ABSTRACT
The issue of the Holy Spirit as a divine power entered the debate as orthodoxies and heresies defined one group’s veracity against the errors of others. Anathemas, as in the Athanasian Creed, pronounced over doctrinal errors, are reminders of ecclesiastical and civic powers surrounding early creedal formulation and leave the doctrine of the Trinity a much-contested field, not least over the Christian theology of different religions. A slightly fuller reference to Father, Son and Holy Ghost in the ‘Articles and Covenants of the church of Christ, given in Fayette, New-York, June, 1830’ was published in 1833 and speaks of ‘the Father and of the Son, which Father and Son and Holy Ghost, is one God, infinite and eternal, without end. In early ‘Mormon-Israel’ father-focused kinship is both reinstated and reinforced through a ‘spiritual’ bond of blessing and sealing. Parley Pratt’s 1845 article typifies one early approach to matter, challenging traditional Christianity in a series of formal propositions.
