Exploring the Complexity of Trinity and Identifying Its Applicative Issues - Term Paper Example

March Exploring the Complexity of Trinity and Identifying Its Applicative Issues Introduction The Doctrine of Trinity or Trinity was, and still is, a theologian aspect worthy of debate and scrutiny. Its theological debacle, manifestations, application, or virtual demise were essential indicators of the extent of the Christian’s faith in words and deeds. While the evidences of its physical or routine manifestation plagued everyone within the close proximities of the church or of Christian celebrations, its essence sits nowhere near these believers. In fact, it was observed how Christian worshippers have grown to pray on lip-service than on living the faith itself. Though certain aspects of the Christian teaching were passed on the Christian culture, the extent of such permeation was considered superficial. Inclusive of these failing Christian aspects was the Trinity. The scope of the study covers two major themes: the exploration of the complexities surrounding the purlieu of Trinity and the identification of issues in terms of applying the concept of Trinity in the Christian life. Thus, this work attempts to provide answers and insights to questions and themes involving the current state of the Trinity in the Christian worship, the collection of the Trinity’s perspective-critiques, and the application issues. The overall structure shall be inclusive of the methodology; this feature aims to present the method followed in the coverage of this paper’s scope and inherent objectives. The structure of the paper also consists of the purview and critiques assigned for the complexity-exploration and the application issues for the identification section. Apart from these main sections, the paper shall also brief some implications of this study in the conclusions-part. Moreover, while the critiques of the Trinitarian concept successfully warranted its spot in the controversial light, its significance is, nevertheless, uncontested. As a direct, symbolical aspect of the Christian worship, the Trinity’s contribution to the development of the Christian’s strength in faith is at its edge. The reliance to ambiguous Christian aspects, such as the Trinity, is considered to be the thorn of Christian worship and, probably, faith. Methodology To effectively present the exploration and identification of Trinitarian concepts and application, the study conveniently divided the themes to three focuses. The first focus, ‘The Trinity,’ presented the basics of the Christian aspect, namely: manifestations, Bible dereference, and the visualization approaches. These parts served to illustrate the Trinity’s foundations and the nature thereof. Moreover, this first focus is the first part of the exploration on the Trinity’s complexity. The second focus and the last part of this complexity-exploration is the headed, ‘Critiques.’ This part elaborated the components revolving around the ambiguity of the Trinity. It may include, but are not limited to, the compromise of God’s main concept, the wording of the Trinitarian concept, the opposing Social Doctrine of the Trinity as well as the inferiority of the creator god to the redeemer god. The last focus, the ‘Applicative Issues,’ deals with the circumstantial issues on applying the Trinity in Christian life. Though its presence in worship made the Trinitarian concept conceivable, its extension to the Christian way of life was soberly uncharted. Evidently, this last focus, which will shed light of the Trinity’s applicative issues, is the component of the second main theme (i.e. issue-identification). The conclusion then closes the whole exploration and identification process by determining the implications of the study, as well as providing aspects of the Trinitarian research that are promising and uncovered. The Trinity, at a Glance The explicit manifestation of the Trinitarian interpretation were immortalized by the Bible verses (i.e. Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14) that were incorporated in the Catholic expression of faith -- accompanying the Sign of the Cross and signaling the start of the celebration of the Sacraments (McGrath 117). This integration of Christian aspect to rituals and practices was not uncommon. In fact, much of what consisted the whole process of each Sacrament, ritual, or practices involve the integration of several Christian aspects. However, just like all other Christian aspects, the essence of such integrations and the impact it had to the Christian was always subject to inquiry. Evidently, this inquiry was an indicator of the loss of Christian knowledge among the new generation of worshippers. Otherwise, there was no need to ask because everyone was assumed to know. Interestingly, a lot of believers suggest that they do know; yet their knowing cannot be distinguished in their lives, or worst, their faith. Apart from the integration, the Trinity was rooted according to its patterned emphasis in the New Testament (McGrath 118). It is in this Testament’s passages that the Trinity’s elements -- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- were interwoven to take form a “greater whole” (McGrath 118). However, if this Bible-based, Trinitarian concept effectively aided the Christians’ visualization, thereof remained to be contested. With this in question, the extent of understanding (through the Bible passages) and consequent visualizing paved the way to more inquiries -- most of them regarding the application of the concept not just to rituals but to the Christians’ way of living. Turning back on visualizing the Trinity, several approaches were introduced to aid the concept. Each approach contained variables that consistently held the concept of the Trinity. McGrath shared the two approaches; it consisted of the chronological and functional modalisms (123). The chronological modalism held the variable of time and, thus, viewed each element according to their transformation -- “God was Father at one point in history; that God was then Son at another point; and finally, that God was Spirit” (McGrath 123). Meanwhile, the functional modalism held the variable of role changing; it implicates how God carried the role as a Father, a Son, and the Holy Spirit (McGrath 123). However, the extent of these approaches to the Christian life and faith was yet to be determined, lest they had such visualizations at all. Critiques Though the Christian folks had toiled hard to establish the foundation of the Trinity, it still remained to be cloaked in ambiguity. This being the case, critiques of differing perspective were profusely nailed and hammered to it. One such critique came from the Islamic sector; they pointed out how this Trinitarian concept significantly “compromises” the central concept of God -- unity (McGrath 116). Indeed, without profound analogy and strong, supportive evidences, the Trinitarian has a great potential