There was very little discussion around our first posting in systematic theology. I take that to mean that either very few people are reading and interested, or that they are waiting for the more exciting and difficult parts of systematic theology to get involved.
At any rate, we will move from prolegomena to the Doctrine of God in this week's posting. While the section involving the Doctrine of God is not extremely long in its current form, it perhaps has the most room for additional thoughts and insights. As such, we will post it in three different segments over the next three or more weeks. The sections we will be looking at are 1) the nature of God, 2) the attributes of God, and 3) God's activity in the world.
Here is the first of the aforementioned installments for our discussion:
Doctrine of God
Scripture refers to God as YHWH, Lord, Father, Jesus, Son, Holy Spirit, and the like. So, who is this God that we worship as Christians? After all, we are reminded in these words to Israel, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” (Deut. 6:4) that there is but one God. Yet Paul closes one of his letters by writing “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor. 13:13). These diverse expressions of God and God’s names in the pages of Scripture lend difficulty to the task of identifying and defining God. Therefore, to move forward it is necessary to discuss God in terms of God’s nature, attributes, and activity within the world.
God’s Nature:
God is triune; that is, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God exists as three persons that are ontologically one, or, “The Godhead is a community of persons” (K. Norris, 287). Each of these persons exists eternally and is of the same substance. As such, when one person of the Trinity acts, all persons of the Trinity act. These are not modes of being in the modalistic sense, but rather, these modes of being regard how the persons of the Trinity are related to one another. Specifically, God the Father begets God the Son, and the Holy Spirit precedes from God the Father. In this manner the immanence of the Trinity, the way that God is with God’s self, is explicated relationally. Since the core of God’s being is relationship; God’s economy, the way God relates to the created order, is also ground in relationship. You cannot separate the economic Trinity from the immanent Trinity (Placher, 80). Through the exploration of Scripture, tradition and experience, we see that God’s activity within creation is relational through covenants, promises, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Throughout these activities God draws near to us and in turn draws us near to God. Hence, when we are drawn into relationship with God and transformed by God’s presence in our lives, we emulate the immanence and economy of the Trinity in our relationships with God, with others, and with the created order. When we affirm our belief in God, we are acknowledging the divinity of all persons of the Trinity and proclaiming the oneness of the Godhead; this is the crux of the nature of God. The difficulty of wrapping our finite minds around this concept may lend itself to approach the Trinity “not trying to explain it, but rather by seeking to imitate it” (Gonzalez and Maldanado, 54).
What are your thoughts!?!
© Russell Hall/Radically Altered – 2009. All Rights Reserved.
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2 comments:
As you say, the Triune God is a challenging concept to wrap your mind around. I will muddy the waters further by digressing into the "Paraclete," the Spirit of Truth that Jesus promises the disciples will be given after his death. He is also called "another counselor." My understanding is that the Paraclete is one aspect of the Holy Spirit and was only given, could only be given, after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
There will be a section on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in a few weeks...so we will come back to this then (don't let me forget!).
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