism between the action of the
Paraclete and that of Jesus “The mission of the Spirit draws from the mission of
Christ, consolidating and developing in history its salvific results” (Pope Johnpaul
11; Dominum et Vivificantem, no.7:14)

We observe again, his relationship with the Father. The Father gives, and sends the
Paraclete. The Paraclete reveals what is the Son’s and what is the Father’s. The
Paraclete comes forth from the father from where the Son has also come forth.
“When the Counsellor comes whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me” (Jn. 15:26). From
these we can safely conclude:

1. The Father is the source of the sending of the Paraclete

2. The Mission of the Son and that of the Spirit are interiorly
connected.
3. The Son participates actively in the sending of the Spirit by the
Father.

The Spirit is another Paraclete (Jn. 14:16). This expression indicates not only the
otherness but also the continuity between Jesus and the Spirit. He works in total
reference to Jesus: he teaches and recalls what Jesus taught; he bears witness to
Jesus, he glorifies Jesus (Jn. 14:26). He is given through the prayer of Jesus and he
is sent in the name of Jesus (Jn. 14:16 and 14:26). The sending of the Paraclete has
its origin conjointly, the Father and Jesus. His work is based on the mystery of his
relation to the Father and the Son.
Catholic doctrine makes explicit this teaching by affirming that the eternal origin of
the Holy Spirit is revealed in his temporal mission: The Spirit/Paraclete, who is sent
by the Father and the Son, has his being from the Father and the Son (CCC 244).
The Scripture does not say explicitly that “The Holy Spirit is God, but it shows that in
relation to the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit carries out the same work as the
Father and the Son.
The NT does not say that Holy Spirit is a person. However, St Thomas observed
Sacred Scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit as of a subsisting divine person. He is the
love and the gift of the Father and the Son.

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The Fathers’ of the Church and the Trinity.

1. Ignatius of Antioch.
He is the second bishop of Syria was martyred in Rome during the reign of Emperor
Trajan. (110 ad.)
In his letters, He makes frequent references to the Father and to Christ and indeed
testifies prominently to the divine character of Jesus.But there are rare references to
Holy Spirit. He referred to Jesus as God and Saviour and as a “perfect man”. His
allusions to the Holy Spirit are infrequent. The Father, the Son and Holy Spirit are
mentioned as collaborators in the work of redemption, but their roles are not defined.
In his letter to the Magnesians, he enumerates the three figures in his doxology. He
described the Spirit as from God (letter to the Philadelphians. In all his works, there
is no evidence of the portrait of a Trinity of divine and coequal figures.
2. Justin the Martyr, the Apologist.
He was one of the great Apologists of the early Church. He was martyred in Rome
165A.D. According to him, every person in his or her reason possesses a germ or
seed of the logos.
Christ possessed the full and complete Logos. He reports a trinitarian formula for
baptism and points out the eucharistic prayers are hymns of praise to the Father
through the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For him, we worship God, and next to God,
we worship and love the Word who is from the unbegotten and ineffable God who
shared our suffering that he might bring us salvation. It was Christ who was present
at the Old Testament theophanies, appearing in various guises e.g. an angel or man,
and even in the form of fire in the burning bush. He believes that Christ is called God
in that he is the first begotten, the Son of the only unbegotten, unutterable God
(Trypho;126). He is begotten of the Father not by abscission, as if the essence of the
Father was divided. Christ is an offspring numerically distinct from the one who begot
him. He refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Prophecy, the one who inspired the
OT prophets to speak of the coming Messiah. Justin does not say much about Trinity
of persons in God. He taught that the Logos -Son is a divine person but is
subordinate to the Father.
3. Iranaeus of Lyons. 140 AD -200 AD.
He is second century theologian who dominated Christina orthodoxy before Origen.
In his masterpiece “Against Heresies”,He gave a detailed treatment of Gnosticism
that helped enrich our understanding of the later half of the second century. He spent
his time struggling against Gnosticism in all its various forms and shapes.
According to Gnosticism those gifted with gnosis (special knowledge), possess a
privileged insight concerning God and human salvation from secret revelations that
were never communicated publicly to Christian believers. Thisundermined the
underpinnings of the church’s message contained in the Gospels, the New
Testament writings, and the apostolic preaching that serve as the ground, “the
canon” of Christian faith.

