microcosm and mediator

Who are you? Where are you going in life? Do you have a choice in these matters?

Our ideas of personal identity, of an individual purpose in life, all stem from an ancient nomadic tribe that wandered in the desert of the Middle East over three millennia ago. They adapted the various myths and stories from the cultures surrounding them and wove them into a vibrant, contradictory, confusing and beautiful narrative about their people and their interactions with a unique conception of god.

Out of this evolving and diverse religious soil was born a man. This man was obscure and marginal in his own time, he was not even mentioned by any of the major historical documents we have from that era, and the documents we do possess are not biographies but theological meditations on this man’s significance in their god’s plan, and scholars often doubt their historical accuracy. But this man, Jesus of Nazareth, has irrevocably cast his shadow on Western culture. But what is not so important is what this man accomplished in his own life time; he died abandoned by his followers, crucified as insurrectionist by the tyrannical Roman authorities, and some scholars believe his body was cast into a mass grave. What is significant about this man is what came after his seemingly hopeless demise, his followers continued this man’s message claiming he had “raised from the dead”, and carried it outside the dusty streets of Palestine to the entire Roman world. These stubborn Jewish monotheists had to try and comprehend their experience of this risen “lord”, whom they called “Christos” in Greek. They prayed to him and had primitive doxologies to the “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” but what did this mean in reference to the Jewish Shema, the confession that god is one found in the Hebrew Torah? This meditation developed into a radically new conception of god as a tri-unity, or the Trinity.

I will be examining the traditional conception of the Christian god, and exploring the implications it has for human relationships. I will not be examining whether it is a cogent idea of the deity, or whether it is rational, or even whether monotheistic belief is warranted. Although those are all interesting and important topics, what I would like to focus on is the theological and mythological structure of Christianity and its ideas on god, and not to engage in any polemical discourse. This will be especially interested to those who study the philosophy of religion, comparative religion, and those who just want to learn about one of Western society’s foundational ideas. But it will also help those who do believe in this god, to understand the historical context in which it developed and the implications it may have in their personal religious life.

The Trinity is probably one of the most misunderstood doctrines in Christian theology. It is often dismissed by non-Christians as being incoherent and nonsensical, and by Christians as being too difficult to grasp and they are intimated by its mysteriousness, and rather than seeing Jesus as the incarnate Logos, or the Cosmic Christ they settle for sentimental conceptions of him as their “homeboy” or their heavenly buddy. But a proper understanding of Trinity should be revolutionary. If, according to Judeo-Christian anthropology, man is created in the image of God, than the radical personal nature of the Trinitarian god should have drastic implications.

The idea of the Trinity grew out of the four-century struggle to conceptualize the uniqueness of Jesus. Who was he? What was his relationship to God, whom he addressed as Abba, or Father? What about the Holy Spirit, the comforter that Jesus’ followers claimed to be filled with, who made their agape, or love, feasts full of Jesus’ very presence? It was out of this struggle against Hellenistic influence which tried to transform this Jewish sect into a new elitist secret society, and against the struggle to demote Jesus to status as mere teacher of good works, that the idea of the Trinity was hammered out.

In first century Judaism there was not much concern on the “inner life” of god. Often the ancient rabbis referred to the Wisdom of god, the Torah of god, the Ruah or Spirit of god as if they were “persons” of god, or different manifestations of the One god of Israel. It was not until after the rise of Christianity and its idea of a Tri-personal god that the Jewish rabbis consolidated the diverse ideas of god into the strict monotheistic theology of modern Judaism. Christian theologians were moving in the Jewish molds of their early ancestors when developing the idea of the Trinity and were not engaged in an esoteric exercise of Greek philosophy, ruining the “simple” message of Jesus. They were trying to radically affirm the humanness of Jesus, but also his role as the vindicated Christ to whom they prayed. This was done in the communal context of the early Christian society. This was done with the idea that god, in his very essence is Love, and that he does not merely love, but truly is Love. And that Jesus was that perfect image of god on earth, and who was god. The later theologians would speak of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three Persons, in one Essence. They were radically one, but also three distinct persons. There is one god because there is one Father, from whom the Son is begotten from eternity and the Spirit eternally proceeds.

But what does this mean? Well, god in Christian theology is a personal god because he is first of all a diverse being. The life of the Trinity was described by early theologians as an eternal joyous dance, full of Love and Joy that continues for eternity, and ever emptying out of love for each other. Because love is not egotistical if God is Trinity, the life and happiness of god are absolutely infinite, perfect and inexhaustible. The three selves of God are three subsistent relations of selflessness, overflowing and super abounding joy in the gift of their One Life. And according to Christian anthropology we are to be conformed into the image of God.

This does not mean becoming a bland collection of identical robots but a genuine collection of diverse individuals united in selfless love, as god. Athanasius, a theologian living in the fourth century summarized it by saying “God became human so that humans could become divine.”

The implications of this insight are profound. If we are truly to become “divine” this means a complete abandonment of our own self-interests in order to fully serve those around us. This means that we are to fully see the interconnectedness of life, in the ants on the grass, the caterpillars on the leaves, the ducks on the lake, the cardinal on the branch, the butterflies in the air, the trees of the forests, the neighbor next to us, the person on the street. We are to see god in them all and serve them as an offering of worship to the “everywhere-present god of the dance”.

God, in Jesus emptied himself from his glory in order to fully enter into the life of his creation. He cast aside his deity, his holiness, and died because he did not measure up to the human standard of holiness, in order to show us how to really live. The life he showed us is one in perpetual communion with others, especially those marginalized by society. Some of the greatest people of the 20th century lived this Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and all those who fought against the exploitation of other humans and the rape of the environment in the name of progress.

And this I believe is the relevance of Trinitarian theology to our personal relationships. Whether one believes it or not, it should inspire us to be better people. I think anyone would admit that living for selfless love is more ethical than a selfish ambition that uses others as means to their own end. Just as we would read a book by the Dali Lama for inspiration, the Qur’an for guidance, or the teachings of the Tao for wisdom, we also should look to our own religious heritage for inspiration.

Works Consulted:

Cahill, Thomas. The Gifts of the Jews. New York City: Anchor Books, 1998.

Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines. Peabody: Prince P, 1994.

Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: the Roots of the Problem and the Person, Vol. 1. New York: DoubleDay, 1994.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Jesus Through the Centuries. New Haven: Yale UP, 1999.

Sanders, E.P. Jesus and Judaism. Philadelphia: Fortress P, 1985.

Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World. Crestwood: St Vladimirs Seminary P, 1973.

Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Way. Crestwood: St Vladimirs Seminary P, 1979.

Wright, N.T. Who Was Jesus? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Zizioulas, John. Being as Communion. Crestwood: St Vladimirs Seminary P, 1997.