With respect to the statement in the Athanasian Creed that states that "just as we are obliged by Christian truth to acknowledge each person separately both God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to speak of three Gods or Lord," Dale Tuggy wrote the following:
This explanation falls short, though. It seems that the subject has been changed from how we are to think to how we are to speak. each of the three must be called "God" and "Lord," and the Christian is not to say "three Gods" or "three Lords." But why these rules, if indeed each of the three "is God" and they truly are three? This famous creed leaves us wondering.
Imagine meeting a new neighbor who introduces you to the two women at his side.
“Hi neighbor!” This is my wife Alice. We’ve been married for exactly five years.”
“Pleased to meet you.”
“And this is my wife Betty,” he says, pointing to the other women. “We’ve been married exactly three years.”
“I’m pleased to meet you and your two wives,” you reply. “I’ve never met anyone who was married to two women.”
“Oh no, neighbor, we don’t say ‘two wives’ or ‘two women.’ In truth, I’m married to just one women; I have just one wife. True, Alice is one person, and Betty is another; but we “neither confuse the persons nor divide the wifehood.”
This exchange would leave you confused (not to mention uncomfortable). You can see that Alice and Betty are two different beings, and their husband has told you of their different beings, and their husband has told you of their different wedding dates. But you’ve been told that they’re a single wife, even though each alone is a wife and you’ve been told not to say “two wives” or “two women” about them. You might wonder if this man has some idiosyncratic way of counting wives! (Dale Tuggy, What is the Trinity? Thinking About the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit [2017], 9-10)
