AD 53-54, about twenty years after the crucifixion of Jesus, and 12–21 years before the earliest of the canonical gospels was written: This folio dates to between 175 and 225 AD.Įarly Christian views of God (before the gospels were written) are reflected in the Apostle Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 8:5–6, written c. Ī folio from Papyrus 46 containing a copy of 2 Corinthians 11:33–12:9. Trinitarianism was subsequently practiced through Nicene Christianity thereafter, and forms a cornerstone of modern Christian understandings of God, though some Christian denominations hold Nontrinitarian views about God. The Trinitarian doctrine holds that God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit are all different aspects of one substance, and is not traditionally held to be one of tritheism. This concept was later expanded upon at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, and a later definitive form was produced by the Ecumenical Council of 381. Around the year 200 AD, Tertullian formulated a version of the doctrine of the Trinity which clearly affirmed the divinity of Jesus. in such a way as to compel a Trinitarian understanding of God". Īlthough the New Testament does not have a formal doctrine of the Trinity as such, "it does repeatedly speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Kingdom of God is a prominent phrase in the Synoptic Gospels, and while there is near unanimous agreement among scholars that it represents a key element of the teachings of Jesus, there is little scholarly agreement on its exact interpretation. As time passed, Christian theologians developed systematic lists of these attributes, some based on statements in the Bible (e.g., the Lord's Prayer, stating that the Father is in Heaven), others based on theological reasoning. In the 8th century, John of Damascus listed eighteen attributes which remain widely accepted.
The theology of the attributes and nature of God has been discussed since the earliest days of Christianity, with Irenaeus writing in the 2nd century: "His greatness lacks nothing, but contains all things". This formed one aspect of the split of early Christianity and Judaism, as Gentile Christian views of God began to diverge from the traditional Jewish teachings of the time.
Although some early sects of Christianity, such as the Jewish-Christian Ebionites, protested against the apotheosis of Jesus, the concept of Jesus being one with God was accepted by the majority of Gentile Christians. Įarly Christian views of God were expressed in the Pauline epistles and the early Christian creeds, which proclaimed one God and the divinity of Jesus. Christian teachings on the transcendence, immanence, and involvement of God in the world and his love for humanity exclude the belief that God is of the same substance as the created universe (rejection of pantheism) but accept that God's divine nature was hypostatically united to human nature in the person of Jesus Christ, in a unique event known as "the Incarnation". Christians believe in a monotheistic conception of God, which is both transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material universe) and immanent (involved in the material universe). God in Christianity is believed to be the eternal, supreme being who created and preserves all things.
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