The Trinity is the central Christian mystery of three-in-one – and ‘trinity’ has come to mean any sacred or perfect group of three
The Trinity Arms in Clapham holds fifteen hundred and eighty-three reviews and a 4.4 – a large, solid sample – and it is named after one of the most profound and central of all religious mysteries: the Trinity, the Christian doctrine of three-in-one, from which “trinity” has come to mean any sacred, perfect or powerful group of three.
The three-in-one
The Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian theology: the doctrine that God is one being in three persons – the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit – three distinct persons who are yet one God. It is a genuine mystery, held to be beyond full human comprehension – three-in-one and one-in-three, a unity and a trinity at once. It has been the subject of the deepest theological reflection for two thousand years, and it lies at the very heart of Christian belief and worship.
The Trinity gives its name to a great deal in Christian culture – Trinity Sunday, the churches and colleges named “Holy Trinity” or simply “Trinity” (including famous colleges at Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin), and, in this survey’s terms, pubs. A pub named “Trinity Arms” most likely stands near, or was historically connected to, a Holy Trinity church – the “Arms” suffix, as we have seen throughout this survey, often indicating a connection to a local institution, family or landmark, here a church dedicated to the Trinity.
The power of three
Behind the specifically Christian Trinity lies a much deeper and more universal human fascination: the power and sacredness of the number three. Three appears, again and again, as a special, complete, powerful number across cultures and throughout human thought. There is a genuine psychological and structural completeness to three – the beginning, middle and end; the three dimensions of space; the three-legged stool that stands where two legs cannot.
Three saturates our stories, our sayings, and our sense of pattern. Fairy tales overflow with threes – three wishes, three brothers, three little pigs, three bears, three trials. “Third time lucky.” “Good things come in threes.” The “rule of three” in comedy and rhetoric, where three examples land better than two or four. Beginnings, middles and ends. There is something deeply satisfying and complete about three, and cultures across the world have treated it as a sacred, magical, powerful number – from the trinities of many religions to the countless threes of folklore and storytelling.
The many trinities
Because of this, “trinity” has come to mean any sacred or perfect group of three, well beyond the specifically Christian sense. We speak of a “holy trinity” of anything – the three essential or perfect examples of a thing, the three that belong together, the perfect trio. The word has escaped its theological origins to become a general term for the sacred, powerful, or perfect three. So “Trinity Arms,” while rooted in the Christian mystery, also carries this whole rich sense of the completeness and power of three – a satisfying, resonant, meaningful name.
The pub
A large, popular pub doing a fair 4.4 across a large and real sample, named after the Trinity – the central Christian mystery of three-in-one, and, more broadly, the sacred and satisfying power of the number three.
Verdict
Large, popular, and named after the Trinity – the profound three-in-one of Christian belief, and the deep human sense of three as the sacred and complete number.
Have a pint at the Trinity Arms, and consider the power of three – the three-in-one mystery, the three wishes of the fairy tale, the third time lucky, and all the sacred, satisfying threes of human thought.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
Peter Sellers aurait pulvérisé tout cela.