Trinity Monotheism: the Soul of God

The alleged problem is that if only the Trinity exemplifies the complete divine nature, then the way in which the persons are divine is less than fully divine. . . .  The persons of the Trinity are not divine in virtue of instantiating the divine nature. For presumably being triune is a property of the divine nature (God does not just happen to be triune); yet the persons of the Trinity do not have that property.  (Moreland, James Porter; William Lane Craig (2009-11-08). Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (p. 590). Intervarsity Press. Kindle Edition.)

Somehow this moves me.  I have never thought of the Trinity being the only way God could be.  I thought that God just happened to be triune.  With this understanding, I see that the Trinity is a ground-breaking truth.  Being triune is a property of being deity, so in Christian thought, a non-triune God, as in unitarian monotheism, cannot be God at all.

Trinity monotheism is the understanding that only the Trinity is fully divine and fully deity.  The persons of the Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - are parts of a whole.  None of them is fully deity on their own any more than my body or my mind is all of myself.  My mind and body are who I am, but not fully.  Each person of the Trinity is a full person, with spirit and mind, but not the fullness of God in themselves.

What moves me is to understand that the image of God includes his triune nature.  The nature of God is love and love does not exist in an isolated individual.  As Moreland writes:

We may ask if there are any positive arguments which might be offered on behalf of the plausibility of that doctrine. We close with an argument that a number of Christian philosophers have defended for God’s being a plurality of persons. God is by definition the greatest conceivable being. As the greatest conceivable being, God must be perfect. Now a perfect being must be a loving being. For love is a moral perfection; it is better for a person to be loving rather than unloving. God therefore must be a perfectly loving being. Now it is of the very nature of love to give oneself away. Love reaches out to another person rather than centering wholly in oneself. So if God is perfectly loving by his very nature, he must be giving himself in love to another. But who is that other? . . .  God is eternally loving. So again created persons alone are insufficient to account for God’s being perfectly loving. It therefore follows that the other to whom God’s love is necessarily directed must be internal to God himself.  (ibid, 594-595)

The Trinity becomes more than a doctrine to fight over.  It is a reality to live in.  God created us to love him and other people as he loves in himself.  A God who is merely one cannot have such love as his nature, but only as his demand.  In Christian thought, prior to people loving God because he first loved them is the explanation of God's nature: God is love. (1 John 4)  He did not need us to love, but created us for love and out of love.

The love that a non-triune deity would express falls short of what the Trinity expresses.  It inevitably turns into mere self-interest or needy dependence.  God's command to love is not arbitrary, nor does God need the creation in order to love.  God is a rich, vibrant, loving community in himself.

Another way to understand this is

The question of what makes several parts constitute a single object rather than distinct objects is a difficult one. But in this case perhaps we can get some insight by reflecting on the nature of the soul. We have argued that souls are immaterial substances and have seen that it is plausible that animals have souls. . . . Souls come in a spectrum of varying capacities and faculties. Higher animals such as chimpanzees and dolphins possess souls more richly endowed with powers than those of iguanas and turtles. What makes the human soul a person is that the human soul is equipped with rational faculties of intellect and volition that enable it to be a self-reflective agent capable of self-determination. Now God is very much like an unembodied soul; indeed, as a mental substance God just seems to be a soul. We naturally equate a rational soul with a person, since the human souls with which we are acquainted are persons. But the reason human souls are individual persons is because each soul is equipped with one set of rational faculties sufficient for being a person. Suppose, then, that God is a soul which is endowed with three complete sets of rational cognitive faculties, each sufficient for personhood. Then God, though one soul, would not be one person but three, for God would have three centers of self-consciousness, intentionality and volition, as social trinitarians maintain. God would clearly not be three discrete souls because the cognitive faculties in question are all faculties belonging to just one soul, one immaterial substance. God would therefore be one being that supports three persons, just as our own individual beings each support one person. Such a model of Trinity monotheism seems to give a clear sense to the classical formula “three persons in one substance.”  (ibid, pp. 593-594)

I had thought about this before, but only found it in writing in Moreland's book.  Why should it matter?  Because the Creator makes things that is in his nature to make.  Further, each person shares in the image of the Creator.  The nature of the Creator becomes the place where people can understand their own natures.  Soul, body, mind, spirit, and community become more than concepts, but realities.  In these days, the soul has lost its place.  People are seen as pieces thrown together rather than as a created soul, "something that contains and unifies all the various sensory experiences, thoughts, behaviors, and relationships of the person into a unitary continuous whole."

This inspires me to seek my soul and take care of it.  "Recently, at the Knowing Christ conference in Santa Barbara, Dallas [Willard] said, 'If you get very quiet, you might notice the soul.' Parker Palmer once compared the soul to a wild deer; it flies from noise and action and movement. You have to wait, and wait, and perhaps it will make an appearance."  (Barczi, Ben, gospelmind.org/2013/03/08/parts-soul/)  Perhaps I will being to wait.

Lord, let my life be as yours.  Let me soul be still, so I might find it and allow you to renew it.  Amen.

Immersion into the Trinity

The Trinity is a concept about God.  No doubt it falls short of capturing who God is.  As honored and true as it might be, I must never forget that it cannot capture the fullness of God nor set boundaries around him.  Words and ideas fail to hold God.

With that said, the Trinity is a concept of genius.  As a tool for plumbing the depths of God, it is powerful and compelling.  It is simple and yet profound.  It captures many truths in Scripture and brings them together into an idea of just how personal God is. 

