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65 views6 pagesPractical Trinity LaCugna
The document discusses the revitalization of the doctrine of the Trinity, which has historically been viewed as abstract and irrelevant to practical Christian faith. Recent theological developments, influenced by various social and political movements, have led to a renewed interest in understanding the Trinity as central to salvation and community life. The author emphasizes that the Trinity is not merely a theoretical concept but a practical doctrine that informs Christian ethics, worship, and communal relationships.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
65 views6 pagesPractical Trinity LaCugna
The document discusses the revitalization of the doctrine of the Trinity, which has historically been viewed as abstract and irrelevant to practical Christian faith. Recent theological developments, influenced by various social and political movements, have led to a renewed interest in understanding the Trinity as central to salvation and community life. The author emphasizes that the Trinity is not merely a theoretical concept but a practical doctrine that informs Christian ethics, worship, and communal relationships.
Uploaded by
Romeo Macali Jr.Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
/ 6
CAT Hanon LA Coen
oP yun TU”
AT. ANG U
6H 42
The Christian
CENTURY
The Practical Trinity
CATHERINE MOWRY LaCUGNA. _
"Tes DOCTRINE of the Trinity has the reputation of
being an arcane and abstract theory that has no rele-
vance to the practice of Christian faith. Most people,
‘whether in parish education programs or in advanced the-
ological study, typically avoid this teaching which has
played only a peripheral role in Christian thought in the
last 15 centuries. This was not always the case; about
1,600 years ago Gregory of Nyssa complained that it was
impossible to go into the marketplace to buy bread, or go
to the bank, or goto the baths, without geting involved in
a discussion about whether God the Son is equal to or
Jess than God the Father. This lively debate, carried on in
the most ordinary of settings, would be hard to imagine
today. In fact, the Iete Catholic theologian Karl Rahner
‘once remarked that even if one could show the doctrine
of the Trinity to be false, most religious literature could
well remain virtually unchanged.
‘What Rahner said was certainly true 50, 20, even 15,
years ago, But recent years have seen an explosion of
interest in trinitarian doctrine, due in part to Rahner’s
own seminal study of the doctrine of the ‘comple-
mented by the prominent place Karl Barth gave it in his
Church Dogmatics. Other factors include changes
‘wrought by the Second Vatican Council, the widespread
fascination with spirituality and world religions, new
exegetical studies in Christology, and the vital critiques of
classical ideas of God made by political, feminist, black,
and Latin American liberation theologians. Although the
classical teaching on the Trinity is only in its initial stages
of rejuvenation, many significant books and articles have
es
Catherine Mowry LaCugna teaches systematic theolo-
‘gy at the University of Notre Dame. Her book God for
Us: The Trinity and Christian Life was recently pub-
lished by HarperSanFrancisco.
on
begun to appear that retrieve largely forgotten ideus and
persons, and then apply principles gleaned from trnitari-
an doctrine to current social, political, economic, spiritual
or church-related issues. For example, the principle that
the divine persons are perfectly co-equal is used to dis-
‘mantle the ‘idea that women are subordinate to
‘men. The idea of God's providential economy as the eco-
nomics of lavish and superabundant grace is contrasted
with human economics driven by scarcity, deprivation
and costliness, The idea of the Trinity's loving relation to
creation is linked with ecological concerns. And the
renewal of interest in the Holy Spirit is becoming a con-
tact point with other religions.
Ttused to be that a new doctrine of the Trinity meant a
‘new way to explain “God's inner life,” that is, the rela-
tionship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit to one another
(what tradition refers to as the immanent Trinity), But
now both Catholic and Protestant theologians who are
working to revitalize the doctrine of the Trinity have
shifted away from constructing theories about God’s
“inner life.” Instead, by returning to the more concrete
images and of the Bible, liturgy and ereeds, it
hhas become clear that the original
trine was to explain the place of
place ofthe Spirit in our sanctification or deification,
and in so doing to say something about the mystery of
God's eternal being. By concentrating more on the mys-
tery of God with us, God for us, and less on the nature of
God by Godself, it is becoming possible once again for
the doctrine of the Trinity to stand at the center of
faith—as our rhetoric has always claimed. The doctrine
of the Trinity is being rehabilitated, first as the summary
of what we believe about God who saves through Jesus
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and second as the
proper context for the entire theological enterprise,
‘The Christian CENTURY
may Cg 0, hea) Ke
whether in the areas of ecclesiology, sacraments or
Christology.
