Trinitarian debates

[Archaea]

In fairness to our trinitarian friends, at least the intellectuals of the the second, third and fourth centuries, I repent. I give them their due.

If I ever knew. and CHC, Solon and AA can correct me, the reason for the trinitarian controversies arose out of Christians' attempts to harmonize the singular or monotheistic tradition of the Jewish faith and Old Testament, with the teachings of the New Testament and Stoic Greek thought. They struggle with harmonization at the metaphysical and theological level of maintaining a consistency with the Jewish tradition and the apparent manifestation of three parts of God which appeared to be distinct but couldn't be in their way of thinking.

It consumed much of their thinking about the nature of God. These Christians did not want to be seen as being polytheistic. They struggled with harmonizing who Christ was and how he was related to the Father. They struggled even more greatly with who the Holy Ghost was and what he did.

In the light of this theological debate, I can respect their efforts better. The transition goes from the NT, to the Apostolic Fathers, to the Apologists, the Monarchists, and then the traditional theologians such as Iraeneus of Lyn and so forth.

Interestingly, the reason we LDS have trouble understanding these debates, is we don't take part in the discussion. Our theology is not established to answer these questions on their terms, i.e., in light of Greek philosophy (against which some of the Trinitarian arguments were directed but influenced by), and in light of historical theological development. Joseph Smith never sought to answer those questions. And LDS for the most part still don't.

We simply don't speak the language of trinitarians and they do not speak ours. We don't even understand that we using the same words speaking a different language, at least I didn't fully comprehend.

I wonder what percentage of Trinitarians even understand the historical developments of the Nicene creed and its relative theological significance.