The fight over the Trinity
The Eastern and Western churches have understood the Trinity in rather different ways, each with distinct problems. For the East, the person of the Father is the centre of divine unity. The potential danger is a sub-ordinationist tendency, with the Son and the Holy Spirit having a derivative status. On the other hand, the West, since Augustine, has focused on the one divine essence (being), only with difficulty accounting for the real eternal distinctions between the persons. A less-than fully personal view of God has resulted. Its bias is in a modalist direction, wherein the distinct persons are blurred. Unfortunately, the Trinity is not a vital part of worship; for Western Christians, it is a mathematical conundrum, a matter for advanced philosophers, not ordinary believers. Conversely, the Eastern church, while maintaining the Trinity at the heart of worship, has taught that the divine essence is unknowable, placing a question mark over the reality of our knowledge of God. Some