Friday, July 14, 2017

Are there practical implications to Trinitarian theology?

I've been reading "God and Difference: The Trinity, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Finitude" by Linn Tonstad...because I've been thinking about the Trinity a lot.

In the prelude, she points out how Trinitarian theology is typically seen as distant from praxis and thus tends to be very conservative because of its emphasis on belief instead of practice. (Linn, of course, is taking it a different direction, but I haven't gotten that far)

So I've been thinking: What is at stake in my (anti-?)Trinitarian theology? Why am I so enraged by it? It is clearly more than just doctrine...but what? Here is what I think is at stake for me:

First, I think ecclesiology is at stake. Trinity could be a gorgeous ecclesial model of difference without exclusion. But somewhere somehow it got fucked up. Processio is the idea that the Spirit proceeds from the Father (and the Son), and the Son proceeds from the Father, but the Father does not proceed from any person of the Trinity. So there becomes a hierarchy, with the Father at the top. So much for co-equal *sad face* Furthermore, co-equality becomes a way to elide the Holy Spirit, as I've talked about in an earlier post. Instead of having the ability to focus on the Holy Spirit without it being in competition with focusing on Jesus, I end up getting theologians (and everybody else) replacing the Holy Spirit with Jesus all over the place!

So I think what is at stake is how to defend and validate sermons and hymns and books that don't focus on Jesus...but without discrediting Christocentric traditions (though definitely critiquing the more extreme strands). What I wish to tear down is those ways in which Trinitarian theology encroaches on my ability to not be Christocentric. Because if one has experienced religious trauma in the context of or due to Christocentrism, then maybe some time away from Jesus is helpful, healthy, or even necessary. I am hoping to build a Trinitarian theology that speaks to and affirms the experiences of those like me, who have radically moved from one tradition to another, without inherently condemning either of them. However, I might end up making a non-Trinitarian argument. But that building goal will otherwise be the same.

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