It is always the same God, but the ‘person’ or the ‘face’ or ‘voice’ by which we receive the revelation varies.  But here’s the thing: every part of the revelation, every aspect, every form is personal – God is relational at the core – and so whatever is said, whatever is revealed, whatever is received is also personal and relational.  (Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book, p.27)

The Trinity is a revelation of how intimate God is with us.  It is not close enough to call him Father.  It is not dear enough to know the Son alone.  It is not intimate enough to live with the Spirit.  The intimacy of God spans the universe and reaches into its most remote corners; the Father is above, beyond, and fills all things.  The friendship of God walks with me and talks with me and teaches me as a human being; the Son is my brother, my friend, and my teacher.  God speaks through my thoughts and feelings and through the voices of other people moved in their minds and empowered in their hearts; the Spirit blows all around me and through my very being.  God is above me.  God is beside me.  God is within me.  Trinity.

No wonder I am baptized into this faith.  Baptism is not about water, but about immersion.  I am baptized into the reality of the Trinity.  Baptism is not a once and for all occasion, but a continuing reality that I live in and share with others: immersion in the Trinity.  I am brought under this God.  I and buried with this God.  I am filled with life from this God.  Everything in me is soaked with God.  The symbol of baptism is like a wedding to a marriage.  It is special.  It is a beginning.  It is a promise.  It is not the reality, though.

Trinity also captures the fact that God has life without me.  He is relational without my contribution.  Within himself, he is family and community.  God is not lonely.  God is full.  God is life.  God is love.  Trinity shows that what he brings is a gift.  He does not need me is the sense that I need him or other people.  It cannot be said “It is not good for God to be alone” like the Bible says about people.  He is enough for himself and complete in himself.

But God does need me in his love.  Because he loves so deeply, so intimately, and so completely, he does not want to live without me.  For me to love him, he must allow that I might not love him.  Trinity shows that as personal and close as God is to me, he is different from me.  I can choose to be a part of his reality or choose another.

Lord, may I live a baptized life, one immersed in your intimate love.  May I find ways to relate with you as Trinity, not neglecting your pervasive presence.  Fill my life like a cup to overflowing.  Amen.

The concept of Trinity is not a remote theological term intended merely for apologetics and other religious talk.  Eugene Peterson puts it well.

We must not, even for a moment, suppose that Trinity is something thought up by theologians to deal with advanced mysteries quite remote for the daily work of people like us who have babies and to work for a living.  No it was the work of Christians like us (some of them maybe a little smarter than we are!) learning and teaching each other to read their Bibles as fully and attentively and personally and responsively as they were able.  They wanted to read in such a way their lives became congruent with the text.  (Ibid,  p.28)

God Is Love: The Family of Trinity

In an effort to understand how the spiritual disciplines of solitude and silence can overcome loneliness, I began to think about the Trinity. I began to see how being with God is not so much like being with another person, but in a family. I began to see that I long to know that God delights in me and enjoys me, but even more, that he delights in himself as Trinity, kind of like I delight in being with my family and watching them love each other as well as me.

Then as I read from one of the gospels this morning, I realized how much God the Father wants to have company for Jesus and looks for such people, who will enjoy "the family" of the Trinity. Jesus spent most if not all his time talking about how life is with his Father in the kingdom of heaven, sort of like saying, "Here's what my dad does at my house with the family." Perhaps the kingdom of heaven is above all the "family life" of Father, Son, and Spirit and those with them.

It also helped me see how I could believe in Jesus - admire him and follow him - but miss the boat on his Father. Unless I understand the goodness and love of God the Father, none of what Jesus says will make any sense. Perhaps this is what he meant by: "That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." (Jn. 6:65) The first step to understanding Jesus is admiring his Father and trusting him. Although I can and need to make a choice there, I cannot do it alone without God "enabling" me to see him for who he is. In order to understand Jesus as the "Beloved Son," I must accept and embrace God as his loving, all-powerful Father as well.

The reason I am so interested in this interaction is that I am suspecting that this trinitarian community is the only thing that can cure the loneliness and fear that drives human (my) sin. Jesus, knowing this, spent his time talking about the life of God in Trinity, and opened the door for my entry. He spent his time showing that the glory of God - his love, goodness, rightness, power, etc. - is what I can join him in trusting and worshiping. I can enjoy God through Jesus, but I can also enjoy the Father with Jesus.

This may me some more of the profound effect of The Shack on so many people. It was not only the truth that God can spend time with each of us, being "especially fond" of each of us, but also that we can spend time with a loving family of Father, Son, and Spirit, and enjoy their enjoyment of each other. As a father, I am pleased that my children love me, passionate about my kids loving their mom, and ecstatic when they love each other. I delight in seeing love displayed at least as much as I delight in receiving love directly. This may be what fends off loneliness and fear mostly: a shared love and admiration for each member of the family.

So I long to join the family and begin to read about how Jesus explains the goodness of being together with him and the Father and the Holy Spirit. "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (Jn. 14:23) By following Jesus I come to find that the Father loves me because I love his Son. Where there is love for Jesus, the Father can make a home where mutual love can occur, where I receive the love of the Father and the Son and where I see the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for the Father. God's love for me is that basis of my love for God, but even before that God's love within himself is what brings his love for me. So in 1 John, before the truth that "we love because he first loved us" comes "God is love" (4:16,19).

I can't say I understand this fully, but I feel hope that I might understand that "God is love" much better. I believe I can understand him better because that is what Jesus came to teach, and he is the only one who could teach about this "family life" since he came from it.

Father, you sent Jesus to me to show and teach me about your shared love and how you want me to be part of it. Jesus, you came in obedience and taught and received everyone who loved the Father. Spirit, you are the life and love that stays within my life forever, lifting me up to the place where Jesus left, pointed to, and returned: the Father's side, the Father's hearth, the Father's home. Let me be with you God, in all your love, receiving, sharing, and standing in awe of your amazing goodness. You are so good. Amen.