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The Triad

Please make sure that you have read the main Trinity page first.  This unit carries forward some of the insights explained there.

Setting the Scene

If God is Trinity (which he is) then it is important to understand how this changes what might otherwise be simple monotheism according to the Orthodox Christian account of God.  True, Orthodox Christians believe that God is one, but in essence, (Latin: substance) one "being."   He is most certainly not one in personhood but rather three hypostases, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Yet in so saying we are not declaring "three gods" for in Orthodox Christianity 1+1+1 does NOT equal 3.  This is what St. Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzen) has to say:-

"This I give you to share, and to defend all your life, the One Godhead and Power, found in the Three in Unity, and comprising the Three separately, not unequal, in substances or natures, neither increased nor diminished by superiorities or inferiorities; in every respect equal, in every respect the same; just as the beauty and the greatness of the heavens is one; the infinite conjunction of Three Infinite Ones, Each God when considered in Himself; as the Father so the Son, as the Son so the Holy Ghost; the Three, One God when contemplated together; Each God because Consubstantial; One God because of the Monarchia.* No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the Splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to the One. When I think of any One of the Three I think of Him as the Whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking of escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of That One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the Rest. When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the Undivided Light."

- Gregory of Nazianzen, Orationes, 40:41  (* That is the timeless source of the Father from whom the Son is begotten and the Spirit proceeds).

Moreover this Trinity is a dynamic exchange of Perfect Love and Creative Power in the mutually indwelling of the 3 hypostases and their engagement with the Creation.  Christians are called to participate in this divine life by the faithful and ascetical acquisition of divine likeness or theosis .... to become indeed by grace what Christ is himself by nature.  This is salvation in the Orthodox Way.

Practical

Simple undifferentiated monotheism (such as we find in Islam or Judaism) is not an option for a Christian.  Why?

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