One God, the Father

Abstract

The doctrine of “the Monarchy of the Father” is affirmed by nearly all patristic authors at the source of the doctrine of the Trinity and its canonical, creedal formulation(s). Yet, while still discussed by theologians, the doctrine has been (almost) completely ignored in analytic theology. I argue that the doctrine, though ancient, suggests a fresh approach within the contemporary debate, and reveals a fatal flaw in one of the strongest contemporary arguments against Trinitarianism. Briefly, whereas Social Trinitarianism identifies God with all of the divine persons (taken together) and Relative Identity Trinitarianism identifies God with each of the divine persons (taken individually), what I will call “Monarchical Trinitarianism” identifies God with one of the divine persons (the Father), without rejecting the full divinity of the Son and Spirit. According to Dale Tuggy, all orthodox formulations of the doctrine of the Trinity, by definition, identify God with the Trinity, rather than the Father, whereas the New Testament does the reverse. I argue Tuggy's argument counts equally in favor of Monarchical Trinitarianism, but siphons off that support, counting it as support only for Unitarianism via his definitions, which are undermined by a close reading of both patristic and modern Trinitarian theologians.