Define Dogma:
(Greek: opinion, decree) “An opinion or belief authoritatively stated, a truth appertaining to faith or morals, revealed by God, transmitted by the Apostles in the Scriptures or tradition, and proposed by the Church as an article of faith, to be accepted by the faithful. In the sense that a dogma is an idea, it follows that dogmatism is necessary for religion, since a religion without ideas is meaningless. The dogmas of the Church, being the intellectual conception and verbal express of Divine truth, naturally take on the characteristic of truth, viz., unchangeableness or immutability. Mathematics has certain dogmas which are permanent and fixed because they are grounded in the very nature of reason itself, e.g., the principle that the whole is greater than any of its parts. The dogmas of the Church, on the other hand, are true because grounded on the authority of the Divine Reason who reveals them. The term dogma is also used in an odious sense of a statement made arbitrarily or arrogantly.” New Catholic Dictionary
The Church expresses her faith in the Holy Trinity in many ways, including Baptism. It is even stated in part of the Liturgy, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
(Greek: opinion, decree) “An opinion or belief authoritatively stated, a truth appertaining to faith or morals, revealed by God, transmitted by the Apostles in the Scriptures or tradition, and proposed by the Church as an article of faith, to be accepted by the faithful. In the sense that a dogma is an idea, it follows that dogmatism is necessary for religion, since a religion without ideas is meaningless. The dogmas of the Church, being the intellectual conception and verbal express of Divine truth, naturally take on the characteristic of truth, viz., unchangeableness or immutability. Mathematics has certain dogmas which are permanent and fixed because they are grounded in the very nature of reason itself, e.g., the principle that the whole is greater than any of its parts. The dogmas of the Church, on the other hand, are true because grounded on the authority of the Divine Reason who reveals them. The term dogma is also used in an odious sense of a statement made arbitrarily or arrogantly.” New Catholic Dictionary
The Church expresses her faith in the Holy Trinity in many ways, including Baptism. It is even stated in part of the Liturgy, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
The Church wanted to illuminate her Trinitarian faith in order to deeper understand the faith and to defend the faith against the inaccuracies that were distorting it. The Church was able to do so with the help of the earlier councils and theological Church Fathers. Their ideas were accepted and carried on by the Christian people’s vision of faith.
While conveying the dogma of the Trinity, the Church developed “her own terminology” based on “notions of philosophical origin”; terms such as substance, person, hypostasis, and relation.
Substance: sometimes replaced with “essence” or “nature” – designates the divine being in its unity.
Person/hypostasis – designates Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them.
Relation – designates the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others.
With this strategy, the Church is able to separate the ideas of faith from human knowledge. Therefore defines the Trinity as an “ineffable mystery” (or indefinable vagueness) “infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand”.
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