JURGEN MOLTMANN

The Trinity and the Kingdom

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

To the Reformed Theological Academy of the

Rday Collegium in Budapest
and
the Collegium Doctorum Ecclesiae Reformatae
in Hungary
in gratitude and brotherly fellowship
THE TRINITY AND T H E KINGDOM
The Doctrine of God
First Fortress Press edition, 1993
Translated by Margaret Kohl from the German, Trinitdt und Reich Gottes (Christian
Kaiser Verlag, Munich, 1980).
Copyright 1981 in the English translation by SCM Press Ltd. New Preface Copyright
1 9 9 1 HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in
critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
without prior written permission from the publisher. Write to: Permissions, Augsburg
Fortress Publishers, 4 2 6 S. Fifth St., Box 1 2 0 9 , Minneapolis, MN 5 5 4 4 0 .
Author photo: Thomas Kucharz.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moltmann, Jrgen.
[Trinitt und Reich Gottes. English]
The Trinity and the kingdom : the doctrine of God / Jrgen Moltmann : [translated by
Margaret Kohl from the original German edition]. 1st Fortress Press paperback ed.
p.
cm.
Translation of: Trinitt und Reich Gottes.
Reprint. Originally published: San Francisco : Harper & Row, c l 9 8 1 .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 - 8 0 0 6 - 2 8 2 5 - X (alk. paper)
1. Trinity. 2. Kingdom of God. I. Title.
BT111.2.M613
1993
231'.044dc20
CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z 3 2 9 . 4 8 - 1 9 8 4 .
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
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01

00

99

AF 1 - 2 8 2 5
98

10

11

12

CONTENTS
Preface

II

III

to the Paperback

Edition

vii

Preface

xi

Trinitarian T h e o l o g y T o d a y

Return to Trinitarian Thinking

1. Experience as a Means of Access?
2. Practice as a Means of Access?

2
2
5

On
1.
2.
3.

the Way to the Triune God

God as Supreme Substance
God as Absolute Subject
The Triune God

10
10
13
16

T h e Passion o f G o d

21

51

God's 'Apathy' or His Passion?

21

The 'Pathos of God'

25

'The Eternal Sacrifice of Love'

30

'The Sorrow of God'

36

'The Tragedy in God'

42

God and Suffering

47

God's Freedom

52

God is Love

57

T h e H i s t o r y of the Son

61

Trinitarian Hermeneutics

61

The Sending of the Son

1. Jesus' Baptism and Call
2. The Sending of the Son

65
65
71

Contents
3.

IV

74

The Surrender of the Son

1. The Passion of Jesus
2. The Surrender of the Son

75
75
80

The
1.
2.
3.

Exaltation of the Son

The Raising of Jesus from the Dead
The Revelation of the Son
The Sending of the Creative Spirit through

83
84
86

the Son

88

The Future of the Son

90

Transformations of the Open Trinity

94

The World of the Trinity

97

99

The Event of Salvation and Belief in Creation

1. The Exodus Experience and the Messianic
Hope
2. Faith in Christ and Experience of the Spirit

100
102

2.

The Creation of the Father

1. Contingentia mundi
2. God's Self-Limitation
3. Trinitarian Creation

105
105
108
111

The Incarnation of the Son

1. Cur Deus homo?
2. The Kenosis of God
3. The Only Begotten Son, the First-Born of
Many Brethren
4. Trinitarian Incarnation

114
114
118

The Transfiguration of the Spirit

1. The Resurrection and the Outpouring
Spirit
2. The Beginning of Glory
3. The Spirit as Subject
4. Trinitarian Glorification

122

The Form of the Trinity

120
121

of the
122
124
125
126

The Mystery of the Trinity

129

129
129

A Criticism of Christian Monotheism

1. Monotheism and Monarchy

Contents
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
2

Doxological Trinity
The Economy and Doxology of Salvation
The Historical Experience of Salvation
The Relationship between the Immanent and
the Economic Trinity

132
134
137
139
144
148
151
151
154
158

The Immanent Trinity

1. The Constitution of the Trinity
(a) Who is the Father?
(b) Who is the Son?
(c) Who is the Holy Spirit
2. The Life of the Trinity
(a) Person and Relation
(b) Perichoresis and Transfiguration
3. The Unity of the Trinity

Does the Holy Spirit Proceed from the Father

'and from the Son'?
1. The State of the Modern Discussion
about
the Filioque
2. The Creed and its Theological Interpretation
3. The Procession of the Spirit from the Father
of the Son
4. What the Holy Spirit receives from the Son

178
180

The Trinitarian Principle of Uniqueness

188

5
VI

The
1.
2.
3.

Monotheistic Christianity: Arius

Christian Monotheism: Sabellius
The Foundation of the Doctrine of the
Trinity: Tertullian
Trinitarian Monarchy: Karl Earth
Threefold Self-Communication:
Karl Rahner
What Divine Unity?

161
162
162
166
168
171
171
174
177
178

182
185

The Kingdom of Freedom

191

Criticism of Political and Clerical Monotheism

1. Political Monotheism
2. Clerical Monotheism

191
192
200

The Trinitarian Doctrine of the Kingdom

1. Joachim of Fiore's Doctrine of the Kingdom
2. The Trinitarian Doctrine of the Kingdom

202
203
209

Contents
3

The Trinitarian Doctrine of Freedom

1. Forms of Human Freedom
2. Trinity and Freedom

212
213
218

3.

219

Freedom

in the Kingdom of the Triune God

Abbreviations

223

Notes

224

Index

of

Names

253

PREFACE T O T H E
PAPERBACK EDITION

Even while I was still working on The Church in the Power of the
Spirit ( 1 9 7 5 ) , I realized that I would not be able to continue using
the method 'the whole of theology in a single focus'. Always using
the same method leads to rigidity on the part of the author and to
weariness in the reader. It also became clear to me between 1 9 7 5
and 1 9 8 0 that I personally could not authentically frame a 'theol
ogy in context' and a 'theology in movement' (liberation theology,
black theology, feminist theology), for I am not living in the Third
World, am not oppressed and am not a woman. In those years I
tried as best I could to let the voices of silenced men and women
be heard in my world t o o t h e world in which I myself live. I
initiated translations and provided them with commendatory pre
faces. I wrote essays supporting liberation theology and feminist
theology, African theology and Korean Minjung theology. But all
this did not blind me to the fact that my life and my context are
not theirs. So for my own work, I entered into a certain self-critical
disengagement and began to write my 'systematic contributions to
theology'.
As I did so, I also changed my method of procedure. I no longer
presented the whole of theology in a single focus but now viewed
my 'whole' as a part belonging to a wider community, and as my
contribution to theology as a whole. I know and accept the limits
of my own existence and my own context. I do not claim to say
everything, as earlier dogmatic and systematic theologians once
did, in their summas and systems. W h a t I should like to do,
however, is to participate in the great theological dialogue with
theologians of the past and the present. I am trying to formulate
my own contributions while listening to the voices of patristic,

viii

Preface to the Paperback

Edition

mediaeval, Reformation and modern theologians and while attend

ing to the voices of the present, which can be heard out of their
different contexts. These contributions are not offered in the form
of a dogma or system; they are suggestions. They are not intended
to conclude discussions; they are meant to open new conversations.
This method has won for me the name of being a 'conventional
theologian', an epithet that is evidently meant sometimes critically,
sometimes approvingly. But it may be that the changes in theological
conceptions that I am suggesting are in the long term more potent
and more revolutionary than an 'unconventional' contextual and
praxis-oriented theology.
In The Trinity and the Kingdom I turned my attention to a
theological problem that has remained open since the era of the
patristic church: W h a t is the relation of the trinitarian history of
God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, which the New Testament
relates, to God's sovereignty? M y own teachers, Karl Barth and
Karl Rahner, decided the question in favour of the sovereignty of
the One God and were then able to talk about the Trinity only as
the 'three modes of being' or the 'three modes of subsistence' of
that One God. I myself have proposed instead that the question be
decided in favour of the Trinity, and here I have developed a social
doctrine of the Trinity, according to which God is a community of
Father, Son and Spirit, whose unity is constituted by mutual in
dwelling and reciprocal interpntration. If this is correct, then we
find the earthly reflection of this divine sociality, not in the autoc
racy of a single ruler but in the democratic community of free
people, not in the lordship of the man over the woman but in their
equal mutuality, not in an ecclesiastical hierarchy but in a fellow
ship church.
The Orthodox tradition offered more help for this social doctrine
of the Trinity than did its Western counterpart. Reactions from
Orthodox theology and the dialogue about the filioque clause have
for me been among the happiest theological experiences of recent
years. The idea that the unity of God is to be found in his unitedness
or at-oneness, not in his sovereignty, was received positively by
some feminist theologians, and it was taken up so comprehensively
and independently by the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff that
he was once again called to answer for his views before the Con
gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. The social doctrine
of the Trinity then provided me with the categories with which I

Preface to the Paperback

Edition

was able to write an ecological doctrine of creation ( 1 9 8 5 ) , because

I could replace thinking in the language of domination, and think
ing in alternatives, by a thinking in networks and milieus.
Jrgen Moltmann
Tbingen, Germany
May 1990

SELECTED LITERATURE
J. Moltmann, 'The Unity of the Triune God', with replies and comments by John
Cobb, Jr., S. B. Thistlethwaite and J. Meyendorff, St. Vladimir's Theo
logical Quarterly 2 8 , no. 3 (1984).
J. J. O'Donnell, S.J., Trinity and Temporality. The Christian Doctrine of God in
the Light of Process Theology and the Theology of Hope (Oxford:
Oxford Univ. Press, 1983).
The Mystery of the Triune God (London: Sheed & Ward, 1988).
W. W. Willis, Jr., Theism, Atheism and the Doctrine of the Trinity (Atlanta:
Scholars Press, 1987).
L. Boff, Der Dreieinige Gott, Bibliothek Theologie der Befreiung (Dsseldorf,
1987).
B. Forte, Trinitt als Geschichte. Der lebendige GottGott der Lebendigen
(Mainz, 1989).

PREFACE

Moving forward means a continually new beginning; and this is

true of theological work too. Theology of Hope ( 1 9 6 4 ; E T 1 9 6 7 ) ,
The Crucified God ( 1 9 7 2 ; E T 1 9 7 4 ) and The Church in the Power
of the Spirit ( 1 9 7 5 ; E T 1 9 7 7 ) were programmatic in style and
content: in each of them the aim was to look at theology as a
whole from one particular standpoint. My aim here is different.
What I should like to do now is to present a series of systematic
contributions to theology, differing from my earlier books in a
number of ways. Here I should like to consider the context and
correlations of important concepts and doctrines of Christian theol
ogy in a particular systematic sequence. I am not attempting to
present a system or a 'Dogmatics', however - which is one reason
for choosing the description 'contributions to theology'.
Every consistent theological summing up, every theological sys
tem lays claim to totality, perfect organization, and entire com
petence for the whole area under survey. In principle one has to be
able to say everything, and not to leave any point unconsidered.
All the statements must fit in with one another without contradic
tion, and the whole architecture must be harmonious, an integrated
whole. Every theoretical system, even a theological one, has there
fore an aesthetic charm, at least to some degree. But this allurement
can also be a dangerous seduction. Systems save some readers (and
their admirers most of all) from thinking critically for themselves
and from arriving at independent and responsible decision. For
systems do not present themselves for discussion. For that reason
I have resisted the temptation to develop a theological system, even
an 'open' one.
The common, tried and tested view of what dogmatics is also
made me hesitate. In the political language of the Emperor Augus
tus, dogma meant 'decree' (Luke 2 . 1 ) . A decree is not supposed to

xii

Preface

be critically questioned; above all we are not supposed to reject it.

The decree is imposed by force if necessary. Of course the theo
logical concept of dogma is far removed from all this. But even
here there is the odour - and often enough the attitude - of a
judgment which is final and no longer open to appeal. Even if it is
not 'dogmatic' in our everyday sense of the word, dogmatic think
ing in theology likes to express itself in theses; not in theses for
discussion, but in theses that are simply promulgated, which evoke
agreement or rejection, but not independent thinking and respon
sible decision. They enforce their own ideas on the listener; they
do not help him to formulate his own.
The expression 'contributions to theology', which I have chosen
to indicate the content and style I have in mind, is intended to
avoid the seductions of the theological system and the coercion of
the dogmatic thesis; but it is not simply meant to be a rhetorical
understatement. I have conceived and planned these 'contributions
to theology' in a certain order, whose logic will emerge in the
course of the series itself. They presuppose an intensive theological
discussion, both past and present. They participate critically in this
discussion, offering their own suggestions, their aim being to pre
pare the way for a theological discussion in the future which will
be both broader and more intensive.
By using the word 'contributions', the writer recognizes the con
ditions and limitations of his own position, and the relativity of
his own particular environment. He makes no claim to say every
thing, or to cover the whole of theology. He rather understands
his own 'whole' as part of a whole that is much greater. He cannot
therefore aim to say what is valid for everyone, at all times and in
all places. But he will set himself, with his own time and his own
place, within the greater community of theology. For him this
means a critical dissolution of naive, self-centred thinking. Of
course he is a European, but European theology no longer has to
be Eurocentric. Of course he is a man, but theology no longer has
to be androcentric. Of course he is living in the 'first world', but
the theology which he is developing does not have to reflect the
ideas of the dominating nations. On the contrary, it will try to help
to make the voice of the oppressed heard. W e normally presuppose
the absolute nature of our own standpoint in our own context. T o
abolish this tacit presupposition is the intention behind the phrase
'contributions to theology'.

