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Section 02

Three things a monotheism has to do

Among monotheistic options, the Christian conception is uniquely coherent on relation, transcendence, and evil.

The relational problem. If God is essentially loving, and love requires an object, a strict unitarian God could not have loved before creation. The Trinity holds that the Father loved the Son before the world existed. Creation is overflow rather than necessity.

The transcendence problem. The Christian Incarnation holds the rare position: God himself enters his creation while remaining fully himself. Other monotheisms reject incarnation; Hindu metaphysics blurs God and world.

The problem of evil. The Cross is the participatory answer. God does not solve evil from the outside. He enters it.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1, written ~90 AD.

By the numbers

Christian distinctives
Trinity, Incarnation, Cross
Earliest binitarian devotion
within years of crucifixion
Hurtado on early worship
Lord Jesus Christ, 2003

Strongest counter position

A thoughtful Muslim would respond that tawhid is non negotiable. A thoughtful Jewish reader would respond that Jewish monotheism does not need a Trinity. Engaged in section 15.

What this does not prove

The Trinity solves problems strict unitarianism leaves open. It does not by itself prove Christianity true. The historical case is what raises it from coherent to evidenced.

Citations

  • 1 John 4:8.
  • Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ, 2003.
  • Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel, 2008.

Goes deeper