Religion: GOD

Christianity, religion Christianity, Christianity religion. GOD:

GOD


Whatever your heart clings to and trusts in, that is really your god,” said Luther in his exposition of the first commandment in the large catechism. Unfortunately, the human heart and mind is, as Calvin recognized, a “perpetual factory of idols” ( Institutes 1.11.8). Phenomenologically speaking, there are therefore “many gods and many lords” (1 Cor. 8:5). But for Christians, the apostle Paul continues, “there is one God, the Father... and one Lord, Jesus Christ” (v.6). To come to the Christian faith is to turn “from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming” (1 Thess. 1:9-10). Or in Johannine terms: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

The Christian doctrine of God is Trinitarian (see Trinity ). “When I say God”, declared Gregory Nazianzus (d.389), “I mean Father, Son and Holy Spirit” ( Oration 38.8; 45.4). Jesus Christ,* the Son, is “God from God,... eternally begotten of the Father”, while the Holy Spirit* “proceeds from the Father” and “with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified” (see Nicene Creed ). This Trinitarian pattern is profoundly stamped on all Eastern Orthodox liturgy and theology. The classic Western churches are also Trinitarian in creed; but in their theological reflection they have tended, at least from Augustine (d.430) onwards, to start with the “one simple substance of God” in such a way as to make distinctions among the three persons difficult. From Aquinas (d.1274) onwards, it was for centuries customary for Western dogmaticians to treat “the one God” (de Deo uno) before treating “the Triune God” (de Deo trino) . Modern Protestantism has stood under the aegis of Friedrich Schleiermacher, who devoted only the last ten pages of his “doctrine of the faith” ( Der christliche Glaube , 2nd ed., 1830), and then with “unitarian” sympathies, to the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Western situation changed in the 20th century with Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics (1932-67), which begins its doctrine of revelation* in a Trinitarian way that is then maintained throughout the work. And on the Roman Catholic side, Karl Rahner's lengthy article on the Trinity in the encyclopedic Mysterium Salutis (Johannes Feiner and Magnus Löhrer eds, 1965-76) has been very influential, especially in its celebrated axiom that “the ‘economic' Trinity is the ‘immanent' Trinity and vice versa” (vol. 2, 1967, 317-401, in particular 328): God is in very being (“immanent Trinity”) as God is self-revealed (“economic Trinity”), namely, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The ecumenical movement played a vital role in this “rediscovery” of the Trinity. In particular, the Orthodox churches contributed strongly: liturgically, they insisted on the invocation of the Holy Spirit to energize and complete the sacramental action (epiclesis); dogmatically, they brought to the fore the long controversial question of the procession of the Holy Spirit within the Godhead (see filioque ); and in both cases, the pneumatology was part of a full-orbed Trinitarianism. Ecclesiologically and missiologically, the Trinitarianly conceived and structured writings of Lesslie Newbigin proved seminal, namely T he Household of God (1953) and Trinitarian Faith and Today's Mission (1964). Highly significant was the insertion into the membership basis of the WCC, in 1961, of the phrase “to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit” (see WCC, basis of ). The work in Faith and Order that led to the Lima text of 1982 emphasized the Trinitarian pattern of baptism and the Lord's supper (see Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry ); and the “apostolic faith study” followed the Trinitarian outline of the Nicene Creed.

In recent years there has been a flurry of books on the doctrine of the Trinity, with varied approaches and different emphases, from across the entire ecumenical board, including Jürgen Moltmann (Reformed), Trinität und Reich Gottes (1980, ET The Trinity and the Kingdom of God , 1981); Robert Jenson (Lutheran), The Triune Identity (1982); Walter Kasper (Roman Catholic), Der Gott Jesu Christi (1982); John Zizioulas (Orthodox), Being as Communion (1985); Boris Bobrinskoy (Orthodox), Le mystère de la Trinité (1986, ET The Mystery of the Trinity , 1999); Bruno Forte (Roman Catholic), Trinità come storia (1985, ET The Trinity as History 1989); Catherine LaCugna (Roman Catholic), God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (1991); and Thomas Torrance (Reformed), The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being, Three Persons (1996). The dominant insight has been that God is in very nature the loving communion of three persons. Such Trinitarianism, in its “positive” or “kataphatic” statements, does not impugn but rather recognizes the insights of “negative” or “apophatic” theology concerning the inexhaustibility of God, which must always transcend the knowledge even of redeemed, sanctified and perfected creatures.

The Christian doctrine of God has to be situated in reference to three developments or ranges of thinking in particular: the revelation embodied in Jesus Christ and the reflection of faith* upon that; philosophical theism and atheism;* and other religions, particularly those which profess faith in “one God”.