Medieval Trinitarian argument flourished in texts more than actual oral debates

Evidence

There is little evidence of the use of Trinitarian argument in debate; indeed, it is probable that much more ammunition was prepared than was ever discharged. Latins were not alone in favouring Trinitarian argument; Oriental literature had been familiar with it, since the work of St John of Damascus; and the Jacobite Yahya b. ‘Adi, in the tenth century, had given the Holy Trinity a dialectical treatment pretentious in manner and almost as ambitious as Lull’s.** Primarily such texts witness to literary, rather than to oral debate, however. Examples of actual debates in the mediaeval period are few. In an ugly episode, a party of Franciscans, challenged to show how there could be a Son of God, cum Deus uxorem non habeat, gave examples of divine generation, the rays of the sun, the trees and the seeds of the earth. These comparationes were harmless, and might be useful if they helped to show the enemies of the Christian faith that it was not opposed to reason; but they were useless as compelling reasons, and they did not help the Franciscans, as it turned out. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1017

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on medieval Christian-Muslim-Jewish disputation and the limits of rational proof in theology. — connects to: Medieval disputation records were largely constructed strawman debates