The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: Trinitas, lit. 'triad', from Latin: trinus 'threefold') defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons sharing one homoousion (essence). As the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who begets, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who brings about." In this context, the three persons define who God is, while the one essence defines what God is. This expresses at the same time their distinction and their indissoluble unity. Thus the whole work of creation and grace is seen as a single common operation of all three divine persons, in which each manifests what is proper to it in the Trinity, so that