Preface

xiii

Behind all this is the conviction that, humanly speaking, truth is

to be found in unhindered dialogue. Fellowship and freedom are
the human components for knowledge of the truth, the truth of
God. And the fellowship I mean here is the fellowship of mutual
participation and unifying sympathy. What is meant is the right to
the liberty of one's own personal conviction and one's own free
assent. This free community of men and women, without privilege
and without discrimination, may be termed the earthly body of
truth. And this of course means that the converse is true as well:
that only truth can be the soul of a free community of men and
women like this. Theological systems and assertive dogmatics can
hardly bring out this aspect of truth. They exert coercion where
free assent can be expected and given. They leave the individual
mind little room for creative fantasy. They allow no time for
individual decisions. But it is only in free dialogue that truth can
be accepted for the only right and proper reason - namely, that it
illuminates and convinces as truth. Truth brings about assent, it
brings about change without exerting compulsion. In dialogue the
truth frees men and women for their own conceptions and their
own ideas. In liberating dialogue teachers withdraw into the circle
of sisters and brothers. The pupil becomes the friend. Christian
theology would wither and die if it did not continually stand in a
dialogue like this, and if it were not bound up with a fellowship
that seeks this dialogue, needs it and continually pursues it.
So we have to ask ourselves: in what fellowship did these con
tributions to theology develop? For what fellowship are they writ
ten? As we all know, the community of theologians can be a very
narrow one; for every theologian also likes to be someone on his
own, someone unique. But if we cease to take the special and
fortuitous features of our own subjectivity too seriously, that com
munity reaches far beyond particular periods and natural frontiers.
The fellowship in which theological contributions are expected and
offered, reaches back over the centuries to the biblical testimonies
themselves; for these testimonies were the beginning of an unbro
ken, still incomplete, and uncompletable dialogue in history. There
are unsettled theological problems for which every new generation
has to find its own solution if it is to be able to live with them at
all. N o concept within history is ever final and complete. Indeed
in the history of Christian theology the openness of all knowledge
and all explanations is actually constitutive; for it is their abiding

xiv

Preface

openness that shows the power of their eschatological hope for the
future. If we consider theology's task and its problems, then the
historical intervals are unimportant, and Athanasius, Augustine,
Luther or Schleiermacher enter into the theological discussion of
the present day. W e have to come to terms with them as we do
with contemporaries. What we call 'tradition' is not a treasury of
dead truths, which are simply at our disposal. It is the necessary
and vitally continuing theological conversation with men and
women of the past, across the ages, in the direction of our common
future.
But theological fellowship always reaches beyond our own pre
sent denominational, cultural and political limitations too. As the
present contribution hopes to show, today Christian theology has
to be developed in ecumenical fellowship. We can no longer limit
ourselves merely to discussions with our own tradition without
being quite simply 'limited'. As far as is humanly possible, we must
take account of the other Christian traditions, and offer our own
tradition as a contribution to the wider ecumenical community.
Then, as I have said, we recognize our own whole to be part of a
greater whole, and by recognizing our own limits we can step
beyond them. Then we begin to get the better of self-centred,
particularist ways of thinking.
'Particularist' is the name we give to isolating, sectional thinking,
which is hence self-complacent and anxiously self-justifying. Be
cause it only recognizes its own premises and only wants to have
its own conclusions accepted, it comes forward with an absolute
claim. In Christian theology particularist thinking is schismatic
thinking. The divisions of the church are its premise, and it deepens
these divisions through controversial 'distinctive' doctrines. In the
age of ecclesiastical divisions - an age reaching to the present day
- it is this denominational absolutism that has been practised. The
differences are used to stabilize our own limited identity. To think
ecumenically means overcoming this schismatic thinking, to which
we have become so accustomed that many people do not even
notice it any more, and beginning to think in the coming ecu
menical fellowship. It means no longer thinking contrary to the
others, but thinking with them and for them. It requires us to
invest our own identity in this coming ecumenical fellowship. But
how can we get away from particularist schismatic thinking, to
thinking that is universal and ecumenical?

Preface

xv

The theological testimonies of the Christian faith can be viewed

in the light of their particularity. Then there are Orthodox, Catho
lic, Anglican, Lutheran and many other theological testimonies.
But they can also be investigated and interpreted in the light of
their universality. Then they can be seen as the testimonies of the
one church of Christ, and we can interpret them as contributions
to the theology of this one church of Christ. Then, whatever de
nominational stamp a text may have, the important thing is simply
its contribution to the truth to which all together are subject. Truth
is universal. Only the lie is particularist.
Because today the growing ecumenical fellowship has already to
be seen as the earthly body of Christ's truth, in these 'contributions
to theology' I am trying to take up Protestant and Catholic, West
ern and Eastern traditions, to listen to what they have to say, and
to come to terms with them critically and self-critically. This work
on the doctrine of the Trinity is dedicated especially to an over
coming of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches
which has so tragically burdened the whole life of the Christian
faith ever since 1 0 5 4 . 1 owe many ideas to the conferences on the
Filioque question, which at my suggestion were held by the ecu
menical Commission for Faith and Order in 1 9 7 8 and 1 9 7 9 ; but
I am indebted to these conferences even more for the hope that
this question may be solved and that the schism may be healed.
In addition to this I have been particularly concerned to bring
Judaism and the testimonies of the biblical Jewish faith into the
discussion with the biblical Christian faith. The first schism in the
history of the kingdom of God began with the separation between
Christianity and Judaism. Even if we are not free to annul that first
schism all by ourselves, we can still overcome its fateful effects and
arrive at the common ground crossed by paths which are indeed
still divided but which none the less run parallel to one another.
This is enjoined on us by our common commitment to the scrip
tures and our common hope for the kingdom. It is time to extend
our theological conversations in the ecumenical fellowship to theo
logical conversations with Israel. The testimonies of the biblical
Jewish faith may also be interpreted as the testimonies to a fellow
ship that goes beyond Judaism, for God's people are one people.
Since 1 9 7 5 I have discussed the basic ideas of this contribution
to the doctrine of the Trinity in many groups, with many colleagues
and post-graduate students. I should like to thank all of them here

xvi

Preface

for the work we have done together. A draft of some chapters of

the book formed the basis for the Warfield Lectures, which I
delivered in October 1 9 7 9 at Princeton Theological Seminary. This
invitation forced me to concentrate my ideas, and I am grateful for
it. Finally I should like to express my warmest thanks to Dr Michael
Welker for the criticism with which he has accompanied the writing
of this book. I am also extremely grateful to M r Siegfried Welling
for his laborious work on the proofs.
Here too, as in other theological work, there has been a picture
in front of me. It is Andrei Rublev's wonderful fifteenth-century
Russian icon of the Holy Trinity. Through their tenderly intimate
inclination towards one another, the three Persons show the pro
found unity joining them, in which they are one. The chalice on
the table points to the surrender of the Son on Golgotha. Just as
the chalice stands at the centre of the table round which the three
Persons are sitting, so the cross of the Son stands from eternity in
the centre of the Trinity. Anyone who grasps the truth of this
picture understands that it is only in the unity with one another
which springs from the self-giving of the Son 'for many' that men
and women are in conformity with the triune God. He understands
that people only arrive at their own truth in their free and loving
inclination towards one another. It is to this 'social' understanding
of the doctrine of the Trinity that this book is an invitation.

Tbingen
April 1980

JRGEN MOLTMANN

I
Trinitarian Theology Today

What do we think of when we hear the name of the triune God?

What ideas do we associate with the Trinity? What do we experi
ence in the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
The answers will vary greatly, if indeed an answer is attempted
at all. Some people will think of the traditional rituals and symbols
of Christian worship, baptism, the Lord's Supper and the blessing.
Other people are reminded of passionate disputes in the early
church. Some will see in their mind's eye the pictures of Christian
art depicting three divine Persons, or two Persons and the Holy
Spirit in the form of a dove. Many people view the theological
doctrine of the Trinity as a speculation for theological specialists,
which has nothing to do with real life. That is why modern Prot
estants like to content themselves with the young Melancthon's
maxim: 'We adore the mysteries of the Godhead. That is better
than to investigate them.' It is difficult enough to believe that there
is a God at all and to live accordingly. Does belief in the Trinity
not make the religious life even more difficult, and quite unneces
sarily? Why are most Christians in the West, whether they be
Catholics or Protestants, really only 'monotheists' where the ex
perience and practice of their faith is concerned? Whether God is
one or triune evidently makes as little difference to the doctrine of
faith as it does to ethics. Consequently the doctrine of the Trinity
hardly occurs at all in modern apologetic writings which aim to
bring the Christian faith home to the modern world again. Even
the new approaches made by fundamental theology do not begin
with the Trinity. In the attempts that are being made to justify
theology today - whether it is hermeneutical theology or political
1

Trinitarian

Theology

Today

theology, process theology or the theological theory of science the doctrine of the Trinity has very little essential importance.
In this chapter we shall try to demolish some explicit objections
and some tacit inhibitions, and shall try to uncover ways of access
to an understanding of the triune God. After we have discussed
the question of the experience of God, the practice and the know
ledge or perception of faith, we shall go on to look at the three
conceptions of God which have been developed in Western history:
God as supreme substance; God as absolute subject; the triune
God. We shall see these ideas as steps along a path. And in the
course of this discussion we shall have to consider critically differ
ent views about what reason is, theologically speaking.

1 RETURN TO TRINITARIAN THINKING

1. Experience

as a Means of Access?

The first group of express objections and tacit reservations towards

the doctrine of the Trinity come from experience; they are related
to the limitations of the experience open to us. By experience the
modern person means perceptions which he himself can repeat and
verify. They are perceptions, moreover, which affect him himself,
because they crystallize out in some alteration o f his self; that is to
say, they are related to his subjectivity. Must not truth be some
thing we can experience? Can we experience God? Is it possible to
talk about the triune God out of personal experience?
It was Friedrich Schleiermacher who first understood the way in
which this modern concept of experience and truth was related to
actual existence, and it was he who consistently remoulded 'dog
matic theology' into 'the doctrine of faith'. The piety which is
faith's expression is 'neither knowledge nor action, but a deter
mination of feeling or immediate self-consciousness'. By this
Schleiermacher does not mean psychologically ascertainable emo
tions; he means that the whole human existence is affected. That
is why he talked about 'immediate self-consciousness'. In this
immediate self-consciousness we experience ourselves as 'quite sim
ply dependent', that is to say, we become aware of ourselves in
relation to God, the reason and the ground of our own selves. For
Schleiermacher, therefore, the experience of the self in faith points
towards God. God is indirectly experienced in the experience of
3

Return to Trinitarian

Thinking

the absolute dependency of our own existence. This means that all
statements about God are bound to be at the same time statements
about the personal existence determined by faith. Statements about
God which do not include statements about the immediate selfconsciousness of the believer belong to the realm of speculation,
because they are not verifiable by personal experience. It was there
fore quite consistent for Schleiermacher to put the doctrine of the
Trinity at the end of his doctrine of faith: the doctrine of the triune
God is 'not a direct statement about Christian self-consciousness,
but only a web of several such statements' - i.e., a construction
which gathers together a number of different statements of faith.
As the transcendent ground of our sense of absolute dependence,
God is one. Schleiermacher therefore understood Christianity as a
'monotheistic mode of belief. The church's doctrine of the three
divine Persons is secondary, because it is a mere web of different
statements about the Christian self-consciousness; it does not alter
Christianity's monotheism at all. Consequently it is enough to talk
about the one God, by talking about one's own Christian selfconsciousness. The doctrine of the Trinity is superfluous. Assuming
the presuppositions of our modern, subjective concept of experi-'
ence, the transformation of dogmatics into the doctrine of faith,
and the conversion of the church's doctrine of the Trinity into
abstract monotheism, is inescapable.
4

But can faith's experience of God be adequately expressed in

this concept? Must not faith for its part fundamentally alter the
concept? If faith is a living relationship, then faith conceived of as
'a determination of feeling or immediate self-consciousness' can
only grasp one side of the matter. The other side of the relationship,
the side we term 'God', remains unknown if we ascribe to it no
more than the reason behind the definition of one's own self. Even
if we relate 'experience' to the experiencing subject, concentrating
it solely on the experience of the self in experience, it will still be
permissible to ask, not only: how do I experience God? What does
God mean for me? How am I determined by him? We must also
ask the reverse questions: how does God experience me? What do
I mean for God? How is he determined by me?
Of course the relationship between God and man is not a re
ciprocal relationship between equals. But if it is not a one-sided
relationship of causality and dependency either - if it is a relationsnip of covenant and love - then for man's experience of himself

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this question is not merely valid; it is actually necessary. Can a

person experience 'himself in his relationship to God as person if
God is certainly supposed to mean everything to him, but if he is
not supposed to mean anything to God? In faith the person ex
periences God in God's relationship to him, and himself in his
relationship to God. If he experiences God in this, then he also
thereby experiences the way God has 'experienced' - and still
'experiences' - him. If one were only to relate the experience of
God to the experience of the self, then the self would become the
constant and 'God' the variable. It is only when the self is perceived
in the experience which God has with that self that an undistorted
perception of the history of one's own self with God and in God
emerges.
The expression 'experience of God' therefore does not only mean
our experience of God; it also means God's experience with us.
Consequently we are not using the concept of experience in quite
the same way in both cases. God experiences people in a different
way from the way people experience God. He experiences them in
his divine manner of experience. The Bible is the testimony of
God's history with men and women, and also the testimony of
God's experiences with men and women. If a person experiences
in faith how God has experienced - and still experiences - him,
for that person God is not the abstract origin of the world or the
unknown source of his absolute feeling of dependency; he is the
living God. He learns to know himself in the mirror of God's love,
suffering and joy. In his experience of God he experiences - fragmentarily, indeed, and certainly 'in a glass, darkly' - something of
God's own experience with him. The more he understands God's
experience, the more deeply the mystery of God's passion is re
vealed to him. He then perceives that the history of the world is
the history of God's suffering. At the moments of God's profoundest revelation there is always suffering: the cry of the captives in
Egypt; Jesus' death cry on the cross; the sighing of the whole
enslaved creation for liberty. If a person once feels the infinite
passion of God's love which finds expression here, then he under
stands the mystery of the triune God. God suffers with us - God
suffers from us God suffers for us: it is this experience of God
that reveals the triune God. It has to be understood, and can only
be understood, in trinitarian terms. Consequently fundamental
theology's discussion about access to the doctrine of the Trinity is
5

