The Latin Church alone has, since Augustine, sanc- tioned the expression personm in the Symholum Qui- cunqup. Augustine himself said, yet, "Tres personse, si ita dicendag sunt." Some consider the Trinity as essen- tial to constitute the perfect personality, and employ the metaphysics of consciousness as an analogical proof there- of (see Schneider, Colestin, drei geistliche Gesprdche ii. d. Personen d. Gottheit [1834], i). Others refuse to recog- nise the real personality of (iod in any but one of the so- called hj'postases : namely, in the Logos, the Son. Such is Swedenborg. Others still hold peculiar opinions. At any rate, we are obliged, according to the clear sense of Scripture, to seek not only the Trias in the subjectivity of the representation, nor exclusively in the econom}' of revelation, but also recognise that immediate faith does here contain within itself the germ of endless specula- tion; not only because every theological system of an- tiquity, from the time when, as reflecting gnosis, it rose above the myths, shows certain higher theogonical ideas (in the sense in which Nitzsch has presented it in a his- torical and critical manner in his Theol. Stud. ch. i), nor merely because the Christian theologians of all times have made a certain rational iniderstanding of this mys- tery possible and found it necessary. It is even essen- tially necessary for the Biblical theologian to recognise in the notion of the Logos— who is with God and is God, the precreative image of God, the inmost spirit of (iod who knew God — the elements of essential, imma- nent Trinity. For those only retain the trace of Bibli- cal theogony who, in all attempts at-explaining it, keep in view the notion of the self-knowledge and self-love of God, or of the distinction between the self-concealing and self-revealing (iod. Twesten has latterly greatly perfected the philosophy of the doctrine of the Trinity, both in its history and in its essence; first b}' placing the Trinity Kara toi> aTroKaXv-^iujQ TpoiTov, as sidwr- dinate to the analogical and philosophical interpreta- tion; but then, again, Kara rpoivov i'Trap^fwc, an<l shows the connection between both interpretations. In the first case, he seeks a mediation between the ens ab- solutuni and the finite world which vet reveals the infi-
TRINITY (HEATHEN NOTIONS) 556
TRIPOLIS
nite, and this he finds in the primordial, creative thought of God. Hut revelation cannot take place except towards liiscerning beings, and Unite beings cannot know (iod save tliroiigli (iod. This argument presents the three notions of God, Logos, anil Spirit, yet. forming still but one godhead. Such as God reveals himself, such, how- ever, he is. This leads us to another consideration, viz. that the ego, in order to possess a real, living personali- ty, must not only become dually contradistinguished within itself, but also, by a third process, rellectively act on itself as a third subject, and be conscious of itself as being a perfect image of self. This manner of treating this mystery, by analogy, is neither accidental nor gra- tuitous, since, according to Scripture, human nature is also analogous to the divine. TertuUian and Augustine had themselves established their theories already on this basis.
IV. Literature. — This is immensely copious. We can here refer only to a few leading authorities. See Baur, J list, of Doctrines ; Burris, The Trhiilij (Chicago, 1874) ; Cunningham, Hist. Thevlo'iy, i, 267; Lamson, Oriffin of Trinity; Lessing, Das Christenthum unci die VerminJ't (Berlin, 1784, 8vo); 'Marheinecke, Grundlekreii der ckiistl. Dor/m. p. 129, 370 (ibid. 1819) ; IMattison, The Trinity and 3Iodern Ariunism (18mo); 'Moxus^ Commentary ; Mos- heim, Lchen Servefs (Helmst. 1748, 8vo); Meier, His- torical J )evelopment of the Trinity ; Neauder, ii, 2, 891; Sailer, Theorie des Weisen (Spottes, 1781, 8vo); Walch, Historia Controversice Grcecorum Latinorum- que de Processione Spiritus Sancti (Jente, 1751, 8vo) ; Ziegler, Geschichtsenticickelung des Dogma vom heiliyen Geist. For further literature see Biblioth. Sac. (1844- 73), index to vol. i-xxx ; Dantz, Wurteihuch der theol. Literutur, s. v. " Trinitiit :" Darling, Cyclop. Bibliog. col. 2G8. 1446, 1719-1722; Poole, Index to Period. Lit. s. v. "Trinity."
TRINITY, Heathen Notions of. In examining the various heathen philosophies and mythologies, we find clear evidence of a belief in a certain sort of trinity, and yet something very different from the Trinity of the Bible.
In the Egyptian mythology, the powers of the Su- preme Being as the producer, the producing, and the produced were symbolized liy deities who were respec- tively father, mother, and child of each other. Every Egyptian town had its local triad, but the most famous was the great Theban triad of Amen-ra, Maut, and Khousu. Sometimes the king himself, as a god, made the third member of the triad. These combinations of divine properties must not be confounded with the dog- ma of a trinity either of creator, preserver, and destroy- er, as in Hindii mytholf)gy, or of Creator, IJedeemer, and Sanctitier of the Christian faith. The Babylonian my- thology offers a trinity, each member of the triad hav- ing his own wife or consort. At the head of this trin- ity stands Ann, representing abstract divinity. He ap- pears as an original principle; the primeval chaos, the god of time, and the world — uncreated matter issuing from the fundamental principle of all things. A com- panion deity with Ann is Ilea, god of the sea and of Hades. He is lord of generation and of all human be- ings; he animated matter and rendered it fertile, and inspired the universe with life. The third member of this triad was Bel (Eln, Enu, Kaptu). the demitirgus and ruler of the organized universe. There were also second and third trinities descending from the first, but becoming more and more defined in character, and as- suming a decidedly sidereal aspect.