“The heart of Christian faith is the encounter with the
God of Jesus Christ who makes possible both our union
with God and communion with each other. In this
‘encounter God invites people to share in divine life and
grace through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spit-
it; at the same time, we are called to live in new relation-
shi
Spirit into the body of Christ. The personal and commu-
nal dimensions of Christian faith are inseparable.
‘The Leiter to the Ephesians (I:3-14) contains a beauti-
ful liturgical hymn that neatly summarizes this basic sub-
ject matter of trinitarian theology: God has blessed us
from before all eternity; God elected us in Christ so that
‘we would be holy and blameless before God in love; God
desires to live with us in the intimacy of a familial rela-
tionship. In Jesus Christ we have been redeemed and our
sins forgiven by the blood of the cross; God plans to
reunite all things with God, which is why we are sealed
with the Spirit of God. We also are told what our vocation
is: to live for the praise of God's glory. This is the record
of redemptive history, beginning with God turned toward
the creature in love, and ending with all things being
reunited with God.
RINITARIAN THEOLOGY is about this entire econ-
providence, elec-
tion, redemption and consummation. Indeed, the shape of
‘rinitarian doctrine is dictated by the pattern of redemp-
tion; everything comes from God, is made known and
redeemed through Jesus Christ, and is consummated by
the power of the Holy Spirit. Theology as doctrine of God
thus is dependent on theology as doctrine of salvation.
In short, the doctrine’ssubjoct matter is the mystery of
God who acts and is present in the events of history—sal-
vation history. The God of redemptive history comes to
bbe known, loved and worshiped in the course of a yet-1o-
be-completed relationship between God and God's peo-
ple. God is discovered first of all in creation—creation as
interpreted through the religious history of Israel; the cen-
tral feature of Israel's history is covenant love, initiated
on’Sinai and continued through the testimony of the
propheis. For Christians the history of God reaches deci-
sive expression in the life, teaching,'death and resurrec-
‘Once the close connection between the question of sal-
vation and the question of God becomes apparent, it also
‘Becomes clear that the Christian doctrine of God has very
litle to do with an abstract state of affairs, whether heav-
‘enly or earthly. To be sure, “Trinity” is the normative
Cristian model for understanding who God is; but who
‘God is can never be separated from who we are now and
who we are to become. The ceiitraf theme of all trinitari-
‘an theology is telationship: God's relationship with us,
July 15-22, 1992
th one other, as we are gathered together by the
and our-relationships with-one another. The doctrine of
the Trinity is not an abstract conceptual paradox about
God's inner life, or a mathematical puzzle of the “one and
three.” The doctrine of the Trinity is in fact the most prac-
tical of all doctrines: Among other things, it helps us
aniculate our understanding of the gospel's demands; how
personal conversion is related to social transformation;
‘what constitutes “right relationship" within the Christian
community and in society at large; how best to praise and
‘worship God; and what it means to confess faith in and’ be
baptized into the life of the God of Jesus Christ.
“The doctrine of the Trinity is therefore naturally linked
to the church’s confessional and liturgical expressions of
“right relationship” such as the one noted in Ephesians.
‘The giving of praise to God is the proper response to what
God is accomplishing in salvation history. The content of
the doctrine of the Trinity and essential acts of believers—
adoration and worship of God—are therefore inseparable.
‘The church confessed in its early creeds,
in its eucharistic prayers, and praised i
what God had done in Christ. The original
trinitarian faith was indeed doxologi¢al. Doxology is the
living language of faith in which praise is offered to God
for the abundance of God's generous love. Through dox-
ology our thoughts and words, hopes and acts, are offered
to God and open:us up into the reality of the living God.
From the beginning Christians offered praise and thanks-
giving to God through Jesus Charis. This pattern of prayer
signaled a new religious identity. The mediatory prayers
offering praise to God through Christ also eventually
played a major role in the doctrinal controversies of the
fourth century, since some theologians used the prayers t0
support the view that Christ was less than God,
Liturgy thus shapes trinitarian faith, especially in the
sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, and in the recitation.
‘of common Christian-creeds. Systematic and historical
theologies of the Trinity often downplay the extent to
which the question of the divinity of Christ (and later, the
divinity of the Spirit) was prompted by conflicting inter-
pretations of the early church’s liturgical acts. When
understood as doxology, trinitarian theology is placed
‘squarely within its proper context, namely, the confessing
Tree Family
1'm grateful for the legacy of tees,
stalwart and familiar as I grew.
