The notion of God as
substance was grounded in a view of the world as cosmos. God is placed at the
centre of an ordered universe. With the rise of the scientific method, however,
human persons begin to see themselves as at the centre of the world. As they
gain more and more knowledge of how it works, they have the means of exerting a
higher level of control over it. At this particular point the centre changes
from supreme substance to a human subject.[1]
In this situation in
which the human experiences herself as subject over against a world of objects,
it is natural that those who believe in God would see the divine as an
archetype of themselves. God is the infinite, perfect and absolute subject.[2]
God is then seen as subject, with perfect reason and free will, and is in
actual fact the archetype of the free, reasonable, sovereign person, who has
complete disposal over himself.[3]
Seamands argues that if
there is any doctrine relevant to our identity and calling as servants of God
it is the doctrine of Trinity, because it defines the grammar of the Christian
faith. It gives us the audacity to speak of God who is revealed as the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit in the Scriptures as well as setting our Christian
understanding of God apart from all others and makes it not merely theistic.[4]
Moltmann in his
doctrine of Trinity is opposed to the idea of a ‘monotheistic’ or ‘monarchical’
doctrine of God because it reduces the real subjectivity of the three persons.
He argues that the doctrine of Trinity should be understood as providing a
vision of God view as a union of three divine persons or distinct, but related
subjects. Out of this he develops a social doctrine of the Trinity intended to
overcome both monotheism in the concept of God and individualism in the
doctrine of man into developing a social personalism and personalist socialism.[5] Moltmann
follows the Eastern Cappadocian Fathers in developing their concept of Trinity
but they both balance the threeness tendency of social Trinity by speaking of
perichoresis.
[1] Moltmann, The Trinity and the
Kingdom of God,13
[2] Moltmann, The Trinity and the
Kingdom of God, 13
[3] Moltmann, The Trinity and the
Kingdom of God, 15
[4] Seamands, Ministry in the
Image of God, 11
[5] Alister E. McGrath. Christian
Theology: An Introduction (Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell,
2011), 258
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