Spiritual Theology (Chapter 2)
Chapter 2 - The Christian Doctrine of God as the Foundation of Christian Spirituality
Central to any spirituality is its conception of what is ultimately real.
The Problem of Divine Immanence and Transcendence
What is needed, to use Gunton’s words, is “an account of relationality that gives due weight to both one and many, to both particular and universal, to both otherness and relation.” Such an account can only be based on “a conception of God who is both one and three, whose being consists in a relationality that derives from the otherness-in-relation of Father, Son and Spirit.”
The Nature of Trinitarian Spirituality
A fruitful—indeed, a necessary—way to begin our trinitarian reflection is in the context of the worshiping community
A spirituality of the Father values the sacramental nature of created things. It supports an ascetical theology that sees the physical as a means of grace, a “door of perception” opening to the spiritual world. For some, the fatherhood of God carries universalistic implications: if God is the loving father of all, then all will eventually be saved.26 Ecclesiastically, the spirituality of the Father tends toward an inclusive view of the church—the church as a corpus mixtum (a mixed body consisting of genuine and professing believers).
Life with God, for Pentecostals, is a journey into the unknown. God may take us through untrodden paths. This helps to instill in them a spirit of adventure and a sense of “holy boldness” that launches them “by faith” (which often means having little money or training) into the far-flung mission field.
A trinitarian spirituality. A spirituality that focuses exclusively on Father, Son or Spirit is not adequate, since it fails to take in the full range of God’s self-revelation. For a spirituality to be holistic it must be trinitarian, at least implicitly. Trinitarian spirituality is characterized by, first, form and stability and a sacramental understanding of created things. Second, it seeks a personal relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ. Third, it is open to the powerful workings of God the Spirit in signs and wonders as well as in “holy familiarity.”
Implications of Trinitarian Theology
Conclusion
The doctrine of one God in three persons is a foundational Christian belief that distinguishes the Christian concept of deity from other monotheistic concepts. It is basic to a distinctive Christian spirituality. Many modern trinitarian reflections have grown out of certain Western sociopolitical contexts that have limited their usefulness for Christians living beyond those contexts. The current preoccupation with “the social analogy of the Trinity” is just one example. Yet as Ted Peters reminds us, trinitarian talks are “second-order symbols” that grow out of specific contexts. Their truth is tested by how they function contextually. In situations outside the Western world where hierarchy (not necessarily domination and oppression) may be the basic structure of society; where worldviews are characterized by “gods many and lords many”; where the summum bonum is an ordered community rather than individual rights (though the latter is not denied), we may need to return to the “primary symbol” of one God in three persons, a God who is both transcendent and immanent, beyond the world and yet within it.
Augustine’s psychological analogy may be just as significant as the social analogy. In affirming these prereflective symbols, we are confessing divine mysteries (although some may suggest that this is anti-intellectual). But in so confessing, we hope to highlight the vast and complex world in which the Christian life is lived, a world that no single theology of the Trinity can adequately encompass.