The Three Positions

What they believe

There is one God who eternally exists as three co-equal, co-eternal persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — sharing one divine essence. Jesus is not a lesser divine being or an exalted human; he is fully God in the same way the Father is fully God. The distinction is relational (the persons are distinct), not ontological (they share the same being). The Son did not come into existence at any point — he is eternally begotten, not made.

Historical roots

The Trinitarian position was formally defined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, which declared the Son to be "of one substance" (homoousios) with the Father, and the Council of Constantinople in 381 CE, which extended this to the Holy Spirit. However, the 56 years between these councils were far from settled. Anti-Nicene positions dominated for most of this period: the Nicene term homoousios was repeatedly rejected, banned, or replaced at councils including Antioch (341), Sirmium (351, 357, 358), Arles (353), Milan (355), and the twin councils of Ariminum and Seleucia (359). At the high point of anti-Nicene dominance in 357, the "Blasphemy of Sirmium" explicitly banned the term homoousios and declared the Father "greater" than the Son. The largest council of the period — Ariminum (359), with 400 bishops — was coerced into repudiating the Nicene Creed. Jerome wrote that "the whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian." The Nicene position only became dominant after 378, when Emperor Theodosius I made it imperial policy. Trinitarians argue that the intervening councils were driven by imperial politics (especially Constantius II) and Arian manipulation, and that Constantinople 381 represented the church's genuine theological maturation, not merely a political settlement. The Nicene Creed remains the foundational statement for Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant churches. See The 4th-Century Councils for the full story.

It is also important to note that the arguments used to defend the Trinity have changed significantly over time. The pre-Nicene Fathers (Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen) used Platonist metaphors and maintained an explicitly subordinationist Trinity — closer to what this site calls Logos Theology than to modern Trinitarianism. Augustine (5th century) introduced psychological analogies — memory, understanding, and will as an image of the three persons. Richard of St. Victor (12th century) developed the "God is love, therefore Trinity" argument that remains popular today. Aquinas (13th century) recast the persons as "subsistent relations" in Aristotelian metaphysics. In the 20th century, Moltmann and others developed "Social Trinitarianism," presenting the three persons as a model community of mutual love. Each generation has repackaged the doctrine in the philosophical language of its own era. Trinitarians see this as legitimate theological development; critics ask why a doctrine that is simply "what the Bible teaches" needs to be re-argued in a new philosophical framework every few centuries. See How Trinitarian Arguments Have Changed.

Key passages

Key scholars

Richard Bauckham, D.A. Carson, Murray Harris, Andreas Kostenberger

What they believe

The Father alone is the one God of the Bible. Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God — a human being uniquely chosen, anointed, and empowered by God, then exalted to God's right hand after the resurrection. He is not God himself, not a pre-existent divine being, and not the second person of a Trinity. The title "Son of God" denotes a relationship of agency and obedience, not shared essence. Jesus is lord because God made him lord (Acts 2:36), not because he has always been God.

Historical roots

This view has deep roots in early Jewish Christianity, where Jesus was understood within the categories of Jewish messianic expectation — as a human figure anointed by God, not as God himself. Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch from 260 to 272, held that Jesus was a human being in whom God's Logos dwelt uniquely but who did not pre-exist as a divine person. He was condemned in 268, but the position never disappeared. Photinus of Sirmium held the same core view a century later. The contested history of the 4th century — in which anti-Nicene positions commanding majority support were overturned by imperial decree — is seen by BU scholars as evidence that the Trinity was a political settlement, not an original Christian belief.

During the Reformation, Michael Servetus was burned at the stake in Geneva (1553) for denying the Trinity. Faustus Socinus and the Polish Brethren established a fully organised anti-Trinitarian church in Poland with its own academy, printing press, and catechism — the Racovian Catechism (1605), which declared that the Father alone is the one God of Israel and that Jesus of Nazareth is his only begotten Son. The Latin edition was provocatively dedicated to King James I of England. In 1658, the Polish Brethren were expelled from Poland on pain of death — not refuted, but banished.

In England, John Biddle was imprisoned repeatedly and his catechism burned by the common hangman (1654). Isaac Newton spent decades researching the Trinity and concluded it was a post-biblical corruption — but kept his views secret because open denial was a criminal offence under the Blasphemy Act of 1697. John Locke was a crypto-Socinian. John Milton privately rejected the Trinity. Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, had his home and laboratory burned by a mob for his Unitarian convictions. Unitarians were not decriminalised in England until 1813.

Today the tradition continues in Biblical Unitarianism, with growing scholarly engagement from defenders who argue that the earliest Christology was "adoptionist" or "agency" Christology, and that the move to ontological divinity was a later development driven by Hellenistic philosophical categories. See The History of Unitarianism for the full story.

Key passages

Key scholars

Anthony Buzzard, Sean Finnegan, James Dunn (on early Christology), Dale Tuggy

What they believe

Jesus, as the Logos (Word), is genuinely divine — but derivatively so. He was produced by the Father before the creation of the world and served as God's agent in creating everything else. He is divine by nature (not merely a creature), but subordinate to the Father in origin, authority, and rank. The Father alone is the unoriginate God; the Son's divinity flows from the Father. This is sometimes described as a "two-stage" or "degrees of divinity" model — the Son is truly God, but not in the same unqualified sense as the Father.

Historical roots

This was the dominant Christological position among pre-Nicene Church Fathers. Justin Martyr (c. 150 CE) described the Logos as a "second God" subordinate to the Father. Origen (c. 230 CE) taught that the Son was eternally generated by the Father but was a distinct, subordinate divine being. Tertullian (c. 200 CE) used the metaphor of sunlight proceeding from the sun — same substance, but derived. After the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, this view was largely superseded by the homoousios formula, which insisted on full equality rather than derived divinity. However, the resistance to Nicaea's homoousios among the homoiousian ("similar substance") party of the mid-4th century can be understood as an echo of the pre-Nicene Logos position — affirming genuine but subordinate divinity. Many scholars argue that the pre-Nicene Fathers' position was closer to homoiousian theology than to the full co-equality that Nicaea ultimately enforced. See The 4th-Century Councils for the full history.

Key passages

Key scholars

Justin Martyr, Origen, Larry Hurtado (with qualifications), Bart Ehrman (historical description)