How to Explain the Trinity

[Paula]

The Trinity is one of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. It also seems to be one of the least understood doctrines. And this even applies to fellow believers. For example, right now I am having a difficult time explaining this doctrine to another believer. The main point of contention for them is the Incarnation and understanding what "person" means in the doctrine. And another Christian who was present during one discussion seemed to have some confusion regarding this too!

So how have you explained the Trinity to others in the past? What analogies, methods, or approaches did you use? Has this been difficult or has it been fairly simple?

[Littlejoe]

Almost all analogies end up being some sort of Modalism. It's just hard to describe the Trinity as it truly is. That said, the best analogy I've heard (and it has it's issues) is that: "God is like the Sun. The light you see is Jesus Christ, the warmth you feel is the Holy Spirit."

Ice, egg, and the "I am a father and a son and spiritual being" and their like are all modalistic descriptions and shouldn't be used IMO.

Hope that helps.

[heartablaze]

I'm a very visual person, so having something like this Celtic trinity symbol helps me.

image.jpg

Three separate and distinct beings and yet they are one. I'm reading the gospel of John right now and it's a great study of the trinity. A lot of "I and the Father are one" at the same time as "I obey the will of my father" and "when I go the Comforter will come"

[Andius]

For the record, what is so contentious about the Incarnation and Personhood regarding those folks?

Also, Littlejoe and Heartablaze have given great nutshell explanations (have to admit, the Celtic Trinity is a lovely thing, and wonderful medium of explanation).

[Scrawly]

I usually just focus on the fact that the Scriptures teach:

a) the Father is God

b) Jesus is God

c) the Holy Spirit is God

Yet The Father is not Jesus, Jesus is not the Holy Spirit, etc. Moreover these three persons constitute one God. Not three separate Gods. If a person really gets nit-picky I usually just defer them to a scholarly treatment on the subject by a top-notch theologian and remind them that we, finite creations, are discussing the infinite creator so don't stress out too much if you can't wrap your head around it.

[hamster]

Computer science fictiony analogy (although AIs are coming relatively soon..)

There's One computer. On that computer there are three artificial intelligences. They each think and have their own will. We'll call them A, B, and C.

A is the Computer
B is the Computer
C is the Computer

There's one computer, there aren't three computers.

A is not B or C
B is not A or C
C is not A or B

[simplicio]

The Trinity is one of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. It also seems to be one of the least understood doctrines. And this even applies to fellow believers. For example, right now I am having a difficult time explaining this doctrine to another believer. The main point of contention for them is the Incarnation and understanding what "person" means in the doctrine. And another Christian who was present during one discussion seemed to have some confusion regarding this too!

So how have you explained the Trinity to others in the past? What analogies, methods, or approaches did you use? Has this been difficult or has it been fairly simple?

Frank Sheed has a book, Theology for Beginners which has a concise and clear discussion of the Trinity. He was a Catholic street preacher, and his explanations were forged in real time, with real audiences, with instantaneous feedback. His explanations are unsurpassd for clarity.

That book is about 170 pages, the first half of the book deals with the basics of nature and person, spirit, the nature of man, trinity and Incarnation. The last half will deal with catholic topics such as the nature of the church and sacraments. A much more in depth treatment can be found in Theology and Sanity. Sheed takes Aquinas and makes theology understandable to those of us who are not philosophers.

We can apply the ideas of nature and person to ourselves, but when it comes to the Trinity with three persons "sharing" one nature, we have difficulty, it is outside our experience. And the Incarnation, with its two sources of will and intellect is also outside our experience (can you think with another's intellect?). Then add in our understanding of theology, which may be different from the teachings of church or denomination, and how we view the movement or cooperation of the human soul in ourselves with respect to the divine, it is difficult to really incorporate theology, and the bible, into our own thought.

The topic is difficult, but mostly because it is avoided by Christians. We cannot move from arithmetic to calculus in one sitting, and we cannot move to understanding the central doctrines of the faith in one sitting either. But the Trinity and Incarnation are the central doctrines, everything else in our faith flow from those two teachings.

[Cow Poke]

I kinda like the Greek Hypocrite ( hypokritḗs ) version....

A Greek actor often played multiple parts in the same play - so a troupe of 5 actors could stage a play that had 10 to 20 characters. He would simply hold up a "face" in front of his own face so the audience could clearly see who he was portraying at that moment.

In a sense, God has acted that way throughout History - playing various roles, but always being God.

And, yeah, every analogy breaks down at some point, and this one does as well.

[Christianbookworm]

I kinda like the Greek Hypocrite ( hypokritḗs ) version....

A Greek actor often played multiple parts in the same play - so a troupe of 5 actors could stage a play that had 10 to 20 characters. He would simply hold up a "face" in front of his own face so the audience could clearly see who he was portraying at that moment.

In a sense, God has acted that way throughout History - playing various roles, but always being God.

And, yeah, every analogy breaks down at some point, and this one does as well.

Modalism!

[Cow Poke]

Modalism!

If you look at it that way, sure --- but every other analogy has its problems --- there is nothing else in existence like the Trinity.

[Andius]

Modalism!

Reminded of this bit, heheheheheh.

[Cow Poke]

If you look at it that way, sure --- but every other analogy has its problems --- there is nothing else in existence like the Trinity.

I think 37818 has politely and privately convinced me that the hypocrite analogy sounded a whole lot better the way I think of it than the way it sounds when I explain it. In real life, I only mention it in association with some other "not quite there" analogies, ending up with "but none of these does justice to the Trinity, because it's such a unique concept".

[heartablaze]

Reminded of this bit, heheheheheh.

Hahaha never seen these guys. Funny and informative!

[simplicio]

If you look at it that way, sure --- but every other analogy has its problems --- there is nothing else in existence like the Trinity.

But some analogies have more problems than others. What you are describing is a type of unitarianism. But if you are trinitarian in belief then it is problemaic.

[Jedidiah]

In over 50 years I have never seen an explanation of the Trinity that came close to satisfying me. I really don't think you can do more than "one God, three persons." I came to Christ with the clear belief that the trinity was a man made idea. I spent a lot of time in the scripture trying to prove it. Instead I came away with the clear understanding that it is taught in the Bible even though not mentioned as such.