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carried on today in the context of the question about God's ca

pacity or incapacity for suffering. That is why here we have put
chapter II, on the passion of God, before our account of the
doctrine of the Trinity in the narrower sense.
From time immemorial, experience has been bound up with
wonder or with pain. In wonder the subject opens himself for a
counterpart and gives himself up to the overwhelming impression.
In pain the subject perceives the difference of the other, the con
tradiction in conflict and the alteration of his own self. In both
modes of experience the subject enters entirely into his counterpart.
The modern concept of experience, which has discovered and
stressed its subjective components, threatens to transform experi
ence into experience of the self. But the justifiable perception of
the determinations of the individual self in any objective experience
must not lead to obsessedly preoccupied interest in mere experience
of the self; that would be narcissism. The only experiences per
ceived would then be those which confirmed the self and justified
its condition; and interest in experience of the self is then in fact
fear of experiencing the other. This means that the capacity for
wonder and the readiness for pain are lost. The modern culture of
subjectivity has long since been in danger of turning into a 'culture
of narcissism', which makes the self its own prisoner and supplies
it merely with self-repetitions and self-confirmations. It is therefore
time for Christian theology to break out of this prison of narciss
ism, and for it to present its 'doctrine of faith' as a doctrine of the
all-embracing 'history of God'. This does not mean falling back
into objectivistic orthodoxy. What it does mean is that experience
of the self has to be integrated into the experience of God, and
that experience of God has to be integrated into the trinitarian
history of God with the world. God is no longer related to the
narrow limits of a fore-given, individual self. On the contrary, the
individual self will be discovered in the over-riding history of God,
and only finds its meaning in that context.
6

2. Practice as a Means of Access?

A second group of objections and reservations towards the doctrine
the Trinity come from the sphere of practical application and
connected with the practicability of the truth. The modern
world has become pragmatic. What does not turn into act has no
a r e

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value. It is only practice that verifies a theory, for reality has

become identical with the historical world. People understand
themselves as historical beings. For them the only possible corres
pondence between being and consciousness is to be found in actual
historical practice. For them truth only comes about in what is
truly act. Hence for men and women today the truth, as Brecht
says, must 'always be concrete'. And that means it must 'be per
formed'. That is the modern turn from the pure theory of truth to
the practical theory of it. But is truth, which under certain given
circumstances is incapable of realization, therefore to be despised
d thrown away simply because of that? Is the truth which God
himself is, so 'practicable' that people have to 'realize God', 'put
God into practice'? Is the doctrine of the Trinity a practical truth?
I* Was Kant who elevated moral practice into the canon by which
the interpretation of all biblical and ecclesiastical traditions is to
be judged. The interpretation is to be ruled by practical reason, for
interpretation also means application:
ar

Passages of Scripture which contain certain theoretical doctrines,

proclaimed as sacred but going beyond all the concepts of reason
(even the moral ones) may be interpreted to the advantage of
the latter; and those which contain statements contradictory to
reason must be so interpreted.
7

The first example he takes is the doctrine of the Trinity:

From the doctrine of the Trinity, taken literally, nothing what
soever can be gained for practical purposes, even if one believed
that one comprehended it - and less still if one is conscious that
't surpasses all our concepts.
8

Whether we have to worship three or ten persons in the deity is

unimportant, Kant claimed, because 'it is impossible to extract
from this difference any different rules for practical living'. For
theoretical reason God is unknowable, because he exceeds the
limits of any possible experience; so it is only in the postulates of
practical reason that Kant brings God to the fore, together with
'liberty' and 'immortality'. Here the transcendental definition 'God'
is sufficient; for moral monotheism is enough to provide the foun
dation for free and responsible conduct.
Given the presupposition of the modern comprehensive, moral,
political or revolutionary concept of practice, the transformation

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of theological dogmatics into ethics or politics is quite understand

able. But do the experience and practice of the Christian faith find
adequate expression in this modern concept of practice? Does not
this faith have to burst apart that concept, changing it fundamen
tally, if it wants to bring out its own truth?
The modern understanding of the Christian faith as a practice
of living which tries to conform to the life of Jesus, in order to
carry on his cause, is only half the truth, because it only perceives
one side of what the believer has to give.
The person who acts has God behind him and the world in front
of him, so to speak. For him, the world is the domain to which he
is sent, the domain where the gospel is to be proclaimed, where we
are to love our neighbour and liberate the oppressed. The future
is the domain of open potentialities. It depends on him, ultimately,
which of these potentialities he realizes and which he rejects. He
thinks in the movement of God to the world and is himself part of
this movement. He works in the movement from potentiality to
reality and is himself the realizer. Whether it is a question of ethical
theology or political theology or revolutionary theology, it is al
ways the theology of action. In this theology practice takes pre
cedence over reflection and theory. 'The first thing is the obligation
to love and serve. Theology only comes after this, and is a second
act.' The practical act which is necessary in today's misery is the
liberation of the oppressed. Theology is hence the critical reflection
about this essential practice in the light of the gospel. It does not
merely aim to understand the world differently; it wants to change
the world as well. It sees itself as one component in the process
through which the world is liberated. That is the fundamental idea
underlying the new theology of liberation. Today it is the best
ethical and political theology, because it tries to do, and teaches us
to do, what is needful today for the needs of the oppressed.
9

But Christian love is not merely a motivation, and Christian

faith is more than the point from which action takes its bearings.
Being a Christian is also characterized by gratitude, joy, praise and
adoration. Faith lives in meditation and prayer as well as in prac
tice. Without the vita contemplativa the vita activa quickly becomes
debased into activism, falling a victim to the pragmatism of the
modern meritocratic society which judges by performance. Of
course there is a speculative trivialization of the concept of God.
But it can be pragmatically trivialized too.

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In meditation and contemplation man turns to the God in whom

he believes, opening himself to his reality. Without any alibi in
what he does, he stands before what Barth called 'the all trans
forming fact' and surrenders himself wholly to it. 'To know God
means to suffer God' says a wise old theological saying. T o suffer
God means experiencing in oneself the death pangs of the old man
and the birth pangs of the new. The Old Testament already tells
us that 'He who looks upon God must die'. The closer people come
to the divine reality, the more deeply they are drawn into this dying
and this rebirth. This becomes vividly present and experienceable
in the figure of the crucified Jesus. Christian meditation and con
templation are therefore at their very heart meditatio cruris, the
stations of the cross, meditation on the passion. The person who
turns to the God who encounters us visibly in the person of the
crucified Jesus, accepts this transformation. In the pain of repentence and a new beginning he experiences the joy of God's fellow
ship. The practice of his own life is thereby changed, and changed
much more radically than is possible within the potentialities open
to the 'active' person. The man or woman who suffers God in the
fellowship of the crucified Jesus can also praise God in the fellow
ship of the Jesus who is risen. The theology of the cross becomes
the theology of doxology.
Action and meditation are related to one another in many dif
ferent ways. The point of intersection emerges from the situation
in which the individual finds himself. But the one always conditions
the other. Meditation can never lead to flight from the Christian
practice required of us because, being Christian meditation, it is
meditatio passionis et mortis Christi. Practice can never become
the flight from meditation because, as Christian practice, it is bound
to discipleship of the crucified Jesus. Consequently theology in
action and theology in doxology belong together. There must be
no theology of liberation without the glorification of God and no
glorification of God without the liberation of the oppressed.
The modern world's devotion to what is ethical and pragmatic
has led to the disintegration of the doctrine of the Trinity in moral
monotheism. The reduction of faith to practice has not enriched
faith; it has impoverished it. It has let practice itself become a
matter of law and compulsion.
If we are to be freed for practice - not from it! - it is important
for meditation, contemplation and doxology to be rediscovered. It

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is only together, not each for itself, that practice and adoration
lead men and women into the history of God. The rediscovery of
the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity begins when the onesidedness of a merely pragmatic thinking is overcome, and when
practice is liberated from activism, so that it can become a liberated
practice of the gospel. This has consequences for the nature of
knowing itself for the way in which we arrive at knowledge.
In the pragmatic thinking of the modern world, knowing some
thing always means dominating something: 'Knowledge is power.'
Through our scientific knowledge we acquire power over objects
and can appropriate them. Modern thinking has made reason op
erational. Reason recognizes only 'what reason herself brings forth
according to her own concept'. It has become a productive organ
- hardly a perceptive one any more. It builds its own world and
in what it has produced it only recognizes itself again. In several
European languages, understanding a thing means 'grasping' it.
We grasp a thing when 'we've got it'. If we have grasped something,
we take it into our possession. If we possess something we can do
with it what we want. The motive that impels modern reason to
know must be described as the desire to conquer and to dominate.
10

For the Greek philosophers and the Fathers of the church, know
ing meant something different: it meant knowing in wonder. By
knowing or perceiving one participates in the life of the other.
Here knowing does not transform the counterpart into the property
of the knower; the knower does not appropriate what he knows.
On the contrary, he is transformed through sympathy, becoming
a participator in what he perceives. Knowledge confers fellowship.
That is why knowing, perception, only goes as far as love, sym
pathy and participation reach. Where the theological perception of
God and his history is concerned, there will be a modern discovery
of trinitarian thinking when there is at the same time a fundamental
change in modern reason - a change from lordship to fellowship,
from conquest to participation, from production to receptivity.
The new theological penetration of the trinitarian history of God
ought also to free the reason that has been made operational - free
it for receptive perception of its Other, free it for participation in
that Other. Trinitarian thinking should prepare the way for a
liberating and healing concern for the reality that has been
destroyed.

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Theology

Today

2 ON THE WAY TO THE TRIUNE GOD

The question about the reality of God has been answered in various
different ways in the history of Western theology. One answer was
given by Greek antiquity, continued to be given in the Middle
Ages, and still counts as valid in the present-day definitions of the
Roman Catholic Church: God is the supreme substance. The cosmological proofs of God claim to offer sufficient grounds for this
assumption at every period. The other answer springs from the
special tradition of the Old Testament and, by way of mediaeval
nominalism, passed down to the Idealist philosophy of the nine
teenth century. According to this answer, God is the absolute
subject. The biblical testimonies of salvation history and the present
experience of the world as history force us to think of God, not
merely as the supreme substance but as the absolute subject as
well. The specific answer given by Christian theology goes beyond
these two answers: God, it claims, is the triune God. But what
does this characteristically Christian answer mean in relation to
those other concepts of God, which theology took over for itself
in the course of its history? How are we to understand the reality
of the world if we are to understand God, not as supreme substance
and not as absolute subject, but as triunity, the three-in-one?

1. God as Supreme

Substance

The cosmological proofs of God proceed from the finitude of the

world and contrast this with infinite being. Because finitude has
several definitions, there are several cosmological proofs. Their
common starting point is the finitude of the world, and this can be
so classified that they follow one another as steps on a single path.
According to Aquinas there are 'five ways' of cosmological proof.
Some neo-Thomist theologians believe that they are the only con
vincing proofs of God at all; all the others are either fallacies o r
proofs which can be traced back to the 'five ways'. In 1 8 7 1 the
First Vatican Council defined the fundamental demonstrability of
God for Roman Catholic theology by stating 'that God, the origin
and goal of all things, can be known with certainty from created
things, with the help of the natural light of human reason'. In
1 9 0 7 the anti-modernist oath restricted this to 'the five ways', with
11

12

13

On the Way to the Triune

God

11

the declaration 'that God can be known with certainty and can
hence also be proved, as cause can be proved from effects'.
The cosmological proofs of God start from the world and pre
suppose that the world is cosmos, not chaos, well ordered by means
of eternal laws, and beautiful in its protean forms. The proofs
derive from Greek philosophy, and Greek philosophy of course
presupposes the spirit of the Greek religion, for it grew up out of
the Enlightenment of this religion. In Greek 'God' is a predicate,
not a name. The Divine Ones are present in all wordly happenings.
They need no special revelations. Consequently life in the eternal
orders of the cosmos is a plenitude of all that is divine. Human life
is led in the presence and in the fellowship of the gods if it is in
correspondence with the orders and movements of the cosmos.
Tlavxa nXrjgri OEWV, said Thales, in a phrase frequently quoted
by Plato and Aristotle. It was on the basis of this cosmic religion
that Greek religious philosophy grew up, a philosophy which en
quires about the origin of the gods and about their divine nature.
The divine nature, the Deity, TO deiov is one, necessary, immov
able, infinite, unconditional, immortal and impassible. What is
divine is defined by certain characteristics of the finite cosmos, and
these are marked by negation. That is the via negativa. Because the
Divine is one, it is the origin and measure of the Many in the
cosmos.
14

This philosophical inference about the nature of the divine pre

supposes a divinely ordered cosmos. The existence of the divine
essence is not in question. It is already presupposed by the existence
of the cosmos. The divine essence is indirectly manifested in the
mirror of that cosmos. The deity can be known from the world,
by a process of deduction. Conversely, the world as cosmos, which
reflects the divine essence and the divine wisdom, is comprehended
from the presence of the divine. Here deity and cosmos provide
mutual evidence for one another, thereby opening up a space for
living in the chaos of the world, and order in the terrors of time.
The cosmological proof of God based on the world is always at
the same time the theological proof of the world based on God.
That is why the concept of the world as cosmos is fundamental.
Aquinas's 'five ways' go back to Aristotle and Cicero. They
Presuppose the Greek concept of a cosmos which is a hierarchical
order, graduated into different strata of being. The proofs are so
ordered that each demonstration explains what the preceding one

12

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had implicitly presupposed; so the 'five ways' belong together in

a single demonstrative process. They start from general phenomena
in the world and enquire about their ultimate foundation, beyond
which nothing can be asked at all. The first starts from movement
in the world and arrives at the concept of the primum movens; the
second proceeds from effects in the world and arrives at the concept
of the causa prima; the third starts from the potential being of all
things and arrives at the concept of the ens per se necessarium; the
fourth begins with the gradations of being in the world and arrives
at the concept of the maxime ens; the fifth, finally, starts from the
order of the world and arrives at the concept of the highest intellectus. T o these five definitions Aquinas adds in each case: 'et hoc
dicimus
Deum\
The cosmological proof of God was supposed by Thomas to
answer the question Utrum Deus sit} But he did not really prove
the existence of God; what he proved was the nature of the divine.
The divine nature is the moving, causing, necessary, pure and
intelligent Being for being that is moved, caused, possible, inter
mingled and ordered: that was how he understood the via eminentiae. In this way Aquinas answered the question: 'What is the
nature of the divine?', but not the question: 'Who is God?'. With
the help of his proof, God as the supreme essence or being has
become conceivable, although we are not compelled to call this
highest substance 'God'. The fact that 'all' human beings call this
substance 'God' is due to the consensus gentium which Aquinas
himself says is not conclusive, but merely provides the general
linguistic rule, which may in certain circumstances be relative.
The five ways of the cosmological proof of God are certainly
cogent on the basis of the cosmology and metaphysics they pre
suppose. But is this cosmology itself convincing? If the human
understanding of reality changes fundamentally, these proofs of
God lose their power, like all other proofs as well. They are irre
futable from the standpoint of their own premises; but these prem
ises can quite well be cut from under their feet. What separates
modern thinking from Greek and mediaeval metaphysics is a
changed view of reality as a whole.

