Report on the Holy Trinity.

1. THESIS NO. 5:
TRIUNE GOD
IN SCRIPTURE
& TRADITION
Thesis Report by Sem. Glenn Adam A. Abamonga
T3 - St.JohnVianneyTheological Seminary

2. LOCATION
IN THE
THESIS
(thesis
context)
• Follows Revelation, Sacred Scripture and
Tradition, and Faith (4 foundational theses)
• Highlights the centrality and priority of the
mystery of theTrinity in our Christian faith.
• Immediate location also draws out the
reality that both the subject and content of
Revelation is the Triune/Tripersonal God,
attested in the witness of Scriptures and
the whole life of the Church, and in whom
we give the obedience of our Faith.
• The primary focus of this thesis is on the
understanding of the foundational
revelation of God as Trinity in Scriptures and
inTradition.

3. THESIS
STATEMENT
(formulation)
• (1) “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of
Christian faith and life…
• (2) The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the
way and the means by which the one true God: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, reveals Himself to men…” (CCC 234).
• (3) “God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation
and in his Revelation throughout the OldTestament” (CCC 237).
• (4) In Jesus Christ, God is revealed as “Father in an unheard-of sense:
he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation
to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father”
(CCC 240).
• (5) “The sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus’ glorification
reveals in its fullness the mystery of the HolyTrinity.” (CCC 244).
• (6) In the New Testament we already begin to see the presence of the
triadic formulas, which synthetically show this Trinitarian dynamics of
salvation.
• (7) Hence, from the beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity
has been at the very root of the Church’s living faith, principally by
means of Baptism (Mt 28:19-20).
• (8) It finds its expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in
preaching, catechesis, and prayer of the Church” (CCC 249).

4. THESIS
STATEMENT
(outline)
• (1) GENERAL CONTEXT
• (2) DOGMATIC QUESTION: ON IMMANENT
AND ECONOMICTRINITY
• (3) FOUNDATIONS: PHILOSOPHY,
CREATION, AND HEBREW SCRIPTURES
• (4) FOUNDATIONS: NT ROOTS OF TRINITY
IN JESUS CHRIST
• (5 & 6) FOUNDATIONS: NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY ACC.TO PAUL ANDTRADITION
• (7) HISTORICAL: TRINITY AT THE ROOT OF
CHRISTIAN FAITH
• (8) PAST/PRESENT CONTEXT: STATUS
QUAESTIONIS ONTRINITY

5. (1)
GENERAL
CONTEXT
“The mystery of the
Most Holy Trinity is
the central mystery
of Christian faith
and life…
• APPROACHINGTHE MYSTERY
– Mystery
• G. Marcel: reality to be experienced vs.
problem to be solved
• A. Dulles: “a truth that human beings cannot
discover except from revelation and that,
even after revelation, exceeds their
comprehension.” (TNCE, “Mystery in
Theology”, 82-85)
– Central Mystery
• CCC 234: Trinity is mystery of God in himself.
The source of all other mysteries of faith, the
light that enlightens them.

6. (1)
GENERAL
CONTEXT
“The mystery of the
Most Holy Trinity is
the central mystery
of Christian faith
and life…
• CONTEXT OFTHETRINITARIAN GOD-QUESTION
– Denial of God in Modern Atheism (First
World/Western Context)
• Modern Atheism = denial of (monotheistic) theism
• Context: Rooted in the autonomy of the modern age
(i.e. the very emancipation of autonomy from its
theonomous context and reference)
• Addressee: The non-believers of Western/European
society
– Talking about God amid Suffering and Oppression
(Third World/ LiberationTheo. Context)
• Idolatry (not Atheism) = “Which is the true God?”
• Context: reality of Poverty and Injustice
• The non-persons as the interlocutor

7. 2) DOGMATIC
QUESTION: ON
IMMANENT AND
ECONOMIC
TRINITY
The whole history of
salvation is identical
with the history of the
way and the means by
which the one true
God: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, reveals
Himself to men…”
(CCC 234).
• IMMANENT AND ECONOMICTRINITY
– Theology (Theologia)
• CCC 236: the mystery of God’s inmost life within
the BlessedTrinity (= Immanent Trinity)
– Economy (Oikonomia)
• CCC 236: all the works by which God reveals
himself and communicates his life (= Economic
Trinity)
• History of God’s revelation = salvation
– Creation
– Election
– Christ-Event (highest point/climax)
– Church

