The Father is made of none; neither created, nor begotten.
Athanasian Creed – 6th Century AD
The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created; but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten; but proceeding.
Christianity is unique among even monotheistic religions for its portrayal of God as a Triune entity: three distinct persons who share a fundamental nature. When I first read about the doctrine of the Trinity I thought that the language seemed very stilted and needlessly technical. The lines quoted above from the Athanasian Creed are a prime example. Why is it important to say that the son is not created but begotten? Why is the Holy Spirit “proceeding” but neither created nor begotten? The answer is that the creeds were all constructed to refute heresy; they needed to be extraordinarily precise about what they claimed.
That having been said, it is easy to get lost in the weeds and to miss the point. The point, as I have already observed, is that the God of Christianity is both a community and a relationship. Christianity as a faith and as a practice only makes sense within the context of this relationship. If we do not understand the nature of the relationship of love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then we have no proper context from which to understand our relationship with God.
The Trinity is one of the foundational mysteries of the Christian faith. As a mystery, it inhabits a space that is darkness to the human mind. Mysteries are neither irrational nor anti-rational; they are supra-rational. Keenly aware of this, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but love is its consummation.” God invites us to know Him by direct experience, rather than simply with our minds. The God who is love, may be known only by love. Christian meditation, properly understood, is an act of vulnerability and humility, by which we seek to experience the reality of those deep mysteries to which the words of scripture point. The words and concepts are shadows; by the reality is solid and eternal.
This blog is the product of 20 years of meditation on the nature of the Trinity and the implications that perceiving God as a relationship and community of love has on our lives as Christians. The observations I make are fragmentary and incomplete; we see in part and we know in part. My experience as an artist has shown me that truth emerges from a series of successive approximations. My views on the Trinity have changed countless times over the last 20 years, and doubtless they will continue to change as the work of love that the Holy Spirit does in me refines my ability to perceive Him. I invite you to consider the things written here, not as dogmatic doctrinal statements, but as starting points for your own meditations as you seek to penetrate the obscure darkness of faith that surrounds the divine and gaze with unveiled face on the Shining Mystery.