Trinity is central because God of the Bible is Triune. God of the Bible has revealed Godself as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Gal. 4:4-6). One is compelled to ask why the gospel of Matthew commands us to make disciples from all nations by baptising them in the ‘name’ of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). That is not an instance of incorrect grammar or a scribal oversight. The ‘baptismal formula’ in Matthew 28:19 is also used in the baptism of believers to this day, consistent with early church practice. The recitation of the baptismal formula when a believer obeys the Lord in the waters of baptism is not mere lip service. This is the confession of our faith in the Triune God. Now, what do we mean when we say God is “triune”? This means that God is one in divine essence and three in persons. This doctrine is not mere information. I aim to give five reasons why Christian theology needs the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity compels us to reflect on God, who is both transcendent and immanent
Christians believe in a personal God who has entered into a relationship with his people. He calls them his own possession and is possessive over them, which is evident whenever the people went astray and loved other gods. This God moved towards us, and that is how we can say that we know God and we love Him. The concepts of person and being are also applicable to humans but we realise that when it comes to God, the same concepts are not applicable in the same way. God is three in persons and one in being. Many argue that because the Trinity makes no sense in human language and reason, it is therefore meaningless. But we forget that our God is an infinitely sublime God. If one says that God can be comprehended by human reason, then we have limited God to human standards. As Søren Kierkegaard says, between God and man there is an “infinite qualitative difference”. The doctrine of the Trinity shows the limitations of human language. In such a limitation, we acknowledge that this God is wholly other.
At the same time, the Christian God is not beyond reach. CS Lewis says that one cannot perfectly conceive what one being and three persons would look like, but human minds can have a faint notion of it (Mere Christianity, pdf 124). In this faint notion, Lewis says, we are getting caught in a life higher than ours. The doctrine of the Trinity gives us the language to acknowledge that God is above human reasoning, yet this God has reached out to us. God is the goal we try to reach, God is the motive power that prompts us to reach the goal, and God is also the road on which one is being pushed along (Mere Christianity, pdf 125).
The doctrine of the Trinity is the shape of revelation
Often, the word ‘revelation’ is thrown around casually. But it is worth asking – what is revelation? We often take for granted the easier things, but it is the easiest things that are the hardest to define. A modern mindset generally operates on the assumption that revelation is like downloading some data. Revelation becomes like data when Scripture is treated merely as a collection of facts. But Scripture is more than facts – it is an encounter with the Triune God. According to Karl Barth, God reveals Godself through the en-fleshed Word (Christ), the written word (Scripture) and the spoken word (preaching). Revelation explained through the Trinity means that revelation is nothing other than God. According to Barth, the event of God’s self-revelation, God is the revealer, the revelation and the effect of the revelation, at the same time (The Essential Karl Barth, pdf 95-96). The threefold form of revelation also explains how humans receive the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is imparted ‘into’ humans through the Spirit; the knowledge comes ‘from’ the revelation of the Son, who reveals the hidden Father (The Essential Karl Barth, pdf 95).
The doctrine of the Trinity helps us read the Scripture as a single unified text
Christianity rejected the Marcionite reading of the Scripture, which presented two different gods, one of the Old and the other of the New Testament. Even after such rejection, there exists an ‘isolationist tendency’ to differentiation between YHWH in the Old and YHWH in the New. But YHWH, as the name of God, is a reference to his essence that is shared by the three persons. In this sense, Father is YHWH, Jesus is YHWH, and the Spirit is YHWH (Trinitarian Interpretation, pdf 10). The identification of the three persons of the Trinity with YHWH can explain the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament text in a unified way.
The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us a disposition beyond utility
Modern education is driven by utility over transformation. Something similar can be said about the way we read the Bible. There is a fixation with the acquisition of facts. When one speaks about hermeneutics, we hardly hear about the disposition of the interpreter. But this was not the case during the patristic and medieval periods, when the disposition of the interpreter was as important as the method used to interpret the text. One can even say that a disposition of being transformed was part of the method used by the patristic fathers and medieval theologians.
According to St. Bonaventure, only a soul that is purged by faith can grasp to some extent, but in general, the Trinity is difficult to understand unless one first assents to it. The doctrine of the Trinity draws one into awe rather than arrogant accuracy while reading the Scripture. The doctrine, in that sense, is not merely a model to imitate but a reality to contemplate. Such contemplation draws an interpreter into a posture of surrender and prayer rather than intellectual dominance.
The doctrine of the Trinity unites Christian Traditions
From the time of the Reformation, Christianity saw the rise of confessional exegesis. Despite the differences over how the Bible was interpreted on certain matters, the doctrine of the Trinity was not a central point of division among the confessional traditions. The doctrine of the Trinity may have witnessed a renewed interest in the 20th century, but the doctrine was agreed upon by the various strands of Christianity. In that sense, the doctrine of the Trinity provides a basis for an ecumenical dialogue among Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Even if there may be conceptual variations, there remains a shared confession that Christians believe in the God who is one in being and three in persons.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a peripheral doctrine; rather, it is the very fountainhead that impacts the way we read the Scripture, the language we use to worship God and the way we privilege Christian traditions.
For further references:
Eldhose, Alias. Trinitarian Interpretation in Light of the Identity of YHWH as the Triune God: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Approach. Wipf and Stock, 2024.
George Marcil, ed., Works of Saint Bonaventure: Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity: An Introduction and Translation, trans. Zachery Hayes (The Franciscan Institute, 2000).
Johnson, Keith L. The Essential Karl Barth: A Reader and Commentary. Baker Academic, 2019.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. Harper Collins, 2001.
Storer, Kevin. Knowing Our Triune God: A Historical and Global Survey of Development in Trinitarian Theology. Omega Book World, 2024.