8. 2) DOGMATIC
QUESTION: ON
IMMANENT AND
ECONOMIC
TRINITY
The whole history of
salvation is identical
with the history of the
way and the means by
which the one true
God: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, reveals
Himself to men…”
(CCC 234).
• K. Rahner’s Grundaxiom: “The Economic Trinity is
the ImmanentTrinity and vice versa…”
– First Part: The Economic Trinity is the Immanent
Trinity
• The “economy” is…the only way for knowledge of
the “theology.”
• Economy = theology
– Second Part: The Immanent Trinity is the
EconomicTrinity
• Via Negativa – Economy ≠Theology (unqualified)
• Via Positiva – Gratuity and unfathomable mystery
• Eternal Significance of the Incarnation
– Ladaria: “The newness lies in the fact that the Son has
entered as man into the relationships that make up
theTrinity.”

9. (3)
FOUNDATIONS:
PHILOSOPHY,
CREATION, AND
HEBREW
SCRIPTURES
“God has left traces of
his Trinitarian being
in his work of creation
and in his Revelation
throughout the Old
Testament” (CCC 237).
• TALKING ABOUT GOD: PHILOSOPHICAL
FOUNDATIONS
– Analogical Structure of our Language About God
• Notion of Analogy
– Analogous term = that which is predicated of several
different subjects with a meaning that is partly the
same and partly different, as applied to each.
– Wisdom 13:5: “For from the greatness and the beauty
of created things their original author, by analogy, is
seen.”
– Lateran IV (1215) on the necessary but limited nature
of our analogical language and thinking about God
– Analogy of Causal Participation as retrieval of St.
Thomas’ participation metaphysics
• Participation Metaphysics
• Analogy of Causal Participation

10. (3)
FOUNDATIONS:
PHILOSOPHY,
CREATION, AND
HEBREW
SCRIPTURES
“God has left traces of
his Trinitarian being
in his work of creation
and in his Revelation
throughout the Old
Testament” (CCC 237).
• KNOWLEDGE OF GOD FROM CREATION
– Our “Natural” Knowledge of God
• Creation and history as privileged loci of God’s
revelation
• “Natural knowledge of God is a condition itself of faith”
(Ladaria, The Living andTrue God, 440).
– Vatican I (Dei Filius ch.2, no. 1) – ND 113
– Vatican II (Gaudium et Spes no. 15 & 19)
• Notion of analogia entis
– Knowledge of God from Creation in Scriptures
• Psalms 19:2 – “The heavens proclaim the glory of God
and the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.”
• Wisdom 13:5 – “Now if out of joy in their beauty
[men/women] thought them gods, let them know how
far more excellent is the Lord than these… let them
from these things realize how much more powerful is he
who made them. For from the greatness and beauty of
created things their original author, by analogy is seen.”

11. (3)
FOUNDATIONS:
PHILOSOPHY,
CREATION, AND
HEBREW
SCRIPTURES
“God has left traces of
his Trinitarian being
in his work of creation
and in his Revelation
throughout the Old
Testament” (CCC 237).
• TRINITY “BASED” ON (HEBREW/OT) SCRIPTURES
– “The OT contains, in anticipation, categories used to express
and elaborate the Trinity.” (O’Collins, The Tripersonal God, 14,
iBooks)
• God as FATHER
– YHWH (Exodus 3:14: “God replied to Moses: I am
who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell
the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”)
– Corollary of “Fatherhood” vs. Father-metaphor vs.
Maternal simile
• Word, Wisdom, Spirit serve as personified agents
of the divine activity.
– Related to God’s works of creation, providence,
and salvation
– Express God’s creative, revelatory, and salvific
activity while preserving the strict monotheism of
the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4)

12. (4)
FOUNDATIONS:
NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY IN JESUS
CHRIST
In Jesus Christ, God is
revealed as “Father in
an unheard-of sense:
he is Father not only in
being Creator; he is
eternally Father in
relation to his only
Son, who is eternally
Son only in relation to
his Father” (CCC 240).
• The Trinitarian Face of Revelation in Jesus Christ in
the Gospels
– (1) Jesus’ whole story as revelation of theTrinity
– (2) Jesus’ Filial Consciousness
• Striking feature of the NT writers: “a consistent
argument for the filial uniqueness of Jesus Christ in
relationship to the Father of the old covenant.” (Olson
and Hall, TheTrinity, 6.)
• Jesus spoke of God as Father in a direct/immediate,
familiar way (‘Abba’-experience)
– (3) Jesus’ Unique and Exclusive Sonship
• Matthew 11:27: “no one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”
– NEVER claimed himself as “Son of God”
– Claims come from other witnesses

