Question

name and define at least 3 Trinitarian heresies?

what do the terms “procession”, “relation”, and “person” mean in God?

Answer 1

The basic explanation of the mystery of the Holy Trinity goes like this: Since there is only one God, so that there cannot be many gods as there are many men or animals, nevertheless there are three in God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit, really distinct from each other, who are that one God in real identity. But since that by which something is constituted in a certain order of beings is called its essence or substance or nature, while the subject of an intellectual nature distinct from others is called a person, in the formulas of faith or creeds the mystery is explained as follows: In God there is one essence or nature, and three persons, or God is one in nature, and triune in persons.

The word "trinity," which is not found in the Bible, first appeared in the 2nd century and means in a collective sense "three persons in one essence." It was first used by Theophilus of Antioch in Greek; the Latin "Trinitas" was first used by Tertullian (ca. 220).

There is an immense difference between God and any creature, no matter how noble and elevated. When we ponder over the infinity, power and majesty of God Almighty we are tempted to say that, in comparison with him, man is nothing. In one sense that is true, but at the same time we must not forget that creatures, even though weak and changeable, have an inherent goodness and dignity conferred on them by a beautiful, loving God.

For Catholic Christians who want to know more about God it is not sufficient to stop the investigation once the existence and nature of the divinity have been established. This is done philosophically in Metaphysics; it is done theologically in the first treatise in dogmatic theology which is called De Deo Uno or The Unicity of God. The reason for this is that we know, through the revelation of Jesus Christ, that in God there is a loving community of Persons -- Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Thus, in this course we will consider the mystery of the Holy Trinity which is the central or basic mystery of the Christian faith.