Indian Orthodox thinking on the Trinity
The Trinity gives us more space for pluralistic ways of
understanding of God in the Indian context. The Indian context is polytheistic.
The early church used epithets like ousia, hypostasis and Logos. And even by
the apostles from the Greek philosophical thought highlights their venture in
interpreting Trinity in that context. John Hick’s basic contention is
that we are required to undergo a ‘Copernican revolution’ in our theology of
religion: shift from the Ptolemic world view to a Copernican world view. This
means a paradigm shift from a Christ-centered or Jesus-centered to a
God-centered model. The God of the Bible is not only transcendent but also
immanent. He is primarily and originally transcendent, and secondarily and
derivatively immanent.
Keshab
Chandra Sen expounded the
meaning of the Trinity in the light of the Vedantic understanding of Brahman as
Sachidananda. He suggests that the Father is sat (being), the still God; son is
sit (knowledge), the journeying God and Holy Spirit is Ananda (joy) the
returning God. But here we see a tendency towards modalism and some argue that
Brahman does not exist as an empirical object and its existence has no being, consciousness
and bliss according to Upanishads. R. Panikkar argues that the Trinity is the
junction where the spiritual dimensions of all religions meet. All religions
have mystery and the Christian language for that mystery of God is Trinity.
Panikkar finds in this more room for interreligious dialogue.
Brahmabandhav
Upadhyaya redefined KC Sen understanding of
Trinity on Satcitananda and argues that the Trinity remains a mystery which can
only be grasped via revelation. It is beyond human comprehension to understand
how “God begets in thought his infinite Self-image and reposes on it with
infinite delight,” never losing “blissful communication and colloquy within the
bosom of Godhead” without creating “any division in the divine Substance.
Sadhu
Sunder Singh, says that to
know the Father (sic) is only through the Son and by the power of the Holy
Spirit. A.J. Appasamy challenges the monistic interpretation of Trinity
already in the Indian scene. He refuted the Vedanta-based idea that God the
Father, Christ, and finally, the believers are all identical and ultimately
one. For him all these were united only in moral relationship of love and
obedience.
Raimond
Pannikar Cosmotheandric “trinity” offers, a
concept, both dynamics and coherence: the Cosmotheandric Reality is a
differentiated reality which is in movement and holds together the three
dimensions of God, Man and World. This “trinity” is relation; it is not monism
or dualism but difference-in-relation: this aspect is shared by Panikkar on
elaborations of the doctrine of the Trinity. He holds a hermeneutical approach
to reality in which God, Man and World are connected to each other deeply.
Swami Abhishiktananda Christian Advaitic sannyasa life in genuine
Indian religious style is a
challenge. He lived the symbiosis of two tradition and both became part of him.
He tried to present the Advaitic experience as compatible with the Christian
experience of Trinity.
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