13. (4)
FOUNDATIONS:
NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY IN JESUS
CHRIST
In Jesus Christ, God is
revealed as “Father in
an unheard-of sense:
he is Father not only in
being Creator; he is
eternally Father in
relation to his only
Son, who is eternally
Son only in relation to
his Father” (CCC 240).
• TheTrinitarian Face of Revelation in Jesus Christ in the
Gospels
– (4)Trinitarian History of Jesus ( = hints of theTrinity in NT;
NOT yet fully developed doctrine)
• Virginal Conception (Matthew and Luke)
– Birth occuring through the HS
– “Conception Christology” in Mt and Lk
• Jesus’ Baptism
– (Exegesis on Mk. 1:10-11)
– (5) Jesus’ Mission as Coming and Being Sent
• Jesus as one who had been sent by God. …
– “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me;
and whoever receives me receives not me but him who
sent me” (Mk 9:36–37 parr.).
• Jesus going beyond the normal prophetic “I was sent” to
say, “I came”
– His ministry, for instance, “I came not to call the righteous
but sinners” (Mk 2:17 parr.); “I came to cast fire upon the
earth; and would that it were already kindled!” (Lk 12:49;
see also Lk 12:51; par. in Mt 10:34–35).

14. • v.10: Opening of the heavens (schizomenous) and descent of the Holy Spirit
– opening of the heavens symbolizes the eschatological time (Ezek. 1.1)
– the coming of Jesus signals the arrival of the eschatology, the fullness of
revelation
• v. 11a: Descent of the Holy Spirit: schizomenous
– the eschatological time, the fulfillment of God's promise to pour out the Divine
Spirit (Is. 44.3; Acts 2.17ff)
– He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, who possesses the Spirit in its fullness (Is.
61.1) and has the authority for an eschatological messianic mission.
• v. 11b: "Συ ει ουίς μου ό αγαπητός"
– Ps. 2.7... Refers to the king on his coronation... "You are my Son"; is this
adoptionism? No, because Jesus is the "beloved" Son
– beloved (Gen. 22.2,12,16) "beloved Son" means only Son... A unique relationship
with the Father.
• v.11c: "with you I am well pleased (Ευδοκησα)"
– Is. 42.1b ("my chosen one in whom my soul delights): election for a revelatory
mission...To open the eyes of the blind (Is. 42.6b-7)
– Eudokesa (past tense): God's delight in Jesus, long before...
• He is the SON of God not just "adopted/elected" from baptism.
• The Baptism informs the reader who Jesus is from God's evaluative point of
view:
– that Christ is the Unique Son of God (v.11b)
– anointed with the Spirit (v.10)
– for a revelatory mission (v.11c)
1. Jesus, the Beloved Son (Mk. 1.10-11)
See O’Collins, Rethinking FundamentalTheology, 121- 123.

15. (5 & 6)
FOUNDATIONS:
NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY ACC. TO
PAUL AND
TRADITION
“The sending of the
person of the Spirit
after Jesus’
glorification reveals in
its fullness the mystery
of the Holy Trinity.”
(CCC 244).
• The Easter Mystery as the Fullness of the Revelation
of theTrinity
– The doctrine of the Trinity is grounded in God’s self-
disclosure in the whole Easter mystery (in St. Paul and
the pre-Pauline tradition)
• The Resurrection of Jesus as the starting point of
Christian faith and stands at its centre (cf. Dupuis, Who
DoYou Say I Am?, 84).
– A new, specific, Christian and Pauline understanding:
• The Father who Raised his dead Son: “God the Father
who raised him [Jesus] from the dead” (Galatians.1:1). –
pre-Pauline formula?
• Jesus as Lord/Kyrios (= divine title to the crucified and
risen Jesus)
– 1 Thessalonians (oldest Christian document)
mentions Kyrios 21 times.
– “Maranatha” or “Our Lord, Come!” (1 Cor 16:22) –
directs attention to Jesus’ divinity

16. (5 & 6)
FOUNDATIONS:
NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY ACC. TO
PAUL AND
TRADITION
“The sending of the
person of the Spirit
after Jesus’
glorification reveals in
its fullness the mystery
of the Holy Trinity.”
(CCC 244).
• The Sending of the Spirit
– Luke and John: the Exalted Jesus as Sender or Giver of
the divine Spirit (sharing in God’s prerogative; Jesus as
co-sender of the Spirit)
– Paul: “Spirit of Christ” but not Spirit sent by Christ
• Individual or Personal Identity of the Spirit in the NT
– Language of Paul’s letters implies that the Spirit is a
personal subject who engages in personal activities.
• as “leading” (Rom 8:14), “witnessing” (Rom 8:16),
“interceding” (Rom 8:26-27), having aims or aspirations
(Rom 8:27), “searching” and “knowing” (1 Cor 2:10-11),
“distributing” gifts (1 Cor 12:11), and “crying out” in the
human heart (Gal 4:6)
– Under-emphasis of HS activity in NT (vs. OT)
• vs. Son in divine work of creation in 1 Corinthians 8:6.
John 1:3, and Hebrews 1:2 and vs. operative presence of
Spirit in OT

