Two aspects of this tragedy can be briefly noted. Enlightenment philosophes aimed some of their most destructive weapons at this allegedly irrational doctrine, and Christian theologians, accommodating as always, agreed not to bring it up. Yet it is difficult to see how any theology but a Trinitarian one seriously affirms the personal nature of God. Personality, despite many shades of definition, is almost universally defined in terms of a capacity to relate to others. If God is an eternal Person, He must be in some eternal relation.
Several answers suggest themselves.
It might be said that God has a capacity for relation that remained unfulfilled until He created the world, but this suggestion makes the fulfillment of God's capacity for personal relation dependent on the creation. Alternatively, one could answer that God has an eternal relation to the creation, but this means that the creation is eternal and not, in fact, a creation at all-which further implies that God is more Demiurge than Creator. A more promising alternative is to recognize a multiplicity of persons in God, whose eternal personality is expressed in loving relations with One Another. Hesitancy to confess the reality of this God has caused an incalculable impoverishment of the church's witness-quite a price to pay to secure a respectful hearing in the salon. Second, the theology of ancient Greece and the modern West leads to serious distortions of the scriptural revelation of God's character.