Introduction

The word Trinity is a combination of two words meaning three and unity. The doctrine of the
Holy Trinity tells us that God is three persons in total unity. He is one in essence, but has shown
Himself to us as three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These are separate
persons (hypostasis) with individual (hypostatic) attributes, yet all one in essence. This does not
seem to make sense. This is because there is a mystery involved that cannot be totally explained.
James Henry Owino Kombo quoting from C. Hall says:
the trinity, to use a familiar equation, is viewed as a riddle wrapped up inside a puzzle
and buried in an enigma. A riddle for how can any entity be at the same time multiple
(three) yet singular (one)? A puzzle for the trinity is so clearly contrary to any rational
thought not to warrant a second thought from the sensible people. An enigma, for even if
the Trinity could be understood, of what practical value, even what religious value, would
it have for the ordinary people?1

To be able to answer these questions, we look at different understanding of God; in the African
context, from the scriptural basis, from theological writers and even the church teaching. This
will not only help us increase our understanding of the Trinity mystery, but it will also help us
appreciate our faith in the Trinitarian nature of God.

1 James Henry Owino Kombo, The Doctrine of God in African Christian Thought: The Holy
Trinity, Theological Hermeneutics, and the African Intellectual Culture, (Netherlands:
Koninklijke Brill NV,2007), p. 9.

1.0.

The African Understanding of God

African theology needs to entrench the doctrine of the trinity in its cultural milieu and use of
philosophical symbols of the culture to capture the same because the doctrine of the trinity
has practical value and intellectual coherence that must benefit the majority world of Africa
also.2 The beginning point of the doctrine of the trinity is the fact that God has revealed
himself as one, and yet we in the Christian faith have experienced him as the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.3
1.1.
The Kikuyu Understanding of God

The Kikuyu community have at least three well known, names for God: Ngai, Murungu, and
Mwene-Nyaga. Of the three names, Ngai is the most famous.4
The Agikuyu not only conceived of Ngai as an animal but as the biggest of the animals.
They also imagine Him to be a human being with animal characteristics; also that He is
uncharacterizable, that is to say, He cannot be described as a true human being nor as a
true animal. Nobody has ever seen this being called Ngai. 5

By the fact that the Gikuyu people could not characterize God or in any way tried to make
themselves a graven image in the name of this God, then we can draw the conclusion that they
conceive of God to be more of spiritual than material.

2 Cf. James Henry Owino Kombo, p. 9.

3 Cf. Ibid.
4 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1581394
5 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1581394
2

2.0.

Analogy Explaining the Trinity

the Persons of the Trinity can also be conceived of in terms of hylomorphic compounds. Thus,
we can think of the divine essence as playing the role of matter, and we can regard the properties
being a Father, being a Son, and being a Spirit as distinct forms instantiated by the divine
essence, each giving rise to a distinct Person. As with matter, we regard the divine essence not as
an individual thing in its own right but rather as that which, together with the requisite 'form'
constitutes a Person. Each person will then be a compound structure whose matter is the divine
essence and whose form is one of the three distinctive Trinitarian properties. On this way of
thinking, the Persons of the Trinity are directly analogous to particulars that stand in the familiar
relation of material constitution.6
3.0.

The Scriptural Foundation of the Trinity

If we would search in the scriptures, we would find that there are no recording s about the Trinity
in the scriptures. In humility we are to accept the truths revealed to us by God in the scriptures.
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our
children forever (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Alluding from the scriptural text, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20), we see the three persons of the Trinity being mentioned
together. Taking all that Scripture has to say regarding the one and only true God and the three

6Brower, Jeffrey E., and Michael C. Rea. "Material constitution and the trinity."Faith
and Philosophy 22, no. 1 (2005): 57.
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Persons of the Godhead, we find that the stress is upon unity and diversity in unity. The Bible
speaks about three Persons in a similar way. Scripture ascribes deity, personality, and
individuality to each. And yet the Bible also reveals that there is but one God. The ancients
expressed it well when they spoke about one essence, or substance, in God who existed in three
Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.7
4.0.

