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The social model of the trinity differs from the classical model by viewing the persons of the trinity as three centers of consciousness and will, the distinctions between the persons not being defined primarily by eternal relations of origin and by viewing the trinity as a society or a community. [11] [12]
Theophilus of Antioch is the earliest Church father documented to have used the word "Trinity" to refer to God.. Debate exists as to whether the earliest Church Fathers in Christian history believed in the doctrine of the Trinity – the Christian doctrine that God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons sharing one homoousion (essence).
The first defense of the doctrine of the Trinity was by Tertullian, who was born around 150–160 AD, explicitly "defined" the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and defended his theology against Praxeas, [79] although he noted that the majority of the believers in his day found issue with his doctrine.
Only Scripture is the infallible rule of faith and practice. Sola fide: Faith alone, rejecting the value of good works or prayers towards salvation. Sola gratia: Grace alone. The human initiative has no part in salvation. Soli Deo gloria: Glory to God alone. Devotion to Mary and the Saints was strongly discouraged.
The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, [36] but one being. [37] Personhood in the Trinity does not match the common Western understanding of "person" as used in the English language—it does not imply an "individual, self-actualized center of free will and conscious activity."
The doctrine of the Trinity, considered the core of Christian theology by Trinitarians, is the result of continuous exploration by the church of the biblical data, thrashed out in debate and treatises, eventually formulated at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 in a way they believe is consistent with the biblical witness, and further refined in later councils and writings. [1]
Hanson described the traditional Trinity doctrine as follows: "The champions of the Nicene faith ... developed a doctrine of God as a Trinity, as one substance or ousia who existed as three hypostases, three distinct realities or entities (I refrain from using the misleading word 'Person'), three ways of being or modes of existing as God." [58]
Within Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single being that exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a perichoresis of three hypostases (i.e. persons; personae, prosopa): the Father (the Source, the Eternal Majesty); the Son (the eternal Logos ("Word"), manifest in human form as Jesus and thereafter as Christ); and ...