Is the Doctrine of the Trinity Reasonable?
The doctrine of the Trinity is at the heart of orthodox Christian belief, and seeks to explain the relationship between the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The equal nature of the Father and Jesus was affirmed by the Council of Nicaea in AD325 in dealing with the Arian heresy (and expressed in the Nicene Creed). The equal nature (or consubstantiality as it is technically known) of the Holy Spirit also was added into an expanded creed at the First Council of Constantinople in AD381. The doctrine is perhaps most simply expressed by the formula "The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Spirit is God." Non-believers have often poured scorn on a doctrine which is so difficult to grasp, and which is not explicitly contained in Scripture, but the doctrine is an attempt to bring together and formalise the teaching of numerous separate parts of Scripture. I contend that, regardless of theolo