Is the Trinity a useful idea?
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is not just an abstract belief, but something that has real practical use for those who believe it.
"Absolutely nothing worthwhile for the practical life can be made out of the doctrine of the Trinity taken literally."
Immanuel Kant, Der Streit der Fakultäten
...the doctrine of the Trinity so easily appears to be an intellectual puzzle with no relevance to the faith of most Christians.
Karen Kilby
Until quite recently, many theologians thought that the doctrine of the Trinity was pretty pointless.
And the churches themselves disagree about the content of the doctrine; the most common Western statement of the Trinity is not accepted by the Eastern churches.
And yet somehow it remains at the heart of the Christian faith:
It is impossible to overemphasise the importance of the Christian doctrine that God is one in three persons. This has correctly been called the teaching distinctive of the Christian faith, that which sets the approach of Christians to the 'fearful mystery' of the deity apart from all other approaches.
Gerald S. Sloyan, The Three Persons in One God, 1964
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