Nontrinitarianism

===Hellenic influences===
{{see also|Hellenization}}
Stuart G Hall (formerly Professor of Ecclesiastical History at King's College, London) describes the subsequent process of philosophical/theological amalgamation in ''Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church'' (1991), where he writes:
{{blockquote|The apologists began to claim that Greek culture pointed to and was consummated in the Christian message, just as the Old Testament was. This process was done most thoroughly in the synthesis of Clement of Alexandria. It can be done in several ways. You can rake through Greek literature, and find (especially in the oldest seers and poets) references to 'God' which are more compatible with monotheism than with polytheism (so at length Athenagoras.) You can work out a common chronology between the legends of prehistoric (Homer) Greece and the biblical record (so Theophilus.) You can adapt a piece of pre-Christian Jewish apologetic, which claimed that Plato and other [[Greek philosophers]] got their best ideas indirectly from the teachings of Moses in the Bible, which was much earlier. This theory combines the advantage of making out the Greeks to be plagiarists (and therefore second-rate or criminal), while claiming that they support Christianity by their arguments at least some of the time. Especially this applied to the question of God.<ref>Stuart George Hall (1992). ''Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church''. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 50. {{ISBN|0-8028-0629-5}}</ref>}}

The [[neo-Platonic]] trinities, such as that of [[Neoplatonism#The One|the One]], the [[Nous]] and the [[Plato's theory of soul|Soul]], are not considered a trinity necessarily of consubstantial equals as in mainstream Christianity. However, the neo-Platonic trinity has the doctrine of emanation, or "eternal derivation", a timeless procedure of generation having as a source the One and claimed to be paralleled with the generation of the light from the Sun. This was adopted by Origen and later on by Athanasius, and applied to the generation of the Son from the Father, because they believed that this analogy could be used to support the notion that the Father, as immutable, always had been a Father, and that the generation of the Son is therefore eternal and timeless.<ref>''Select Treatises of St. Athanasius'' – In Controversy With the Arians – Freely Translated by John Henry Cardinal Newmann – Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911</ref>

The synthesis of Christianity with [[Platonism|Platonic]] philosophy was further incorporated in the trinitarian formulas that appeared by the end of the 3rd century. "The Greek philosophical theology" was "developed during the Trinitarian controversies over the relationships among the persons of the Godhead".<ref>A. Hilary Armstrong, Henry J. Blumenthal, Platonism. ''Encyclopædia Britannica.'' Retrieved May 13, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD.</ref> The allegation of borrowing was raised by some disputants when the Nicene doctrine was being formalized and adopted by the bishops. For example, in the 4th&nbsp;century, [[Marcellus of Ancyra]], who taught the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were one person (hypostasis), said in his ''On the Holy Church, 9'':{{blockquote|Now with the heresy of the Ariomaniacs, which has corrupted the Church of God&nbsp;... These then teach three hypostases, just as [[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] the heresiarch first invented in the book entitled by him 'On the Three Natures'. For he was the first to invent three hypostases and three persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he is discovered to have filched this from [[Hermes Trismegistus|Hermes]] and [[Plato]]."<ref>Logan A. Marcellus of Ancyra (Pseudo-Anthimus), 'On the Holy Church': Text, Translation and Commentary. Verses 8–9. Journal of Theological Studies, NS, Volume&nbsp;51, Pt.&nbsp;1, April 2000, p. 95.</ref>}}

In his Introduction to the 1964 book ''[[Meditations]]'', the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound influence of [[Stoicism|Stoic philosophy]] on Christianity. In particular:
<blockquote>Again in the doctrine of the Trinity, the ecclesiastical conception of Father, Word, and Spirit finds its germ in the different Stoic names of the Divine Unity. Thus [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], writing of the supreme Power which shapes the universe, states, 'This Power we sometimes call the All-ruling God, sometimes the incorporeal Wisdom, sometimes the holy Spirit, sometimes Destiny.' The Church had only to reject the last of these terms to arrive at its own acceptable definition of the Divine Nature; while the further assertion 'these three are One', which the modern mind finds paradoxical, was no more than commonplace to those familiar with Stoic notions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aurelius |first=Marcus |author-link=Marcus Aurelius| title=Meditations |url=https://archive.org/details/meditations0000marc_m9z0 |url-access=registration |year=1964 |location=London |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=25 |isbn=978-0-14-044140-6}}</ref></blockquote>