Trinity and Monotheism
A historical and theological review of the origins and substance of the doctrine
A. Keith Thompson
A Modotti Press title - where religion does matter
Paperback, 214 pages, $29.95
Release Date: September 10, 2019
ISBN 9781925826630
Regardless of where one stands on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity,
its evolution, and context, the increase in mutual understanding and
respect that Keith Thompson encourages is something we all should seek.
-- Gary Doxey, PhD, JD, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University
This book traces the idea of monotheism from Egypt in the 13th
century B.C., through Israel’s Divine Council down into Greek and Roman
times when the rabbis were trying to protect their sacred religion from
confusion with the god pantheons of those empires. The book identifies
Jewish criticism of heretical Christian polytheism as the watershed
which the Trinity doctrine was developed to answer.
The Trinity doctrine is then traced through the Nicene Council in 325
A.D., the schism between East and West and into Anglican Archbishop
Thomas Cranmer’s innovation of a God “without body, parts or passions”
in 1553.
The book ends with brief discussion of the Christology of the Unitarian,
LDS and Jehovah’s Witness faiths and concludes that as intended,
‘Constantine’s Creed’ accommodates differences in Christian belief
because he wanted to use that faith as glue that would hold his Empire
together.
A. Keith Thompson is a Professor of Law and the Associate Dean at the
Sydney School of Law of The University of Notre Dame Australia. He
previously worked for twenty years as International Legal Counsel for
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Pacific and then
through the African Continent.