The Divine Trinity: A Dogmatic Treatise

Should the infinite personality of God be regarded as simple or plural? This is a question that the human mind cannot solve without help. By virtue of the inductive axiom “Quot sunt naturae, tot sunt personae,” people should rather succumb to the temptation to attribute only one person to one Divine Nature. However, positive Revelation tells us that there are three truly different persons in God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This fundamental dogma, which essentially distinguishes the Christian from the pagans, from the Jews and from the Muslim concept of God, is designated in the technical Latin term of the Church as "Trinitas". Both the fact and the inner reason for the fact that there are Three Persons in God are positively revealed to us in the doctrine of the inner divine processions (Filiation and Spiration). They form part of the direct contribution of faith and constitute the dogma of the Divine Trinity. First, it is necessary to prove the fact of the threefold personality of God from the Holy Scriptures, which is discussed in the first chapter, and Tradition, which is discussed in the second chapter. Chapter Three presents a dogmatic consideration of the reason for this fact, namely: the mysterious life processes immanent to the Divine, which are called "Filiation" and "Spiration". The final fourth chapter discusses the speculative theological development of this dogma.