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The Trinity and Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Arthur H. Williams
Arthur H. Williams
Affiliation:
127 Navaho Trail, Wilmington, NC 28403, U.S.A.
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Extract

Précis: Here is a call for an investigation of the linguistic formulation of the term ‘Trinity’. Can it be that the phrase ‘kingdom of God/heaven’ is a functional equivalent in the New Testament of the later term ‘Trinity’? As a political term, kingdom (or monarchy) provides a framework for collegiality in the exercise of an undivided power. As a philosophical term, however, monarchy (or monotheism) entails subordinationism. Recent theological works recall that time is an essential category in theology. The description of time is compared to the description of light in physics, and the principle of complementarity is used to hold together spatialized time (Parmenides) and dynamized space (Heraclitus). The first use of the term ‘Trinity’ (by Theophilus of Antioch, ca. 170 C.E.) referred to the first three days of creation, which are called types of the Trinity. Thus, God was not described as beyond time and history, as Origen assumed, but rather we are summoned to a quest for the historical God, who takes our individual stories up into the total story of God and the world.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 65 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1986

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References

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