of muddling the Christian’s concept of God. They may be trapped in the view of God as the Son and forgot God as the Father or the Holy Spirit. The possibilities of various manifestations of God-ambiguity are evidently numerous and unending. Another critique was based upon the wordings set upon to explain the Trinity. McGrath asserted that the “doctrine of Trinity can be seen as an admission that human words are simply inadequate to express the glory and wonder of God” (121). It is, in fact, difficult to contest the limits by which the human tongue can relay a message as rich in interpretation as God’s. Moreover, Saint Augustine of Hippo was known to acknowledge that “If you can fully grasp it, it’s not God” (McGrath 118). Thus, hurling the literal basis of which the Trinitarian concept was founded not only tends to pinpoint the chink in the armor; it already identifies the internal weakness through the view in the armor’s hole. The Social Doctrine of the Trinity, according to Jurgen Moltmann’s analysis, pointed out “the relative independence of the person and work of the Holy Spirit in its community with the Father and the Son” (McGrath 131). Once more, the unity and visualization of the Trinity’s three elements were questioned and shattered. However, Moltmann had a point; the Holy Spirit was, and is, viewed as entirely different as compared to the other persons, Father and Son. Moreover, the Father and Son were concepts that were easy to grasp accounting to the fact that human relations do provide us a definite idea of what a Father or Son is and does. The last critique delved here was the one supported by Marcion of Sinope. He insisted the inferiority of the creator God on the redeemer God, and suggested the focus to center on the more superior, redeemer God (McGrath 119). This argument was countered by Irenaeus; he “insisted that the entire process of salvation, … was the work of one and the same God” (McGrath 119). Evidently, Marcion’s argument rested on the immediate and present necessities. Indeed, it may be hard to appreciate the creator God when we, humans, did not exist, and because at that time, only God saw that need to create -- only God witnessed absolute nothingness. Thus, this argument can be described as ‘egocentric’ primarily because the superiority or inferiority of one God from the other was inclusively seen through the eyes of the humans. Applicative Issues At present and what is observed as evident, the manifestation of any Trinitarian application was described as implicit (Shuster 357). However, she too pointed out how rarely “will one hear explicit reference to the Trinity” (Shuster 357). In general, one could just blame this to the failure to appease its inherent ambiguity. In specific, various factors may be able shed light and provide a clearer view of the nature of the problem. One such factor is the problem in visualization. Van Beeck pointed this difficulty in visualization to the fact that “such a unified trinitarian vision of humanity and the universe” is “hard to sustain;” his view was furthered by explaining that this sustaining issue was strongly reinforced by the perception that “its monotheism” was regarded “not as mystery of worship and wisdom,” but instead is the defying thereof (325). Most Christians, as of any other religion, walk in confidence of their religion’s security, which was deemed to be based in facts and not heresy. However, this acknowledgment of facts overshadowed the relevance of mystery in the Christian faith. In reality, the humans’ lives were and are not threaded, molded, or determined by facts. A huge part of it is glued with the unknown, the unexplainable -- mystery. Thus, the mystery that was proffered by the Christian religion particularly, the Trinitarian concept, was uncovered and established only to be kept away in the shelves and out the applied life of the Christians. Another factor to be accounted of these applicative issues was the reliance to the doctrine’s words. As Van Beeck pointed out, “the formulas, while painstakingly arrived at, were never expected to produce that understanding” (317). In other words, while the Christian founders tried to literally capture the Trinitarian concept in words, the words themselves cannot definitely relay their contextual meaning. In fact, each word may mean differently to each individual because meaning or understanding is closely and synonymously tied to the individual’s experience. Van Beeck emphasized this through his assertion that the “Father, Son, Holy Spirit -- can grow on us only in the experience of God as ‘the All” (318). Thus, there is no application until there is understanding through the binding Trinitarian concept and personal experience of God. This being the case, several profusion of religious illness can be seen; one very unifying illness is blindness -- that difficulty to see God everywhere and in everything we do (the God as ‘All’ experience). Conclusion There is no doubt that it took years for the Christian founders to formally establish the Trinitarian concept and had the Doctrine in place. However, there is evident danger that these years will be pegged useless if the Trinity is only established in rituals and in prayers. Though the church may have not foreseen this, the Trinity to be founded in strength, have to be perceived as a conceivable life-application. In other words, more work needs to be done in establishing the association of the Trinity with the Christians’ lives. The implications do not just end here. Potential area for future research may also include the worshipper or believer’s perspective of the Trinitarian concept. Most of this paper’s and the current literature’s assumptions on the Christian’s behavior towards this Christian aspect were based on collective observations. A believer or worshipper-focused study may help validate and implicate the extent of the Christian-Trinitarian concept-relationship. Another research prospect may involve suggestive Trinitarian applications to Christian life. This study might not just illustrate the conceivable Trinitarian applications but depict the characteristic nature that all Christian aspect, apart from the Trinity, endeavors to fulfill -- the strengthening of the Christian faith through living. Works Cited McGrath, Alister E. Theology: The Basics. 3rd ed. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print. Shuster, Marguerite. “Preaching the Trinity: A Preliminary Investigation.” The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity. Eds. Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall, and Gerald O'Collins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 357-381. Print. Van Beeck, Frans Jozef. “Trinitarian Theology as Paricipation.” The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity. Eds. Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall, and Gerald O'Collins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 295-327. Print. Read More