According to the gospels, the first two entities of the holy trinity are referred to as ‘Father’ and ‘Son’. Therefore the gospel model of the trinity is apparently, at least partially the holy trinity is based on the analogy of the Bible. Thus as different individuals could be members of the same family, different entities of the Holy trinity are one God. This view of the Christian deity is termed Social Trinitiriasm. This view of Christian theology is associated chiefly Eastern or Greek orthodox churches and was originally proposed by Basil of Caesarea, his friend Gregory of Nazianzen and Basils brother Gregory of Nyssa.
In recent times Richard Swinburne has developed a Christian theological concept that based on Social Trinitiriasm. In Swinburne’s version, the holy trinity is composed of three distinct entities; each of the entities is divine and endowed with omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience and moral perfection. However unlike other co-existing individuals, the trinity is capable of existing in perfect harmony with each other.
This is unlike gods in most polytheistic systems, for the Holy Trinity entities are capable of existing in perfect harmony with each other. This view is compatible with other Christian theology concepts which imply dependence between the various personages of the holy trinity. These traditional conceptions of Christian theology that hold God the father generated, God the son and jointly they generated Holy Spirit.
The social view of Christian theology postulates that though there are three distinct divine persons, their individual wills are so harmonious, they function as one entity with one will. Therefore the multiple personalities can be considered as one entity otherwise called the holy trinity. This social model of Christian theology has been criticized for being too close to tritheistic tradition: belief in three distinct, powerful gods joined in a triad.
Tritheistic gods however are distinct have different spheres of influence or powers, something not applicable for Christianity. However doubtable link to tritheism has been sufficient to cause the fall of social Christian theology from grace and make it unacceptable to mainstream western churches. This however is not a new issue for Christian theologians because it is same accusation leveled against the Christian doctrine of holy trinity by Jews, Muslims and other monotheists.
To reply to detractors, social Christian theologians have used a number of counter arguments. One common line of argument is to consider what is required for many things to jointly compose another single thing. For instance a (single) car is composed of (many) parts. A single 707 Boeing airplane is compose of over a million parts. The millions parts in no way reduce the individuality (oneness) of the aircraft. Thus, one God may be composed of three personages. One famous analogy attributed to C.S. Lewis is that a one cube has six sides similarly one God could be three entities. The mythical guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, is one dog composed of three ’dogs’ an analogy J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig have used to explain the concept of Holy trinity.