Irenaeus was not a philosopher, but a biblical theologian. So, he leaned heavily on
the New Testament writings of John and of St Paul. He took great pains to elucidate
the Christian Creed.
His exposition on the Godhead is the most complete and most explicitly trinitarian.
The divinity of the Son is set forth in striking clarity again and again, the Spirit is
nowhere expressly designated as God. Nonetheless he considers the Spirit as
divine.
Irenaeus links together the various saving plans or the “economies” of God that can
be discerned from creation to the parousia. Christ who stands at the middle reverses
the downward trend and recapitulates the human life course, transforming it and
reversing its direction upward. It was necessary for Jesus to live through all the
stages of human life in order to transform it and change its course. As a result,
theLord must have lived into his fifties (old age)otherwise recapitulation would have
been incomplete.
"sees the atonement of Christ as reversing the course of mankind from
disobedience
to obedience. It believes that Christ’s life recapitulated all the stages of human life
and in doing so reversed the course of disobedience initiated by Adam."^ [1]^
He professes his belief in the Trinity throughout his work. Through a doxology, he
speaks of God the Father and Jesus the Son who gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He points to the Scriptures as spoken by God’s word and his Spirit whom he refers
to as “the hands of God” At other times, he refers to the Son as Word, and to the
Spirit as Wisdom both of whom were with God at the creation (cf.- Proverb8:22)
He did not set forth the identity of the Spirit lucidly. He described the work of the
Spirit as prophecy and sanctification. It is the Spirit who works; the Son who
administers and the Father who approves the task of the ongoing salvation of
mankind.
4. Quirinus Septimus Tertulian 160 -220.
He was born North Africa and of North Africa. He received superb education as a
jurist.
Tertullian’s doctrine of the Trinity is fully formulated in his work, Against Praxeas.
He here exposes the errors of the false teacher Praxeas, who came from Asia to
Rometo join a number of others who were teaching a doctrine of modalism in various
forms. For Praxeas: it was the Father who was born of Mary and who personally
experienced the passion and death. It was God who operated in three modalities:
that of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is no distinction of persons but
only different modes of operation: Creation, redemption and sanctification that were
attributed to the one God.
It is in the process of refuting the modalism or Monarchianism of Praxeas that
Tertullian provides the most complete exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity that the
early Church had produced up to that point.
Tertullian identifies the Father as the one from whom the Son proceeds. It is the Son
who became man and who is called Jesus – being both man and God. The Holy

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Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son and is the Sanctifier of the Faith of those
who believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The monarchy is not destroyed by the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are members of
Father’s own substance. The Son is from the substance of the Father, while the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son.
Before creation, God has within both reason and inherent in reason, the Word. The
power of divine intelligence was called Sophia (Prov 8;22-25) The word is the Son
and a person who is second to the Father.
The Son is an emanation from the Father. He compares God the Father to the root,
the Son to the tree and the Holy Spirit to the fruits. The Son is second to the Father
while the Holy Spirit is third from the Father and the Son. The three divine figures are
distinct from one another, because they differ from one another in their mode of
being. While the Father is the entire divine Substance, the Son is a portion of the
whole, “The Father is greater than I”(John,14:28). It is the Son who sends the Spirit,
the Comforter, the Paraclete who is distinct from the Son.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each is God. The Son is in the second
place and the Spirit is in the third place but they comprise one undivided substance.

5. St Augustine of Hippo. (354-430)

There are some things about God which we will not be able to understand because
our minds are unable to comprehend it. “If we understand Him then He is not
God”. We can debate to grasp a better understanding, but Christ Himself said that
He and the Father are one. Faith and reason can coexist and those that fail to realize
that, are fooling themselves.
In describing the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy spirit, St. Augustine uses a very
simple approach that is easy to comprehend. First the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are one and are equal to each other. They are three distinct persons, but one God.
This is also seen in scripture at the Baptism of Christ. Christ is present; there is the
Holy Spirit in form of the dove, and the Father’s voice from Heaven. St. Augustine
describes it as the Son being begotten from the Father, but the Father was not born
of the Virgin Mary, and Christ did not descend on the faithful at Pentecost. The three
members of the Trinity work as one and are in perfect unity.
His master piece on the Trinity (De Trinitate), was written for a period of 20 years.
His description of the Trinitarian image in man was adopted as standard in scholastic
textbooks,
He was influenced by the neo Platonism of Plotinus and probably by the concept of
Trinitarian relations of Gregory of Nazianzus.
Augustine’s work was more of a spiritual reflection on the triune God. His exposition
of the Trinity is thoroughly scriptural.
1. God for him is simple, indivisible, transcending the categories.

