ABSTRACT
The Trinity. God as three persons in one being, or as John Donne expressed it, a ‘three-personed God’ (1982: ii). The devout celebrate it as ‘divine mystery’. Unbelievers denigrate it as, to use Thomas Jefferson’s words, ‘metaphysical insanity’. Twentieth-century Christian historian Cyril Richardson quipped, ‘It has been observed that by denying it one may be in danger of losing one’s soul, while by trying to understand it one may be in danger of losing one’s wits’ (1955: 235). In the fourth century, Gregory of Nazianzus offered similar sentiments. Challenging a detractor, he taunted, ‘You explain the ingeneracy of the Father and I will give you a biological account of the Son’s begetting and the Spirit’s proceeding – and let us go mad the pair of us for prying into God’s secrets’ (St Gregory of Nazianzus 2002: 122). Substantial development of the doctrine of the Trinity took place in the fourth century A.D. in what historically has been called the ‘Trinitarian controversy’ or ‘Arian controversy’ but might more accurately be characterized as the ‘search for a Christian doctrine of God’.1 Revisiting that search and highlighting certain of its ideas and debates can help identify important points of convergence and divergence between Mormonism and historical Christianity, an endeavour to which Douglas Davies has long been deeply committed and to which he has made signal contributions. Additionally, Davies’ close association with, and commitment to, Anglicanism, with its historic attention to patristic Christianity, inspires my selection of the particular temporal locus for this chapter’s comparison with Mormonism. The chapter has as its particular objective to bring Mormon thought into close conversation with the early church fathers on the subject of the Trinity. It is an attempt to explicate what Davies recently called ‘the Mormon paradox of not accepting traditional ideas of the Trinity whilst accepting the idea of the Trinity as a mark of authentic Christian identity’ (2010: 61). In the spirit of Davies’ deep immersion in the theological viewpoints he explores comparatively (and his unusually profound penetration of Mormonism is a prime example), detailed attention will here be given to the nuances of fourth-century Trinitarian thought, something not always adequately attended to in comparative reflections on Mormon theology.
