Tritheism (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
τριθεΐα, "three divinity"
) is a
nontrinitarian
Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence ...
Christian heresy
Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.
In Western Christianity, heresy most commonly refers to those beliefs which were declared to ...
in which the unity of the
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
and thus
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
are denied. It represents more a "possible deviation" than any actual school of thought positing three separate deities.
[.] It was usually "little more than a hostile label"
[.] applied to those who emphasized the individuality of each ''
hypostasis'' or divine person—
Father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
,
Son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative.
Social issues
In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...
and
Holy Spirit
In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...
—over the unity of the Trinity as a whole.
[ The accusation was especially popular between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD.][
In the ]history of Christianity
The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teach ...
, various theologians have been accused of lapsing into tritheism. Among the earliest were the monophysites
Monophysitism ( or ) or monophysism () is a Christological term derived from the Greek (, "alone, solitary") and (, a word that has many meanings but in this context means "nature"). It is defined as "a doctrine that in the person of the incarn ...
John Philoponos
John Philoponus (Greek language, Greek: ; ; c. 490 – c. 570), also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Byzantine Greek philologist, commentaries on Aristotle, Aristotelian commentator, Christian theology, Christian theologi ...
(died c. 570) and his followers, such as Eugenios and Konon of Tarsos.[ They taught that the common nature of the Trinity is an abstraction, so that while the three persons are ]consubstantial
Consubstantiality, a term derived from la, consubstantialitas, denotes identity of substance or essence in spite of difference in Aspect (religion), aspect.
It appears most commonly in its adjectival form, "consubstantial", from Latin ''cons ...
they are distinct in their properties.[.] Their view was an attempt to reconcile Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
with Christianity.[ This view, which was defended by Patriarch ]Peter III of Antioch
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
, was condemned as tritheism at a synod in Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
in 616.[ It was again condemned as tritheism at the ]third council of Constantinople
The Third Council of Constantinople, counted as the Sixth Ecumenical Council by the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches, as well by certain other Western Churches, met in 680–681 and condemned monoenergism and monothelitism as heretical a ...
in 680–81.[
In ]Late Antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, several heretical movements criticized Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.
Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churc ...
as equivalent to tritheism. The Sabellians
Sabellians is a collective ethnonym for a group of Italic peoples or tribes inhabiting central and southern Italy at the time of the rise of Rome. The name was first applied by Niebuhr and encompassed the Sabines, Marsi, Marrucini and Vestini. ...
, Monarchians
Monarchianism is a Christian theology that emphasizes God as one indivisible being,
at Catholic Encyclopedia, newadvent.org and Pneumatomachoi
The ''Pneumatomachi'' (; grc-gre, Πνευματομάχοι ''Pneumatomákhoi''), also known as Macedonians or Semi-Arians in Constantinople and the Tropici in Alexandria, were an anti-Nicene Creed sect which flourished in the regions adjacent t ...
labelled their opponents tritheists.[ ]Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
frequently criticized Trinitarianism as merely dressed-up tritheism (see Islamic view of the Trinity
In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single essence who exists, consubstantiality and co-eternally, as a perichoresis of three distinct hypostases ("persons"): the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Islam conside ...
). Groups accused by the orthodox of tritheism include the Anomoeans
In 4th-century Christianity, the Anomoeans , and known also as Heterousians , Aetians , or Eunomians , were a sect that upheld an extreme form of Arianism, that Jesus Christ was not of the same nature (consubstantial) as God the Father nor was of ...
and Nestorians
Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian N ...
.[
In the ]Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the scholastic Roscelin
Roscelin of Compiègne (), better known by his Latinized name Roscellinus Compendiensis or Rucelinus, was a French philosopher and theologian, often regarded as the founder of nominalism.
Biography
Roscellinus was born in Compiègne, France. Lit ...
was accused of tritheism. He was an extreme nominalist
In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are at least two main versions of nominalism. One version denies the existence of universalsthings th ...
who saw the three divine persons as separately existing. He was condemned as a tritheist at the synod of Soissons
There have been several Catholic Church synods called the Council of Soissons:
__NOTOC__
* March 744: Presided over by Saint Boniface. Attended by Hartbert, bishop of Sens. Appointed Abel bishop.
* 13 November 833: Presided over by Ebbo, archbi ...
in or about 1092. The realist scholastic Gilbert de la Porrée
Gilbert de la Porrée (after 1085 – 4 September 1154), also known as Gilbert of Poitiers, Gilbertus Porretanus or Pictaviensis, was a scholastic logician and theologian and Bishop of Poitiers.
