The Trinity and the 3 Faces of Spirit(1)

The Doctrine of the Trinity is the essential Christian doctrine; it intends to describe both the nature of God and God’s connection with all creation. Strangely, outside the Christian academy, it is virtually ignored. I’m looking to engage the doctrine within an “integral frame” hoping we can once again ground it in our lived experience, and from there enter into an evolving interfaith practice and conversation around human development undertaken in the presence of God. That will require some understanding of the concepts involved.

I leave others to describe Integral Theory in detail.(2) For our purpose let us say it offers a map of creation’s evolutionary unfolding and uses as its’ structure our 3 grammatical perspectives – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person.

Applied to our understanding of the Divine, it describes “3 Faces of Spirit.”(3)  We speak of the Divine as “I” when we awaken to find ourselves inseparable from Spirit. We speak of the Divine as “you,” and enter into an “I – Thou” relationship, thus communicating with Spirit. We speak of the Divine as “it,” as we contemplate creation recognizing Spirit within, and inseparable from it. If I understand correctly, the “3 faces” function as 3 entry points into the whole of Spirit’s presence.

Early Christians found they experienced God in 3 ways as well. Their scriptures revealed an engagement with God as “Father,” the one from whom all things proceed, and as “Son,” the incarnate expression of God, and as “Holy Spirit,” in whom we live and move and have our being.”(4) But, and this is key, each distinct “person,” is the whole of God.  Therefore, whatever is said about one, must be said of all three.(5, 6)

Can we identify these 3 persons with the 3 faces of Spirit? I think the Holy Spirit, in whom we live and move and have our being, can be identified with the 3rd face of Spirit, inseparable from all that is.

2nd face of Spirit is harder. Jesus enters into an I – Thou relationship with the “Father” in the Gospel stories, so Wilber and Keating are inclined to identify the “Father” with the 2nd face of Spirit.(7) I’d rather identify it with the “Son,” because within the doctrine’s frame, it is the “Father” that establishes an I – Thou relationship with humankind, through the incarnate “Son.” The point being, God makes the first move. Identifying the “Son” with the 2nd face preserves this distinctive Christian emphasis.

“I and the Father are one, . . . I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you,”(8) says Jesus, and calls us into that same relation. I think this identifies the “Father” with the 1st Face of Spirit.

I hope that engaging the 3 faces of Spirit within the Trinity will enrich our efforts to develop, or dare I say become sanctified, in the presence and creative love of God. I plan to unwrap each in the course of the next 3 posts.

________________________________________________________________

[1] Offered as a distinct, but not exclusive or uniquely Christian perspective, in hopes of enriching the conversation.

2 http://integrallife.com/learn/overview/essential-introduction-integral-approach

3 http://www.integralheart.com/articles/three-faces-spirit and http://www.vimeo.com/5882951 and Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality

4 Acts 17:28

5 Nicene Creed, http://index.pcusa.org/NXT/gateway.dll/Constitution/BOC-30/title00000.htm?f=templates&fn=default.htm This foundational Christian creed written, as was the doctrine itself, from within a mythic worldview, constitutes the “definition” of Trinity.

6 So as to avoid using masculine language for God when talking about the Trinity, I do generally refer to the First, Second and Third person of the Trinity rather than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but in this post it would be too easily confused with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd face of Spirit.

7 Dialogue between Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber on www.ilife.com (Membership may be required.)

8 John 10:20; 14:20