The Dance of Theology…
February 5, 2010 4:21 pmLast year I ventured into a theology class at a local seminary. My father was taking a few classes in his retirement and I decided to join him for one on a promotional scholarship, Trinitarianism 402.
I must admit, I entered the class with a casual sophomoric confidence… the abstract paradox of the trinity is something I had been swallowing as a basic “truth” about God since I was probably 7 years old. The class structure was fast paced academia from the get go, there was lots of material, terminology, and history to get through in our once a week 4 hour lecture sessions… and our professor was not going to waste any time with a drawn out setup.
To be fair, this is a 400 level class, and most folks attending a seminary long enough to get to this class have had plenty of time to ponder a more holistic reality of God… so diving into the specifics of the content is pretty reasonable.
However, my father (a self proclaimed evangelist and exhorter) begged to differ. After reading what seemed like a random collection of esoteric theology discussion books and enduring several weeks of long lectures laden with ancient insider terminology… he was out. I didn’t blame him, but I was down for finishing off the class and I think I was even learning something. Strange new words like “Perichoresis” offered entrance into a very old conversation about God and His triune nature.
The ancient theologian John of Damascus (c.675-c.749), may have been the first to coin the term “Perichoresis” as an reference to the mutual indwelling of persons described in this passage.
John 17:20-26
20″My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24″Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25″Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Categories: Eugene Peterson, C.S. Lewis, Scripture, Art, Bible Study, Mars Hill Audio, Theology
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