Life
He was born in Poitiers, and completed h ...
erred in the opposite direction, by distinguishing between three divine beings and the essence of God (making a quaternity rather than a trinity), and was accused of tritheism.[ He was condemned at the council of Reims in 1148. Gilbert's ideas influenced ]Joachim of Fiore
Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore (c. 1135 – 30 March 1202), was an Italian Christian theologian, Catholic abbot, and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore. According to the ...
and the Fourth Lateran Council
The Fourth Council of the Lateran or Lateran IV was convoked by Pope Innocent III in April 1213 and opened at the Lateran Palace in Rome on 11 November 1215. Due to the great length of time between the Council's convocation and meeting, many bi ...
(1215) tried to clarify the issue by confirming the numerical unity of the Trinity.[
In modern times, the Austrian Catholic Anton Günther, in an effort to refute Hegelian pantheism, declared three divine persons to be three absolute and distinct realities bound together only by their shared origin.][
]
List of Christians accused of tritheism
The following tritheistic tendencies have been condemned as heretical by mainstream theology.
# Those who are usually meant by the name were a section of the Monophysites
Monophysitism ( or ) or monophysism () is a Christological term derived from the Greek (, "alone, solitary") and (, a word that has many meanings but in this context means "nature"). It is defined as "a doctrine that in the person of the incarn ...
, who had great influence in the second half of the sixth century, but have left no traces save a few scanty notices in John of Ephesus
John of Ephesus (or of Asia) ( Greek: Ίωάννης ό Έφέσιος, c. 507 – c. 588) was a leader of the early Syriac Orthodox Church in the sixth century and one of the earliest and the most important historians to write in Syriac. John of ...
, Photius
Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...
, Leontius
Leontius ( el, Λεόντιος, Leóntios; – 15 February 706), was Byzantine emperor from 695 to 698. Little is known of his early life, other than that he was born in Isauria in Asia Minor. He was given the title of ''patrikios'', and ma ...
etc.[Chapman, John (1912)]
"Tritheists"
''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. New York: Robert Appleton Company (public domain). Retrieved October 17, 2012. Their founder is said to be a certain John Ascunages, head of a Sophist
A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...
school at Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ ...
. The principal writer was John Philoponus
John Philoponus (Greek: ; ; c. 490 – c. 570), also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Byzantine Greek philologist, Aristotelian commentator, Christian theologian and an author of a considerable number of philosophical tre ...
, the great Aristotelian commentator; the leaders were two bishops, Conon of Tarsus and Eugenius of Seleucia in Isauria
Isauria ( or ; grc, Ἰσαυρία), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated, district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surrou ...
, who were deposed by their comprovincials and took refuge at Constantinople where they found a powerful convert and protector in Athanasius the Monk, a grandson of the Empress Theodora
Theodora is a given name of Greek origin, meaning "God's gift".
Theodora may also refer to:
Historical figures known as Theodora
Byzantine empresses
* Theodora (wife of Justinian I) ( 500 – 548), saint by the Orthodox Church
* Theodora of ...
. Philoponus dedicated to him a book on the Trinity. The old philosopher pleaded his infirmities when he was summoned by the Emperor Justinian
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
to the Court to give an account of his teaching. But Conon and Eugenius had to dispute in the reign of Justin II
Justin II ( la, Iustinus; grc-gre, Ἰουστῖνος, Ioustînos; died 5 October 578) or Justin the Younger ( la, Iustinus minor) was Eastern Roman Emperor from 565 until 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I and the husband of Sophia, the ...
(565-78) in the presence of the Catholic patriarch John Scholasticus
John Scholasticus or Scholastikos (c. 503 – 31 August 577) was the 32nd patriarch of Constantinople from April 12, 565 until his death in 577. He is also regarded as a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Life
He was born at Sirimis, in the r ...
(565-77), with two champions of the moderate Monophysite party, Stephen and Paul, the latter afterward Patriarch of Antioch. The Tritheist bishops refused to anathematize Philoponus, and brought proofs that he agreed with Severus and Theodosius. They were banished to Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, and Philoponus wrote a book against John Scholasticus, who had given his verdict in favour of his adversaries. But he developed a theory of his own as to the Resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...
(see Eutychianism
Eutychianism, also known as Real Monophysitism, refers to a set of Christian theological doctrines derived from the ideas of Eutyches of Constantinople (c. 380 – c. 456). Eutychianism is a monophysite understanding of how the human and divine ...
