Four days ago, Alexandra von Maltzan created a stunning illustration for a post posing the ever-pertinent theological question, "Is the Holy Trinity a Doctrine of Monotheism?"
The interrogatory sparked a lively discussion in her comments boxes, but as usual with such threads, two or three people managed to talk louder and more frequently than anyone else.
Rather than answering Alexandra on her site, I thought I'd post my answer here. Regular readers will have already guessed what it is.
Of course the Holy Trinity is a doctrine of monotheism.
I'm with the Anchoress (and other Catholics) on this one. As Anchoress pointed out,
The word "trinity" may not be in scripture, but for that matter neither is the world "Incarnation," and yet, Isaiah, 7:14 reads, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive,and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel (God-with-us)."
What neither the Anchoress nor Alexandra nor anyone else visiting that thread has mentioned yet is this:
Jesus, as a devout Jew, said and believed the Sh'ma prayer, ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one...")
Jesus also charged his disciples with the following mission, as recorded in Matthew 28:19:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
Behold the Trinitarian formula, come down to us through the ages via the church.
One can't baptize on less-than-divine authority. And as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it (section 254), "God is one but not solitary."
Mysterious, to be sure. Muslims don't get it. But Christians do, or at the very least, should.
It hardly needs saying that Jesus wasn't given to self-contradiction.
POSTSCRIPT: If the shamrock isn't your favorite trinitarian analogy you could use an egg. And Kenny Pierce makes a fine case for the hypercube.
Friday, December 02, 2005
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5 comments:
Excellent! And I do love it! :-)
"It hardly needs saying that Jesus wasn't given to self-contradiction."
If only that were true these days. Right to the heart of it and so simply said. Perfect Patrick...again.
As I sit about to write to the minister at our UCC church who has taken to NOT using the Trinitarian formula for baptism, I will keep this at the forefront of my thoughts.
Patrick,
"More frequently," I grant you, but "louder"...alas, very disappointing, I'd thought we'd done a decent job of keeping our voices down. ;-)
The Trinitarian piece of the Great Commission certainly works for me; I'd be interested to hear how Antimedia reads that bit. The Professor would, I suspect, simply say that the whole Great Commission scene (being a post-Resurrection appearance with "developed" Trinitarianism) is made up out of whole cloth.
Thanks for the kind words about the blog post -- your post is a worthy part of the ATB discussion and I'm sending people over here from there; hope you don't mind.
Though I should mention that the Professor might well surprise me, as there's hardly anybody in that discussion who hasn't shown himself to be a highly original thinker.
Finally linked to it, Patrick. I late.
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