The Doctrine of the Triune God

1. God as the father/mother, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit

a. Godhead as Trinity

The oneness and the trinity of God:  This is a great mystery; but it is fundamental to the Christian faith. The belief in one God in three persons makes orthodoxy in Christian faith. The word “trinity” does not exist in the bible. It was coined by Tertullian; but it is scriptural in its nature.

The basic concept of trinity is that God is one in three persons; and three in one God. The persons are distinct but not separated; and are all equally of the same essence or nature. The Father is God (John 6:27), the Son in God (Heb. 1:8), the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4); and yet the three persons are identified as one (Matt. 28:19; II Cor. 143:14) It is a unity in essence in oneness; a diversity in person, and function as three.

 The meaning of unity in trinity of God. It may be stated in the following ways: 

(1) God is one in essence. All the three persons in Godhead are the same God, having the same essence, equal in all respects, having no beginning or an end. 

(2) God is three in person: This means that each person has the same essence as God but possesses separate form from one another but only one personal distinction within the divine essence. 

(3) The three persons have distinct relationship. Within the three exists a relationship that is expressed in terms of subsistence. The Father is not begotten nor proceeded from any person; the Son is eternally begotten from the Father (John 1:18; 3:16; I John 4:9); the Holy Spirit is eternally proceeded from the Father and the Son (John 14:26; 16:7). The procession does not denote inferiority in any way it denotes ralationship within the Trinity. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. The Father is God, The Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God.

 b. Trinitarian interpretations: Western, Eastern and Indian

East and West agree that there is exactly one God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  They also agree that the Father is neither born of anything nor proceeds from anything, that the Son is born of the Father but does not proceed from the Father, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds but is not born.  Bear in mind that 'born' and 'proceeds' in this context refer to relations that are internal to the triune Godhead, and are therefore eternal relations.  Each of the persons is eternal and uncreated.

In West it is formulated the psychological doctrine of Trinity whereas in East it is formulated the social doctrine of Trinity.

The main difference between East and West concerns that from which the Holy Spirit proceeds.  The West says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque), whereas the East says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.  One can of course question whether this dispute has any clear sense on logical round.

The tripersonal God is one God, not three Gods.  So the question arises as to the unity of the Godhead.  What is the ground of God's unity?  There is one God because there is one Father, the Father being the 'cause' or 'source' of Godhead, the principle (arche) of unity among the three.  The Orthodox speak of the "monarchy of the Father."  The other two persons originate from the Father.  Because the principle of unity is the Father, and the Father is one of the divine persons, the principle of unity is personal in nature.  So although there are three persons in one God, the unity of these three persons is itself a person, namely, the Father.

The Western view, however, issues in the result that the principle of unity is impersonal.  The reasoning is along the following lines.  If the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, then "the Father ceases to be the unique source of Godhead, since the Son is also a source." Consequently, "...Rome finds its principle of unity in the substance or essence which all three persons share."

And so the Orthodox(Eastern) "regard the filioque as dangerous and heretical. Filioquism confuses the persons, and destroys the proper balance between unity and diversity in the Godhead." God is stripped of concrete personality and made into an abstract essence.  And that's not all. The Roman(Western) view gives the Holy Spirit short shrift with the result that his role in the church and in the lives of believers is downplayed.  What's more, this subordination of the Holy Spirit, together with an overemphasis on the divine unity, has deleterious consequences for ecclesiology.  As a result of filioquism, the church in the West has become too worldly an institution, and the excessive emphasis on divine unity has led to too much centralization and too great an emphasis on papal authority.  It is worth noting in this connection that the Orthodox reject papal infallibility while accepting the infallibility of the church.

The Orthodox position -- weigh down filioquism with a difficult dilemma: either ditheism or semi-Sabellianism.  For if the Son as well as the Father is an arche, a principle of unity in the Godhead, then the upshot is ditheism, two-God-ism.  But if it is said that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the (Son tamquam ex/ab uno principio), 'as from one principle,' then, as the Orthodox see it, the Father and the Son are confused and semi-Sabellianism is the upshot. 

Sabellianism or modalism is the view that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are modes or aspects of the deity.  The East sees semi-Sabellianism in the West insofar as the Western view, in avoiding ditheism, merges Father and Son into one principle so that they become mere modes or aspect of that one principle.

Indian

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.

Implication of Trinity in Indian context: (can be use for any other applications)

India as a developing country has made rapid progress in agriculture, industrialization and urbanization. But India is still facing major problems like poverty, illiteracy, casteism, linguism, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, fanaticism, exploitation and provincialism.

All these factors hinder effective communication. The relationships among nations, neighboring countries, religions, churches, members of the churches and even the members of the same family are in decline. In such a condition the role of the Trinitarian communication is crucial. The Triune God who contains the qualities of mutual encouragement and mutual acceptance can be communicated effectively in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual country like India. The Triune God represents fellowship, love, co-operation, mutual understanding, democratization, decentralization, participation, interaction and sharing whereas the monotheistic God supports domination and hierarchy and patriarchism (Feminist concept). The Triune God with His inherent love and fellowship demands us to share His qualities and teaches us to share power properly. If we worship many gods, we will never be one. If we worship an exclusively monotheistic God we will become more and more selfish. If we worship the Trinitarian God we should be able to grow into a sharing, classless, inspired and an empowered community. Our world is crying for justice and dignity, for harmony and sharing, and for equality and fellowship. Society is a reflection of the Triune God in which there is equality and justice. When human society becomes a reflection of the Trinity it is the Kingdom of God on earth. Casteism in the church, the tension between the haves and have-nots, the rich and the poor, the divided denominations etc., are challenges in the present context. The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost created a sharing church to eradicate disparities from the church, which is a visible sign of the Kingdom of God on earth. The claim of the Triune God is not individualism but social relationship. The Kingdom of God is a social reality.

The Holy Bible traces the story of God’s communication with humans and human communication with God and with other fellow men and women. Jesus Christ revealed the mystery of the Holy Trinity through incarnation. All theists believe that there is only one God, the creator of humans and of the earth. Only Christians believe that the one God exists in three-fold form of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the model for the ideal human society. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co-equal, co-eternal and co-essential. The Trinitarian paradigm is a self-emptying kenotic model of divine, love and fellowship. In a multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-cultural society, the Trinity urges us to inter-religious dialogue, inter-denominational cooperation and for a participating outlook. The doctrine of Trinity is an inspiring reality to the church, to other religions and a challenge to the human society as a whole.

c. The concept of perichoresis and its social implications

Perichoresis is a Greek term used to describe the triune relationship between each person of the Godhead. It can be defined as co-indwelling, co-inhering, and mutual interpenetration. Alister McGrath writes that it "allows the individuality of the persons to be maintained, while insisting that each person shares in the life of the other two. An image often used to express this idea is that of a 'community of being,' in which each person, while maintaining its distinctive identity, penetrates the others and is penetrated by them."

Perichoresis in application

Glory

The New Testament demonstrates that God brings glory to himself. John's Gospel is important in understanding how Jesus and the Father relate; a key passage for a perichoretic understanding of God's glory is John 17:1, where Jesus prays, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you." We see that the Son brings glory to the Father, the Father brings glory to the Son, and the Spirit brings glory to the Son (cf. John 16:14). Such an understanding of glory exhibits the love expressed within the Godhead by Father, Son and Spirit as they give glory to each other.