On the Way to the Triune

God

2. God as Absolute

13
Subject

The method of the cosmological proofs of God rests on the premise

that there is an ordered cosmos. The perceiving person finds himself
existing in this order as a living being endowed with soul and
spirit. The 'house of being' is his wordly home. This thinking in
terms of being was superseded by the rise of modern, European
subjectivity. Once man makes himself the subject of his own world
by the process of knowing it, conquering it and shaping it, the
conception of the world as cosmos is destroyed. Descartes split the
world into res cogitans and res externa; and this modern dichotomization has made the ontological order of being obsolete, and
the monarchy of the highest substance obsolete at the same t i m e .
Reality is no longer understood as the divine cosmos, which sur
rounds and shelters man as his home. It is now seen as providing
the material for the knowledge and appropriation of the world of
man. The centre of this world and its point of reference is the
human subject, not a supreme substance. There is no higher reality
encompassing man, the sphere of his experience and the realm of
his awareness. It is he himself who opens up reality and makes it
accessible. So the unity of what is real is determined anthropo
logically, no longer cosmologically and theocentrically. The cosmos
shows no 'traces' of the deity; on the contrary, it is full of traces
of man. This transition to modern time has been called 'the an
thropological turning point' (Martin Buber), 'the uprising to sub
jectivity' (Martin Heidegger) and the path 'from ontocracy to
technocracy' (A. T. van Leeuwen). It was out of this transition that
Western atheism grew up. A world which has in principle become
man's object proves only the existence of man and no longer the
existence of a God. Is this the beginning of European nihilism?
ls

What did we do when we unchained this earth from its sun?

Where is it moving to now? Away from all the suns? Do we not
continually stumble and fall? Backwards, sideways, forwards,
in all directions? Is there still an above and a below? Are we
not wandering through an infinite nothingness? Do we not feel
the breath of empty space? Do we not continually encounter
night and still more night? Do we not have to light our lanterns
before noon? . . . God is dead! God remains dead! And we have
killed h i m .
16

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Trinitarian Theology

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If man can no longer understand himself in the light of the world

and its cohesions, but has to comprehend the world and its cohe
sions in the light of his own plans for its domination, then it would
seem the obvious course for him to look for the mirror in which
knowledge of God is to be found in his own subjectivity. But of
course in the same degree to which he discovers his subjectivity in
its superiority to the world, he also discovers that subjectivity's
finitude. So he will enquire about an infinite, absolute and perfect
subjectivity which lends his own subjectivity bearings, thus sus
taining it and giving it permanence. The proof of God drawn from
the world gives way to the proof of God drawn from existence,
from the soul, from the immediate self-consciousness. That is not
an objective proof; it is a subjective one. It is not theoretical; it is
practical. People no longer need God in order to explain the world,
but they do need him in order to exist with self-confidence, with
self-certainty and with self-respect.
This notion of God has a long history. We find the first theolog
ical traces of it in Augustine: knowledge of the self is no longer
part of knowledge of the world, but is related exclusively to know
ledge of God. 'O eternal God, could I but know who I am and
who thou art.' 'My desire is to know God and the soul. Nothing
else? No, nothing else.' The subject becomes directly certain of
itself. Certainty of God becomes the correlative of direct certainty
of the self. This means of access to God has a biblical foundation.
The world is God's work, but man is God's image. That means
that every human being finds in himself the mirror in which he can
perceive God. The knowledge of God in his image is surer than
the knowledge of God from his works. So the foundation of true
self-knowledge is to be found in God.
17

It was Descartes who finally stripped the world of God, making

it an affair of mathematics; and it was he who made this idea the
basis of his philosophy of subjectivity: a person can doubt all the
experiences mediated by the senses, but not the fact that it is he
himself who doubts. In the process of thinking he becomes directly
conscious of himself. This certainty of the self is the fundamentum
inconcussum. But he is conscious of himself as a finite being.
Consequently the notion of a finite being is already presupposed
and inherent in the notion of his self-consciousness: 'The mere fact
that I exist and that a certain idea of a completely perfect being
. . . is within me is the most convincing demonstration that God

On the Way to the Triune God

15

18

exists.' The more, therefore, man experiences hims f as subject

even if finite subject - over against the world of obpcts he has
subjected, the more he recognizes in God, not the supreme sub
stance of the world, but the infinite, perfect and absolute subject,
namely the archetype of himself. God is for him no longer the
ground of the world, but the ground of the soul. He i ought, not
as the secret of the world, but as the secret of his owjisoul.
It was only after Kant had confuted the proofs of f^d from the
world through his critique of pure reason that Protes^nt theology
began to concern itself seriously with reflections about subjectivity.
Influenced by Kant and Schleiermacher, the ethical t^ology grew
up - in Protestantism particularly - for which faith ^eans moral
certainty of God; and the theology of experience, fo which God
is experienced in the believing person's experience of \s own self.
God is not to be found in the explicable world of thir\gs; he has to
be sought for in the experienceable world of the indiyilual self. It
is only possible to talk about God when one talks a^at man or,
to be more precise, about oneself, and out of one's o%iexperience
of the self: this, Rudolf Bultmann declared, is the fmdamental
principle of existential theology. 'For if the realization f our own
existence is involved in faith and if our existence is pounded in
God and is non-existent outside God, then to appreherj
exist
ence means to apprehend G o d . '
e

19

But it was Fichte and Hegel who went over to a consideration

of God's absolute subjectivity for the first time. If, fo he anthro
pological reasons we have mentioned, God has to be tnderstood
as the absolute, perfect subject, then we must also t h y of God as
the subject of his own revelation and as the subject of man's
knowledge of him. Consequently his revelation can oily be 'selfrevelation' and man's knowledge of him can only b nan's own
'self-knowledge'. Really, there can be no indirect cotrflunication
of God by way of his works in the world or through Jis image in
man; there can only be his direct 'self-communication'. Sod under
stood as absolute subject presupposes free will in Gfj, which is
not necessary in the concept of the supreme substance. 5od reveals
himself where and when he likes. He reveals himself t a certain
person and a certain history, determined by him.
r

God, thought of as subject, with perfect reason and iree will, is

in actual fact the archetype of the free, reasonable, siytreign per
son, who has complete disposal over himself. That is hy, in the

Trinitarian

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Theology

Today

bourgeois world of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this

concept of God was developed further into the concept of 'absolute
personality' and, in simpler phraseology, to the idea of 'the per
sonal God'. The starting point and the goal of this modern concept
of God was and is the interpretation of the person as subject, and
stress on the subjectivity of all his knowledge and all his
relationships.

3. The Triune

God

The churches' traditional doctrine of the Trinity derives from the

specifically Christian tradition and proclamation. In order to com
prehend the New Testament's testimony to the history of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, theology had to develop the trinitarian
concept of God. The history of Jesus the Son cannot be grasped
except as part of the history of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
We shall be showing this in chapter III. Here we shall simply ask
how the specifically Christian doctrine of the Trinity fits in with
the general concepts of God as supreme substance and absolute
subject, and what problems emerge at this point; and we shall ask
too whether the doctrine of the Trinity itself cannot provide us
with the matrix for a new kind of thinking about God, the world
and man.
Ever since Tertullian, the Christian Trinity has always been de
picted as belonging within the general concept of the divine sub
stance: una substantia tres personae. The one, indivisible,
homogeneous, divine substance is constituted as three individual,
divine persons. Consequently the converse also applies: the three
persons are certainly different from one another, but they are one
in their common divine substance. It is understandable that for
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas this one, common, divine sub
stance counted as being the foundation of the trinitarian Persons
and was hence logically primary in comparison. Augustine pro
ceeded from the one God, whose unity he apprehended in the
concept of the one divine essence, only after that arriving at the
concept of the trinitarian Persons. According to Aquinas, when we
generalize, or abstract, from the trinitarian Persons, what remains
for thought is the one divine nature. It is this, he claimed, which
is in general to be called 'God', not the three Persons, or only one
of them.
20

On the Way to the Triune

God

17

This presentation of the trinitarian Persons in the one divine

substance had considerable consequences for Western theology,
and even for Western thinking in general. In theological textbooks
ever since Aquinas, the article on God has been divided into the
treatise De Deo uno and the treatise De Deo trino. Even Protestant
orthodoxy took over this two-fold division. First of all comes the
proof and the assurance that there is a God and that God is one.
Only after that is the doctrine of the triune God developed. First
of all we have general, natural theology; the special theology of
revelation comes afterwards. Natural theology, accordingly, pro
vides the general framework within which the theology of revela
tion draws the special Christian picture of God. The framework
makes the picture possible, but it also restricts it. The metaphysical
characteristics of the supreme substance are determined on the
basis of the cosmological proofs of God. The divine being is one,
immovable, impassible, and so forth. The specifically Christian
doctrine of God can change nothing about all this, even though it
has to talk about the triune God and the sufferings of the Son of
God on the cross. Natural theology's definitions of the nature of
the deity quite obviously become a prison for the statements made
by the theology of revelation. That is clearly evident in the defi
nition of God's unity. If natural theology's article De Deo uno is
put before the article De Deo trino, then what is really being taught
is a double divine unity - a unity of the divine essence, and the
union of the triune God. The result is that the first unity forces out
the second. Consequently, not only is there undue stress on the
unity of the triune God, but there is also a reduction of the triunity to the One God. The representation of the trinitarian Persons
in a homogeneous divine substance, presupposed and recognizable
from the cosmos, leads unintentionally but inescapably to the dis
integration of the doctrine of the Trinity in abstract monotheism.
Ever since Hegel in particular, the Christian Trinity has tended
to be represented in terms belonging to the general concept of the
absolute subject: one subject three modes of being. The one,
identical, divine, subject can only be thought of as perfect subject
if it can relate to itself. If it relates to itself this must be viewed as
an eternal process of self-differentiation and self-identification of
the absolute subject. It is only on the basis of the presupposed
self-differentiation of the absolute subject that we can talk about
God's 'self-revelation and 'self-communication. The reflection

18

Trinitarian

Theology

Today

process of the absolute subject has - like the reflection process of

every finite subject as well - this triadically conceivable structure
of self-distinction and self-identification.
A Christian doctrine of the Trinity which is to be presented in
the medium of the modern concept of God as absolute subject
must renounce the trinitarian concept of person, because the con
cept of person also contains the concept of the subject of acts and
relationships. It must surrender the concept of person to the one,
identical God-subject, and choose for the trinitarian Persons an
other, non-subjective expression. For this, Western tradition would
seem to offer the neuter concept of 'mode of being'. Out of the
necessity of its being, the one identical divine subject reflects on
itself in three modes of being, communicating itself in this triadic
way: God reveals himself through himself. The Father is assigned
to the T , the Son to the 'self, and the Spirit to the identity of the
divine 'I-self; and this becomes the basic structure of modern
doctrines of the Trinity. What the traditional doctrine of the Trinity
meant, is supposed to be reproduced by talking about 'the selfrelationships and self-mediations of the one, united G o d ' .
21

The later notion of 'absolute personality' does at least take us a

step further. The human personality is the result of a historical
maturing process of the person; and in a similar way the absolute
personality of God must be seen as the result of his eternal life
process, eternally present in himself. The absolute personality of
God fulfils its eternal being in three different modes of being. The
effect of its triadic life on earth is therefore a process of selfemptying and re-appropriation of absolute personality.
22

Here the problems for the doctrine of the Trinity resemble those
we discovered in the earlier Trinity of substance: the unity of the
absolute subject is stressed to such a degree that the trinitarian
Persons disintegrate into mere aspects of the one subject. But the
special Christian tradition and proclamation cannot be conceived
of within the concept of the absolute subject. To represent the
trinitarian Persons in the one, identical divine subject leads unin
tentionally but inescapably to the reduction of the doctrine of the
Trinity to monotheism.
A new treatment of the doctrine of the Trinity today has to come
to terms critically with these philosophical and theological trad
itions. A return to the earlier Trinity of substance is practically
impossible, if only because the return to the cosmology of the old

On the Way to the Triune God

19

way of thinking about being has become impossible too, ever since
the beginning of modern times. T o carry on with the more modern
'subject' Trinity is not in fact very fruitful either, because modern
thinking in terms of 'subject' is increasingly losing force and sig
nificance. Anthropological thinking is giving way to the new, relativistic theories about the world, and anthropocentric behaviour
is being absorbed into social patterns. 'The belief that the most
important thing about experience is the experiencing of it, and
about deeds the doing of them, is beginning to strike most people
as naive.' The world of growing interdependencies can no longer
be understood in terms of 'my private world'. Today the appeal to
pure subjectivity is viewed as an inclination towards escapism.
23

The present book is an attempt to start with the special Christian

tradition of the history of Jesus the Son, and from that to develop
a historical doctrine of the Trinity. Here we shall presuppose the
unity of God neither as homogenous substance nor as identical
subject. Here we shall enquire about that unity in the light of this
trinitarian history and shall therefore develop it too in trinitarian
terms. The Western tradition began with God's unity and then
went on to ask about the trinity. We are beginning with the trinity
of the Persons and shall then go on to ask about the unity. What
then emerges is a concept of the divine unity as the union of the
tri-unity, a concept which is differentiated and is therefore capable
of being thought first of all.
In distinction to the trinity of substance and to the trinity of
subject we shall be attempting to develop a social doctrine of the
Trinity. We understand the scriptures as the testimony to the his
tory of the Trinity's relations of fellowship, which are open to men
and women, and open to the world. This trinitarian hermeneutics
leads us to think in terms of relationships and communities; it
supersedes the subjective thinking which cannot work without the
separation and isolation of its objects.
Here, thinking in relationships and communities is developed
out of the doctrine of the Trinity, and is brought to bear on the
relation of men and women to God, to other people and to man
kind as a whole, as well as on their fellowship with the whole of
creation. By taking up panentheistic ideas from the Jewish and the
Christian traditions, we shall try to think ecologically about God,
fiian and the world in their relationships and indwellings. In this
a y it is not merely the Christian doctrine of the Trinity that we
w

20

Trinitarian

Theology

Today

are trying to work out anew; our aim is to develop and practise
trinitarian thinking as well.