‘The apple's shoulder taught me how to climb
to the old ice house roof. I bent the birch
to send me earthward, and the sturdy maple
stretched its arm so it could set me soaring
tosail its branches asthe leaves
shared life's rhythms in their whispering way,
deep-rooted rhythms. Ihave talked with trees.
‘Marian Gleason
679 PREER REE REE EERE EERE EE
community of faith, Because trinitarian theology must be
‘moored in the concrete expressions of faith, wors
particular recommends itself as the point of entry into
reflection on trinitarian faith
‘When the doctrine of the Trinity is presented in a way
that is more at home with the concrete language and
images ofthe Bible, creeds and the liturgy, it becomes
plain that it is an eminently practical doctrine
reaching consequences for Christian faith, etic
ality, and the life ofthe church. "The doctrine ofthe Tin
ty is an effort to artioulate-basic.Christian faith: In Jesus
Christ, the ineffable and invisible God'saves‘us from sin
and death; by the power of the Holy Spirit, God continues
Why has the doctrine of the Trinity
played such a minor role in
Christian theology and life?
to be altogether present t0'Us, secking’everlasting com-
‘munion with all creatures. Christianity and Christian the-
ology simply cannot do without a trinitarian doctrine of
God that articulates the heart of this faith.
WO QUESTIONS seem unavoidable once one rec-
‘ognizes that the doctrine of the Trinity depicis a God
who is irrevocably bound to a people and their history, a
God resolutely interested in hnman flourishing, a God inti-
‘mately present to every creature at every moment. Why
thas this doctrine played such a minor role in Christian the-
ology.and life, and even been regarted as contrary 10 rea:
son? And what obstacles need 10 be overcome, what doc-
trinal-adjustments need to be made, so that this profound
teaching may once more occupy the center of faith?
Answering the first question requires historical
spective. Briefly, the early. church from its very origins
struggled to interpret the. gospel. It had to answer difficult
questions about how Christianity was in continuity with
Judaism, about the role of Jesus Christ in our salvation,
about whether Jesus was on a par with God or less than
God. Within a few decades questions about the Holy
Spirit also arose: Is the Spirit distinct from Jesus? Is the
Spirit divine? (Not until 381 did the Council of Con-
stantinople affirm the divinity of the Spirit.)
‘The overriding concern of theologians at this time was
precisely the nature of redemption: Who saves us? Is it
Géd who saves? Jesus Christ? The Holy Spirit? Since
only God can save, and since God, Christ and the Spirit
are all essential o our salvation, are there three gods? The
‘obvious answer was that the one Gold saves through Jesus
Christ by the power.of the Holy Spirit. This affirmation
‘was consistent with the New ‘Testament language, and
also with the pattern of the church’s prayer, since doxolo-
ies and early eucharistic prayers were offered in just this
attern—to God through Jesus Christ.
But then the question was posed whether the pattern of
the church's prayer and the witness of the New Testament
could be interpreted to mean that because Jesus Christ
‘was the mediator of salvation, he is “less than'God"—
greater, perhaps, than the rest of us, but still less than
God. Arius was tie main proponent of this view. Theolo-
gians at the Council of Nicaea (325) and thereafter
(Athanasius and others) reasoned that if Jesus Christ is
Jess than God, then he cannot be truly insthimental in our
salvation. Therefore, Jesus Christ must be on a par with
God, divine, as, well as fully human. Trinitarian doctrine
‘was born in the course of this debate, largely through the
effort of Athanasius and the Cappadocians (Basil, Grego-
ry of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa) who affirmed that
Jesus Christ is essential to our salvation and therefore
must be “of the same nature” as God. Likewise with the
Holy Spirit.
‘This was a rather tricky position to maintain. The Cap-
padocians, and Augustine in the West, used every kind of
philosophical idea and term they could think of that
‘might help them make this case, Their initial concern was
with our salvation, tot with metaphysics. But the
strongest way they had to defend their position was to
agree with Nicaea that Jesus Christ is “of the same sub-
stance” (homoousios) as God. (We say in the creed: God
from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten not made, one in being with the Father)
To some degree this affirmation clashed with Scrip-
ture, particularly on the matter of Christ's suffering. It
‘was indisputable from the New Testament that Jesus
(Christ suffered. However, theologians of the fourth centu-
ry assumed without question that God could not suffer.
