The Spirit and the Trinity
I am in the process of revising my book Unfettered Spirit. As I worked on the revision, I realized I hadn't included a statement concerning my trinitarian assumptions. So, I've written what follows, which is being added to the revised edition --- whenever it is published. I invite your thoughts.
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When we speak of the Spirit as Christians, this presupposes a trinitarian
understanding of God. While this is not the place to delve deeply into that
conversation; when I speak of the Spirit I do so as a trinitarian Christian. I
also acknowledge that it is impossible to fully define or understand the nature
of God. As St. Augustine famously declared of God: “What then brothers are we
to say of God? For if you have understood what you want to say, it is not God.
If you have been able to understand, you have understood something other than
God” (Sermon 52:6). So, when we speak of God as Trinity we should do so with
great humility, for our definitions cannot fully comprehend the nature of God. We
can speculate as to the internal relations of what is known as the immanent
Trinity. However, our understanding of God begins by looking to the way God is
revealed in Creation, what is known as the economic Trinity. Catherine Mowry
LaCugna puts it this way, “The doctrine of the Trinity is the attempt to
understand the eternal mystery of God based on what is revealed about God in
the economy of redemption. Theology of God is at the basis, the context, and
the final criterion of every statement about God.”[1]
When we speak of the gifts of the Spirit, we are thinking terms of
this economic Trinity, and to speak of the “economic Trinity” is to speak of how
God discloses God’s self to us in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, which
leads to salvation or the healing of creation. Therefore, when we talk of the
economic Trinity, we’re talking about God’s role in the creation, redemption,
and sanctification of the created order. These three activities, however,
should not be seen as occurring sequentially. Ultimately, when we contemplate
God’s activity in the world, we do so with the assumption that it is a reflection
of God’s internal relationality.
When we think about the trinitarian nature of God, one of the more
intriguing images is that of the three visitors whom Abraham and Sarah
encounter at the Oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:1-15). Theologian Clark Williamson
draws on this story that emphasizes hospitality to suggest that “the Trinity is
a communion of equal persons (coequal, the tradition liked to say), and we are
invited into such communion.” He goes on to say: “We speak of God as one in
order to make clear that God is not divided, not double-minded. We speak of God
as three to affirm communion in God. Life is a blessing and well-being when all
relations of domination and oppression are expelled. Communion among persons is
the divine order and the intended human order of well-being. The fundamental
intent of the doctrine of the Trinity is to protect an understanding of God as
a profound relational communion. A relationship (not merely a relation) of
authentic communion among God, human beings, and all God’s creatures is the aim
of God’s work in the world.[2]
There is much more to be said about the Trinity than can be said here, but the
God whom we encounter in the Spirit is Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all
things. As we envision the work of the Spirit, in trinitarian terms, perhaps
the best way to envision the divine activity in the world is to think in terms
of dance. Consider then this vision articulated by Karen Baker-Fletcher:
In the beginning, there was dance. The Spirit of God hovered over the water. The author of all creation danced with the Spirit and the Word, which sang let there be light, let there be...let there be...Divine, everlasting community said let us create adam-earth creature-male and female, in our image, reflecting our creative, communal dance with one another and it was so. An entire interrelational universe freely became through the power of persuasive, divine, creative, loving community, integrating spirit and matter, and it was good.[3]
In receiving gifts that equip us for service we express the
empowering presence of the God we know as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Mother
of us all,” who are engaged in a dance that ultimately includes creation.
[1] Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God for Us: The Trinity &Christian Life, (San Francsco: HarperOne, 1991), 22.
[2] Clark M. Williamson, Way of Blessing, Way of Life: AChristian Theology, (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 1999), 126-127.
[3] Karen Baker-Fletcher. Dancing with God: The Trinity froma Womanist Perspective, (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2006), Kindle
Edition, 160.
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