Hippolytus Understanding of the Trinity

Hippolytus like Tertullian, was a disciple of Irenaeus. He was born around 170CE. He is said to
have been a bishop, though it is not known for a fact for which diocese he was a bishop. He
fought against the heresy of Noetus who had taken a docetic view of the passion. He said that
Christ only appeared to suffer because God is immutable.8
Hippolytus in his defense against this teaching emphasizes the real distinction between the
Father and the Son, against modalist monism. For Hippolytus this distinction did not
compromise the oneness God because God is still one, even though a trinity.9
Following Irenaeus, Hippolytus described the Trinity as one God and one divine power,
but with a hierarchy (economy) of threefold manifestation. The Father, Son, and the
Holy Spirit are equally worshiped, because together the three are the one God. 10

7 Robert P. Lightner, The God of the Bible and Other Gods, (Grand Rapids: Kregel
Publications, 1998), 90.
8 Cf. James Leonard Papandrea, Reading the Early Church Fathers: From Didache to
Nicaea (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2012), p.102.
9Cf. Ibid.
10 Ibid.
4

5.0.

Walter Kaspers Idea of the Trinity

Kasper writes For by his very nature God is such that there can only be one of him. 11 God is
infinite. If there were two (or more) gods they would infringe on each other in their infiniteness.
Therefore, God must be one God and thus monotheism is, as Kasper puts it, not a philosophical
question but the fruit of religious experience.12 Kasper continues to explain the unity of the
world using this idea of the Trinity. He says, God is infinite and absolute so there can be no
division within God. God is distinct from the world. Yet, we do not live in isolation but in
relation to one another.13 Thus, Kasper sees the doctrine of the Trinity as the only possible and
consistent form of monotheism and the only tenable answer to modern atheism. 14 The Trinity is
how we can make sense of God.
6.0.

Church Teaching on the Trinity

The church teaching on the trinity is well stipulated in the catechism of the catholic church as
follows,
We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the consubstantial Trinity.
The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is
God whole and entire: The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father
is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God. In the
11 Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ. Trans. By Matthew J. OConnell (New York: Herder
& Herder, TheCrossroad Publishing Company, 1984), 239.

12Ibid.
13 Cf. Ibid., 240.
14 Ibid., 295.
5

words of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Each of the persons is that supreme reality,
viz., the divine substance, essence or nature. 15

Still, it is continued in the Catechism that,

The divine persons are really distinct from one another. God is one but not solitary.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit are not simply names designating modalities of the divine
being, for they are really distinct from one another: He is not the Father who is the Son,
nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the
Son. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: It is the Father who
generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds. The divine Unity
is Triune.16
Conclusion
In the African concept of God, especially in the Kikuyu Community, the idea of the Trinity may not be
vividly expressed but one thing is sure that they believed in one Mighty God. The Christian doctrine of
the Trinity is part of every major creed in the history of Christendom. It can be defined in the following
way: In the nature of the one God there are three centers of consciousness, which we call persons, and
these three are equal. Though the term "trinity" is not found in the Bible, the doctrine is nevertheless
taught there. "Trinity " is merely the term employed by theologians and church historians in order to
describe the phenomena of God they find in the Bible. Despite the many analogies we may tend to use to
explain the trinity, we can never come to a perfect analogy since we cannot explain the infinite using the
finite.
15 The Catechism of the Catholic Church (Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa,
1999), No. 253.
16 The Catechism of the Catholic Church (Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa,
1999), No. 254.
6

Bibliography
Church Documents
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 1999.
Books
Jeffrey, Brower E. and Michael C. Rea. "Material constitution and the trinity."Faith and Philosophy 22,
no. 1 (2005): 57.
Kasper, Walter, The God of Jesus Christ. Trans. By Matthew J. OConnell, New York: Herder & Herder,
The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1984.
Kombo, James Henry Owino, The Doctrine of God in African Christian Thought: The Holy Trinity,
Theological Hermeneutics, and the African Intellectual Culture, Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV,2007.
Lightner, Robert P., The God of the Bible and Other Gods, Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1998.

Papandrea, James Leonard Reading the Early Church Fathers: From Didache to Nicaea, New Jersey:
Paulist Press, 2012.
Internet Sources
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1581394