How then could Christ be God? Their solution was to say
that Christ suffered in his humanity, not his divinity. Like-
wise, his equality with God was according to his divine,
not his human, nature. Thas Christ was homioousios with
God in his divinity, not humanity.
This more metaphysical approach to the Trinity
‘opened up a gap not only between Christ’s divinity and
humanity, but between what is true at the level of the
economy (oikonomia) and what is true within God's
being (theologia). Debates about the equality of Fether,
‘Son and Spirit began to sound more like erguments about
intradivine” equality, rather than the equality of the
divine persons in our salvation. Trinitarian doctrine. was
born in this tiny gap between oikonomia and theologia;
the doctrine would also begin to unravel there. {(es«#%
The Bible, liturgy and early Christian creeds do not
show any predilection to settle questions of God's “inner”
life; they-speak only of God's presence in the world
through the Son and Spirit. Yet theologians became
increasingly concerned with how Father, Son and Spirit
ar¢ related 10 each other. Fot many people today, the term
“Trinity” evokes just this discussion of God's inner life.
‘The image of the immanent Trinity which perhaps comes
to mind most often is of a committee” of per-
sons arranged nonlinearly (as in a triangle) or linearly (as
in a vertical row), We less frequently connect the idea of
“Trinity” with the vision of the author of Ephesians:
‘The Christian CENTURY Community of faith. Because trinitarian theology must be
moored in the concrete expressions of faith, worshi
particular recommends itself as the point of entry into
reflection on trinitarian faith.
‘When the doctrine of the Trinity is presented in a way
that is more at home with the concrete language and
images of the Bible, creeds and the liturgy, it becomes
plain that it is an eminently practical doctrine with far-
reaching consequences for Christian faith, ethics, spi
ality, and the life of the church. The doctrine of the Trini-
ty is an effort to artioulate basic. Christian faith: In Jesus
Christ, the ineffable and invisible Godt saves-us from'sin
and death; by the power of the Holy Spirit, God continues
Why has the doctrine of the Trinity
played such a minor role in
Christian theology and life?
to be altogether present tous, secking everlasting com-
‘union with allereatures. Christianity and Christian the-
ology simply cannot do without a trinitarian doctrine of
God that articulates the heart of this faith.
T7 QUESTIONS seem unavoidable once one ree-
cognizes that the doctrine of the Trinity depicts a God
who is imevocably bound to a people and their history, a
‘God resolutely interested in hnman flourishing, a God inti-
‘mately present to every creature at every moment. Why
thas this doctrine played such a minor role in Christian the-
‘ology and life, and even been regarded as contrary t0 rea-
son? And what obstacles.nced 10 be overcome, what doc-
‘cinal adjustments need to be made, so that this profound
teaching may once more occupy the center of faith?
‘Answering the*first question requires historical per-
spective. Briefly, the eatly.church from its very origins
struggled to interpret the gospel. It had to answer dificult
questions about how Christianity was in continuity with
Jadaism, about the role of Jesus Christ in our salvation,
about whether Jesus was on a par with God or less than
God. Within a few decades questions about the Holy
Spirit also arose: Is the Spirit distinct from Jesus? Is the
Spirit divine? (Not until 381 did the Council of Con-
stantinople affirm the divinity of the Spirit.)
‘The overriding concern of theologians at this time was
precisely the nature of redemption: Who saves us? Is it
Géd who saves? Jesus Christ? The Holy Spirit? Since
‘only God can save, and since God, Christ and the Spirit
are all essential to our salvation, are there three gods? The
‘obvious answer was that the one Gd saves through Jesus
Christ by the power of the Holy.Spirit. This affirmation
was consistent with the New Testament language, and
also with the pattern of the church's prayer, since doxolo-
gies and early eucharistic prayers were offered in just this
attern—to God through Jesus Christ.
But then the question was posed whether the pattern of
the church's prayer and the witness of the New Testament
could be interpreted to mean that because Jesus Christ
was the mediator of salvation, he is “less than'God"—
greater, perhaps, than the rest of us, but still less than
God. Arius was the main proponent of this view. Theolo-
gians at the Council of Nicaea (325) and thereafter
(Athanasius and others) reasoned that if Jesus Christ is
less than God, then he cannot be tuly instrumental in our
salvation. Therefore, Jesus Christ must be on a par with
God, divine, as, well as fully human. Trinitarian doctrine
‘was born in the course of this debate, largely through the
cffort of Athanasius and the Cappadocians (Basil, Grego-
ry of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa) who affirmed that
Jesus Christ is essential to our salvation and therefore
‘ust be “of the same nature” as God. Likewise with the
Holy Spirit.
