Does the Trinity make sense (and does it matter)?

The doctrine of the Trinity -- the doctrine that the one God is three distinct and equally divine persons -- stands at the center of Christian confession. Indeed, the doctrine has long been confessed as the foundation stone of Christian orthodoxy, and ideally also the heartbeat of Christian piety. But even so, it also represents what appears to be a mystery at best, and a straightforward contradiction at worst. And this brings us to a dilemma that ought to capture the attention of any thoughtful Christian.

So what exactly is the problem? The answer is simple, straightforward, even obvious: one does not equal three. Surely we all can agree on that. And yet, Christians around the world appear to confound this basic wisdom on a regular basis. The problem is captured in these lines from the Athanasian Creed (c. AD 500):

(3) And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;

(15) So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;

(16) And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

Very pious confessions. The only problem is that they don't appear to make sense. Consider an analogy. If the Gremlin is mine, and the Pacer is mine and the AMX is mine, then I have three cars, not one. When it comes to the doctrine of God we confess that the Father is God, the Son is God and the Spirit is God. So surely the same logic should follow: there should be three gods, not one.

Yet there is one, and they are distinct, and ... this makes no sense. How can one equal three?

While that apparent contradiction may be disturbing, here is the really disheartening part: while many Christians have a vague notion that the doctrine of the Trinity conceals an apparent contradiction, they don't really seem to care. To make matters worse, they often cloak their lack of concern in a thin veil of pseudo-piety by claiming that God's ways are higher than our ways, as if that's where the conversation should end.

However, I don't think it should end. Surely I agree that we can never understand everything of God, but here we are not talking about everything. Rather, we're talking about seeking coherence for our most basic confessions of who God is. That is hardly a foolhardy, hubristic attempt to know the mind of God through pure reason.

Think of it in terms of the golden rule. If a Muslim, or a Hindu, or an atheist proposed something for your belief that appeared to be straightforwardly contradictory, you would not nod in mystical piety and embrace the incomprehensible mystery. Rather, you'd demand a defense, an explanation. So why should the Muslim, Hindu, or atheist expect anything less from us?

As important as issues of basic meaning and apologetics are, there is another issue at stake here as well, and it is an issue of piety. If a confession appears to be straightforwardly contradictory, then it cannot be true as stated. So the search for an explanation of how in God one equals three is not simply the search to explain a mathematical conundrum or silence the skeptics. Most importantly, it is a quest to know God more fully. And I would think that this is a quest well worth our time and effort.