Unity, Diversity, Trinity

The ancient Greek philosophers, in their search for ultimate reality, were looking for something that could account for both unity and diversity. Anyone can look at the world and see diversity in the things around us. But they believed there had to be some kind of substance, some thing, that unified it all. Personally, I'm not certain if this substance had to be in everything (that is, everything had to be made up of it) or if it just had to unify everything in some way. I think either one would satisfy the criteria.

This is another question that the God of Christianity answers. How? He answers through the Trinity, which in fact means through himself.

Look at the Trinity. The Trinity is composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each of these persons is fully God, not a third of God. Each of them is also, altogether, one God, not three separate gods. R.C. Sproul describes him as three in person and one in essence. If that's hard to wrap your mind around, join the club. But the point is this: within the Trinity, within the very being of God, there is both unity (one God) and diversity (three distinct persons).

Another way God satisfies this criteria is that he created all things. He is the ultimate source of Creation. He also created a great many things. Unity and diversity.

Another question of ancient Western philosophy that God answers. While we must never ultimately compress God into the box of human philosophial systems - that is, he doesn't have to fulfill every human philosophical criteria because such things can be inherently flawed - it's fascinating to see how he answers the questions he does. It's also fascinating how human thinkers knew to think of such questions. In my eyes, it's proof of God written on the human heart.