William of Ockham on the Trinity
One substance, three persons, co-equal and co-eternal
THE POSITION
Nicene. He holds the doctrine while arguing that several of its formulations cannot be established by natural reason and are held on revelation — a pattern that runs through his theology.
WHY THERE IS NO QUOTATIONNo quotations. He died in 1347 and the Latin is public domain, but the usable English translations are modern and in copyright, so these positions are paraphrased from standard scholarly accounts rather than reproduced. Fewer loci are filled for him than for Scotus, and the reason is recorded per cell rather than hidden: the literature on Ockham is dominated by his logic, metaphysics and politics, and his positions on several loci are not reported cell-by-cell in the standard accounts consulted.
21 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Franciscan, the Venerable Inceptor. Nominalist in metaphysics and voluntarist about God's freedom and the human will; spent his last two decades writing against Pope John XXII from the emperor's court in Munich.
Cite this page
"William of Ockham on the Trinity", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/ockham/trinity (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/ockham/trinity).