Theology, PhilosophyFebruary 7, 2008 10:35 pm

One of the problems with the way we tend to do theology has to do with the way we think of something like the doctrine of the Trinity. As Donald Macleod says, “the church [sic] has always recognized that the doctrine of one God in three persons involved an element of mystery and even apparent contradiction.”

We are inclined then, to treat this doctrine as exceptional in that regard. Almost begrudging it because it seems to require us to abandon ‘rationality’. The reality is that it is only mysterious to the extent that it is unusual or unique in our experience, and it only appears contradictory to the extent that we view our ability to conceive as subsuming the whole of possible realities. There is no contradiction in the three and one, only that which goes beyond our other experiences of reality. The existence of God as trinity is hyper-real, a meta-reality, and to that extent no more exceptional, if more clearly exceptional than any other truth about God.

Paul Davies quoted in Macleod’s The Person of Christ gets at something like this when he says:

Of course, physicists, like everybody else, carry around mental models of atoms, light waves, the expanding universe, electrons, and so on, but the images are often widely inaccurate or misleading. In fact, it may be logically impossible for anyone to be able to accurately visualise certain physical systems, such as atoms, because they contain features that simply do not exist in the world of our experience.
Atom I would note that I don’t think the word ‘logically’ adds anything to his statement and hurts it in as much as it throws up one of those frustratingly ambiguous modernist qualifiers. Also, am I mistaken in thinking that people have looked at atoms through high powered microscopes? (I think I am mistaken. Alicia says molecules are as far as we’ve gotten. So scratch that point.) Still, the basic point about not being able to fully conceptualize a reality simply because it is not something you have experienced in a thorough way is good. And if it is true of such everyday realities as sub-atomic particle movement, and the transfer of energy, should we not expect it to be true of the very nature of the Creator of the universe?

Happenings 7:56 pm

Imposition of AshesSorry for the scantness of updates. I wrote a long and (I thought) helpful post on Ash Wednesday and somehow managed to lose it before I posted it. I was not happy. Maybe some lenten meditations will be forthcoming. Maybe.

I did however make it to Church of the Resurrection (AMiA) over in west county for an Ash Wednesday service. This is my second year to go there and I must say it’s really quite a treat. Fr. Paul Walter is a very kind man and does an excellent job both of leading the parishioners through the liturgy and of preaching a nice simple homily on an appropriate subject. This year he preached on Victory in the Chaos of Life from II Corinthians 6.4-10. Church of the Resurrection is having an event coming up for young people (single and couples) dealing with sexuality that sounds good. I’ll try to remember to blog the details soon. The flyer is in my car.

By the way, did everyone notice Romney dropped out? What the…? This came as a total shock to me. Now Huckabee is likely to pick up the vast majority of Romney’s votes assuming he doesn’t drop out hoping for a VP nomination. This whole election season has been bizarre.

Theology, Quotes 7:30 pm

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.

You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.

But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

Be gracious to me, O Lord!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.

The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah

The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
Put them in fear, O Lord!
Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah