The current best-defense of the idea of the Trinity seems to be that God is inherently relational and therefore must exist as a relationship. (one argument seems to go: if "God is Love," God must have someone to love or God would cease to exist; if God created the universe, there must have been a point when the universe did not exist, and God was alone; in order for God to exist alone, God must consist of multiple persons that can love each other.)
I don't buy it. If God needs to be in relation to someone, why not create someone to be in relationship with. Oh, wait...God did! But, you ask, what about before God created us? UU process theologian Charles Hartshorne posited that God has always existed in relationship to one universe or another; that this universe may have been created out of the ashes of a prior one, and so forth. Not a bad idea, though honestly it smacks of circular reasoning.
But let's just say for the sake of argument that God does need to exist as a relationship. Why three? Haven't theologians ever heard the saying "two's company, three's a crowd"? God could easily exist in relationship with Godself in the guise of a male-female dualism (which, as any person married longer than a few years knows involves many different kinds of love in addition to the obvious erotic-generative love), a parent-child dualism (which models the creator-created relationship to some extent), or even a "dyslexic dualism:" God and his/her Dog (modeling that God is God's own best friend, rubs God's own belly, fetches those subatomic particles that keep getting away during creation, etc). Why do you need a third person?
My theory: because those crazy pagans already have the god-goddess dipole set up, and the parent-child dipole smacks of hierarchy unless you add a third person and make it a triangle instead of a line. But, then, why not four? or five? or an infinite number of Divine facets, each of which can "relate" to the others?
And finally: my suggestion for a new, post-feminist, post-modern, post-everything-else Trinity:
- Mother - sophia - wisdom, nurture, love
- Father - logos - reason, teaching, divine order
- Child - lumos - illumination, guidance, the "still, small voice," that-of-God-within
Gets rid of the Divine Patriarchy implied by the Father-Son-Spirit Trinity, gets rid of the modalism of the "economic" Trinity (Creator-Sustainer-Redeemer), and totally eschews sexism in either direction. Mother and Father share generative love that creates life; Mother nurtures, Father teaches - to use classic gender roles - Child exists in solidarity with the created: Immanuel, the God-with-us (and -within-us) that permeates life in the universe and provides us with our leadings/nudgings/callings and other forms of guidance.
Neat, huh?
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