) on account of which Conon and Eugenius wrote a treatise against him in collaboration with Themistus, the founder of the Agnoctae, in which they declared his views to be altogether unchristian. These two bishops and a deprived bishop named Theonas proceeded to consecrate bishops for their sect, which they established in Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...
and Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, Rome, Northern Africa and the Western Patriarchate, while in the east agents traveled through Syria and Cilicia
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...
, Isauria
Isauria ( or ; grc, Ἰσαυρία), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated, district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surrou ...
and Cappadocia
Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde.
According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revo ...
, converting whole districts and ordaining priests and deacons in cities villages and monasteries. Eugenius died in Pamphylia
Pamphylia (; grc, Παμφυλία, ''Pamphylía'') was a region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the north by ...
; Conon returned to Constantinople. Leontius assures that the Aristotelianism of Philoponus made him teach that there are in the Holy Trinity three partial substances (''merikai ousiai, ikikai theotetes, idiai physeis'') and one common. The genesis of the doctrine has been explained (for the first time) under MONOPHYSITES, where an account of Philoponus's writings and those of Stephen Gobarus, another member of the sect, will be found.
#John Philoponus
John Philoponus (Greek: ; ; c. 490 – c. 570), also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Byzantine Greek philologist, Aristotelian commentator, Christian theologian and an author of a considerable number of philosophical tre ...
, an Aristotelian and monophysite
Monophysitism ( or ) or monophysism () is a Christological term derived from the Greek (, "alone, solitary") and (, a word that has many meanings but in this context means "nature"). It is defined as "a doctrine that in the person of the incarn ...
in Alexandria about the middle of the sixth century, was charged with tritheism because he saw in the Trinity as separated three natures, substances and deities, according to the number of divine persons. He sought to justify this view by the Aristotelian categories
The ''Categories'' (Greek Κατηγορίαι ''Katēgoriai''; Latin ''Categoriae'' or ''Praedicamenta'') is a text from Aristotle's ''Organon'' that enumerates all the possible kinds of things that can be the subject or the predicate of a prop ...
of ''genus'', ''species'' and ''individuum''.[
# In the Middle Ages, ]Roscellin of Compiegne
Roscelin of Compiègne (), better known by his Latinized name Roscellinus Compendiensis or Rucelinus, was a French philosopher and theologian, often regarded as the founder of nominalism.
Biography
Roscellinus was born in Compiègne, France. Litt ...
, the founder of Nominalism
In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are at least two main versions of nominalism. One version denies the existence of universalsthings t ...
, argued like Philoponus that unless the Three Persons are ''tres res'' (3 objects), the whole Trinity must have been incarnate. He was condemned of the heresy of tritheism at the 1092-1093 Council of Soissons
There have been several Catholic Church synods called the Council of Soissons:
__NOTOC__
* March 744: Presided over by Saint Boniface. Attended by Hartbert, bishop of Sens. Appointed Abel bishop.
* 13 November 833: Presided over by Ebbo, archbisho ...
presided over by Renaud du Bellay Seal
Renaud du Bellay was the treasurer of Tours Cathedral and Archbishop of Reims from AD 1083 to 1096. He succeeded Manasses I after a vacancy of around three years. He presided over the Council of Soissons in 1092–93 which declared Rosc ...
, archbishop of Rheims
The Archdiocese of Reims (traditionally spelt "Rheims" in English) ( la, Archidiœcesis Remensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Reims'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese ...
. Attempting to appeal to the authority of Lanfranc
Lanfranc, OSB (1005 1010 – 24 May 1089) was a celebrated Italian jurist who renounced his career to become a Benedictine monk at Bec in Normandy. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Stephen in Normandy and then ...
and Anselm, Roscellin prompted Anselm to write ''Cur Deus Homo
''Cur Deus Homo?'' (Latin for "Why a God Human?"), usually translated ''Why God Became a Man'', is a book written by Anselm of Canterbury in the period of 1094–1098. In this work he proposes the satisfaction view of the atonement
Atoneme ...
'' and other treatments of the divine nature refuting his treatment.[ Roscellin publicly recanted and, after exile in England and Italy, reconciled himself to the church, but returned to a form of his earlier reasoning.
# Among Catholic writers, Pierre Faydit, who was expelled from the Oratory at Paris in 1671][ for disobedience and died in 1709, practiced a form of tritheism in his ''Eclaireissements sur la doctrine et Phistoire ecclésiastiqes des deux premiers siecles'' (Paris, 1696), in which he tried to make out that the earliest Fathers were Tritheists. He was replied to by the ]Premonstratensian
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...