17. (5 & 6)
FOUNDATIONS:
NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY ACC. TO
PAUL AND
TRADITION
“The sending of the
person of the Spirit
after Jesus’
glorification reveals in
its fullness the mystery
of the Holy Trinity.”
(CCC 244).
• Distinct Existence of the Spirit
– OT: personification of Spirit as active in Creation and in
the prophets
– NT: relationship to Jesus (as the whole Incarnation-
event and the Paschal mystery) and his followers,
particularly in the life of the early Church (Acts of the
Apostles)
– Nicaea I (321): “We believe… And in the Holy Spirit.”
(ND 7)
– Constantinople I (381) against the Pneumatomachian
denials of the Spirit’s genuine divinity: “We believe in
the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Life-giver, who proceeds
from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is
together worshiped and glorified, who spoke through
the prophets.” (ND 305)

18. (5 & 6)
FOUNDATIONS:
NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY ACC. TO
PAUL AND
TRADITION
In the New Testament
we already begin to see
the presence of the
triadic formulas,
which synthetically
show this Trinitarian
dynamics of salvation.
• EmergingTriadic Formulas in Paul
– found in the many letters of St. Paul, both Pauline (1
and Thessalonians, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians) and
Deutero-Pauline (Ephesians).
– Part of the Kerygmatic/Creedal Tradition: God (the
Father), the Son, and the Spirit
• “the gospel concerning his [God’s] Son, who was
descended from David according to the flesh and was
declared to be Son of God with power according to the
Spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead”
(Romans 1:3–4).
– Triadic formulas, in different orders, witness to a
soteriological view of the tripersonal God.
• 1. Christ/Spirit/Father
• 2. Father/Spirit/Christ
• 3. Spirit/Lord Jesus/God the Father
• 4. Spirit/Jesus/Father

19. (5 & 6)
FOUNDATIONS:
NT ROOTS OF
TRINITY ACC. TO
PAUL AND
TRADITION
In the New Testament
we already begin to see
the presence of the
triadic formulas,
which synthetically
show this Trinitarian
dynamics of salvation.
• SyntheticTrinitarian dynamics of salvation
– Preserving monotheism professed in the Shema
(Deuteronomy 6:4)
• Soteriology over metaphysical speculation:
“monotheism reflected in texts like the Shema,
which “call to the difficult task of exclusive loyalty
to God alone, and God’s uniqueness is more
soteriological than metaphysical” (Holmes, The
Quest for theTrinity, 45).
– New development forTrinitarian doctrine
• Paul’s monotheism is also Christological and
pneumatological.
• O’Collins: The Pauline teaching that the Trinity
(based above all on the resurrection of the
crucified Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit)
and subsequent NT witness provide a foundation
and a starting point for that doctrinal
development.

20. (7)
HISTORICAL:
TRINITY AT THE
ROOT OF
CHRISTIAN FAITH
Hence, from the
beginning, the
revealed truth of the
Holy Trinity has
been at the very root
of the Church’s
living faith,
principally by
means of Baptism
(Mt 28:19-20).
• THETRINITY ATTHE ROOT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
– Sacrament of Baptism
• CCC 1213: Basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway
to the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which
gives access to other sacraments.
• Hippolytus (ca. 215) in Traditio Apostolica (ND no. 2) =
oldest postbiblical witness for baptismal celebration
indicate a connection between immersion in the water
and a threefold (Trinitarian) calling upon God (epiclesis)
spoken over the person being baptized.
– Matthew’s Trinitarian Baptismal Formula (= liturgical
form of the early Church)
• The baptismal formula in Mt. 28:19-20 (= Matthew’s
Trinitarian confession in association with baptism)
• Significance of Matthew’sTrinitarian Formula
– Negatively (vs. Paul’s opposite formula in 2 Cor. 13:13)
– Positively (setting of the formula in Matthew’s Gospel)