II
The Passion of God-

si GOD'S 'APATHY' OR HIS PASSION?

If, in the manner of Greek philosophy, we ask what characteristics

are 'appropriate' to the deity, then we have to exclude difference,
diversity, movement and suffering from the divine nature. The
divine substance is incapable of suffering; otherwise it would not
be divine. The absolute subject of nominalist and Idealist philo
sophy is also incapable of suffering; otherwise it would not be
absolute. Impassible, immovable, united and self-sufficient, the de
ity confronts a moved, suffering and divided world that is never
sufficient for itself. For the divine substance is the founder and
sustainer of this world of transient phenomena; it abides eternally,
and so cannot be subjected to this world's destiny.
But if we turn instead to the theological proclamation of the
Christian tradition, we find at its very centre the history of Christ's
passion. The gospel tells us about the sufferings and death of
Christ. The delivering up of God's Son for the reconciliation of the
world is communicated to us in the eucharist in the form of bread
and wine. When the passion of Christ becomes present to us
through word and sacrament, faith is wakened in us - the Christian
faith in God. The person who believes owes his freedom to Christ's
representation. He believes in God for Christ's sake. God himself
is involved in the history of Christ's passion. If this were not so,
no redeeming activity could radiate from Christ's death. But how
is God himself involved in the history of Christ's passion? How
can Christian faith understand Christ's passion as being the reve
lation of God, if the deity cannot suffer? Does God simply allow
1

22

The Passion of God

Christ to suffer for us? Or does God himself suffer in Christ on

our behalf?
Christian theology acquired Greek philosophy's ways of thinking
in the Hellenistic world; and since that time most theologians have
simultaneously maintained the passion of Christ, God's Son, and
the deity's essential incapacity for suffering - even though it was
at the price of having to talk paradoxically about 'the sufferings of
the God who cannot suffer'. But in doing this they have simply
added together Greek philosophy's 'apathy' axiom and the central
statements of the gospel. The contradiction remains - and remains
unsatisfactory.
4

Right down to the present day the 'apathy' axiom has left a
deeper impress on the basic concept of the doctrine of God than
has the history of Christ's passion. Incapacity for suffering appar
ently counts as being the irrelinquishable attribute of divine per
fection and blessedness. But does this not mean that down to the
present day Christian theology has failed to develop a consistent
Christian concept of God? And that instead - for reasons which
still have to be investigated - it has rather adopted the metaphysical
tradition of Greek philosophy, which it understood as 'natural
theology' and saw as its own foundation.
The ability to identify God with Christ's passion becomes feeble
in proportion to the weight that is given to the 'apathetic' axiom
in the doctrine of God. If God is incapable of suffering, then - if
we are to be consistent - Christ's passion can only be viewed as a
human tragedy. For the person who can only see Christ's passion
as the suffering of the good man from Nazareth, God is inevitably
bound to become the cold, silent and unloved heavenly power. But
that would be the end of the Christian faith.
This means that Christian theology is essentially compelled to
perceive God himself in the passion of Christ, and to discover the
passion of Christ in God. Numerous attempts have been made to
mediate between apathy and passion in a christological sense, in
order to preserve the apathetic axiom; but - if we are to understand
the suffering of Christ as the suffering of the passionate God it
would seem more consistent if we ceased to make the axiom of
God's apathy our starting point, and started instead from the
axiom of God's passion. The word 'passion', in the double sense
in which we use it, is well suited to express the central truth of
Christian faith. Christian faith lives from the suffering of a great

God's 'Apathy' or His Passion?

23

passion and is itself the passion for life which is prepared for
suffering.
Why did the theology of the patristic period cling to the apathy
axiom, although Christian devotion adored the crucified Christ as
God, and the Christian proclamation was quite capable of talking
about 'God's suffering'?
There were two reasons:
1. It was his essential incapacity for suffering that distinguished
God from man and other non-divine beings, all of whom are alike
subjected to suffering, as well as to transience and death.
2. If God gives man salvation by giving him a share in his eternal
life, then this salvation also confers immortality, non-transience,
and hence impassibility too.
Apathy is therefore the essence of the divine nature and the purest
manifestation of human salvation in fellowship with God.
The logical limitation of this line of argument is that it only
perceives a single alternative: either essential incapacity for suffer
ing, or a fateful subjection to suffering. But there is a third form
of suffering: active suffering - the voluntary laying oneself open to
another and allowing oneself to be intimately affected by him; that
is to say, the suffering of passionate love.
In Christian theology the apathetic axiom only really says that
God is not subjected to suffering in the same way as transient,
created beings. It is in fact not a real axiom at all. It is a statement
of comparison. It does not exclude the deduction that in another
respect God certainly can and does suffer. If God were incapable
of suffering in every respect, then he would also be incapable of
love. He would at most be capable of loving himself, but not of
loving another as himself, as Aristotle puts it. But if he is capable
of loving something else, then he lays himself open to the suffering
which love for another brings him; and yet, by virtue of his love,
he remains master of the pain that love causes him to suffer. God
does not suffer out of deficiency of being, like created beings. To
this extent he is 'apathetic'. But he suffers from the love which is
the superabundance and overflowing of his being. In so far he is
'pathetic'.
In the patristic period Origen seems to have been the only one
to recognize and employ this distinction. Of all the Greek and
Latin Fathers he is the only one who dares to talk theologically
6

24

The Passion of God

about 'God's suffering'. Writing about the text 'He who did not
spare his own Son but gave him up for us all' (Rom. 8.32), he says:
Tradidisse eum dicitur hoc ipso, quod cum in forma Dei esset,
passus est eum exinanire seipsum, et formam servi suscipere.
In his mercy God suffers with us {ovn7iao~xi)\ for he is not
heartless.
He (the Redeemer) descended to earth out of sympathy for
the human race. He took our sufferings upon Himself before He
endured the cross - indeed before He even deigned to take our
flesh upon Himself; for if He had not felt these sufferings [be
forehand] He would not have come to partake of our human
life. First of all He suffered, then He descended and became
visible to us. What is this passion which He suffered for us? It
is the passion of love {Caritas est passio). And the Father Him
self, the God of the universe, 'slow to anger, and plenteous in
mercy' (Ps. 1 0 3 . 8 ) , does He not also suffer in a certain way? Or
know you not that He, when He condescends to men, suffers
human suffering? For the Lord thy God has taken thy ways
upon Him 'as a man doth bear his son' (Deut. 1.31). So God
suffers our ways as the Son of God bears our sufferings. Even
the Father is not incapable of suffering {Ipse pater non est
itnpassibilis). When we call upon him, He is merciful and feels
our pain with us. He suffers a suffering of love, becoming
something which because of the greatness of his nature He
cannot be, and endures human suffering for our sakes.
8

10

When Origen talks about God's suffering, he means the suffering

of love, the compassion which is at the heart of mercy and pity.
The merciful, the pitiful person participates in the suffering of
another, he takes the other's sufferings on himself, he suffers for
others. For Origen this suffering is divine suffering. It is the suf
fering of God, who bears the world by bearing its burdens. It is
the suffering of the Father who in giving up his 'own Son' (Rom.
8.32) suffers the pain of redemption. It is the suffering of God's
Son, who takes our sins and sicknesses upon himself. Origen, that
is to say, talks about a divine passion which Christ suffers for us,
and at the same time points to a divine passion between the Father
and the Son in the Trinity. The suffering of love does not only
affect the redeeming acts of God outwards; it also affects the
trinitarian fellowship in God himself. In this way the extra-trini-

The 'Pathos of God'

25

tarian suffering and the inner-trinitarian suffering correspond. For

the divine suffering of love outwards is grounded on the pain of
love within. It is significant that Origen has to talk about God in
trinitarian terms at the moment when his text makes him begin to
talk about God's suffering. For we can only talk about God's
suffering in trinitarian terms. In monotheism it is impossible. Both
Aristotelian philosophy and the religion of Islam make this clear.
In this chapter we are trying to develop a doctrine of theopathy.
So let us first of all look at the theologians who - contrary to the
main stream of theological tradition - start from God's passion
and not from his apathy. These theologians are rare and difficult
to find, so we shall consider them in some detail. We shall be
looking at the rabbinic and kabbalistic doctrine of the Shekinah;
an Anglican theology of 'the sacrifice of eternal love'; a Spanish
mysticism of 'the pain of God'; and a Russian-Orthodox philo
sophy of religion, 'the divine tragedy'.
11

2 THE 'PATHOS OF GOD'

One of the first people explicitly to contest the theology of the

apathetic God was Abraham Heschel. In a dispute with the Hellenestically influenced Jewish philosophies of religion that had been
developed by Philo, Jehuda Halevi, Maimonides and Spinoza, he
called the theology of the Old Testament prophets a 'theology of
the divine pathos'.
In his pathos the Almighty goes out of himself, entering into the
people whom he has chosen. He makes himself a partner in a
covenant with his people. In this pathos, this feeling for the people
which bears his name and upholds his honour in the world, the
Almighty is himself ultimately affected by Israel's experience, its
acts, its sins and its sufferings. In the fellowship of his covenant
with Israel, God becomes capable of suffering. His existence and
the history of the people are linked together through the divine
pathos. Creation, liberation, covenant, history and redemption
spring from the pathos of God. This therefore has nothing to do
with the passions of the moody, envious or heroic gods belonging
to the mythical world of the sagas. Those gods are subject to
destiny because of their passions. But the divine passion about
which the Old Testament tells us is God's freedom. It is the free
relationship of passionate participation. The eternal God takes
12

13

14

26

The Passion of God

men and women seriously to the point of suffering with them in

their struggles and of being wounded in his love because of their
sins.
Of course the images of Yahweh as Israel's friend, or father, or
mother, or her disappointed lover are just as anthropomorphic as
the notions of an ardent, jealous, angry, or erotically craving God.
But what these images are trying to express is missed by the person
who holds 'apathy' to be the only characteristic that is 'appropriate'
for the deity. Jehuda Halevi did this when he maintained that
sympathy and compassion were signs of spiritual weakness and
hence inappropriate for God:
He ordered poverty for the one and riches for the other without
any alteration in his nature, without any feeling of sympathy
with the one or anger with the other. He is the just judge.
Maimonides did the same when he declared that no predicate
indicating physical nature and suffering must be applied to the
Eternal One:
God is free from passions; He is moved neither by feelings of
joy nor by feelings of pain.
Spinoza followed the same line when he propounded the thesis
that 'God neither loves nor hates'. For a long time the divine
apathy was a fundamental principle for Jewish theologians too. It
was Abraham Heschel who perceived for the first time that the
divine pathos is the appropriate hemeneutical point of reference
for the anthropomorphic utterances of God in the Old Testament.
If we start from the pathos of God, then we do not consider God
in his absolute nature, but understand him in his passion and in
his interest in history. This means understanding the historical
nature of God. In his criticism of Philo, Heschel showed that the
terms and concepts of philosophical monotheism cannot express
the Jewish experience of God, because that is the experience of
divine pathos, not a realization of the apathy of the divine being.
Because human beings continually unfold their own living char
acter in the sphere of their experience of God, we can follow
Heschel when he talks about the Stoic idea of the homo apatheticus
and about the Jewish existence of the homo sympatbeticus
The
experience of the divine pathos throws a person open to the joy
and pain of life. He loves with God's love; he is jealous for God's
15

16

The 'Pathos of God'

