The Trinity - Brought to you by the letter P

Who is the Trinity? You are music. You are life.

Source of everything, Creator of everything,

Angelic hosts sing your praise.

Wonderfully radiant, Deep, Mysterious

You are alive in everything,

And yet you are unknown to us.

These words of Hildegard of Bingen, the 11^th century religious Wonder Woman sum up the common experience of trying to understand the Trinity. “It’s wonderful, it’s beautiful, it’s a mystery, OK, now let's talk about something real!”

Talking about the Trinity in its traditional mode has a number of challenges. It has been approached as an intellectual concept and not something particularly relevant to our lives. It is a mathematical impossibility – three and one equal the same thing? It makes it possible for critics of Christianity to claim that we are not monotheistic after all – it’s clear that we have three gods. Beyond “oh, yeah!” we don’t often have a coherent answer other than ‘three and one are the same thing.’

In a world since the women’s movement, liberation and feminist theology, the traditional language of the three persons of the Trinity grates as hierarchical and over-poweringly male. While this is comforting in its familiarity, Father Son and Holy Spirit, I would ask you to think of it from the perspective of a six year old girl who hears that God is a he, all that is holy is he, and where does that leave her? Can she really be holy, a part of God if she isn’t a he? All the serious voices tell us that God has no gender, indeed transcends gender, but our practices say otherwise. If we claim to believe one thing, but continue to deny it with our practices and languages, we have a disconnect. We grope for a better way to name the Triune God. It is a work in progress.

Naming the Trinity is not the only challenge. Historically, it is the most complex theological idea in Christianity. That complexity often leads preachers and listeners to ignore it. Let’s be braver than that. I’ve got a good place to start. Dr. David Cunningham’s, book These Three Are One; The Practice of Trinitarian Theology was written while he was a professor of theology and ethics at Seabury Western Theological Seminary. The book has been recognized as the most exciting work on the Trinity in a long time. Cunningham starts at an elementary place, the idea of doctrine. Doctrines are “official statements or teachings of the faith…that are not formulated as an end unto themselves; they draw meaning from, and are meant to have some effect on the practices of the believing community.” So how do we understand the Trinity and the practices of the Christian community?

As a professor of theology and ethics, it is no surprise that Prof. Cunningham wove the idea of virtues into his understanding of the Trinity. Virtues are those “characteristics that God has by nature, and that are bestowed freely upon us, as part of God’s work of producing the world. They are not forced on us; but we can allow them to form us.” He cites three Trinitarian virtues, brought to you by the letter P; polyphony, participation and particularity. The first virtue is a musical term, polyphony, which is many sounds or notes that occur simultaneously. A symphony is a complex musical composition with instruments managing their distinct musical lines. To be complete, they must sound together. The three melodies of God are played simultaneously without damage to God’s unity.

The second virtue of the Trinity is participation, which is a way of understanding communion and fellowship that is beyond “being in relationship.” Relation is to participation in the same way that being involved is to being committed. It’s the old example of a bacon and eggs breakfast – the chicken is involved, the pig is committed. Participation is not something we choose as we might choose our friends but it is an indwelling in which lines of identity are blurred. In the One God, the Three participate in the life of God so that they cannot be divided into individuals. John Donne understood this:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.”

The third divine virtue is particularity. This is a tricky one. Particularity is a way of understanding individual identities within the context of the relationships that define them. While there are identities within the unity of God, they so depend upon one another for definition that they are inseparable. One cannot be a parent without a child, I cannot be your pastor and vicar without you. We all have our identity, but they is mostly understood by the ways in which we are related to others. Jesus cannot be known as the Son of God without God from whom he comes.

These three virtues, Polyphony, Participation and Particularity are all things that we can know about God, the Three in One. Great, but we can’t stop there. The importance of Divine virtues is that in some way, we are caught up in them and it is here that David Cunningham brings us to the practices – how these virtues relate to our understanding of the world and our role in it.

Because Professor Cunningham is interested in the Practices, he feels compelled to bring us more words that start with P to explain the Trinity at work in the world; Peacemaking, Pluralizing and Persuading. Peacemaking finds its life in the harmonious relating of the Trinity. Cunningham says “In its affirmation of difference that does not devolve into strife, the doctrine of the Trinity establishes the theological priority of peace. In this polyphonic orchestration of oneness and difference, Christian thought finds its highest good and greatest perfection. When violence strives to eliminate difference we deny rather than participate in the life of God.

Pluralizing is not to be confused with pluralism – in which the celebration of difference is ultimate. Pluralizing is a dynamic, eternally moving tension of difference and unity. Difference must always look for that which defines it as a part of something greater and Unity must celebrate itself as a tapestry of many colored threads. The vastness of the whole world into which we are to carry the Gospel challenges us to bring the message in ways that are accessible to people who are so different. Ways of worship need creative expression to engage people of many sensibilities. The idea of family has changed greatly over the last few years. Can we make room for newly defines expressions of “family?”

The final practice is persuading. God does not coerce us into growth, but continually calls us to come closer and know ourselves as made in the image of God. The idea of persuasion has implications for our interactions with one another, particularly in the “exercise of authority” – which has, too often, been modeled on the coercive power of the nation-state, rather than the persuasive power of the triune God.” We are called to exercise authority in teaching and being in ways that respect the many members of the body. This is a helpful notion in our families as well as our nations.

I hope that this is helpful, it may, however, feel more like taking a drink from a fire hose but if we want to think seriously about God in the world and the world in God we have here lots of food for thought. And it is after all the practice of sharing our heavenly food that illustrates so elegantly the presence of this complex God that makes us one.

(David S. Cunningham, PhD., These Three Are One; The Practice of Trinitarian Theology, 1998, Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.)