Medieval Theology IV

Abstract

In this chapter, we turn to an analysis of the coexistence of relational, external, and internal motion in the doctrine of the Trinity. The theological doctrine of the Trinity was by far one of the most important, dominant, and novel descriptions of being during the medieval and early modern periods, beginning around the middle of the fourth century. From the beginning of the Nicene Creed (381 CE), which established an official doctrine of the Trinity, until the emergence of the European Enlightenment in the mid-eighteenth century, Trinitarianism remained the single most pervasive and powerful ontotheological framework in the West—influencing all the natural theologies of force of the previous chapters. To this day it remains the official doctrine of the Catholic Church. This chapter lays out the patterns of tensional motion at work in this important theory.