27

honour; and he suffers with the sufferings of his God, in order

finally to rejoice in God's joy.
On the ground of the Jewish experience of God, Heschel devel
oped a bipolar theology of the covenant. God is in himself free and
not subject to any destiny; yet through his pathos God has at the
same time committed himself in his covenant. He is the God of
gods; and at the same time for his little people of Israel he is the
God of the covenant. He reigns in heaven; and at the same time
dwells with the humble and meek.
This conceals a second bipolarity.
The sympathy of man responds to the experience of the divine
pathos. That too is determined by God. That is why the prophet
is called an ish ha-ruach, a man filled with the spirit of God. The
sympathy of the spirit which comes from God responds to the
pathos in which God goes out of himself. This makes a second
self-differentiation in God perceptible. God the Lord is a 'single'
God. He is the 'only' God. But that does not mean that he is one
{monas) in the monistic sense. On the contrary, the experience of
the divine pathos inevitably leads to the perception of the selfdifferentiation of the one G o d .
These insights are deepened if we take up early rabbinic theology
and the kabbalistic doctrine of the Shekinah. What Heschel called
the divine pathos is described here as 'God's self-humiliation'. The
history of the world develops out of a series of divine self-humili
ations and it is these that it represents: the creation, the choosing
of the patriarchs, the covenant with the people, the exodus and the
exile are all forms of this self-humiliation on God's part. The rabbis
interpreted Psalm 1 8 . 3 5 (RSV: 'Thy right hand supported me, and
thy help made me great': Luther's version: 'When thou dost cast
me down, thou makest me great') as meaning: 'Thou showest me
thy greatness through thy humiliation of thyself.' The Almighty
humiliates himself to the end of the world. He is high and lifted up
- and looks upon the lowly. He reigns in heaven - and dwells with
widows and orphans. Like a servant he bears the torch before
Israel in the desert. Like a slave he carries the people with their
sins. In this way the One who is high and lifted up encounters men
and women in what is small and despised. These self-humiliations
are to be understood as God's accommodations
to human weak
ness. But as the accommodations of eternal love they are at the
17

18

28

The Passion of God

same time already anticipations of the universal indwelling of

God's eternal glory.
The idea of the Shekinah includes these three aspects: the present
indwelling of the Lord in Israel; the form assumed by the conde
scension of the Eternal One; and the anticipations of the glory of
the One who is to come.
Through his Shekinah God is present in Israel. Together with
Israel he suffers persecutions. Together with Israel he goes into
exile as a prisoner. Together with the martyrs he experiences the
torments of death.
Since God's sufferings in exile were taken completely seriously,
Israel's deliverance from exile was logically bound to be seen as
God's deliverance too . . . In this intimate bond of common
suffering God and Israel wait together for their deliverance.
Israel knows that it will be delivered, since God will deliver
himself and his people with him . . . The suffering of God is the
means by which Israel is redeemed: God himself is 'the ransom'
for Israel.
19

Through this belief Israel's suffering is embedded in God's suf

fering, and the glorifying of God in the world is linked with Israel's
redemption. This faith in the God who suffers with Israel is the
inexhaustible source of the power which saves the persecuted
people from despair and paralysis, and keeps its assailed and dis
appointed hope alive.
In order to see how the idea was developed further, let us look
at certain concepts in Jewish mysticism. Here the Shekinah was
thought of in hypostasized and personified f o r m . But if the Shek
inah is viewed, not merely as one of God's characteristics, but as
God in person, then it is necessary to assume a profound selfdifferentiation in God himself. As Gershom Scholem has shown,
20

From this time on there has been a mysterious fissure, not indeed
in the substance of Divinity, but in its life and action. This
doctrine has been completely hedged round with reservations,
but its basic meaning for all that is clear enough. Its pursuit led
to the conception of what the Kabbalists call 'the exile of the
Shekinah'. Only after the restoration of the original harmony in
the act of redemption, when everything shall again occupy the
place it originally had in the divine scheme of things, will 'God

The 'Pathos of God'

29

be one and His name one', in Biblical terms, truly and for all
time.
21

It was these ideas which Franz Rosenzweig was evidently taking

up when he explained:
Mysticism builds its bridge between 'the God of our fathers'
and 'the remnant of Israel' with the help of the doctrine of the
Shekinah. The Shekinah, the descent of God to man and his
dwelling among them, is thought of as a divorce which takes
place in God himself. God himself cuts himself off from himself,
he gives himself away to his people, he suffers with their suffer
ings, he goes with them into the misery of the foreign land, he
wanders with their wanderings . . . God himself, by 'selling
himself to Israel - and what should be more natural for 'the
God of our Fathers'! - and by suffering her fate with her, makes
himself in need of redemption. In this way, in this suffering, the
relationship between God and the remnant points beyond
itself.
22

But if this history of evil and suffering is determined by God's

differentiation between himself and his Shekinah, and by the rift
which cuts off the Shekinah from God himself, how is this es
trangement overcome? It is overcome through prayer and acknowl
edgment of 'the one God'. According to Franz Rosenzweig, to pray
the Shema Israel in the historical experience of God, in the ex
perience of the Exile, means:
To acknowledge God's unity - the Jew calls it uniting God. For
this unity is, in that it becomes; it is a Becoming Unity. And this
Becoming is laid on the soul of man and in his hands.
23

Through the prayer of acknowledgment the persecuted Shekinah

will be united with God and God with his estranged Shekinah.
This comes about in this hostile world and is a sign of hope for
the coming glory in which God 'will be all in all' in the world
which he has put to rights. The estrangement is overcome too
through the acts of the good, which are directed towards the
overcoming of evil and the establishment of the future harmony of
the one world. That is the meaning of the Hebrew word tikkun.
Of course the doctrine of theopathy we have described is only
one of the ways of understanding God on the basis of fundamental
24

The Passion of God

Jewish experience. But we see here too that to start from God's
patho and compassion means coming to accept a self-differentia
tion Of 'riff i God. If God suffers with Israel in his passion for
her, then he must be able to confront himself, to stand over against
himself. The doctrine of the Shekinah is the logical result of making
God's pathos the starting point.
s

if in history the Shekinah is so far removed and estranged

frorn Q J
j
unrecognizable, so that it has to be 'united'
wjth God through prayer and the acts of the good, why has God
withdrawn his indwelling in the world so far from himself, and
what caused the 'rift' in God's life and activity? The answer can
really
jj .
dichotomy in God which is experienced here is
based
the pathos and the initial self-humiliation through which
the Almighty goes out of himself and becomes involved with the
limited world and with the freedom of his image in that world.
Love seeks a counterpart who freely responds and independently
gives love for love. Love humiliates itself for the sake of the freedom
f its counterpart. The freedom towards God of the human being
h o m God desires and loves is as unbounded as God's capacity
f Passion and for patience. Love of freedom is the most profound
s o f 'God's self-differentiation' and for 'the divine bipolari0 (

t l s

r e a

o r

' for 'God's self-surrender' and for the 'rift' which runs through
the divine life and activity until redemption.
The most moving potentiality of this theology is that it allows
to comprehend the Jewish people's history of suffering and the
story f i martyrs as the history of the suffering of the tortured
divine Shekinah. 'When man suffers torment, what does the Shek
inah say? "My head is heavy, my arm is heavy" ', says a Mishnah,
talking about the way God suffers with the torments of the
hang d."
u s

t s

S3 'THE ETERNAL SACRIFICE OF LOVE'

m

the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was English theology

which carried on the theological discussion about God's passibility.
Continental theology passed it by unheedingly. J . K. Mozley exPUnded it in detail in his book, The Impassibility of God. A
Sur y j christian Thought, expressing surprise in his preface that
ther
classic German monograph on the subject 'to lighten
h e labours of other students'.
Vg

e w

26

'The Eternal Sacrifice of Love'

31

It is true that the German theology of the same period can show
nothing comparable with the wealth of literature in English on this
subject. This is all the more surprising since many theses which
were introduced into theological discussion by the dialectical
theology of the twenties are already to be found in the Anglican
theologians who made God's passibility their starting point.
The reason for the resolve to start from the idea of God's ca
pacity for suffering, contrary to the whole theological and philo
sophical tradition, was evidently the Anglican idea of the
eucharistic sacrifice. One basic concept runs through the whole
literature on the subject: the necessity of seeing the eucharistic
sacrifice, the cross on Golgotha and the heart of the triune God
together, in a single perspective. The immediate occasion for de
veloping the power of God's suffering theologically was the apolo
getic necessity for providing a reply to Darwin's theory of
evolution. In what sense are we to understand God's almighty
power?
One of the most remarkable books about God's capacity for
suffering is The World's Redemption by C. E . R o l t . The outbreak
of the First World W a r prevented the book from being as widely
discussed as it deserved.
Rolt starts from the assumption that Darwin's theory of evolu
tion calls the doctrine of God's almighty power in question. He
answers with a concept of omnipotence which is derived from the
cross of Christ. The sole omnipotence which God possesses is the
almighty power of suffering love. It is this that he reveals in Christ.
What was Christ's essential power? It was love, which was per
fected through voluntary suffering; it was love, which died in
meekness and humility on the cross and so redeemed the world.
This is the essence of the divine sovereignty. The passion is the
final victory of the Son of G o d . Rolt then goes on to deduce the
eternal divine nature from Christ's passion. What Christ, the in
carnate God, did in time, God, the heavenly Father, does and must
do in eternity. If Christ is weak and humble on earth, then God is
weak and humble in heaven. For 'the mystery of the cross' is a
mystery which lies at the centre of God's eternal being.
27

28

29

30

31

This is the fundamental idea of the whole Anglican theology of

God's suffering: the cross on Golgotha has revealed the eternal
heart of the Trinity. That is why we must trace the thread back
from the historical, earthly cross to the eternal nature if we are to

32

The Passion of God

32

perceive the primordial heavenly image.

The oldest writings which Mozley cites for this theology argue
like this:
It is as if there were a cross unseen, standing on its undiscovered
hill, far back in the ages, out of which were sounding always,
just the same deep voice of suffering love and patience that was
heard by mortal ears from the sacred hill of Calvary.
33

The thoughtful and widely circulated devotional writing The Mys

tery of Pain (it was published anonymously but the writer was in
fact James Hinton) takes up the Johannine principle: 'He who has
seen me has seen the Father' in order to say:
If God would show us Himself, He must show us Himself as a
sufferer, as taking what we call pain and loss. These are His
portion; from eternity He chose them. The life Christ shows us
is the eternal life.
34

If we follow through the idea that the historical passion of Christ

reveals the eternal passion of God, then the self-sacrifice of love is
God's eternal nature. There is no definition of the divine nature
which could avoid including this in its concept. The sacrifice of
love is not, either, merely a divine reaction to man's sin. Nor is it
a free decision of will on God's part, in the sense that it need not
have been made. For the cross of Christ is not something that is
historically fortuitous, which might not have happened. God him
self is nothing other than love. Consequently Golgotha is the ines
capable revelation of his nature in a world of evil and suffering.
The theological argument which thinks along these lines begins
with the eucharist, from there moves to the historical cross on
Golgotha, and from that point draws a conclusion about God's
eternal nature. God is love; love makes a person capable of suffer
ing; and love's capacity for suffering is fulfilled in the self-giving
and the self-sacrifice of the lover. Self-sacrifice is God's very nature
and essence. C. E . Rolt develops his doctrine of the Trinity from
this axiom: God sacrifices himself in eternity, and his whole nature
is embodied in this act. He is the lover, the beloved and the love
itself. But because his being is absolute, there is nothing outside
himself which he can sacrifice in eternity. So it follows that what
God eternally sacrifices is himself. His whole being is the eternal
35

'The Eternal Sacrifice of Love'

33

sacrifice of self-love. But because God, as perfect love, is at the

same time perfectly selfless, he loves himself in the most extreme
and complete self-forsakenness. God lays God open for his future.
Through his understanding of God's self-love as his self-sacrifice,
Rolt's trinitarian interpretation of God's eternal self-love leads to
a doctrine of the Trinity which is open to the world. Love has to
give, for it is only in the act of giving that it truly possesses, and
finds bliss. That is why God has to give himself; and he cannot
possess himself apart from this act of serving. God has to give
himself completely; and it is only in this way that he is God. He
has to go through time; and it is only in this way that he is eternal.
He has to run his full course on earth as servant; and it is only in
this way that he is the lord of heaven. He has to be man and
nothing but man; and it is only in this way that he is completely
God. So God's divinity is not cut off from his humanity, and his
humanity is not cut off from his divinity: 'It was necessary for God
to be Man, for only so could He be truly G o d . '
36

37

In order to be completely itself, love has to suffer. It suffers from

whatever contradicts its own nature. But if God is love and nothing
but love, can there be anything which contradicts his being, so that
he suffers from it and has to endure it as part of his own selfsacrifice? What is this? It is evil. 'God loves himself unselfishly, and
therefore He must suffer evil.' By suffering evil he transforms evil
into good.
Rolt shows very well how in world history God's suffering love
transforms 'brute force' into 'vital energy'. Suffering love over
comes the brutality of evil and redeems the energy in evil, which
is good, through the fulfilment which it gives to this misguided
passion. Rolt sees this principle as acting at all stages of evolution.
In the chapter on 'Redemptive Creation' he tries to show that the
process of evolution is the process of redemption through suffering
love. He means by this the continuous transformation of deadly
violence into vital energy. The Beatitude 'blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth' is for him the principle of a humane
society capable of survival; moreover he holds that scientifically
speaking it is also demonstrably nature's 'method of creation' and
'the path of evolution'. Through openness and capacity for suffer
ing, the divine love shows that it is life's pre-eminent organizing
principle in the deadly conflicts of blind natural forces.
38