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2. His starting point is the divine nature itself not the Father which for him is
immutable essence. God is identical with his attributes which is Trinity.
3. The unity of the Trinity is squarely set out and excludes any form of
subordinationism.
4. Whatever is affirmed of God is also equally affirmed of the each of the three
persons, since it is one and the same substance that constitutes each of
them.“Not only is the Father not greater than the Son, in respect of the
divinity, but the Father and the Son together are not greater than the
Holy Spirit and no single Person of the three is less than the Trinity
itself”
The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are not three separate individuals in the
same way as three human beings who belong to one genus. Rather each of the
divine Persons from the point of view of substance, is identical with the three or
with the divine substance itself. God is not three-fold.
Whatever belongs to the divine nature as such should in strict ness of language
be expressed in the singular, since the nature is unique According to Athanasian
Creed: “while each of the persons is increate, infinite, omnipotent, eternal
etc., there are not three increates, infinites, omnipotents eternals but one”.
In other words, the Trinity possesses a single, indivisible action and a single will. Its
operation is inseparable. In relation to contingent, the three persons acts as one
principle (Unum principium) and as they are inseparable, so they operate. – “where
there is no difference of natures, there is none of wills either”. Or him the
theophanies of the OT should not be regarded as appearances exclusively of the
Son. Sometimes they could be attributed to Son or the Spirit, sometimes they could
be attributed to the Father and sometimes to all three. At other times it is impossible
to decide to which of the three to ascribe them.
With reference to the roles of the different persons:
The Son no doubt is distinct from the Father, he was born, suffered and rose
again, it remains equally true that the Father cooperated with the Son in
bringing about the incarnation, passion and resurrection; it was fitting for the
Son however in virtue of his relation to the Father, to be manifested and made
visible. In other words, since each of the persons possesses the divine nature
in particular manner, it is proper to attribute to each of them in the external
operation of the Godhead, the role which is appropriate to Him in virtue of his
origin – appropriation.
1. The distinction in the persons in grounded in their mutual relations within the
God head. As divine nature, they are identical. The Father is distinguished as
the Father because He begets the Son, and the Son is distinguished because
he is begotten. The Spirit is distinguished from the Father and the Son in as
much as he is bestowed by them. He is their common gift (donum) being a
kind of communion of the Father and the Son. (quardam patris et filii
communion) or else the love which they together pour into our hearts.

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Traditionally the three are designated Persons, but Augustine was clearly not very
happy with the term, “person” which is Greek equivalent of hypostasis or prosopon;
or
the Latin meaning of persona, is simply adopted so that something may be said in
answer to the question “What is God three of?”. To him, it conveys the suggestion of
separate individuals. However, he consented to adopt the usage because of the
necessity of affirming the distinction of the three against Modalism. The three
relations as real and eternal, as the factors of begetting, being begotten, and
proceeding within the Godhead, which gave rise to them. Father, Son and Spirit are
thus relations in the sense that whatever each of them is, He is in relations to one or
both of the others.
St Augustine gives some “psychological analogies” of the Trinity. Even though it is
difficult to understand the Trinity intellectually, we can see reflections, images, or
indications of the Trinity in the created realm, above all, in the highest part of human
beings (the mind), who are made “in the image and likeness of God”.
For him, there are vestiges of the Trinity everywhere, “for in so far as creatures
exist at all, they exist by participating in the idea of God. Everything must
reflect however faintly the Trinity which created it. A man should look primarily
into himself, for Scripture represents God as saying “let us make (the three)
make man in our image and our likeness”. Man,as considered in his sensible
nature, offers a kind of resemblance to the Trinity.
(Augustine Trinity, 231 [VII.4.12]; Genesis 1:26). In the human mind we may
encounter several “trinities”, given here in the order that they somehow correspond
to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
 lover, loved object, the lover's love for that object (255 [VIII.5.13])
 the mind, its knowledge, its love (272–5 [IX.1])
 the mind's remembering itself, understanding itself, and willing itself (298–9
[X.4])
 memory, understanding, and will (374–82 [XIV.2–3)
 the mind's remembering God, understanding God, and willing God (383–92
[XIV.4–5])
 existing, knowing that one exists, loving the fact that one exists
(Augustine City, 483-4 [XI.26]; cf. Confessions 264-5 [XIII.11])
These are taken to be “images” of the Trinity, with the final three being in some
sense the most accurate. (He also discusses a few “trinities” or threefold processes
which he doesn't hold to be images of the Trinity.)
These analogies are helpful in the pursuit of God, Augustine himself says, they are
even “immeasurably inadequate” to represent God (428 [XV.6.43]). The main reason
is that these three are activities which a person does or faculties a person has,
whereas God “just is” his memory, understanding, and will; the doctrine of divine
simplicity thus renders the mental analogies at best minimally informative. Further,

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temporal processes seem ill-suited to represent the nature of an essentially

immutable God.

Augustine’s Contribution.
1. He sets out the concept of divine nature before a study of the persons
2. He insists that all divine actions and operations outside the Divine Being are
to be attributed to the entire Trinity
3. He provides a very good explanation of the divine processions.

For him, the term God, means first of all the God head which he describes personally
not in the form of any of the three persons in particular.
The Symbol called the Quicumque Creed which begins by professing faith in the
God head common to all three persons, was inspired by the work of Augustine.
The oneness of the Divinity is immediately apparent in that the absolute perfections
of the divine nature are set forth first prior to a consideration of the persons. E.g.
divine omnipotence, omniscience, and divine providence etc.
St Augustine emphasized the psychological approach to the understanding of divine
processions. (The Son is born of the Father in terms of an act of understanding while
the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as the substantial term of their
love. With these processions, the fullness and richness of the Divine Being is
revealed.

St Thoms Aquinas achieved the high point of Trinitarian theology innhis Summa
Contra Gentiles in
his Summa Theologiae 1266.
He uses the term procession. Procession in God remain within the Divine Being. The
procession of
the Word reproduces the likeness of the Originator. This procession is called
generation and the
Word proceeding