Trinitarian Theology Series: God, Church, and the Human Person in Dialogue

A patch of infertile ground much lie fallow for a time before it can bear fruit again.  The same is true in the theological game:  some of the best insights only come after long periods of listening, prayer, and silence. 

It is has been several months since I have last posted, and I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking within the past month.  In particular, I have been meditating upon the thought of Jurgen Moltmann, a German Reformed theologian.  Two ideas of his have been rolling around in my brain more than any other:

1.)  Christians cannot forget that the Christ's crucifixion, as well as any other Divine intervention in human history, must be Trinitarian.  That is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit always act together, even in the midst of Christ's, the Incarnate Son's, suffering.

2.)  Unless a proposed theological idea can be reconciled to the suffering and abandoned Christ, it isn't Christian theology at all.


Moltmann sought to connect the Trinity to human experience, because he believed that it had become increasingly irrelevant to contemporary people, Christians and non-Christians alike.  I, too, am convinced that the Church's dogma of the Trinity has been marginalized and quarantined from practical spirituality, eschewed as a pointless mental exercise for academics, rather than a foundational doctrine which has lies at the foundations of the Church's identity and that of the human person.  

In the upcoming series, my first series in a long time, I intend to reflect upon the following topics:

1. The Trinity:  A God in Dialogue
2. The Church:  The Society of "Other"
3. The Human Person:  Self-in-Dialogue
4. Church and State:  A Tale of Two Cities

As the cover of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide so aptly advised, "Don't Panic!"  Trinitarian theology might be daunting at first, but it is well worth all of the effort.