Trinity

a river in North America, in the southern USA. The river is formed by the confluence of the West Fork and East Fork rivers and empties into Galveston Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. It is 820 km long (from the source of the West Fork, 1,050 km) and drains an area of 45,600 sq km. The river is fed by rain, and its mean flow rate near the mouth is 206 cu m per sec. There are reservoirs in the basin of the Trinity. Fort Worth and Dallas are situated on the Trinity.

a term in Christian theology designating god. According to a fundamental Christian dogma, god’s substance is indivisible, but he exists in three persons, or hypostases: the Father, the Son (Logos, or the Word), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons of the Trinity are consubstantial, equal, and eternal. The term “Trinity, ” which does not appear in the New Testament, was first used by the theologians Theophilus and Tertullian at the end of the second century. The study of the Trinity was further developed in the third century by Origen. The profoundly irrational concept of a tripartite divinity provoked heated discussion in the Christian Church. The doctrine of the Trinity was affirmed at the Councils of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381. Many sects rejected the doctrine of the Trinity on rational grounds. (SeeANTI-TRINITARIANS.)