Christianity
is by nature Christocentric, but it is not Christocentric at the expense of a
clear understanding of the Trinity. We
worship God in Trinity of Persons, at once transcendent, and by the grace of
the Holy Spirit immanent in personal experience. I know my God because he reveals Himself to
me. St. John puts it this way, “The anointing
that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone
should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything—and is true
and is no lie, just as it has taught you- abide in him.”[1] St. Athanasius makes the issues very clear
and we do well to heed him:
“Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary
that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and
undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly…
And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in
Trinity, and Trinity in Unity,
neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the
Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal…
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is
greater, or less than another;
But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and
co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the
Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the
Trinity.[2]
What is at stake, according to St.
Athanasius, is salvation itself.
Athanasius makes this very clear both at the beginning, and at the end
of his statement on the Trinity.
- Making
the Holy Spirit and the Son subordinate to the Father results in a
Unitarian view of God that ultimately denies personal salvation from sin
and the real presence of the Holy Spirit active in the Church today.
- Making
the Holy Spirit and the Father subordinate to the Son results in a “Jesus
Only” theology that misses the riches of our relationship with God our
Father, and tears apart the nature of the Trinity.
- Making
the Holy Spirit subordinate to the Father and the Son results in a
powerless and inadequate theology of God and the Church, yet that is the effective
theology of many in protestant evangelical traditions.
Instead of the Trinity you end up
with the Father, Son, and Holy Bible; or in some cases with the Father, Son,
and Holy Mother. The Church as I
understand it is Biblical, Sacramental, and Growing in the Spirit, and needs a
clear and balanced emphasis on the Holy Spirit for a full and healthy
development.
By
itself a creedal statement is dry, setting only the boundaries of faith, but
saying nothing of the vitality and warmth of the experience of God. It is not a new idea that there is a
ceaseless motion of love in God, love of the Father for the Son and the Spirit,
love of the Son for the Father and the Spirit, and love of the Spirit for the Father
and the Son. This ceaseless flow of love
is superabundant and overflowing in creative generosity, spilling out into all
creation in the self-revelation of the God Whom you and I adore, falling on our
knees. On a simple level I know that I
am loved by my God, the Father who created me, the Son who redeemed me, and
through the office of the Spirit calls me to Himself. He says, “You are precious in my eyes, and
honored, and I love you.”[3] In awe we cry, “What is man that you are
mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him.”[4]
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