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The Trinity and Perichoresis

 

The Trinity is not only the Archetype of all created reality, but without a fuller understanding of the nature of the Trinity, the Church will never be able to apprehend the truth of the infinite Goodness of God.

The Person Paradigm postulates that created reality exists within the context of a speaking/hearing dynamic, the perception of a living ideas flow.

Perichoresis and the Trinity

Consequently, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the Trinitarian concepts of co-inherence and perichoresis.  Put simply, the perichoresis is the eternal infinite loving flow of person, idea and virtue that exists between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each fully receiving and giving of the other. Co-inherence is the fact that all three members of the Trinity inhere or exist within eachother.

In the 'Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church' the fundamental importance of the Trinity is stressed


.....If we reject the Trinity as the sole ground of all reality and of all thought, we are committed to a road that leads nowhere; we end in aporia, in folly, in the disintegration of our being, in spiritual death. between the Trinity and hell there lies no other choice.

The question is, indeed, crucial - in the literal sense of that word. The dogma of the Trinity is a cross for human ways of thought. The apophatic ascent is a mounting of Calvary. This is the reason why no philosophical speculation has ever succeeded in rising to the mystery of the holy Trinity. This is the reason why the human spirit was able to receive the full revelation of the Godhead only after Christ on the cross had triumphed over death and over the abyss of hell.

This finally, is the reason why the revelation of the Trinity shines out in the Church as a purely religious gift, as the catholic truth above all other.
(Ch 3 God in Trinity p 65-66)

more on the importance of the Trinity here...


Perichoresis and the Kingdom

For those with ears to hear - The Cappadocian fathers in formulating the Eastern doctrine of the Trinity did not pull perichoresis out of nowhere. 

The Trinity had already been put forward as such in the early second century by the pre-eminent Gnostic Christian Valentinus.  Perichoresis and coinherence which are the pillars of a true understanding of God, were an experiential reality for a great many people within primitive Christianity who understood the mystery of the Kingdom of God.

This experiential reality of the mystery of the Kingdom survived longer in the Eastern Church than the Western Church which seemed to throw out the baby with the bathwater in the second century at the time of the split with Valentinus and the anathematising of the gnosis faction within the church.

here is the promised paper on coinherence perichoresis and the Kingdom of God pdf 200 kb (in draft form at least!)

See also John of Damascus, Gregory NazianzenBaxter Kruger and the Perichoresis Organisation.

Baxter Kruger

Baxter Kruger of the Perichoresis organisation in the USA is highly recommended as a resource on the true understanding of the Trinity and the goodness of God. 

Perichoresis Australia

Baxter Kruger's Perichoresis Organisation in the USA is also affiliated with Perichoresis Australia.   Interestingly, Whilst Perichoresis Australia also has some great resources on the Trinity,  it has a second  focus of opposition to what it sees as illegitimate Greek philosophical  influences within the Christian Church.

Ironically, Marcellus of Ancyra one of the participants at the Council of Nicea was also concerned with what he saw as illegitimate Platonic and Hermetic influences within the Church at the time the Nicean Creed was being hammered out.  

Marcellus, arguing against the direction the Nicean Creed was being steered by the Cappadocian Fathers, warned that the three hypostases and three persons of Father Son and Holy Spirit were in fact a Platonic invention infiltrated into the Church by Valentinus!  

See Valentinus and the Trinity for more.


 

 

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The character of Yahweh vs the character of Jesus

Goodness Love and Virtue (A theological appraisal of the 'Old Testament God')

The 'Wrath of God' as Satan

The Prodigal Son

The Jericho Thought Experiment - WWJD?

William Law

Goodness Love and Virtue (pdf version for printing)

God is only Love

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