THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 18
The order devotes itself, for the time being, to the ransom and education of negro children and numbers 450. The female order never flourished, having only ten cloisters in their chief seat, Spain, toward the close of the eighteenth century. P. Dan (Histoire de Barbarie, Paris, 1649) gave the number of rescue expeditions as 363, the number of released captives as 30,720. The correct figures, if they could be produced, would undoubtedly be much
higher. (A. Havcx.) Brsuriograruy: The “ Rule’’ was printed at Paris, 1635, 1652; the ‘Statutes’? at Douai, 1586; cf. L. Hol-
stenius, Codex regularum, ed. M. Brockie, ii. 38 sqq., Augsburg, 1759. Consult: M. Gmelin, Die Litteratur zur Geschichte des Ordens St. Trinitatis, Carlsruhe, 1870; idem, Die Trinitarier oder Weissspanier in Oesterreich, Vienna, 1871; Helyot, Ordres monastiques, ii. 310 sqq.; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, ii. 69-78; Gallia Christiana, viii. 1731 sqq., 16 vols., Paris, 1715 sqq.; G. Uhlhorn, Die Liebesthatigkeitt im Mittelalter, pp. 285 saq., 496 sqq., Stuttgart, 1884; P. Deslandres, L’Ordre des trinitatres, 2 vols., Toulouse, 1903; KL, xii. 84-91.
TRINITY, DOCTRINE OF THE. . The Biblical Doctrine. Old Testament (§ 1). New Testament (§ 2). II. The Ontological Doctrine. The Eastern Church (§ 1). The Western Church (§ 2). Protestantism (§ 3). Comparison of the Biblical and Ontological Forms (§ 4). Various Conceptions (§ 5). A Goncluding View (§ 6).
The doctrine of the divine Trinity is the summarized statement of the historical revelation of redemption for the Christian consciousness of God. It affirms that God is not only the ruler of the universe, but the Father of Christ, in whom he is perfectly revealed, and the source of a holy and blessed life which transforms nature and is realized in the Church. It constitutes the distinctive characteristic of Christianity as contrasted with Judaism and paganism and is a modification of Christian monotheism. In this, religious thinking may stop with a mere distinction of modes of divine revelation (economic Trinity); or proceed to the assumption of three divine essences (ontological or immanent Trinity). Since the Church has completed this advance from the economic to the immanent concept, the confession of the latter is alone recognized as adequate to a full Christian belief.
I. The Biblical Doctrine: Early dogmaticians were of the opinion that so essential a doctrine as that of the Trinity could not have been unknown to the men of the Old Testament. However, no
modern theologian who clearly dis-
1. Old _tinguishes between the degrees of rev- Testament. elation in the Old and New Testaments can longer maintain such a
view. Only an inaccurate exegesis which overlooks the more immediate grounds of interpretation can see references to the Trinity in the plural form of the divine name Elohim, the use of the plural in Gen. i. 26, or such liturgical phrases of three members as the Aaronic blessing of Num. vi. 24-26 and the Trisagion (q.v.) of Isa. vi. 3. On the other hand, the development of Christology and, later, of the doctrine of the Trinity has undoubtedly been influenced by certain passages of the Old Testament
which refer to permanent forms and media of divine revelation, as the Word of the Lord in Gen. i; Ps. xxxiii. 6; Wisdom xvi. 12, xviii. 14-15; Ecclus. xliii. 25; wisdom in Prov. viii. 22 sqq.; and the angel of the Lord in Gen. xxii. 11-12; Ex. iii. 2, 4, 6; and Mal. iii. 1. Even in the New Testament the doctrine of the Trinity is not enunciated, though it is deduced from a collocation of passages and from the 2. New logic of their premises. The chief New- Testament. Testament bases for the doctrine of the Trinity so far as the person of Christ is concerned briefly follow; for the rest see - Curistotoay. The primitive Christian view of the messiahship of Jesus presupposed that he was close to, and, in some sense, belonged to, God, as the instrument for the realization of the divine theocracy. Even Jewish theology had regarded the Messiah as ideally preexistent, or, more realistically, as reserved for the millennium, though without inquiring whether he wasa creature or not. The early Church, in like manner, held Christ to be sent from heaven to earth (Gal. iv. 4). The messianic title of Son of God received the deeper meaning of intimate communion and love between Father and Son (according to the self-witness of Jesus, Matt. xi. 27), which was manifest on earth (John x. 30), but based on premundane existence (Rom. viii. 32; II Cor. viii. 9; Phil. ii. 5 sqq.). Christ can, therefore, act in the name of God since “‘ in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ”’ (Col. ii. 9), and since he is the image of God (II Cor. iv. 4), and “ the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person ’’ (Heb. i. 3). The Logos is bearer of the original self-revelation of God and is God (John i. 1, 14, 18); the risen and ascended Christ is called God (John xx. 28; I John v. 20; possibly also Rom. ix. 5; Titus ii. 13); prayer is made to the risen Christ (Acts ix. 14; Rom. x. 12 sqq.; I Cor. i. 2); practically Christ is included with God even to identification, though subordinated to the Father wherever a distinction occurs (I Cor. xi. 3, xv. 28). Even with reference to the Johannine Logos there is no thought of an immanent process of divine life, the Logos being simply the mediator of God’s revelation to the world (John i. 4, iii. 16, xx. 31); and God, in relation to Christ, may be termed either “God ” (John xvii. 3, xx. 17) or “ Father ” (I Cor. vii. 6). Of the Holy Ghost the New Testament says that he spoke through the prophets (II Pet. i. 21), and that he rested in his plenitude on Jesus, empowering him for his messianic work (Mark i. 10; John iii. 34); at his departure, the latter promised “ another comforter ’’ (John xiv. 16-17), who should uphold and perfect the communion between the disciples and their head (John xiv. 26, xvi. 13— 14). A similar view is expressed by Paul (Rom. viii. 16; Gal. iv. 6); the Spirit is termed both the “ Spirit of God ” and the “ Spirit of Christ ”’ (Rom. viii. 9). Through this association with the person of Christ the Spirit arrives at a certain proportion of definite content and function (I Cor. xii. 3; Jas. li.); the risen Christ seems to be identified with the Holy Ghost (II Cor. iii.17). The Holy Ghost is divine in origin and essentially one with God (I Cor. ii. 10), being the self-consciousness of God and re-