21. (8)
PAST/PRESENT
CONTEXT:
STATUS
QUAESTIONIS ON
TRINITY
It finds its expression
in the rule of
baptismal faith,
formulated in
preaching, catechesis,
and prayer of the
Church” (CCC 249).
• Trinity in the post-biblical and pre-conciliar eras
– Rule of Baptismal faith = Symbol of faith, primarily the
Baptismal Creed
• One of the earliest form, Hippolytus’ Traditio Apostolica
(ca. 215) = form ofTrinitarian questions
• CCC 188: Symbol of faith = “sign of recognition and
communion between believers; a gathering, a collection
or summary.”
– Symbol = Gk. symbolon, a half of a broken object, a seal
presented as token of recognition.
• Development of Creeds as Christological and Trinitarian
(ND 3-12)
– History of (Trinitarian) dogmas = efforts of the Church
to safeguard the NT kerygma and to penetrate its
contents.
– Trinity as the source, exemplary image, and goal of
the Church (Bruno Forte on Trinitarian ecclesiology of
Vatican II, particularly on Lumen Gentium nos. 2-4).

22. (8)
PAST/PRESENT
CONTEXT:
STATUS
QUAESTIONIS ON
TRINITY
It finds its expression
in the rule of
baptismal faith,
formulated in
preaching, catechesis,
and prayer of the
Church” (CCC 249).
• Renewed Interest in the Trinity in Theology (Gerald O’Collins, SJ,
“The Holy Trinity: The State of the Questions” in The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the
Trinity, Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall SJ, and Gerald O’ Collins, SJ, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999): 1-25)
– (1) Interest in rehabilitating belief in the Trinity as the
deep truth at the heart of Christian life
– (2) Draw out the connection between Trinity and
Christology (=Trinitarian Christology)
– (3) Return to Sources (Scriptures): Retrieval of Paul’s
Trinitarian thinking vs. binitarian tendency (Jesus =
Father)
– (4) Return to Sources (Tradition): Recover Patristic
teachings onTrinity like communion and perichoresis
– (5) On the HS: update on Filioque controversy (emphasis
on co-eternality and co-equality in God)
– (6) Current problematic proposals to rename the Godhead
• Feminist challenge to divine fatherhood = male domination
and idolatrous anthropocentrism; assertion of Jesus’
subversion of any oppressive, patriarchal notion of God

23. (8)
PAST/PRESENT
CONTEXT:
STATUS
QUAESTIONIS ON
TRINITY
It finds its expression
in the rule of
baptismal faith,
formulated in
preaching, catechesis,
and prayer of the
Church” (CCC 249).
• Renewed Interest in the Trinity in Theology (Gerald O’Collins, SJ,
“The Holy Trinity: The State of the Questions” in The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the
Trinity, Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall SJ, and Gerald O’ Collins, SJ, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999): 1-25)
– (7) Interreligious Dialogue: emphasis on Logos
Christology (tendency to Christomonism vs. Trinitarian
thinking vis-à-vis HS).
– (8) Dialogue with non-religious believers (modern
atheism, agnosticism, and secularism)
– (9) Relationship between Immanent and EconomicTrinity
– (10) Debate over Trinitarian operations ad extra (Fathers =
commonTrinitarian activity)
– (11) Concept of personhood applied to God: We call the
triune God as three “persons” in one God. “How does our
finite language of personhood [or personal language] fare
when applied to God?”
– (12) 3-fold method in studying/approaching the Trinity:
faith seeking understanding as study, worship, and
practice.

24. • Contemporary Reflection on theTrinity
– Paschal Mystery (Cross) as Supreme Revelation of theTrinity
• Context: reaction against philosophically-limited notion of
God as starting point. (See Raluto, “Understanding the Cross-
event,” 1-7.)
– Problem of evil vis-à-vis God’s genuine engagement in the life,
suffering, and struggle of the world
• J. Moltmann: “the cross is constitutive of God’s triune being
and the beginning of the Trinitarian history of God. God is this
Trinitarian event, the event of the cross: the Father who
delivers up his Son, the Son who is abandoned, the Holy Spirit
who is the bond of union between them” (Hunt, “Trinity,
Christology, and pneumatology,” 374).
• H. U. von Balthasar: surrender, kenotic obedience, and
abandonment of Jesus (interpreted in a Trinitarian character)
“the supreme revelation of God as Trinity and as absolute
love” (cf. Raluto, “Understanding the Cross-event,” 5-6. See
also, von Balthasar, Theo-Drama vol. 4:320).

25. “The very nature
of God, therefore,
is to seek out the
deepest possible
communion and
friendship with
every last
creature on this
earth.
Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God for
Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 411.