‘This was a rather tricky position to maintain. The Cap-
padocians, end Augustine in the West, used every kind of
philosophical idea and term they could think of that
‘might help them make this case. Their initial concem was
with our salvation, fot with metaphysics. But the
strongest way they had to defend their position was to
agree with Nicaea that Jesus Christ is “of the same sub-
stance” (homoousios) as God. (We say in the creed: God
from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten not made, one in being with the Father)
‘To some degree this affirmation clashed with Scrip-
ture, particularly on the matter of Christ's suffering. It
was indisputable from the New Testament that Jesus
(Christ suffered. However, theologians of the fourth centu-
ry assumed without question that God could not suffer.
How then could Christ be God? Their solution was to say
that Crist suffered in his humanity, not his divinity. Like-
wise, his equality with God was according to his divine,
not his human, nature. Thus Christ was homoousios with
God in his divinity, not humanity.
‘This more metaphysical approach to the Trinity
‘opened up a gap not only between Christ's divinity and
humanity, but between what is true at the level of the
‘economy (oikonomia) and what is true within God's
being (heologia). Debates about the equality of Father,
Son and Spirit began to sound more like erguments about
“ntradivine” equality, rather than the equality of the
divine persons in our salvation. Trinitarian doctrine was
‘born in this tiny. gap between oikonomia and theologia;
the doctrine would also begin to unravel there. (* «7%
‘The Bible, liturgy and early Christian creeds do not
show any predilection 10 seitle questions of God’s “inner” _
life; they speak only of God's presence in the world
through’the Son and Spirit. Yet theologians became
increasingly concerned with how Father, Son and Spirit
ar€ related fo each other. For many people today, the term.
“Trinity” evokes just this discussion of God's inner life.
‘The image of the immanent Trinity which perhaps comes
to mind most often is of a “heavenly committee” of per-
‘sons arranged nonlinearly (as in a triangle) or linearly (as
in a vertical row). We less frequently connect the idea of
“Trinity” with the vision of the author of Ephesians:
‘The Christian CENTURY BERR ERE ERE RRR ERR EEE
God's open and aynamic lite ot giving and receiving in
which humanity graciously has been included as partner.
It was no small accomplishment for the Cappadocians
and Augustine to figure out how to maintain the co-
equality of Father, Son and Spirit, without on the one
hhand speaking as though there were three gods alongside
‘each other, of on the other hand, three gods arranged in a
descending hierarchy. Even so, the effect, however unin-
tentional, was to de-emphasize God's presence f0 us in
the economy of redemption. As focus rested more and
more on the “inner life” of God—on the self-relatedness
of Father, Son, and Spirit to each other—instead of on
God's relation to us, eventually the doctrine of the Trinity
could speak only of a Trinity locked up in itself, related to
itself, contemplating itself perfectly and eternally, but
essentially unrelated to us. It is no wonder that so many
would find the theoretical explanations for this state of
affairs uninteresting and irrelevant.
By the time of medieval theology in the West and
Byzantine theology in the East, the trinitarian doctrines of
the Cappadocians and Augustine had been hardened into
strict metaphysical accounts of God's self-relatedness—
or as the tradition would say, of the Trinity in se (in
itself). In his Summa Theologiae Thomas Aquinas (d.
1274) composed a highly sophisticated account of
intradivine persons, processions and relations. And
‘Thomas, who wrote a treatise titled On the One God and
another titled On the Triune God, created the impres-
sion—although he intended nothing of the sort—that,
belief in the Trinity was “added on” to belief in the One
God. For his part, Palamas in the East (d. 1359)
so emphasized the unknowability and inaccessibility of
God as to make the Trinity seem even more distant from
us. In the medieval scholastic synthesis the attributes of
God—infinity, immutability, impassiblity, incorporeali-
ty—overtook the biblical presentation of God as someone
who initiated relationship with a people, was open to
prayer, petition and lament, suffered on account of the
suffering of the people, became enfleshed in Christ, and
as Spirit is working to bring about the reign of God. It is
‘no small wonder that apart from the efforts of Luther and
Calvin to recover the importance of ongoing conversion,
personal relationship with Jesus and the centrality of the
cross for our salvation, very little happened in theology,
East or West, in the area of trinitarian theology—until
very recently.
