Books on the Trinity?

Can anyone recommend a book that better explains the trinity in detail?

Or perhaps a book, chapter and verse of the bible I should pay special attention too.

I'm looking to learn more about the trinity because I have difficulty explaining to others exactly how it works.

Or perhaps one of you would like to take a stab at it and help a brother out

[Play The Man]

On The Incarnation by St. Athanasius. Get the edition with an introduction by C.S. Lewis.

http://www.amazon.com/Incarnation-In.../dp/0913836400

"This is a good translation of a very great book.

"St Athanasius stood contra mundum for the Trinitarian doctrine 'whole and undefiled,' when it looked as if all the civilized world was slipping back from Christianity into the religion of Arius, into one of those 'sensible' synthetic religions which are so strongly recommended today and which then, as now, included among their devotees many highly cultivated clergymen. The glory of St Athanasius is that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, like all others, have passed away.

"When I first opened De Incarnatione I soon discovered by a very simple test that I was reading a masterpiece, for only a mastermind could have written so deeply on such a subject with such classical simplicity"
- C. S. Lewis, from the Introduction

I believe the Introduction by Lewis is published elsewhere (the book God In The Dock, I believe) as the essay "On The Reading Of Old Books". So with this edition you kill two birds with one stone.

I will post a copy of the Athanasian Creed for you.

If money is tight, I could mail you my copy of the book.

[Play The Man]

http://www.crcna.org/pages/athanasian_creed.cfm

The Athanasian Creed . . .

Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith.

Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.

Now this is the catholic faith:

That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
neither blending their persons
nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.

What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has.
The Father is uncreated,
the Son is uncreated,
the Holy Spirit is uncreated.

The Father is immeasurable,
the Son is immeasurable,
the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.

The Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal,
the Holy Spirit is eternal.

And yet there are not three eternal beings;
there is but one eternal being.
So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings;
there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.

Similarly, the Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty,
the Holy Spirit is almighty.
Yet there are not three almighty beings;
there is but one almighty being.

Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods;
there is but one God.

Thus the Father is Lord,
the Son is Lord,
the Holy Spirit is Lord.
Yet there are not three lords;
there is but one Lord.

Just as Christian truth compels us
to confess each person individually
as both God and Lord,
so catholic religion forbids us
to say that there are three gods or lords.

The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.
The Son was neither made nor created;
he was begotten from the Father alone.
The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten;
he proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers;
there is one Son, not three sons;
there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.

Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.

So in everything, as was said earlier,
we must worship their trinity in their unity
and their unity in their trinity.

Anyone then who desires to be saved
should think thus about the trinity.

But it is necessary for eternal salvation
that one also believe in the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.

Now this is the true faith:

That we believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son,
is both God and human, equally.

He is God from the essence of the Father,
begotten before time;
and he is human from the essence of his mother,
born in time;
completely God, completely human,
with a rational soul and human flesh;
equal to the Father as regards divinity,
less than the Father as regards humanity.

Although he is God and human,
yet Christ is not two, but one.
He is one, however,
not by his divinity being turned into flesh,
but by God's taking humanity to himself.
He is one,
certainly not by the blending of his essence,
but by the unity of his person.
For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh,
so too the one Christ is both God and human.

He suffered for our salvation;
he descended to hell;
he arose from the dead;
he ascended to heaven;
he is seated at the Father's right hand;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
At his coming all people will arise bodily
and give an accounting of their own deeds.
Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith:
one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.

[Play The Man]

America's Greatest Theologian, Jonathan Edwards, "An Unpublished Essay On The Trinity"

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/tri...s/trinity.html

[Play The Man]

Originally Posted by Play The Man

On The Incarnation by St. Athanasius. Get the edition with an introduction by C.S. Lewis.

http://www.amazon.com/Incarnation-In.../dp/0913836400



I believe the Introduction by Lewis is published elsewhere (the book God In The Dock, I believe) as the essay "On The Reading Of Old Books". So with this edition you kill two birds with one stone.

I will post a copy of the Athanasian Creed for you.

If money is tight, I could mail you my copy of the book.

This book, and a huge number of old Christian books are available free on-line at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
http://www.ccel.org/

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation.html

The CCEL also has several apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Downloading the Confession of St. Augustine as I post this.

you have genesis 1 - the spirit of God hovered over the water.

you have john 1:1 in the beginning was the word, and the was was with God and the word was God followed by john 1:14 and the word became flesh.

just two off the top of my head, biblically speaking, the previous posts all say a great deal too

how I always explain it is that it is one person with three distinct roles.

like me.

I am a father to my daugther

A husband to my wife

and a son to my father

yet I am one man, but all three aspect of me are different, I cant be the son to my wife, or daugther. nor the other things to either of the other people.
each role is diferent but I am one man, three roles

Originally Posted by warriorlion

you have genesis 1 - the spirit of God hovered over the water.

you have john 1:1 in the beginning was the word, and the was was with God and the word was God followed by john 1:14 and the word became flesh.

just two off the top of my head, biblically speaking, the previous posts all say a great deal too

how I always explain it is that it is one person with three distinct roles.

like me.

I am a father to my daugther

A husband to my wife

and a son to my father

yet I am one man, but all three aspect of me are different, I cant be the son to my wife, or daugther. nor the other things to either of the other people.
each role is diferent but I am one man, three roles

Excellent answer. I always used the example of water with my kids...

Ice
Liquid
vapor (steam)

All three are 100% water but they serve different roles and accomplish different things...

Originally Posted by Chuck

Excellent answer. I always used the example of water with my kids...

Ice
Liquid
vapor (steam)

All three are 100% water but they serve different roles and accomplish different things...

Awesome example, never thought of that one!

[Play The Man]

Chuck and Warriorlion, I don't want to pick a fight with either of you, but wouldn't those be examples of modalism rather than trinitarianism? Perhaps Rev or NateR could weigh in on this. I'm not trying to kick off a long thread argument, just trying to clarify.