Is the doctrine of The Holy Trinity the truth that accurately describes God, or is it a trap that can lead us into a harmful form of rigid thinking and idolatry?

The answer, in my opinion, is yes (in good Lutheran, paradoxical fashion).

This week brings us to Trinity Sunday. It is the joy and dismay of lectionary preachers everywhere.

 

I have a few things to offer you in this post:

  • For preachers looking for visual resources, jump right to the big blue button and find a slide deck full of Trinity-related images that I have created over the years.
  • For those curious about the Trinity, but don’t have a lot of time, keep scrolling and read my brief thoughts on the topic below.
  • For those who would like to take a deep dive, CLICK HERE to view my Trinity resource page. I’ve got lots of rabbit holes you can go down. Enjoy!

Preview the PowerPoint

[slideshare id=258077530&doc=thetriunepatternofreality-revised-6-6-22-230528115419-a7c5a15d&w=700=350]

A Brief Reflection on the Truth and Trap of the Trinity

The term Trinity is code for a complex teaching that claims God is both three unique persons and only one divine essence. The majority of Christians have held to this doctrine (teaching, belief statement) for centuries.

However, the term Trinity does not appear in the Bible. In fact, the official doctrine of the Holy Trinity was not held until The Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, after the Roman Emperor Constantine forced the newly-legalized Christian bishops to bring an end to ongoing theological debates and make a decision about the essence of God.

Wow! That was a tall order.

Here is the problem they were debating, stated simply.

It is a matter of how to interpret scripture.

On the one hand, the Hebrew Scripture indicates that there is only one true God. This was a bold claim in ancient Mesopotamia, since every culture believed in a pantheon (multiple gods).

OK, Jewish people believe in one God (monotheism).

Jesus was Jewish and so were his first disciples who wrote the documents that we consider to be Christian scripture. Therefore, they would also believe that there is only one God.

On the other hand…

In the stories of Jesus (a Jewish man, remember), we see Jesus talking to God, calling God “Abba,” or Father. Jesus claims the title of God—“I Am”—in various places, and most of his disciples considered him to be divine. And then there is a third actor—the Holy Spirit—who seems to be a distinct personality/energy from Abba and Jesus.

When Jesus was baptized, all three characters showed up. Jesus came up from the water, the sky was torn open, Abba said, “this is my beloved son,” and the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus in the form of a dove.

Do you see the dilemma? These are Jewish people who believe in one God. Yet, there are three characters—Abba, Jesus, Spirit—who all seem to be divine.

Another thing that made this debate more complex was that it took place within the Greek culture that was dominated by the philosophy of Plato. He was a philosopher from Athens, Greece that lived 500 years before Jesus. Plato, coming from a Greek culture that worshipped multiple gods (Zeus and company), taught that the divine essence (true God) was higher than the Greek gods. The divine essence was perfect, unchangeable, and the ultimate ideal of all creation existing in pure mind/spirit. Plato drew a hard line between the shadowy, corrupted, filthy physical world, and the pure essence of the divine.

A Greek, platonic philosopher could never believe that God (divine essence) could change and become a human being. Thus, Jesus could not be divine.

A Jewish theologian could not believe that three persons were equally God, thus, Jesus could not be God.

Jesus’ disciples tried to make sense out of the stories of Jesus for the next 250 years. Some claimed that Jesus was as much God as Abba and the Spirit. Some claimed that Jesus was not divine and the Spirit was just the energy/love of God, but not a distinct person. There were multiple variations of possible solutions. Sometimes the debates got really heated.

Now we return to The Council of Nicaea.

Athanasius, one of the bishops of the council, made the bold–and mysterious–claim that God is one in essence (the divine substance) and three in persons within the divine essence. The debate was long and heated, but Athanasius won the day and Christianity has been officially Trinitarian ever since.

But, let’s be honest. No one really understands it.

AND, I think that’s the point.

Now, let me stop here and remind you that I’ve done a lot of research on this and how a bunch of 20th century theologians have tapped into the field of quantum physics to reclaim the Trinity as a robust, open and relational theology that places priority on the interrelatedness of all things over the radical individualism that was a disastrous byproduct of the “Age of Enlightenment” in the West. Do the deep dive here.

For this post, let me say YES! I am one of those post-foundational, open and relational theologians who love to talk about God as the interelated dance of Lover, Beloved, and Love (to borrow Augustine’s terms).

…AND…

I think there is great danger in claiming that the Trinity—in any form of the doctrine—is the only, complete, and total description of how God IS.

In my opinion, theology is a human activity.

Theology is the human attempt to make sense out of our perception of ultimate reality. We experience the world around us, take in all the data that we can (including divine revelation), and apply our human intellect and reason to it. Then, we construct a theoretical model of ultimate reality that tries to make the most sense out of what we experience.

Did you catch that word?

A model.

A model is a good and necessary thing when trying to hold conversation about something that is extremely complicated. (See my video on how models change as more data is added).

Here is a simple and important equation to remember.

A model does not equal God.

Theology is NOT God.

Ultimate Reality IS Ultimate Reality

Theology is a human construct that gives us a conceptual and linguistic model that allows us to have conversation about Ultimate Reality (aka God).

As we have these human conversations, and as multiple models come into conversation with each other, each model expands as we learn from each other (see my video on the fusion of horizons).

What happens when someone claims that their model IS that final, complete, and total description of how God IS?

They worship the model, not the God it points to.

That is called idolatry.

So, to come back to the original question:

Is the Trinity the truth or a trap?


Yes.

I do think that a robust, open and relational model of the Triune God is an extremely helpful model that makes the most sense of all the data we have and leads to the healing and wholeness of all creation that seems to resonate with the teaching of Jesus.

AND

If I am not willing to say that it could be wrong, and that it is most definitely finite and incomplete, then I could become closed in my thinking.

When we close ourselves to the opportunity to learn from others and their models, then we can become trapped in the prison of isolation and in the worship of the model of our own making.

I trust in the God that Jesus called Abba and the steadfast love that the Hebrew Scriptures ascribe to GOD.

May we always stay open to learning and growing together.

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