Religion and Theology

Christian Belief

The core of Catholic religion is grounded on the belief of the Doctrine of Trinity - One God in Three Divine Persons. The Nicene Creed is the congestion or the summary of what Catholics believe. It attributes qualities of the God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, said to be three yet one.  To eliminate confusion, authorities stress out the need of faith.  Only faith will hold on to such belief in one God the Father almighty, the maker of all things, Jesus Christ, the begotten son of God and one in substance with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, the lord and giver of life, the one who proceeds from the father and the son.

Arian Heresy
A theological controversy finds parallelism and thus gave birth to Arian heresy. To cite, Arius was a priest from Egypt, and referring to biblical statement, he put forth the view that the Son was created by the Father in time. Further, it claimed that such created Logos took the form of the earthly Jesus to bring saving knowledge, thus there was when he was not and only the Father is truly eternal God (Ludwig, 2006 156).

Doctrine of Trinity and Arian Heresy
In the height of the theological controversies, Arian heresy is a deviation from the Doctrine of Trinity.  While recognizing the existence of earthly Jesus, it is actually grounded on the pure belief that God the Father is the one God. It never mentioned about the Holy Ghost.  Further, this popular Arian view posed danger to Christian faith as recognized by Athanasius and other Christian thinkers, and with the inclination to the highest danger to worship Christ as a being created in time would be to worship a divine being other than the one God (Ludwig, 2006 156). Arian Heresy, if not the only, is one of the reasons why Emperor Constantine pushed to settle the dispute and unify his realm, by convening the Council of Nicea which declared that the Son is true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. To reiterate, the Catholic position is that there is one God in three divine persons  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is an eternal unity, the Father eternally ingenerate, the Son eternally begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father (Ludwig, 2006 156).

How the opening verses of John provides support for the Trinitarian view.
Significantly, through the use of the logos Word, evident in the line In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god, the Gospel of John reflects the book of Genesis. Such reflection brings us to the time of creation. Further Genesis 126 And God said, Let us make man to our image and likeness must also be noted. John opens his gospel from a philosophical perspective of the relationships among God, the Word of God, and Jesus. John characterizes Jesus to be already with the father at the time of creation, affirming the Son as being eternally begotten of the Father. To sum it all, Johns use of the logos Word accordingly is the foundation for one of the most influential theories of Christ found in Christianity. It is supportive to the claim on the belief of the Trinity (Ludwig, 2006 156).