The historical development of the doctrine of the Trin-
ity is impressive from the standpoint of sheer speculative
attainment and intellectual vigor. But there were both
ins and losses along the way. One gain was the affirma-
tion that Christ and the Spirit are divine, What was lost
was the centrality of the mystery of salvation, and hence
the connection between trinitarian doctrine and trinitarian
faith. The speculative heritage of Christianity must be
retrieved where possible only within this nexus of faith
and doctrine—a nexus that has pastoral, ethical, spiritual
and personal significance. When the doctrine of the Trini-
ty is thus retrieved, theology as a whole becomes much
Saly 15-22, 1992
‘more an act of “confessing faith” in the triune God than
.an abstract theory that is segregated from the rest of
Christian life.
HE DOCTRINE OF the Trinity, to summarize, is a
doctrine about God. But because it is a doctrine about
the God who shares life with us in an economy of
redemption, it is also a doctrine about salvation. Further,
because it uses the idea of “person” and “relation” to
affirm that God is essentially personal and relational, the
doctrine of the Trinity is also the foundation for a theolo-
y of the human person, and a theology of right relation-
ship. Finally, because it affirms that persons, whether
divine or human, are made to exist in loving communion
with one another, the doctrine of the Trinity is also the
foundation for a vision of society and a vision of the
church which is to be a sign to the world of the ultimate
destiny of all creatures. But even more, out of such a
view of the Trinity emerge a number of principles that
have a direct bearing on ethics, spirituality, ecclesiology
and politics.
First, according to the doctrine of the Trinity elaborat-
ed by the Cappadocians, and which is being retrieved
today, the ultimate principle of all existence, the Creator
of everything, is personal, not impersonal. This is the
import of calling God (Father) the Unoriginate Origin.
While God comes from no one and from nothing (in the
sense that there is nothing more ultimate or primary than
God), still God is, by God's very nature, not nonrelated
‘but a person in relation to other persons. It is not as though
there is first a God, then there are divine persons. The doc-
ttine of the Trinity insists that God does not exist except as
Father, Son, Spirit. Apart from the divine persons there is
‘no God. This rules out the search for a definition of God
“in and of Godself,” or “God unto Godself.”
‘This means that every human being, and indeed every
creature, has its origin in a person who by definition is
not solitary but in relationship with another. By definition
a person is ecstatic, toward-another, we are persons by
virtue of relationship to another. Persons know and are
known, love and are loved, and express themselves in
freedom. To think of a person without thinking of that
nuiio teak of 7
‘means to bea ‘Therefore every time we think of
God we must think of God not in isolation, “God with
God,” but in relationship to another person, One of the
important features of this shift from a substance ontology
toa relational ontology is that it ties theological reflection
‘on God to the economy where the divine persons actually
exist and are known in our history.
‘Second, because God is personal and not impersonal,
God exists as the mystery of persons in communion,
Communion (Koinonia) means shared life, Persons who
exist together in true communion share happiness, share
hope, share suffering, share responsibility. God’s life of
‘communion might be described in two ways: first, there
is the communion of love of the divine persons for one
another. Second, and this is the flipside, there is the com- PeS SBE RERE RE RRR BERR RR EEE.
munion of the tritine God with all creatures in the uni-
‘verse. There is one universal communion; God is both the
origin, the sustaining ground, and the final goal of this
shared life,
‘The communion of God and Christ, according to the
doctrine of the Trinity, does not permit any kind of subor-
ination, inequality or hierarchy. While every person is
lunique, no one person is more important than another, no
person comes before another. Likewise with the human
community. Communion in the Spirit of God means that
all persons, while irreducibly unique, exist together as
equal partners in Christ.
Third, since God is perfectly
al and relational, —_
and since we are created in the image of God, then we
personhood
will be most like God when we live out
unique characteristics of the divine persons we look to
salvation history, where God has revealed Godself, espe-
ciaily in the fave of Jesus Christ. Indeed, we say that
Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Jesus is God in human
form. Jesus is a person the way that God is a person.
‘Therefore, imitating Jesus Christ means being perfected
as a human being, and, to go back to Ephesians, the imi-
tation of Christ means fulfilling our vocation as human
beings.
"THE ECONOMY of redemption isthe arena ofthe
divine-human relatic ip. God moves toward us
through Christ and the Spbit, so that we may come into
‘communion with God and with one another. The Greek
word for “economy,” dikonoma, literally means manage-
ment of a houschold. God and all of God's creatures
