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The Trinitarian Doctrine in the Language of Category Theory

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Beyond Babel: Religion and Linguistic Pluralism

Abstract

In this chapter, I use the language of category theory to address a relevant part of the Christian Trinitarian doctrine. Using a categorical conceptual apparatus usual to mathematicians, it is possible to represent important points of Trinitarian theology and show that such discourse can be considered free of contradictions. Problems concerning the Trinity are therefore approached from a category theory perspective.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an introduction to trinitarian theology see Mateo-Seco (2005), Méndez (2006), Pohle and Preuss (1925), Marmion (2011). Cf. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 48; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 249–256.

  2. 2.

    For a first-order logical approach to the logical problem of the Trinity, see Bertato (2020). For a mathematical perspective see Bertato (2014).

  3. 3.

    To an introduction to the category theory I recommend Goldblatt (1979), Mac Lane (1978), Marquis (2021), Spivak (2014), Fong and Spivak (2019).

  4. 4.

    Of course, the term “product” is used here in its categorical sense, not as something that is made or produced, nor inferring that some person is created or something like that.

Bibliography

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Logic, Epistemology, and the History of Science (CLE), University of Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, Brazil

    Fábio Maia Bertato

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  1. Fábio Maia Bertato
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Correspondence to Fábio Maia Bertato .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. AI Systems Engineering, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Andrea Vestrucci

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Bertato, F.M. (2023). The Trinitarian Doctrine in the Language of Category Theory. In: Vestrucci, A. (eds) Beyond Babel: Religion and Linguistic Pluralism. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 43. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42127-3_22

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