Tritheism
Catholic Trinitarian teaching holds together one divine substance and three Persons, rejecting both modalism and tritheism.
Historical context
Tritheism is a recurring danger whenever created categories of three individual beings are applied directly to the Trinity. Historical theologians used the term for different proposals, so the simulator presents it as a diagnostic boundary rather than a single uniform school.
Reception
Catholic doctrine teaches one divine substance and three Persons, with the whole Godhead present in each Person.
Memory hook
Three Persons, one undivided divine nature.
Key points
- Three divine Persons are not three independent divine substances.
- The one divine nature is wholly possessed by Father, Son, and Spirit.
- The Persons are distinguished by relations of origin, not by unequal amounts of divinity.
- Monotheism is not preserved by erasing personal distinction, nor by dividing the Godhead.
Common questions
- If the Persons are distinct, why are there not three gods?
- Does 'one essence' mean the Persons are identical?
- How does Christian Trinitarian language differ from three divine individuals?
Doctrinal connections
- Trinity
- Monotheism
- Divine nature
- Relations of origin
Scripture
- Deuteronomy 6:4 — Israel's confession of the one Lord remained a boundary for Christian Trinitarian teaching.
- Matthew 28:19 — Father, Son, and Spirit are named together in baptism without a claim that there are three gods.
Primary sources
John of Damascus writes:
John of Damascus says that personal modes of existence introduce no difference of divine essence or dignity.
all the qualities the Father has are the Son's, save that the Father is unbegotten, and this exception involves no difference in essence nor dignity, but only a different mode of coming into existence.
Passage context and translation
John says that the Father's being unbegotten distinguishes the mode of personal existence without introducing a difference of divine essence or dignity between Father and Son.
Before the excerpt
the term 'Only-begotten' because He alone was begotten alone of the Father alone
After the excerpt
These do not differ from each other in nature ... but they differ in the mode of coming into existence.