Abstract

In his “True Intellectual System of the Universe”, published in 1678, Cudworth defends the doctrine of the Trinity against the Socinian critique. In contrast to its defenders in the Presbyterian or Congregationalist camp he is less interested in showing that the doctrine is contained in Scripture than in showing that it is in accordance with philosophical reason. He was convinced that it was already present in pagan philosophy, especially in Platonism, there being no fundamental difference between the Platonic and the Nicean Trinity. For this reason Cudworth strictly distinguishes between a genuine Platonic Trinity and what he calls the Pseudo-Platonic Trinity of pagan Neoplatonism.