People often talk about the three aspects of the trinity existencing in a perfect community.
It occurred to me that maybe this is a good way to think about the trinity, and how they are three in and one at the same time.
If you watch a community functioning at it’s best, you don’t really know where one person begins and the next one ends. Nobody relies on strict, legalistic divisions of labor. Everybody just participates perfectly. It is organic. The whole group would suffer if one part was removed, and yet, nobody could exactly point to the missing person and say “Bob? His duties were x, y, and z.” I’ve read the trinity’s interactions compared to a dance. And this is a metaphor that’s more useful, I think, then comparing the trinity’s interactions to an office, for example, as we do (probably without realizing it) whenever we start trying to wrap our brains around the difference betweeen Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It’s not a bad thing, when we try and deliniate the different jobs, aspects, and importances of the aspects of the trinity. But I suspect that they are doomed to fail, because doing this fails to account for the organic nature of community.
What do you think: are there any particularly helpful– or unhelpful– ways that you’ve heard people discuss the Trinity?
3 responses so far ↓
Romanós // June 30, 2009 at 7:14 pm |
The Orthodox Church (sorry to have to bring it up again) is itself an icon of the Holy Trinity, and it functions in a trinitarian way. Some of the things you have said above are exactly how this is.
Now, what would you do if you discovered there was a community of human beings on earth whose life together was an image of the Trinity? I know what I did.
Here’s a mystical snippet of verse from a song by The Incredible String Band which echoes something you wrote above, and is a hint of the trinitarian lifestyle…
How shall I say where I end, or where you begin?
How shall I say, what shall I play, shall it be you, or the wild wind?
As Pan with the unsane eyes or with the wild horns,
or when I am crowned with a paper crown, or with the crown of thorns.
Steve // July 2, 2009 at 11:33 pm |
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3421933&id=588056627
this picture, someone says is like the trinity, they are three in one, and yet from other views, they are unique in their own persons.
jeffsdeepthoughts // July 3, 2009 at 1:16 pm |
Uhhmm, Steve? That link brought me to a picture of a dude surfing. And to be honest, it didn’t look like the guy was wearing a bathing suit.
Is there some meaning to the picture I’m missing?