DIVINE SIMPLICITY & THE QUESTION OF “THREE WILLS”

Question #34: If someone posits that the Trinity has three distinct wills (one per Person), how does this claim conflict with Christian teaching on the single divine will, divine simplicity, and the unity of Christ’s two wills (divine and human)?

Context

In classical Christian theology, the divine will is understood as a property of the one divine essence, not a separate “faculty” that each Person possesses individually. Accordingly, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share a single, undivided divine will. This conviction rests on divine simplicity–God is not composed of separable parts or powers–and is central to preserving both God’s oneness and the co-equality of the Persons.

Response

Catholic doctrine (drawing on foundational councils and the scholastic tradition) maintains that God is “one simple essence” (Lateran IV, DS 800; CCC 202–211). If the Trinity had three distinct wills, it would compromise this simplicity by suggesting the Godhead is partitioned into multiple independent centers of willing. Even if these three wills were said to be in perfect harmony, they would still introduce a form of composition in the divine life, contradicting the teaching that God is not made up of discrete “parts” or faculties.

Affirming three distinct wills in the Trinity risks drifting into tritheism (three separate gods, each with a unique volitional center) or subordinationism (one will overriding another). The Church has consistently rejected such views since the earliest ecumenical councils, which defended both the real distinction of Persons and the indivisible unity of God’s essence. Any multiplication of wills among the Persons suggests either a hierarchy or three parallel deities, neither of which aligns with Catholic monotheism.

The Council of Constantinople III (680–681) definitively taught that Christ has two wills–a divine will (shared with the Father and the Spirit) and a human will assumed at the Incarnation. This dogma depends on the principle that there is but one divine will in the Godhead. If there were three divine wills, it would create confusion in Christology: Which “divine will” does Christ’s human will cooperate with? Catholic soteriology holds that Christ’s human will is fully united with and obedient to the one, singular divine will. Introducing more than one divine will unravels this coherence, calling into question the unity of Christ’s redemptive work.

Catholic tradition insists that God’s salvific work is a single, undivided act, though appropriated or manifested distinctly by each Person: the Father sends the Son, the Son redeems, the Holy Spirit sanctifies. If there were three independent wills in God, salvation would require a kind of collaboration among three distinct volitional centers–a notion foreign to classic Trinitarian doctrine, which insists that the divine action is one because the divine essence is one.

From a Catholic perspective, positing three wills in the Trinity, even if couched in apparently philosophical or “harmonized” terms, remains fundamentally at odds with the Church’s teaching. It violates divine simplicity by fragmenting God’s will, undermines the unity of the Trinity by implying multiple centers of choice, and destabilizes Christology by blurring the line between Christ’s dual wills and any supposed multiple divine wills. Thus, far from a mere speculative detail, the insistence on one shared divine will forms a crucial pillar of Catholic Trinitarian doctrine and Christological coherence. For example, if there were three distinct wills in the Trinity, it would introduce confusion into Christology: Christ’s human will could not harmonize fully with a singular divine will but would need to choose alignment with one of the three. This fragmentation would compromise the integrity of the hypostatic union, where Christ’s human and divine natures are united in one Person, and undermine the theological coherence of His salvific obedience.

For more connections to other questions  please see the following-prior-questions:

Question #11: How does the Church’s Trinitarian dogma–three distinct persons, one divine essence–square with the claim of divine simplicity? This provides a foundational exploration of how the Trinity operates with one essence and will, avoiding composition.

Question #33: How do classical Christological doctrines reconcile Christ’s dual wills with the unity of the divine will? This offers direct context for understanding Christ’s two wills in light of the singular divine will shared by the Trinity.

Question #13: Does the transitive nature of identity imply “Father = Son,” undermining Trinitarian distinctions? This considers relational and personal unity within the Trinity, touching on broader issues of coherence.