The Trinity - three into one goes just fine
Vic the Vicar reveals his hidden depths today with a post on the Trinity . Don't let his jokey tone fool you - this is actually a thoughtful and theologically rigorous reflection on doctrine and modern Christian preaching. Best of all is this diagram that he provides: As he says, not a bad summary of the teaching of the early Fathers. The problem we have is that explanations like this are hard for the quasi-scientific mindset which governs the way most people think in our culture. We have, by and large, bought into the idea that we can discover how things work by taking them to pieces and looking at the constituent parts. This reductionism is quite un-Christian. God is not a machine that can be disassembled, nor even a creature that can be dissected so we can see all His parts. He is Mystery. Christians are often reductionists too, and find it hard to accept mystery. This is what leads to bizarre sermon illustrations of the kind that Vic describes, which only serve to give false im...