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Christian Rituals & Practices

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The nature of God and the Trinity

Belief in the Trinity is a central tenet of Christianity
Christians believe that God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. In other words, God is all-knowing, all powerful and always present. Christians also believe that God is One but embodied in three persons, God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit as sanctifier. Belief in the Trinity is a central tenet of Christianity. God's promise of salvation has been fulfilled through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In other words, God is revealed as the trinity. God the Father is revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures, God the Son in the Christian scriptures and God the Spirit is revealed through the Church.
Trinitarian doctrine
This plurality in God is evident in the way Jesus calls God "abba" which means Father. Similarly early Christian practice indicates a liturgical use of this Trinitarian formula, "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit". The Trinitarian doctrine states that there are three co-eternal, equal persons in one God. This doctrine was further developed and defined at the councils of Nicaea in 325 CE and Constantinople in 381 CE. The difficulty is reconciling monotheism with the notion of the three persons.
The various heresies and the councils which followed reflect a process of refining the understanding of the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the fourth century there was considerable debate and discussion on how God was One and yet also three persons. In other words, how can unity co-exist with the notion of trinity? As this issue was debated a further question emerged, that is, the question of whether God is three only in terms of economy or is God three at an intra-divine level (immanence).
Cappadocian theology- ignore from this down
In response to this, during

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