Monday food for Thought–Alister McGrath on the Trinity

‘For many people, the doctrine of the trinity is one of the most baffling areas of Christian theology. How can we think of God as “three persons”? There are many who suspect that this is simply an attempt by theologians to make their subject in accessible to outsiders. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third President of United States of America was severely critical of what he termed, the “incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic.” Why on earth do we need to speak of God in this convoluted and puzzling way? Might it suggest that theology is thoroughly irrational?

More recently, Christians have become aware of the Islamic critique of the doctrine, which holds that it compromises the unity of God. Many Christians neglected the notion, partly because it was seen as obscure. Karl Rahner remarked that the modern Christians were “almost mere monotheists,” paying lip service to the Trinity in theory, but ignoring it in practice. “We must be willing to admit,” he remarked, “that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false the major part of religious literature could well remain virtually unchanged.”

–Alister McGrath, Theology: The Basics (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2012), p.116 [chapter 7])

2/3 A modern depiction of the Holy Trinity shield by Powell & Sons, 1944 at Swanton Morley, Norfolk.

Swanton Morley: https://t.co/xU98uQ2oYy pic.twitter.com/3YCcJf1Unq

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) May 31, 2026