2nd century

The Apologists: the Logos as mediator and "another God", threefold worship and the first use of "Trinity"

The Apologists, according to Berkhof, presented God as self-existent, unchangeable and eternal, describable only negatively, and preferred to speak of the Son as the Logos – the divine Reason that dwelt in God and received personal existence before the creation of the world. Justin, according to González, thought in the spirit of Middle Platonism: the Logos is the mediator between the transcendent Father and creation, and Justin calls the Word "another God". In the Apology Justin describes the worship of the Father, the Son, "the host of good angels" and the prophetic Spirit; Hall and Pelikan note that the place of the angels and the Spirit in this formula is unclear. Theophilus of Antioch, c. 180, was the first to use the word "trinity" and distinguished the Word always dwelling in God from the Word uttered.