The Athaniasian Creed (attributed to Athanasius, the 20th bishop of Alexandria) states, "[We] worship one God in trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is another still. But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit."
Orthodox Christianity rejects modalism (God is one person who appears in three different forms) and tritheism (the Trinity is three seperate Gods) as gross heresies. Instead, God is one divine essence simultaneously existing as three distinct yet coequal persons--one what and three whos. Though not formally irrational, the Trinity is utterly mysterious, beyond man's range of complete understanding.
Perhaps it is the doctrine's incomprehensibility that makes Islam percieve it as polytheism. Qur'an 112 speaks of Allah's oneness and unity. The angel says to Mohammed, "He is Allah, the One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He begets not, nor was he begotten; and there is none coequal or comparable unto him." To Mohammed, if there is monotheism, there can't be a Trinity, and if there's a Trinity, there can't be monotheism. Christianity stands in contrast to Mohammed's "pure" monotheism.
These notions stem from a wrong understanding of what the Trinity actually is: one God in three persons, determinedly monothesitic yet unsearchably mysterious. The Christian God is utterly unique. "Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?" (Exodus 15:11)
For further reading:
- A Brief Definition of the Trinity by Dr. James White
- Is Christianity Rational? by Dan Philips
- The Athanasian Creed
- The Nicene Creed
EDIT: Commented on Gary Hamner's "Messiah."
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