| abstract
| - Since Christianity is a religion derived from Judaism, it should not be a surprise that from the beginning it has been adamantly monotheistic. The early 2nd century Apologists like Justin Martyr rejected Marcionite and Gnostic dualism wholeheartedly and asserted the oneness of God in strong, almost Platonistic language. The difficulty present in early Christianity was integrating this strongly monotheistic tradition with the new revelation available in Jesus Christ. Essentially, this new revelation was that God had made Himself known through and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the hoped-for Messiah of Israel. This God-Man was clearly described as being divine, yet was presented as a distinct person from God the Father. Christ himself revealed the coming Spirit of God who also possessed divine attributes and too was spoken of as distinct from the Father. These statements of Jesus, along with the teaching of the epistles of Paul and John, presented a unique theological challenge to the early Christians. By the close of the New Testament era, there were clear statements of Christ's pre-existence and His role in the creation of the world (cf. John 1). From the words of the NT Scriptures alone there were nascent suggestions of Trinitarianism in various liturgical formulations of the early church; for instance, baptisms in the Church were always done in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Speaking of Trinitarianism in the ante-Nicene period is somewhat anachronistic, since the word Trinity (Lat. trinitas) was first coined by the Latin father Tertullian in the 2nd century, and the Trinitarian doctrine was not solidified as dogma until the early 4th century. A systematic presentation of the development of Trinitarian theology is best seen in a roughly chronological fashion, from the the Canon of Scripture, through the early church fathers, and the world-defying Athanasius. However, Roger Olson reminds us that "Christian belief in God as triune did not arise in the fourth century with Roman emporer Constantine and the Christian bishops that he dominated. Belief that it arose then as part of a vague paganizing or Hellenizing of Christianity is a caricature often promoted by anti-trinitarian cults and sects" (Roger Olson, The Mosaic of Christian Belief, p. 135)
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