But if God is already in eternity and in his very nature love,

The Passion of God

34

suffering love and self-sacrifice, then evil must already have come
into existence with God himself, not merely with creation, let alone
with the Fall of man. It is only if there is a tension within God
himself that we can talk in a way that makes sense about God's
eternal self-sacrifice. But is there an 'opposition' within God him
self? In this connection Rolt points to mystical theology; and we
are reminded here of Jakob Bohme.
Rolt himself, however, restricts his argument at this point to
God as the single source of good and evil: 'Brute force . . . comes
from God and He is responsible for it. Good and evil come from
the same source and are therefore precisely the same thing.' How
are we to interpret this? Rolt maintains the bold thesis that evil
does not exist because God created it; it exists just because he
refused to create it. He puts it in paradoxical terms: 'Evil exists
precisely because He commands it not to exist.' A statement like
this only makes sense if 'non-existence' has the power of nullity as
whatever is shut out from God. But then the statement makes very
good sense indeed. Because God creates order and excludes chaos,
chaos (as what has been excluded by creation) is an ever-present
threat to that creation. If, now, God endures this evil in suffering
love, then he transforms its deadly power into vital energy. The
power of the negative is caught up into the process of the becoming
of being. His patient, suffering love is the creative power which
'gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do
not exist' (Rom. 4 . 1 7 ) . The evil which God suffers is the condition
of his eternal bliss because it is the presupposition for his triumph.
'This is the mystery of the Cross, a mystery which lies at the centre
of God's eternal Being.'
39

40

41

This means that God's eternal bliss is not bliss based on the
absence of suffering. On the contrary, it is bliss that becomes bliss
through suffering's acceptance and transformation. In the eternal
joy of the Trinity, pain is not avoided; it is accepted and transmuted
into glory. The eternity of the God who is love, suffering love, and
self-sacrifice can only be the consummation of this very history of
suffering. 'God must, therefore, pass through time to attain to his
eternal being. And in this passage He must experience the pain as
untransmuted pain. Only thus can he transmute it, and, by it,
attain to his own perfect bliss.'
In the First World W a r the great preacher and writer G. A.
Studdert Kennedy gave a popular and practical form to this theol42

'The Eternal Sacrifice of Love'

35
43

ogy of the suffering God. His book The Hardest Part

has a
prophetic and radical force rather like that of Barth's Epistle to
the Romans, which came out at about the same time. In fact it
deserved even greater attention than Barth's book, for the theology
of the suffering God is more important than the theology of the
God who is 'Wholly Other'. What was able to stand the test of the
battlefields of Flanders and created faith even in the hells there was
the discovery of the crucified God:
It's always the Cross in the end - God, not Almighty, but God
the Father, with a Father's sorrow and a Father's weakness,
which is the strength of love. God splendid, suffering, crucified
- Christ. There's the Dawn.
44

Studdert Kennedy acquired this profound intuition or impression

of the suffering God revealed in Jesus, and his conviction of the
necessity of this truth, when he was working as an Anglican priest
in the narrow streets and dark homes of the English slums. His
experiences as chaplain to the forces only deepened this 'essential
truth' for him. Studdert Kennedy also perceived the eminently
political importance of the theology of the suffering God. 'God
Almighty' is for him nothing other than the religious myth of
power and the injustice on earth which cries out to high heaven.
He is the world's tyrant, God the oppressor, the imperial, the
'Prussian' God.
In their hearts all true men worship one God - the naked,
wounded, bloody, but unconquered and unconquerable Christ.
This is the God for Whom the heart of democracy is longing,
and after Whom it is blindly, blunderingly, but earnestly
groping.
45

For him the war was a struggle between the God who is suffering
love and 'the Almighty' who blesses the violence and the weapons.
I want to win the world to the worship of the patient, suffering
Father God revealed in Jesus Christ. . . God, the Father God of
Love, is everywhere in history, but nowhere is He Almighty.
Ever and always we see Him suffering, striving, crucified, but
conquering. God is L o v e .
46

Studdert Kenney called his book after his poem 'The Hardest
Part':

36

The Passion of God

The sorrows of God mun be 'ard t o bear,
if 'e really 'as Love in 'is 'eart,
And the 'ardest part i' the world t o play
Mun surely be God's Part.

4 'THE SORROW OF GOD'

A year before C. E. Rolt's book was published, a work appeared

in Spain entitled Dei Sentimiento Trgico de la Vida en los
Hombres y en los Pueblos.
The author was Miguel de Unamuno
( 1 8 6 4 - 1 9 3 6 ) , one of the great Spanish writers and philosophers of
this century. The book, which was translated into English in
1 9 2 1 , appeared in German in 1 9 2 5 (with an introduction by E. R.
Curtius). In Germany too it made an enduring impression. It fitted
the mood of the twenties and lent support t o the Roman Catholic
parallel to the Luther Renaissance of the period with its catchword
of 'consoled despair'. Reinhold Schneider was the writer who was
most profoundly affected by Unamuno: 'It must have been about
this time that the fame of Miguel de Unamuno reached me . . . He
lifted me out of my life like a landmark which can never be put
back in the same place. What stirred me, comforted me and sus
tained me, in my innermost pain especially, was the idea of exist
ence as a death struggle and the passionate conflict with time,
existence as ceaseless challenge.'
47

48

49

In 1 8 9 7 , during a profound crisis in his life, Unamuno discovered

Spanish passion mysticism. Through it he came to understand the
mystery of the world and the mystery of God. Christ's death
struggle on Golgotha reveals the pain of the whole world and the
sorrow of God. Hegel, Kierkegaard ('the brother from the North'),
Schopenhauer and Jakob Bhme helped him to formulate this
insight of his.
'The tragic sense of life' is a fundamental existential experience,
for it is the experience of the death of human existence. 'Life is a
tragedy, and a tragedy is a perpetual struggle without victory or
hope of victory - simply a contradiction.' Everything living is
involved in this contradiction and is only alive as long as it is
involved in it. Since death is inescapable, life itself is a contradic
tion, for life wants to live, not die. The thirst for living is the thirst
for eternity. Unamuno wants to affirm this contradiction, which is
inherent in life, since life is incapable of fulfilment. He wants to
50

'The Sorrow of God'

37

affirm it in order to cling to the profound experience of disagree

ment: it is man's sharpest pain to try very hard and not achieve
anything. Unamuno calls this painful experience of life congoja,
which means pain, sorrow, anguish, oppression (angor, anxietas,
co-angustia).
Congoja is also the quintessence of his picture of Christ. The
Christ despairing in his agony on the cross is for him the only true
picture of Christ. He captured this image in his poem 'The Christ
of Velazquez': 'The crucifixes, the Spanish images of Christ, are
images of appalling tragedy. They reflect the cult of the Christ in
his death agony, the Christ who is not yet dead.' For Unamuno
this crucified Christ in his dying torment became the revelation of
the universal congoja contradiction of the world and every indi
vidual life. 'Agony then, is a struggle. And Christ came to bring us
agony; struggle, not peace . . . "And what about peace?" we shall
be asked . . . But the point is that this peace is the fruit of war and
that war is the fruit of peace. And herein lies the agony.' Ac
cording to Unamuno's dialectic it is not a question of war or peace,
contradiction or correspondence. What we are faced with is the
contradiction in the correspondence and the correspondence in the
contradiction. It is that which is the agony that is insoluble. It is
that which is the conflict that finds no peace.
Out of the existential experience which he calls the tragic sense
of life, and out of this contemplation of the crucified Christ in his
dying torments, Unamuno developed his theology of the infinite
sorrow of God.
He is quite aware of having to break with a tradition lasting for
more than two thousand years: This God of the logician, arrived
at by the via negationis, knew neither love nor hate. He was a God
without sorrow {congoja) and without glory - an inhuman God.
His very justice was only a mathematical, logical justice, and so
really an injustice.' 'It is only the logical and frozen ens realissimum, the primum movens, that does not suffer because it does not
love. It is incapable of suffering anything and is hence a pure
idea.' The modern concept of God shares this defect too: 'The
"categorical" neither suffers nor lives, nor does it exist as subject
at all. But how is the world supposed to emanate from this? Such
a world would be merely the idea of a world. But the real world
suffers. In suffering it feels the very material of reality, feels in its
51

52

53

54

55

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The Passion of God

physical existence the spirit and itself, the immediate presence of

what is.'
Unamuno therefore breaks with 'natural theology' as philosoph
ical defence of the Christian faith in God: 'The God of so-called
natural theology cannot, however, be conceived of as suffering.'
This natural theology is an illusion. It prevents people from recog
nizing the crucified Christ, from perceiving the contradiction of
their own existence, and from understanding God's sorrow. At the
same time Unamuno does preserve 'natural theology's' universal
claim; he applies that claim to the theology of the cross, using it
to evolve his universal theology of pain, which we might describe
as panentheistic.
A God who cannot suffer cannot love either. A God who cannot
love is a dead God. He is poorer than any man or woman. Una
muno agrees with the Browning lines which he quotes:
56

57

For the loving worm within its clod

Were diviner than a loveless God
Amid his worlds, I will dare to say.

58

The living God is the loving God. The loving God shows that he
is a living God through his suffering. 'For to us in our suffering
God reveals himself as the suffering God. As sufferer, he demands
our compassion, and on other sufferers he confers his own com
passion. He envelops our anguish with his immeasurable anguish,
which knows no end.'
The truth of the suffering God has been revealed to us through
Christianity:
59

All this constituted the scandal of Christianity among the Jews

and Greeks, among the Pharisees and the Stoics; and from that
time it has been a scandal even among many Christians too: the
scandal of the cross, the scandal that God should become man
in order to suffer and die and rise again, that God should suffer
and should experience what death is. Yet this truth, the truth of
the suffering God, which so appals the mind of man, is the
revelation emerging from the very matrix and mystery of the
universe. It was revealed to us when God sent his Son so that
he might redeem us by suffering and dying. It was the revelation
of the divine nature of suffering, since only that which suffers
is divine . . . Only what is dead, inhuman, does not suffer.
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39

Unamuno concedes to tradition that:

This may sound like a blasphemy of God, because suffering
includes an incompleteness, a limitation. And certainly God is
limited by the coarse matter in which he dwells, by the lack of
awareness out of which he seeks to draw both himself and us.
So we must strive to do the same work of liberation for God.
God suffers in all and in each individual awareness of transitory
matter, and we all suffer in God. Religious suffering is simply
this two-sided divine suffering.
61

In these sentences Unamuno's theological vision of the world

emerges with particular clarity. In his boundless love God inter
penetrates everything living. This means that God imposes a limi
tation on himself, since in this way the Infinite One enters into his
finite creation. If he enters into his finite creation, then he also
participates in its evolution. God and the world are then involved
in a common redemptive process. In this process God participates
in the world's pain and suffers in all who suffer. That is why we
participate in God's pain. It is not only that we need God's com
passion; God also needs ours. What evolutionary process is meant
here? For Unamuno all living things are striving to arrive at an
awareness of themselves. This process of developing awareness
comes about through the experience of pain. Awareness means
knowing-with, feeling-with and suffering-with. It is only through
pain that living things arrive at awareness of one another and of
themselves. By arriving at awareness through pain, the living be
come free, and God himself becomes free in the process. 'The soul
of each one of us will not be free so long as anything is enslaved
in God's world; and even God himself will only be free when our
souls are free.'
62

The deliverance of the world from its contradiction is nothing

less than God's deliverance of himself from the contradiction of
his world. Through the experience of death, man participates in
God's pain over his world: 'Sorrow (congoja) teaches us about
God's sorrow, his sorrow at being eternal and surviving his crea
tures. Sorrow teaches us to love G o d . ' The God who is love, and
who loves every one of his creatures with a love that is infinite, is
bound to experience sorrow and loss at the death of every one of
the beings he has created. Our sorrow and our loss are experienced
participation in his pain. That is why in our pain our hope is
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The Passion of God

directed towards that divine future in which God will have all his
creatures beside him to all eternity. That is to say, our hope is for
the day when all things will be restored and gathered in a new,
eternal order.
The question of theodicy is the explicit background to this theol
ogy of God's universal sorrow. Unamuno's idea is a simple one:
either God lets people suffer, or he suffers himself. The God who
lets the innocent suffer is the accused in theodicy's court. The God
who suffers everything in everyone is his only possible defending
counsel. But are the two the God who is so accused, and the
God who suffers not one and the same? Face to face with
Velazquez' crucifix, Unamuno had an idea that reaches the limit
of radical boldness: 'Is this the atoning God, who wants to clear
his conscience of the guilt, the reproach of having created man,
and at the same time evil and suffering?' For him at all events
the crucified God is the only possible divine answer to the universal
theodicy question, which is the tormenting sting in every agony.
That is why, in the history of the world's suffering, the crucified
Christ is our sole means of access to knowledge of God.
64

Anyone who starts from the experience of suffering and who

perceives the mystery of the world in God's own sorrow is com
pelled to talk about God in christological terms. And he inevitably
thinks of God in trinitarian ones: 'The Father is only known by
means of the Son, the Son of Man who suffers the blood anguish
of fear and torment of heart, who awaits death in darkness of soul
- death and the pain that kills and makes resurrection possible.'
The congoja contradiction in God cannot be understood at all
except in trinitarian terms. For the contradiction which Unamuno
sees God himself as suffering is not merely the contradiction of
God's world. It is bound up with that; but it is also a contradiction
in God himself. This forbids us to think of God's unity in the sense
of a logical identity, whether it be of a substance or a subject.
65

But how does the congoja contradiction in God himself come

about, and what is its real nature? At this point Unamuno is silent.
He contents himself with a pointer to Jakob Bohme's idea about
there being a 'dark side' to God.
What does this theology of God's sorrow mean for the devel
opment of man's humanity} Life does not become a specifically
human life through the suppression of suffering, pain and contra
diction. Life does not become happy life in a world without suf-

'The Sorrow of God'

