The Orthodox Way: A Symbolic Analysis

The Orthodox Way addresses, just as the title suggest, the ways of Orthodoxy. In the Prologue we hear of Christianity being metaphorically compared to a journey. We live in tents instead of houses because, we are always on the move spiritually (Ware, 7). Chapter one is titled, “God as Mystery,” and begins by asking “What or who is God” (11). Ware develops an understanding of God as to something beyond humans, but also with humans. He said that man is made in God’s image but God is not made in man’s image (12). To the Orthodox, when one comes face to face with God, everything they have ever known is gone and one is left grabbing ahold of God and every part of his essence (13). Ware goes on to say, “we are to be converted not only in our will but in intellect” (15). So not only do we change what we have known but our whole self changes when we give ourselves to God. Upon wrapping up Chapter one, Ware brings to the reader’s attention that we will never be

The Christian worldview believes in trinity, which means God is a trinity of persons. That is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one. This was evident during creation. In Genesis 1:26 states “then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on

The first four chapters of Genesis indicate that God is the eternal Creator the universe; that God communicates with His creation and evaluates his own work, and that God is sovereign, exercising “supreme authority and absolute power over all things” (Lecture 2, para. 5). There is but one true God, who exists as a Triune Being and is three Persons in one essence; a Divine essence which exists wholly, invisibly, simultaneously and eternally, within three members of the one Godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Lecture 2, para. 7). Harmoniously linked, “each divine figure of the Trinity exercises dominion over creation and is involved in the biblical narrative in its own unique, yet cooperative, way” (Johnson, p. 178). The unity of the Trinity not only illustrates the full divinity of God, the immeasurable power, benevolence, wisdom and omnipresence distinctly setting Him apart from His creation, but also shows that He is the source of all that is good, true, beautiful, loving, just, and

I will like to crave your indulgence to the fact that "Nicene concept of Trinity" is never stated in the Bible, and it is that early Christians as well as the scriptures clearly points out the fact that Jesus was fully divine and pre-existent. For the fact that, none of the early Christian theologians fully asserted the doctrine of the Trinity, not even a speculation about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. According to the father of the paganism description of Trinity "God can in no way be described." (Schindler 148).

God the Son is revealed in the Christian Scriptures. God the Spirit is revealed in the Church. The Trinitarian doctrine states that there are three co-eternal, equal persons in God, which is the notion of unity within community. The Trinitarian doctrine was further developed and defined at the councils of Nicaea in 325 CE and Constantinople in 381 CE. God was always trinity, however gradually this reality became known through revelation. Jesus calls God and speaks of the spirit which indicates a plurality in God. The difficulty is reconciling the concept of monotheism with the notion of God existing as three persons. The divine essence is common to all three, however the three persons have attributes or properties which distinguished them eg Fatherhood, sonship and sanctifying power. Once essence means that the actions (creation, redemption, sanctification) are attributable to all. Mutual relations is the concept that the terms Father and Son are not titles but expressions of a relationship and thus all three persons are co-equal

This God however does take on three forms known as The Trinity. The Christian doctrine states that God exists as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Both Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox Church comprehended God to exist in three structures, known as the Trinity. God is three in one, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.

Trinity is one God. Each of the persons of the trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit “is God whole and entire”. I believe that the trinity of persons consists of one substance and one essence. Each of the persons is that supreme reality, the divine substance, essence or nature. Each of the three persons are distinct from one another, but known to be related to one another.

It is important to note the defined goals of the Trinity. One being that God sent His Son, Jesus did not send God. Jesus tells us in John 6, that He came to do the will of His Father. Jesus was not doing His own selfish will but everything He did was for His Father. Jesus and God sent the Holy Spirit according to Jesus’ words in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”. It is necessary to recognize the distinctions of the roles of the Trinity as if the roles were not distinctive there would be no Trinity.

The definition of the Trinity according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead according to Christian dogma.” The basis of the Trinity is that there is God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are three separate parts, yet they make up one. While this is confusing to the naked ear, it actually makes logical sense on a deeper level. Scholars and philosophers struggled for years to give a valid explanation of the Trinity. It was not until Tertullian in the 2nd or 3rd century AD that a satisfactory explanation was given. Tertullian came up with the Trinitarian Doctrine, which basically

Christians believe the image of God to be three Gods merged into one. The Trinity’s components are the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and they are all equal. Each form of God has the same attributes of all-powerful, all-knowing, always present,

God as Trinity, is a fact that all orthodox Christians can attest to with absolute certainty, however if we were to ask those same people “what does that mean for us, how does that affect the way we live our lives”? I suspect, most would not have an answer. For the majority of orthodox Christians, the Trinity is an abstract theological concept, that is best left for theologians to philosophise over, and has no place in the life of the average Christian. Karl Rahner, an Austrian philosopher and theologian, commenting on the “current neglect of the Trinity in the West” says:

It is important to begin by stating that there are many different doctrinal views of the Trinity. However I believe that the doctrine of Trinity defines one God who is eternally existent as three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and

In the Christian faith triune God is very significant. “Christian” is Trinitarian, describing Jesus as the one whom the Father anoints (christos) with the Spirit so that the Spirit may anoint our own lives (16). Christians confess Jesus as the risen Lord of the universe, but is proclaimed to be inseparable from the one who sent him, the one Jesus knew intimately as “Abba,” or “dear Father.” The ultimate paradox of Christianity is Jesus. Having Jesus at its very center disclosed as the source, the meaning, and the definitive answer to all of human longings causes this ultimate paradox. Fatula goes on to discuss, that although Jesus is the triune God, many of the people would not identify this God as the living God we actually experience in our own daily lives.

In order to understand God’s triune nature, it is first important to look at the economic Trinity. In creation, it is possible to come to know that there is a God, and this takes place through nature (i.e. natural theology). This knowledge about God, however, is limited and it does not fully reveal him or his triune identity. The only way that humanity was able to initially comprehend God’s true identity is through his actions in history. Through his saving actions in history (i.e. salvation history), God revealed himself gradually to humanity: 1.) to the people of Israel through their history; 2.) in the person of Jesus