Inspiring Philosophy did a video addressing people accusing The Trinity of being Pagan called Is The Trinity Pagan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcDV270D_0
It’s a pretty good video, but I would say he slipped a bit in addressing the Hindu Trimurti comparison. Hinduism does have distinct personalities for Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva so saying it’s more like Modalism doesn’t really work.
The main failure of that analogy is that when you break it down, comparing Brahma to The Father and Vishnu who incarnated as Human Avatars to The Logos can make a little sense, but comparing the Holy Spirit to Shiva the God of Destruction makes no sense, their functions are literally the opposite.
And then there is the fact that this Trimurti idea developed late, I don’t think you can actually find it in the Rigveda, Ramayana or Mahabharata, and even some of those writings come after the Northern Tribes were dispersed Eastward. The Kurma Purana seems to be the earliest clear expression of it and it’s Eighth Century AD at the earliest. Christians had migrated to India from Persia at least as early as the 4th Century AD.
I also think the development of Hinduism and Buddhism may have been influenced by the Gnostics. The Manicheans had spread throughout Persia and further east. And the Mahabrahma is like the Gnostic Demiurge, a lesser creator who thinks he's the top god even though he isn't.
A closer Comparison to The Trinity would be Neo-Platonism’s concept of The One, The Intellect and the World Soul. A key distinction I’d make there is that it is mostly the Intellect emanating from The One and the World Soul emanating from The Intellect. While the Christian Trinity is much more Triangular in its relationship, in fact the Greek Orthodox would stress that the Holy Spirits proceeds from The Father not The Son.
But again, while Neo-Plaotnism draws on Plato, nothing this close to a Trinity is in Plato. Neo-Platonism is largely said to have began with Plotinus (204-270 AD) or his mentor Ammonius Saccas (175-242 AD). Tertullian (155-240 AD) had already laid out a doctrine of The Trinity pretty similar to the Nicene one before their careers started, and he was just inserting himself into a discussion Christians were already having. Theophilus of Antioch (died by 185 AD) was the first to use the term Trinity and defined it as The Father, The Logos and Sophia.
Porphyry, an Anti-Christian Neo-Platonist writer, said that Saccas’s parents had been Christians but he rejected their faith. So actually there is good reason to suspect that many similarities between Christian and Neoplatonic Philosophy came from Christians first. That said I do still believe reverence for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle has been a very bad influence on Church History.
Learning this about Saccas as I researched this post was quite interesting. It’s easy to assume Christian ides didn’t influence the secular world before Constantine, but what Constantine did was possible because Christianity was already becoming mainstream in many places. So this documentation of a Pre-Nicene Pagan writer with a Christian background is quite fascinating.
I suppose I should mention briefly the Zoka SanShin (Three Kami of Creation) from Shinto Mythology. Everything we know about Japanese mythology stems from the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki which were both early Eighth Century writings. If certain theories about the Hata Clan are true then Christians could have been an influence on Japan well before then. Though in its final form the Zoka SanShin is more like the Neoplatonist trinity then the Christian one, being more linear than triangular. And they are in no way defined as being Homusias.
https://solascripturachristianliberty.blogspot.com/2018/04/nestorianism-and-church-of-east.html
