02 Religious Concepts And Religious Life - B The Trinity

Question 1

What is a doctrine?

Answer 1

A Christian teaching. Mostly based on scripture, particularly Paul’s letter.

Question 2

What led to the need for doctrine?

Answer 2

Disagreements.

Question 3

What are councils?

Answer 3

Meetings held by the various churches to address disagreements and decide doctrine.

Question 4

What type of religion is Christianity?

Answer 4

Monotheistic.

Question 5

What 3 persons does God exist as?

Answer 5

-Father
-Son
-Holy Spirit

Question 6

What is the father’s role in the trinity?

Answer 6

Creator

Question 7

What is the son’s role in the trinity?

Answer 7

Redeemer

Question 8

What is the Holy Spirits role in the trinity?

Answer 8

Sustainer

Question 9

What are the 3 points of the doctrine of the trinity?

Answer 9

1. The father, son and the Holy Spirit are 3 distinct persons.
2. Each person is fully God, the 3 are coexistent, coeternal and coequal.
3. There is only one God, the doctrine does not split God into 3 persons.

Question 10

What is a heresy?

Answer 10

An opinion or belief that is contrary to what is considered the official teaching.

Question 11

What are the 3 heresies about the trinity?

Answer 11

-adoptionism
-sabellianism
-arianism

Question 12

What is adoptionism?

Answer 12

The belief that Jesus was an ordinary man who became the son of God only at his baptism.

Question 13

What is sabellianism?

Answer 13

The belief that Jesus was divine and not human.

Question 14

What is arianism?

Answer 14

The belief that Jesus was the highest of all created beings but not of the same substance as God.

Question 15

Who is the scholar for the trinity?

Answer 15

Tertullian.

Question 16

Who first used the term ‘trinity’?

Answer 16

Tertullian

Question 17

What was the doctrine of the trinity formalised in?

Answer 17

The nicean creed.

Question 18

What does the nicean creed state in relation to the trinity?

Answer 18

The son was ‘one substance’ with the father.

Question 19

Why was the nicean creed created?

Answer 19

To deal with what Tertullian saw as the 3 heresies.

Question 20

Does the word ‘Trinity’ appear in the Bible?

Answer 20

No, but some Christians argue that the concept it represents, God as three coexistent, coeternal persons, does.

Question 21

When in the Old Testament is God referred to in the plural?

Answer 21

In Genesis “Let us make humankind in OUR image”

Question 22

When in the New Testament is Jesus referred to as God?

Answer 22

John 1 says that Jesus was the word and that the word was God and that all things were created through him.

Question 23

When in the Bible is the Holy Spirit referred to as God?

Answer 23

John 14:23- the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is linked to the indwelling of Jesus and his father.

Question 24

When does the Bible say that God is one?

Answer 24

Deuteronomy 6 states unequivocally that God is one.

Question 25

Explain the council of Nicea.

Answer 25

-the doctrine of the trinity was first formalised in the Christian creed. -it simply states that Christians ‘believe in the holy spirit’. There is no elaboration.

Question 26

What are the 3 councils in relation to the trinity in order?

Answer 26

-council of nicea -council of Constantinople -council of Toledo

Question 27

Explain the council of Constantinople.

Answer 27

The nicean creed was amended to contain the following words ‘we believe in the Holy Spirit, the lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the father’. All churches at the council had to agree to the new wording.

Question 28

Explain the council of Toledo.

Answer 28

Another change was made. The clause about the Holy Spirit now reads: “we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the father and the son”.

Question 29

Explain the Filioque controversy.

Answer 29

-The three English words ‘and the son’ are one word in Latin. -its inclusion in the creed caused controversy. -the western church has the addition of “and the son”stating that the Holy Spirit proceed from the father *and* the son. -the Eastern Orthodox Church reject this, meaning the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father *alone*.

Question 30

What did Rome accuse the eastern church of for not accepting Filioque?

Answer 30

Heresy

Question 31

What is the immanent trinity?

Answer 31

Signifies what God is. (3 persons, one God).

Question 32

What is the economic trinity?

Answer 32

Signifies what God does. (The father creates; the son redeems, the Holy Spirit sanctifies)

Question 33

Does Augustine differentiate between the immanent and economic trinity (western churches opinion)?

Answer 33

no. The Holy Spirit acts within the trinity as the bond of love between father and son, it follows that the Holy Spirit must proceed from both.

Question 34

What is the eastern churches opinion on the immanent and economic trinity?

Answer 34

The immanent trinity is not the same thing as the economic trinity. 1. The father alone is the source of divinity. 2. The son alone is ‘begotten’ of the father 3. The Holy Spirit ‘proceeds’ from the father alone.

Question 35

Who made modern developments to the trinity?

Answer 35

Karl Barth.

Question 36

What did Karl Barth write (quote)?

Answer 36

“The doctrine of the trinity, is basically what distinguishes the Christian doctrine of God as Christian.”

Question 37

Explain Barth’s developments to the trinity?

Answer 37

For Barth, the doctrine of the trinity is that God has revealed himself in 2 ways: 1. In the son: this is an objective unveiling of what God is. 2. In the spirit: this is a subjective, reception or ‘imparting’; ‘God working for us.’

Question 38

According to Barth, is the objective unveiling of God enough?

Answer 38

No. There must also be a subjective recognition imparted by the spirit.

Question 39

What example did Barth use to show that the objective unveiling of God was not enough, there must also be a subjective recognition imparted by the spirit?

Answer 39

2 men witnessing Jesus’ crucifixion. -the first man says “there is a common criminal being executed.” This man has not recognised the unveiling of God in Jesus. -the second man says “there is the son of God dying for me.” To this man, the Holy Spirit has imparted the recognition of God in Jesus.

Question 40

What does Barth conclude?

Answer 40

Human beings are incapable of responding to objective revelation of God unless there is also a revelation imparted to them by the Holy Spirit. The imparting by the spirit proceeds both from the hidden father and the revealed son. For Barth, the immanent trinity is reflected in economic .

Question 41

For the Eastern Orthodox Church, why is merging the immanent and economic trinity a heresy?

Answer 41

Because it’s an endorsement of the Filioque clause.

Question 42

What does seinsweise mean?

Answer 42

‘Mode of being’.

Question 43

What is the heresy modalism?

Answer 43

God is a single person who has revealed himself in 3 different modes: father (before the incarnation), son (in Jesus) and Holy Spirit (after Jesus’ resurrection).

Question 44

Why did theologians like Moltmann accuse Barth of the heresy modalism?

Answer 44

His use of the term seinseise (‘mode of being’) instead of the usual term ‘person’ to refer to father, son and Holy Spirit.

Question 45

It seems the father, son and Holy Spirit as one God in eternal repetition. What does this mean. (Criticism of Barth)

Answer 45

The father, son and Holy Spirit exist one after the other, never at the same time. This destroys the eternal unity of the Godhead.

Question 46

Has the western church accepted the merging of the immanent trinity and the economic trinity and the Filioque clause.

Answer 46

Yes.

Question 47

Why does Barth use the term seinsweise?

Answer 47

To avoid confusion between person and personality. There are 3 modes but one personality.

Question 48

How does Barth distinguish the father from the son?

Answer 48

By his use of the term logos asarkos for the son, meaning ‘the world without flesh’. This referred to Jesus before he was incarnated as flesh but existed in the father.