Trinity and Monotheism : A historical and theological review of the origins and substance of the doctrine by A. Keith Thompson

Trinity and Monotheism : A historical and theological review of the origins and substance of the doctrine by A. Keith Thompson

Paperback, 214 pages, $29.95

Published in 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.