A rationalistic account of creation was deployed to prove the Trinity.

Evidence

The authentic Qur’anic objection to the doctrine of the Trinity does not normally appear in these examples of false-Augustinian temper, but a number of writers did seek to use arguments from the Qur’an which they felt Muslims would be bound to accept; this was done with more sympathy and with less, and both with, and without, the aid of the comparationes. It was held that the Qur’an itself admitted the truth of the Trinity. Oliver of Paderborn sought ground common to the two religions in terms like ‘breath of God’. As God is simple in nature and there is nothing in God which is not God, and (Christ) was conceived by the breath of God, it is evident that He is God; and the breath of God is nothing but the Holy Ghost, and the speech of God nothing else but the Word of God. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 997 (#expands, via linked claim)

These questions obsessed him, till he came to think of the relation of Christianity to Islam chiefly in these terms. He took rationalisation of the Trinity further than any other polemist and much further than contemporary schools of theology would allow. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 980 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Christian apologists used rational creation arguments to prove the Trinity — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 827; Medieval theologians distinguished rational illustration of the Trinity from rational proof — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 975; Theologians thought proving the Trinity rationally was impossible — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 977 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian apologists used rational creation arguments to prove the Trinity #corroborates (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 827
• Medieval theologians distinguished rational illustration of the Trinity from rational proof #complicates (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 975
• Theologians thought proving the Trinity rationally was impossible #contradicts (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 977
• A Christian polemicist proved the Trinity by equating divine attributes with persons #responds-to (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 388
• Christian apologists argued the Trinity from Adam’s generation and emanation analogically #expands (1.00)
• Trinity doctrine was argued through supposedly rational criteria rooted in Latin influence #expands (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 829
• Lull pushed rational argument for the Trinity beyond medieval theological limits #complicates (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 980
• Medieval theologians cited the Qur’an as implicit proof of the Trinity #complicates (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 997
• Medieval polemicists coerced the Qur’an’s own terms into proofs of the Trinity #expands (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 997
• Medieval Christians invented a distorted Muslim Trinity as mirror of their own faith #complicates (1.00) — R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle…, 186
• Scholastic theology assumed faith could be proven rationally to infidels #qualifies (1.00)
• Llull proved the Trinity through the dynamic relational structure of divine attributes #responds-to (1.00)
• Llull’s rational proofs for God largely restated Anselmic and Thomistic arguments #qualifies (1.00) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1315
• Oliver of Paderborn proved the Trinity from the Qur’anic breath of God #complicates (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 998
• Medieval Christian polemicists uniquely claimed proof via another religion’s scriptures #responds-to (1.00) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 297