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Exploring the Trinity

Exploring the Trinity. Week 1: Church tradition and reason Week 2: Scripture and experience Week 3: Art, literature, dance and music. A collaborative learning experience. What is the Trinity and why should we care?.

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Exploring the Trinity

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  1. Exploring the Trinity Week 1: Church tradition and reason Week 2: Scripture and experience Week 3: Art, literature, dance and music A collaborative learning experience

  2. What is the Trinity and why should we care? “Whoever denies the Trinity is in danger of losing his salvation; whoever tries understanding the Trinity is in danger of losing his mind.” Augustine of Hippo Fifth Century AD

  3. Athanasian Creed Now this is the catholic faith: We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another. But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit. Uncreated is the Father; uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit. The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten; the Son was neither made nor created, but was alone begotten of the Father; the Spirit was neither made nor created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son.

  4. The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite. Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit: And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal; as there are not three uncreated and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited. Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit: And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty. Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God: And yet there are not three gods, but one God. Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord: And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord. As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords. Thus there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits.

  5. And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other; but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons. Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity. It is necessary for eternal salvation that one also faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh. For this is the true faith that we believe and confess: That our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and man. He is God, begotten before all worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the world from the being of his mother -- existing fully as God, and fully as man with a rational soul and a human body; equal to the Father in divinity, subordinate to the Father in humanity. Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ. He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity.

  6. He is completely one in the unity of his person, without confusing his natures. For as the rational soul and body are one person, so the one Christ is God and man. He suffered death for our salvation. He descended into hell and rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. At his coming all people shall rise bodily to give an account of their own deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, those who have done evil will enter eternal fire. This is the catholic faith. One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully. Amen

  7. Why does the Trinity matter? “The answer lies in a fundamental Christian intuition …rooted in divine in divine revelation and Christian experience…that Jesus is God, but not all of God.” Roger E. Olson, The Mosaic of Christian Belief The early Christian church recognized experiences of the One God as Creator (the Father), Redeemer (Jesus Christ) and Sanctifier (Holy Spirit). However, Jesus Christ as the Son of God posed huge challenges to monotheism. It took centuries of debate and discord for a doctrine of the Trinity to be developed. Debate over the validity of the Trinity continues today—just check YouTube! Leading-edge theological discourse today still swirls around concepts of the Trinity and assumptions in the creeds.

  8. Doctrine of the Trinity Subordinationism: Jesus is “under” or secondary to God Modalism: God is three only in how he acts in the world Tritheism: God is three separate beings or a divine family with hierarchical structure Heresies it counters Heresy = a wrong teaching officially denounced by the church

  9. Arianism, (4th C Christian leader) • Christ was first/greatest creation, came to earth in flesh of man Jesus, secondary to God the Father • Preserves strict monotheism at expense of Jesus’ equality with God • Jehovah’s Witness’ belief that Jesus is not God but embodiment of archangel Michael • Adoptionism: • Jesus was a great prophet/messiah, raised up by God and “adopted” as his special son • Unitarian movement promotes a form of adoptionism Heresy #1: Subordinationism Athanasius: Human salvation depends entirely on the truth that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly human

  10. God is three only in how he acts in the world, but not how God exists within the Godhead • This heresy is heard when the Trinity is expressed as “God’s masks” or “three ways of interacting with the world.” • We run into modalism when we try to describe the Trinity by talking about how water can be solid ice, liquid water or vaporous steam. • Evidenced in “Jesus Only” and “Oneness” movements, particularly within Pentacostalism. Modalistic expressions leave us wondering who God really is. Heresy #2: Modalism God isn’t interested in hiding from us, but in revealing himself to us.

  11. Implies that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate beings or gods • Devolves into thinking of God as an object made up of three separate parts. • Puts too much distance between the persons of the Trinity. Joni Dipirro, 2008, fineartsamerica.com • Trinity illustrated as apple (peel, flesh and seed) or egg (shell, white, yolk). God is always One , and at the same time Father, Son and Holy Spirit Heresy #3: Tritheism God is one perfectly unified being made up of three inseparable and equal persons.

  12. Analogies Psychological analogy (three hats) Rough rider Family man Statesman Social analogy (community) • Compares the Trinity to individuals working in community toward a common goal.

  13. Perichoresis The Dance of Divine Love Perichoresis is the mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity. JuergenMoltmann posits that the unity of the Trinity resides not in substance, but in love, that is, a unity of interdependence and mutuality. “To throw open the circulatory movement of the divine light and the divine relationships, and to take men and women, with the whole of creation, into the life-stream of the triune God: that is the meaning of creation, reconciliation and glorification.” Perichoresisdemo: The economic Trinity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFWf5iMNFjA Lord of the Dance at the Journey: The immanent and economic Trinity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC1Rg-6pSuM Lord of the Dance: The immanent Trinity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5xIRtH63kk

  14. Find a partner Choose 2-3 magazines, a scissors, a sheet of paper, and a glue stick Using only the magazine as your source, create a collage that describes the Trinity with no more than three words and three images You have 15 minutes, and then we will share the results of our labors Reflection activity

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