Abbot Louis-Charles Hugo
Charles-Hyacinthe Hugo (20 September 1667 in Saint-Mihiel, Meuse, France – 2 August 1739), also called Louis-Charles Hugo, was a Lorrain Premonstratensian author.
Biography
Hugo entered the Norbertine novitiate at Pont-à-Mousson, wher ...
(''Apologie du système des Saints Pères sur la Trinité'', Luxemburg, 1699).
# A prominent ideologue of Russian Old Believers
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
and a writer, Avvakum
Avvakum Petrov (russian: link=no, Аввакум Петров; 20 November 1620/21 – 14 April 1682) (also spelled Awakum) was an Old Believer and Russian protopope of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square who led the opposition to Patriarch Nik ...
(died 1682) was accused by official Orthodox Church and by fellow Old Believers of tritheism, based on some passages in his letters.
# A Catholic canon of Trier named Oembs, influenced by the doctrines of the "Enlightenment",[ similarly attributed to the Fathers his own view of three similar natures in the Trinity, calling the numerical unity of God an invention of the ]Scholastics
Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translate ...
. His book ''Opuscula de Deo Uno et Trino'' (Mainz, 1789), was condemned by Pius VII
Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...
in a Brief of 14 July 1804.
# The Bohemian Jesuit philosopher Anton Günther was also accused of tritheism, leading to his work ending up on the Index librorum
The ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbidde ...
.
# Among Protestants, Heinrich Nicolai (d. 1660), a professor at Danzig and at Elbing[ (not to be confounded with the founder of ]Familia Caritatis
The ''Familia Caritatis'', also known as the Familists, was a mystical religious sect founded in the sixteenth century by Henry Nicholis, also known as Niclaes. ''Familia Caritatis'' translates from Latin into "Family of Love", and in other la ...
), is cited.
# The best known in the Anglican Church is William Sherlock
William Sherlock (c. 1639/1641June 19, 1707) was an English church leader.
Life
He was born at Southwark, the son of a tradesman, and was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School and Eton, and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1669 he became r ...
, Dean of St. Paul's,[ whose ''Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity'' (London, 1690) against the ]Socinians
Socinianism () is a nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italian theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle ...
, maintaining that with the exception of a mutual consciousness of each other, which no created spirits can have, the three divine persons are "three distinct infinite minds" or "three intelligent beings.", was attacked by Robert South
Robert South (4 September 1634 – 8 July 1716) was an English churchman who was known for his combative preaching and his Latin poetry.
Early life
He was the son of Robert South, a London merchant, and Elizabeth Berry. He was born at Hackney, ...
in ''Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock's Vindication'' (1693). Sherlock's work is said to have made William Manning a Socinian and Thomas Emlyn
Thomas Emlyn (1663–1741) was an English nonconformist divine.
Life
Emlyn was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire. He served as chaplain to the presbyterian Letitia, countess of Donegal, the daughter of Sir William Hicks, 1st Baronet who married (1 ...
an Arian, and the dispute was ridiculed in a skit entitled "The Battle Royal", attributed to William Pittis (1694?), which was translated into Latin at Cambridge.
# Joseph Bingham
Joseph Bingham (September 1668 – 17 August 1723) was an English scholar and divine, who wrote on ecclesiastical history.
Life
He was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire.
He was educated at Wakefield Grammar School and University College, Oxf ...
, author of the "Antiquities", preached at Oxford in 1695[ a sermon which was considered to represent the Fathers as tritheists, and it was condemned by the Hebdomadal Council as ''falsa, impia et haeretica'', the scholar being driven from Oxford.
# Though members of ]the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
would probably not self-identify as tritheist, some critics of Mormonism
Mormonism is the religious tradition and theology of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to various aspects of t ...
claim that it is tritheistic or polytheistic because it teaches that the Godhead is a council of three distinct deities perfectly ''one in purpose, unity and mission'', but nevertheless separate and distinct beings.
# Some have suggested that the Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...
has embraced a tritheistic view of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as it does not see their singularity as a Godhead consisting in one being but rather as three separate beings in a single group.
See also
* Triple deity
A triple deity is a deity with three apparent forms that function as a singular whole. Such deities may sometimes be referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune, triadic, or as a trinity. The number three has a long history ...
* Triple Goddess (Neopaganism)
References
{{Theism
Conceptions of God
Theism