The doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons or hypostases: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; "one God in three persons". The three persons are distinct, yet are one "substance, essence or nature". A nature is what one is, while a person is who one is. According to this central mystery of Christian faith, there is only one God in three persons: while distinct from one another in their relations of origin (as the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds") and in their relations with one another, they are one in all else, co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial, and each is God, whole and entire. Accordingly, the whole work of creation and grace is a single operation common to all three divine persons, in which each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, so that all things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Scripture does not contain expressly a formulated doctrine of the Trinity: it bears witness to the activity of a God who, according to the Christian theology, can only be understood in trinitarian terms. The doctrine did not take its definitive shape until late in the fourth century.During the intervening period, various tentative solutions, some more and some less satisfactory were proposed.Trinitarianism contrasts with nontrinitarian positions which include Binitarianism (one deity in two persons, or two deities), Unitarianism (one deity in one person, analogous to Jewish interpretation of the Shema and Muslim belief in Tawhid), Oneness Pentecostalism or Modalism (one deity manifested in three separate aspects).

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