The Little Friar

Continuing my reading through Richard Lischer's Open Secrets : God is persons and nothing else.  There is no waxy residue of divinity that is not wrapped up in these three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That's who God is.  God is (est) each of these three persons, but the persons are distinct from one another (non est).  God is both:  alone in majesty and at the same time forever radiating love through each person of the Trinity ... We are only able to love each other because the Father loves the Son through the Holy Spirit.  We want to be with one another as friends, lovers, and neighbors for the same reason.  That's not an argument that would appeal to most theologians, but that's what the Trinity meant for us (p. 81).

Rodrick Durst's Reordering the Trinity:  Six Movements of God in the New Testament is a refreshing journey through the trinitarian texts and subtexts of the New Testament, exploring all the ways our understanding of God impacts how we Christians live and worship and work in the Church. According to Durst, the traditional order we normally associate with trinitarian language, particularly at baptism -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- is but one of six ways in which the persons of the trinity are arranged in New Testament trinitarian formulations, and each of those six ways have very different emphases. Durst then engages in a survey of the ways in which the early church utilized that diverse trinitarian language in order to enrich its life and work in the world.  From the biblical context to the liturgical and missional implications, Durst's argument is richly textured and explores how the particular purpose or movement of each of those six formulations has implications in ...

I'm a critical person -- or, more to the point, I like to complain.  A lot.  I'm far more gracious in writing because writing makes me convert my whining to a point.  And sometimes I find that my whining is better left unwritten.  I have begun many a blog post here, only to stop, mid-sentence, and step away.  Upon returning, I just delete all I've written.  Because there's wisdom in knowing the difference between a genuine criticism and a childish whine.  And in what you do about both. So I was rather convicted this morning when I read the appointed Psalm for morning prayer:  Psalm 62.  Here are verses 2-4: How long will you assail a person,    will you batter your victim, all of you,    as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence? Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.    They take pleasure in falsehood; they bless with their mouths,    but inwardly ...

A couple of days ago, my friend Tim and I sat in our living room, talking theology.  It was a revisiting of the days of mentor-student discussing the "joyful science" (we're both Basically Barthians); it was also in preparation of his next step toward joining me in ordained ministry as my colleague.  So, we spent some time talking theology and theologians.  The next day, Kendra asked that next time I try to be a little less academic sounding.  So I thought I'd give it a try here, with a topic that infuses and enlivens my theology:   The Trinity.   The Trinity can, after all, sound like an unnecessary and even unbiblical idea.  So here are 10 theses that try to make the doctrine of the Trinity more accessible to non-academic-theologian types.  1.   The Trinity is essential for Christians.  It grows out of our experience of Jesus.  It is the language of salvation.   The Trinity is not an  optional  doctrine, it is ...