Theological Term of the Week

ontological Trinity
The Trinity as it exists apart from any relation to creation. Viewing the Trinity ontologically puts the emphasis on the equality of the nature and attributes of the three persons. Also called the essential or the immanent Trinity.

• From the Athanasian Creed:

  [T]he godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

  Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.

  The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one Eternal.

  As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one Uncreated, and one Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty. And yet they are not three almighties, but one Almighty.

  …And in the Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another, but all three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

• From the Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 11:
  

  Q. 11. How doth it appear that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal with the Father?
  
  A. The Scriptures manifest that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal with the Father, ascribing unto them such names, attributes, works, and worship, as are proper to God only.

• From Salvation Belongs to the Lord by John Frame, page 36:
  

  Ontological Trinity is the Trinity in itself, as it (or rather, he) exists apart from the creation, as he would have existed if he had never created anything. In the ontological Trinity there is no subordination among the persons. Father, Son, and Spirit are equal; that is to say, they are equally God, equally divine.

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul: What’s the Difference Between the Ontological and Economic Trinity?
2. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry: The Ontological and Economic Trinity
3. Ra McLaughlin: Equality in the Godhead
4. Bruce Ware: Equal in Essence, Distinct in Roles: Eternal Functional Authority and Submission among the Essentially Equal Divine Persons of the Godhead (mp3)

Related terms:

• economic Trinity
• Trinity 

Filed under Trinity.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion, and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

perichoresis
A term (from the Greek) used to express the intimate union of the three persons in the Trinity as they mutually indwell or interpenetrate each other. Also called circumincession or coinherence.

• From the Bible:

  I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17: 20-21 ESV)

  So Jesus said to them,“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19 ESV)

  For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11 ESV)

• From Systematic Theology by Charles Hodge, pages 461-462:

  The third point decided concerning the relation of the persons of the Trinity, one to the other, relates to their union. As the essence of the Godhead is common to the several persons, they have a common intelligence, will, and power. There are not in God three intelligences, three wills, three efficiencies. The Three are one God, and therefore, have one mind and will. This intimate union was expressed in the Greek Church by the word [perichoresis] which the Latin words inexistentia, inhabitatio, and inter communio, were used to explain. These terms were intended to express the Scriptural facts that the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son ; that where the Father is, there the Son and Spirit are ; that what the one does the others do (the Father creates, the Son creates, the Spirit creates), or, as our Lord expresses it, ” What things soever” the Father ” doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John v. 19.) So also what the one knows, the others know. ” The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. ii. 10, 11.) A common knowledge implies a common consciousness. In man the soul and body are distinct, yet, while united, they have a common life. We distinguish between acts of the intellect, and acts of the will, and yet in every act of the will there is an exercise of the intelligence ; as in every act of the affections there is a joint action of the intelligence and will. These are not illustrations of the relations of the persons of the Trinity, which are ineffable, but of the fact that in other and entirely different spheres there is this community of life in different subsistences, — different subsistences, at least so far as the body and soul are concerned.
  
  

  This fact — of the intimate union, communion, and inhabitation of the persons of the Trinity — is the reason why everywhere in Scripture, and instinctively by all Christians, God as God is addressed as a person, in perfect consistency with the Tripersonality of the Godhead. We can, and do’ pray to each of the Persons separately ; and we pray to God as God ; for the three persons are one God ; one not only in substance, but in knowledge, will, and power. To expect that we, who cannot understand anything, not even ourselves, should understand these mysteries of the Godhead, is to the last degree unreasonable. But as in every other sphere we must believe what we cannot understand ; so we may believe all that God has revealed in his Word concerning Himself, although we cannot understand the Almighty unto perfection

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Perichoresis
2. GotQuestions.org: What is perichoresis?

Related terms:

• Trinity
• ontological Trinity

Filed under Trinity

The term perichoresis was suggested by David Kjos. Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion, and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Theological Term of the Week

Defining a term used in defining the Trinity

being or essence
what God is; his nature; “the stuff of diety, if we may call it that.”1

• From the Bible:

  Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV)

• From the Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 3:

  God Is One. We believe and teach that God is one in essence or nature, subsisting in himself, all sufficient in himself, invisible, incorporeal, immense, eternal, Creator of all things both visible and invisible, the greatest good, living, quickening and preserving all things, omnipotent and supremely wise, kind and merciful, just and true….
  
  

  God Is Three. Notwithstanding we believe and teach that the same immense, one and indivisible God is in person inseparably and without confusion distinguished as Father, Son and Holy Spirit…. For according to the nature or essence they are so joined together that they are one God, and the divine nature is common to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

• From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem:
  

  Scripture is abundantly clear that there is one and only one God. The three different persons of the Trinity are one not only in purpose and in agreement on what they think, but they are one in essence, one in their essential nature. In other words, God is only one being. There are not three Gods. There is only one God.
  

Learn more:

1. Fred Sanders: A Top Ten List of Books on the Trinity
2. The articles and mp3s recommended here and here.

Related terms:

• person
• Trinity

1From J. I. Packer in Concise Theology.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion, and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.