Understanding the interrelationship of the Trinity is vital in order to truly appreciate the work of the Trinity in our lives. By looking at the unique nature of the Triune God we are able to focus our attention on Him and begin to realize our “potential” and purpose in Him. The Triune God is the perfection of both diversity and unity simultaneously. With that said, as humans we can’t fully understand those terms, but use them as a sort of expression in order to assist us in our personal journey with God. We must constantly recognize the limitations of our minds and speech when learning about theology, which doesn’t still hinder this personal experience from edifying us. Throughout history there have been several individuals and ideologies
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The Church has consistently rejected any ideology that was unbalanced towards diversity and unity. Lossky explains this issue by focusing on the two extreme ideologies, “Unitarianism has often assumed the aspect of an absolute Monarchianism: there is only one person in God…Its most perfect expression was in the third century, the modalism of Sabellius” (37). In this view Sabellius makes God impersonal and views the trinity as three different modes of actions rather than beings. These three different modes appear as God moves from one era to the next in order to fulfill a mission. There is no relation to the divine being as personal but rather as a divine entity that is working in different eras to complete an objective. While this heresy focused on the “unity” of the Trinity by referring to God as one impersonal being, the other extreme heresy would divide the Trinity so that there is clear subordination. An obvious example of this heresy is the subordination of the Son as was done by Arius. By using this heresy Arius focused on the “oneness” of God by attempting to refer to the Son and the Spirit as instruments of the …show more content…
Lossky states, “The Trinity cannot be grasped by man. It is rather the Trinity that seizes man and provokes praise in him. Outside of praise and adoration, outside of the personal relationship of faith, our language, when speaking of the Trinity, is always false (47). This experience is further explained by Lossky as a revelation from God to man. Where the Spirit leads us through the Son, to the Father, where we discover the unity of the three. To further expound on this thought Lossky quotes the formula of Metropolitan Philaret, “the Father is crucifying love, the Son, love crucified, the Spirit, love triumphant.” (48). Through this statement we are able to genuinely understand how we approach our relationship with the Trinity. On the one hand God is clearly diverse in function and revelation as the formula of the Metropolitan clearly reveals. However, the very thing that is being revealed is love. Not love in the way that we understand it, but true love who is God by nature. If we have this understanding of God being diverse and one by his very nature we are able to communicate with him more fully in our prayers and continue to seek this genuine revelation. There is no fullness of revelation that will be revealed since it is an infinite knowledge that will not be fully grasped by human minds. As the revelation of God continues to fully seize the one seeking Him, he
The Church has consistently rejected any ideology that was unbalanced towards diversity and unity. Lossky explains this issue by focusing on the two extreme ideologies, “Unitarianism has often assumed the aspect of an absolute Monarchianism: there is only one person in God…Its most perfect expression was in the third century, the modalism of Sabellius” (37). In this view Sabellius makes God impersonal and views the trinity as three different modes of actions rather than beings. These three different modes appear as God moves from one era to the next in order to fulfill a mission. There is no relation to the divine being as personal but rather as a divine entity that is working in different eras to complete an objective. While this heresy focused on the “unity” of the Trinity by referring to God as one impersonal being, the other extreme heresy would divide the Trinity so that there is clear subordination. An obvious example of this heresy is the subordination of the Son as was done by Arius. By using this heresy Arius focused on the “oneness” of God by attempting to refer to the Son and the Spirit as instruments of the …show more content…
Lossky states, “The Trinity cannot be grasped by man. It is rather the Trinity that seizes man and provokes praise in him. Outside of praise and adoration, outside of the personal relationship of faith, our language, when speaking of the Trinity, is always false (47). This experience is further explained by Lossky as a revelation from God to man. Where the Spirit leads us through the Son, to the Father, where we discover the unity of the three. To further expound on this thought Lossky quotes the formula of Metropolitan Philaret, “the Father is crucifying love, the Son, love crucified, the Spirit, love triumphant.” (48). Through this statement we are able to genuinely understand how we approach our relationship with the Trinity. On the one hand God is clearly diverse in function and revelation as the formula of the Metropolitan clearly reveals. However, the very thing that is being revealed is love. Not love in the way that we understand it, but true love who is God by nature. If we have this understanding of God being diverse and one by his very nature we are able to communicate with him more fully in our prayers and continue to seek this genuine revelation. There is no fullness of revelation that will be revealed since it is an infinite knowledge that will not be fully grasped by human minds. As the revelation of God continues to fully seize the one seeking Him, he