Tritheism

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tritheism (from

nontrinitarian Christian conception of God in which the unity of the Trinity and, by extension, monotheism are denied. It asserts that, rather than being single God of three eternally consubstantial Persons, the Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit are three ontologically separate Gods. [2] It represents more of a "possible deviation" than any actual school of thought positing three separate deities.[3] It was usually "little more than a hostile label"[4] applied to those who emphasized the individuality of each hypostasis or divine person—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—over the unity of the Trinity as a whole.[1] The accusation was especially popular between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD.[1]

In the

consubstantial, they are distinct in their properties.[5] Their view was an attempt to reconcile Aristotle with Christianity.[4] This view, which was defended by Patriarch Peter III of Antioch, was condemned as tritheism at a synod in Alexandria in 616.[3][1] It was again condemned as tritheism at the Third Council of Constantinople in 680–81.[5]

In

In the

Fourth Lateran Council (1215) tried to clarify the issue by confirming the numerical unity of the Trinity.[5]

In modern times, the Austrian

Hegelian pantheism, declared three divine persons to be three absolute and distinct realities bound together only by their shared origin.[5]

List of Christians accused of tritheism

The following tritheistic tendencies have been condemned as heretical by mainstream theology.

  1. Those who are usually meant by the name were a section of the
    Emperor Justinian to the Court to give an account of his teaching. But Conon and Eugenius had to dispute in the reign of Justin II (565-78) in the presence of the Catholic patriarch John Scholasticus (565-77), with two champions of the moderate Monophysite party, Stephen and Paul, the latter afterward Patriarch of Antioch. The Tritheist bishops refused to anathematize Philoponus, and brought proofs that he agreed with Severus and Theodosius. They were banished to Palestine, and Philoponus wrote a book against John Scholasticus, who had given his verdict in favour of his adversaries. But he developed a theory of his own as to the Resurrection (see Eutychianism) on account of which Conon and Eugenius wrote a treatise against him in collaboration with Themistus, the founder of the Agnoctae, in which they declared his views to be altogether unchristian. These two bishops and a deprived bishop named Theonas proceeded to consecrate bishops for their sect, which they established in Corinth and Athens, Rome, Northern Africa and the Western Patriarchate, while in the east agents traveled through Syria and Cilicia, Isauria and Cappadocia, converting whole districts and ordaining priests and deacons in cities villages and monasteries. Eugenius died in Pamphylia
    ; Conon returned to Constantinople. Leontius assures that the Aristotelianism of Philoponus made him teach that there are in the Holy Trinity three partial substances (merikai ousiai, ikikai theotetes, idiai physeis) and one common. The genesis of the doctrine has been explained (for the first time) under MONOPHYSITES, where an account of Philoponus's writings and those of Stephen Gobarus, another member of the sect, will be found.
  2. Aristotelian categories of genus, species and individuum.[7]
  3. In the Middle Ages,
    Anselm, Roscellin prompted Anselm to write Cur Deus Homo and other treatments of the divine nature refuting his treatment.[7]
    Roscellin publicly recanted and, after exile in England and Italy, reconciled himself to the church, but returned to a form of his earlier reasoning.
  4. Among Catholic writers,
    Louis-Charles Hugo
    (Apologie du système des Saints Pères sur la Trinité, Luxemburg, 1699).
  5. A prominent ideologue of Russian Old Believers and a writer, Avvakum (died 1682) was accused by official Orthodox Church and by fellow Old Believers of tritheism, based on some passages in his letters.
  6. A Catholic canon of Trier named Oembs, influenced by the doctrines of the "Enlightenment",
    Pius VII
    in a Brief of 14 July 1804.
  7. The Bohemian Jesuit philosopher
    Index librorum
    .
  8. Among Protestants, Heinrich Nicolai (d. 1660), a professor at
    Elbing[7] (not to be confounded with the founder of Familia Caritatis
    ), is cited.
  9. The best known in the Anglican Church is
    Socinians, maintaining that with the exception of a mutual consciousness of each other, which no created spirits can have, the three divine persons are "three distinct infinite minds" or "three intelligent beings.", was attacked by Robert South in Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock's Vindication (1693). Sherlock's work is said to have made William Manning a Socinian and Thomas Emlyn
    an Arian, and the dispute was ridiculed in a skit entitled "The Battle Royal", attributed to William Pittis (1694?), which was translated into Latin at Cambridge.
  10. Joseph Bingham, author of the "Antiquities", preached at Oxford in 1695[7] a sermon which was considered to represent the Fathers as tritheists, and it was condemned by the Hebdomadal Council as falsa, impia et haeretica, the scholar being driven from Oxford.
  11. Though members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would probably not self-identify as tritheist, some critics of Mormonism claim that it is tritheistic or polytheistic because it teaches that the Godhead is a council of three distinct deities perfectly one in purpose, unity and mission, but nevertheless separate and distinct beings.[8][9]
  12. Some have suggested that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has embraced a tritheistic view of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as it does not see their singularity as a Godhead consisting in one being but rather as three separate beings in a single group.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ Slick, Matt (2008-12-15). "Tritheism". Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  3. ^ .
  4. ^
    The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    .
  5. ^ .
  6. ^ Dale Tuggy (2016), "Trinity: Judaic and Islamic Objections", in Edward N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Chapman, John (1912). "Tritheists"Archived 2012-06-15 at the Wayback Machine. The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company (public domain). Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  8. ^ b777 (2008-12-15). "Tritheism|What is Tritheism?". carm.org. Retrieved 2020-05-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ "The Trinity: Mormonism's Rejection of God's Highest Revelation (Part 4 of 4) | Mormon Coffee". Retrieved 2020-05-02.
  10. ^ "Does Seventh-day Adventism Teach the Trinity?" (PDF). CultOrChristian.com.