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
Nazianzen, Baxter 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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