A time and place where one would have been burned at the stake for saying it doesn't matter if one defines God as three-fold in nature, says Dr. Tom.... and I am reminded, yet again, how truly blessed I am to live in this time and place given the nature of my mouth!
The Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Here's the deal. It is my observation that human nature desires an experience of the Trinity. We desire to experience God/Spirit/DivineMind/Allah as Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence in the universe....we ALSO desire a personal, intimate experience of God/Spirit/DivineMind/Allah, as is evidenced in spiritual practice- pick a religion- through prayer, meditation, devotion...we ALSO desire evidence of the activity of God/Spirit/DivineMind/Allah in the physical world. These desires shape our experience of God, our religious- oh, I mean spiritual- practices, as well as our understanding of God.
We have already agreed that God cannot be defined nor proven. What do we have but understanding developed through our experience of God? Faith? Yes. That leap of faith gives us the sand in the sandbox of theological discussion. For me, the Holy Trinity provides a description of my Divine experience- it helps me wrap my brain around that which is unproveable and yet undeniable! Do I determine, then, that God IS three parts in one? Dude, how should I know?! I do know that in my life I experience the one God in three identifiable ways described in the Trinity- Transcendental, personal, and activity in the world. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Mind, Idea, Expression. YES! YES! YES! The question of defining God this way would require asking God how does God define Itself! I can only define my experience of God and while I will insist with passion and fervor that my experience is true- it is not the only experience of God. Regarding the concept of trinity, however, I observe that across culture and religion, humankind has demonstrated desire to experience God in this three-fold way.
I love it! Do the three ways you mentioned capture all the ways we can experience God? Maybe we can experience the Mystery in other dimensions. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteJacque,
ReplyDeleteHow lucky we are indeed to be living in this time in America where we have religious freedom, to believe in a God, or not to believe. I understand that people have been crucified for their religious beliefs or lack thereof for centuries. Maybe longer. It continues to happen, and why?
I think it scares some people if you don’t believe the same way they believe because it brings up a sort of cognizant dissonance. If everyone doesn’t believe the same way, does that make some of us wrong?
If God can’t be defined or proven, who is to say if a trinity exist or not. It sounds a bit like a take-off of Polytheism to me.
Elise