Trinity. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is one God, but three coeternal consubstantial persons or hypostases, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as one God in three Divine persons.
   The three persons are distinct, yet are one substance, essence or nature. In this context, a nature is what one is, whereas a person is who one is. Sometimes differing views are referred to as nontrinitarian.
   Trinitarianism contrasts with positions such as Binitarianism and Monarchianism, of which Modalistic Monarchianism and Unitarianism are subsets. While the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament, the New Testament possesses a triadic understanding of God and contains a number of Trinitarian formulas.
   The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated among the fathers of the Church as early Christians attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions. The word trinity is derived from Latin trinitas, meaning the number three, a triad, tri.
   This abstract noun is formed from the adjective trinus, as the word unitas is the abstract noun formed from unus. The corresponding word in Greek is, meaning a set of three or the number three. The first recorded use of this Greek word in Christian theology was by Theophilus of Antioch in about the year 170. He wrote: In lik
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