41

fering, without pain, without conflict and contradiction. On the

contrary, that would be the necrophil world of petrification and
death. 'The capacity for pleasure is impossible without the capacity
for suffering, and the faculty of pleasure is the same as the faculty
for pain. He who does not suffer does not enjoy, just as he who
does not perceive cold does not perceive heat either.' The deeper
man's capacity for suffering, the greater his experience of happi
ness. So there is no happiness without pain. Anyone who seeks for
happiness without pain becomes 'incapable of loving or of being
loved'. He really lives 'without great joy or suffering'. Pleasure
and pain, happiness and suffering are the two sides of a life that
loves and is loved; they condition one another and corresponds to
one another. But for Unamuno sorrow goes beyond both. 'Sorrow
is something deeper, something more intimate and more spiritual
than mere pain. Sorrow often penetrates right into what we call
happiness, and even into what truly is happiness - happiness which
is yet not sufficient for the person who sorrows, and before which
he even trembles.' Why? Because the sorrow of God and the
agony of Christ do not find an end when my pain ends. In the
divine sorrow which goes beyond true happiness, our own pain
finds an eschatological dimension. That is why Unamuno says
finally: 'The more man is capable of suffering - which means
capable of sorrow in this profounder sense - the more he is truly
man.'
66

67

68

69

If this theology of God's sorrow did not have this eschatological

dimension it would be on the very edge of masochism, and pain
would be an expression of personal dissatisfaction. Sorrow without
hope can make a person just as inarticulate and apathetic as the
suppression of suffering and pain. The experience of pain is not in
itself any deeper or more profound than the experience of true
happiness. It is only participation in the pain of the world and in
God's pain over the world that gives our own limited experience
of pain the religious dimension of sorrow. But the eschatological
direction and outlook which is inherent in this universality turns
this sorrow into sorrow in hope for the infinite bliss of the world
and of God himself in the w o r l d .
70

To submerge the self mystically in the dying torments of the

crucified Jesus would mean giving these torments eternal validity
if the submergence were not bound up with a hidden, inner, joyful
exaltation over the risen and transfigured Christ. A theology of the

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The Passion of God

cross without the resurrection is hell itself. That is why Unamuno's

wonderful insight into the universal sorrow of the Father of the
crucified Christ seems to me to be only one side of a hidden hope
- the side that faces us and which we can experience. And this
hidden hope is hope for the redeeming joy of God which overcomes
the world. How could we participate in God's sorrow and feel
compassion with God's pain if this unquenchable hope for the
reversal of all things and for the divine redemption were not
involved?
The fellowship of the God who is love has these two sides: it
leads us into God's sufferings and into his infinite sorrow; but it
will only be consummated in the feast of God's eternal joy and in
the dance of those who have been redeemed from sorrow. For true
love bears all things, endures all things and hopes all things in
order to make the other happy, and thereby to find bliss itself.

5 'THE TRAGEDY IN GOD'

Berdyaev was neither a professional theologian nor a professional

philosopher, so he has often been apostrophized as a 'thinker'. It
is certainly true that his very originality makes it hard to fit him
into any particular category. Here we shall be considering the
basic ideas of his philosophy of history, which might be described
as a theosophy of human destiny.
According to Berdyaev, the inner reason for the existence of the
world and its history is freedom: 'The origin of the world springs
from the freedom willed by God in the beginning. Without His will
or longing for freedom no world process would be possible.'
History exists because man is free. But because man continually
misuses and suppresses his freedom, human history is a tragedy. It
is a tragedy of freedom, not a tragedy of d o o m . Because God
himself wants man to be free, the tragedy of human history is
God's own tragedy too. God desires the freedom of his image on
earth, and yet cannot force freedom on him; he can only create it
and preserve it through the suffering of his eternal love. Conse
quently the history of man's freedom is simply the side of the
history of God's passion which is open to our experience and
perception. God's suffering stands at the centre only because God
wants freedom.
Why does God want freedom? If the reason for history lies in
71

72

73

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43

the tormenting mystery of freedom, then the foundation of this

mystery of freedom is to be found in God himself. It is not just
that man longs for God. God also longs for man. 'A longing for
the beloved, the one who freely loves and, in response to it, the
genesis of man in G o d . ' This longing of God's is a movement in
God himself, which leads him out of himself and brings him to his
counterpart, his 'Other' - man. So the tragedy of human freedom
is at the same time the passion history of this longing of God's for
men and women. Berdyaev therefore calls the true tragedy of hu
man history the tragedy of God, who wants freedom, and can only
create and preserve it through the suffering of his love. God wants
only the free manifestation of men and women and their free
creative activity. It is only these which respond to and reciprocate
the longing God has for human beings he has created.
75

But if, then, the reason for the mystery of human freedom is to
be found in God himself, then we must assume a movement, a
passion, a history - yes, even a 'tragedy in God' himself. That is
why Berdyaev, pointing to Jakob Bohme's idea about a 'dark
nature in God', talks about 'the possibility of tragic destiny for the
divine life':
When in the divine life a passion tragedy is played - a particular
divine destiny in the centre of which stands the suffering of God
himself and of his Son - and if in this suffering the redemption
and liberation of the world is fulfilled, then this can only be
explained by saying that the profoundest source of such a tragic
conflict, such a tragic movement, and such a tragic passion is
present in the depths of the divine life itself.
76

Here Berdyaev deliberately departs from the philosophical state

ment and turns to the mythological one, for he sees the profoundest
reason for the existence and history of the world in a theogonic
process: 'The divine life itself in a deep and mysterious sense is
history. It is a historical drama, a historical mystery play.' In
saying this he takes up Schelling's attempt to translate the concept
of theogonic process out of mythology into philosophy.
Berdyaev knows what philosophical tradition he is challenging
with these ideas. He calls it monism; and it is 'logical and . . .
abstract monism' that he wants to confute. Monism thinks of the
deity as something immovable, beyond history, beyond conflicts
and processes, and hence beyond the tragedies of passion too. It
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44

thinks of movement as applying merely to the imperfect world

with its multifarious manifestations and defines the deity by deny
ing mobility. Monism thinks of the world of movement merely as
a 'seeming' world, a world of appearance, which has no real being.
The deity stands in unique contrast to the contradictions of this
empirical world: it is the One in contrast to the Many, it is the
Immovable in contrast to the Moved, it is eternally the Same in
itself, in contrast to everything that is not identical with itself.
Berdyaev believes that this monism is based on an inner
contradiction:
1. It remains incomprehensible how the depths of the absolute
life of the one, immovable deity can be the source and the moving
force of the multifarious, moved and non-identical world: 'No
form of abstract monism is therefore capable of explaining in
wardly the origin of the plural world.'
2. Consistent monism must fall a victim to acosmism: it can
only recognize the being of the one, absolute, unmoved deity, but
not the being of the movable world in its diversity. In other words,
in order to describe the deity, it must eliminate what it denies:
movement. Berdyaev believes that it is an irony of thought that the
'disciples of consistent monism' should fall victims to dualism
instead of escaping it. They permit a radical breach between the
unmoved deity and the moved world, and describe the simple being
of the deity by way of contradictions. In actual fact, therefore,
without dualism it is impossible to state the monistic position at
all. Anyone who wants to remove the deity from the conflicts of
movement by denying movement, is actually bringing God into
that very conflict with movement. And to define the deity by deny
ing the world makes the dualism of God and the world insur
mountable. If this is true and unavoidable, then the only possibility
left to us is to fuse the monistic and dualistic elements into a
dialectic of history, so that we understand the meaning of world
history 'in relation to the destiny of the Absolute itself and the
interior drama implicit, predetermined and fulfilled in its depths'.
79

80

Berdyaev too is well aware of the theological tradition he has to

get over in saying this: 'There exists, indeed, a widespread Christian
doctrine which denies that the principle of movement and of tragic
destiny can affect the nature of the Divine Being.' He considers
that the 'Christian doctrine of the immobility and inertia of God
and the Absolute, and of the effectiveness of the historical principle
81

'The Tragedy in God'

45

only in the created and relative world' is in the first place an

'exoteric doctrine' which 'ignores what is most inward and mys
terious, the esoteric truth implicit in the doctrine of the Divinity'.
But this doctrine really stands in glaring contradiction to the most
fundamental mystery of the Christian faith: 'to the Christian doc
trine of the Divine Trinity, to the Christian doctrine of Christ as
the centre of that divine life, to the Christian mystery of Golgo
tha.' We must not tolerate it - even as 'natural theology's' doc
trine of God - in the forecourts of the Christian doctrine of the
Trinity; though it is here that it has sheltered, ever since Aquinas,
in the article de Deo uno of the Western church's theology. W e
cannot simultaneously claim that God is immovable and moved,
impassible and suffering, beyond history and historical: 'For it is
impossible to assert the tragic destiny of the Son of God and his
expiatory death without at the same time admitting movement in
the divine life.'
82

83

Anyone who denies movement in the divine nature also denies

the divine Trinity. And to deny this is really to deny the whole
Christian faith. For according to Berdyaev, the secret of Christ
ianity is the perception of God's triune nature, the perception of
the movement in the divine nature which that implies, and the
perception of the history of God's passion which springs from this.
Christian faith is the experience of the boundless freedom of which
this is the source.
This movement in God is made possible and determined by the
fact that 'in the depth of that life emerges the divine mystery, the
inner suffering thirst of the Godhead, its inner longing for its
"Other", which for God is capable of being the object of the
highest, most boundless love.' In his heart God has this passionate
longing, not just for any, random 'Other' but for 'his' Other - that
is, for the one who is the 'Other' for him himself. And that is man,
his 'image'.
If he longs for this other, it is not out of deficiency of being; it
is rather out of the superabundance of his creative fullness. If we
talk about this divine longing, then we do not mean any 'imper
fection of the Absolute' when we transfer the principle of historical
movement in this way. On the contrary, the lack of any creative
movement would mean an imperfection in the Absolute. 'For cre
ative movement, indeed . . . is a characteristic of the perfection of
being.' God longs for-his Other, in order that he may put his
84

85

46

The Passion of God

creative love into action. So the objection that any movement in

God represents a deficiency of divine perfection falls to the ground.
On the contrary, the drama of divine love and human freedom,
which begins in the innermost heart of the Godhead and constitutes
its life, is the very proof of divine perfection. Yet there is a tension
inherent in this which effects God himself: it is not merely some
thing which he causes to operate outside his own self. This tension
is to be found in God's longing for 'his Other', the Other whom
he loves and for whose responding love he thirsts. For Berdyaev,
this 'thirst of God's' is the key to the riddle of world history. But
what justification can we find for it in God himself?
In the tri-unity, the Father eternally loves the Son. That is the
love of like for like, for someone that is one's own. It is not love
for the Other. But does the love of like for like not always presup
pose love for the 'Other' too? And is the love of like for like and
for the Other not more than simply the love of like for like?
Berdyaev did not pursue this question any further, although he
seems to presuppose this idea: 'The world therefore appears to
Christian awareness as created, because God was the Son. The
creation of the world by God the Father is a moment of the deepest
mystery in the relationship between God the Father and God the
Son.' He finds the ground for the creation of the world within
the Trinity, not outside it. This means that there must be something
in the relationship of the Father to the Son which potentially goes
beyond this relationship and actually leads to the creation of the
world. T o use Berdyaev's own language: the love of God for his
Other must already be presupposed as a matter of course in the
love of God for his Son. The creation of the world is nothing other
than 'a history of the divine love between God and his Other self.
This means that God's love for the Son also potentially presupposes
the Son's incarnation. The incarnation of God's Son is not an
answer to sin. It is the fulfilment of God's eternal longing to become
man and to make of every man a god out of grace; an 'Other' to
participate in the divine life and return the divine love.
86

The greatness of Berdyaev's metaphysic of history lies in the fact

that by accepting a 'history in God' he can place heavenly and
earthly history in the reciprocal historical relationship of divine
laws and human freedom. Human history is essentially the history
of freedom. As the history of freedom, it is at the same time the
history of God's passion. The centre and pivot of the divine-human

God and

Suffering

47

history is the cross of the incarnate God on Golgotha. 'It was not
only the most just of men who was thus crucified, but also the Son
of God. Unjust suffering is divine suffering. And unjust divine
suffering brings about the expiation of all human suffering.' The
cross is at the centre of human freedom, and at the centre of God's
suffering at the same time. Perception of Christ's cross makes 'the
metaphysical historical' and 'the historical metaphysical'. Our
earthly history of freedom is grasped as an element in the heavenly
history, for the tragedy of human freedom is the history of the
sufferings of the divine love. Berdyaev presents the theology of
history as the theology of freedom, and vice versa. His theology of
the cross is the answer to the theodicy problem, which arises from
the theology of history and freedom:
87

Evil and suffering exist because freedom exists; but freedom has
no origin; it is an ultimate frontier. But because freedom exists,
God Himself suffers and is crucified. The Divine love and sac
rifice are God's answer to the mystery of freedom wherein evil
and suffering have their origin. Divine love and sacrifice are
likewise freedom.
88

6 GOD AND SUFFERING

The theology of God's passion which we have described presup

poses the theodicy question as the universal background to its
understanding and as its particular point of relevance. Consequent
ly we must, in conclusion, consider this underlying foundation in
more detail.
It is in suffering that the whole human question about God
arises; for incomprehensible suffering calls the God of men and
women in question. The suffering of a single innocent child is an
irrefutable rebuttal of the notion of the almighty and kindly God
in heaven. For a God who lets the innocent suffer and who permits
senseless death is not worthy to be called God at all. Wherever the
suffering of the living in all its manifold forms pierces our con
sciousness with its pain, we lose our childish primal confidence
and our trust in God. The person who is torn by suffering stands
alone. There is no explanation of suffering which is capable of
obliterating his pain, and no consolation of a higher wisdom which
could assuage it. The person who cries out in pain over suffering

48

The Passion of God

has a dignity of his own which neither men nor gods can rob him
of. The story of Job makes this evident; and since that time no
theology can fall below Job's level. The theology of 'Jt>'s friends'
is confuted. Does Job have any real theological friend except the
crucified Jesus on Golgotha?
The protest atheism of modern times also has something of Job's
dignity:
Ged rid of the imperfect; that is the only way you can demon
strate God. Spinoza tried. You can deny evil but not pain. Only
reason can prove the existence of God. Feeling revolts against
it. Mind this, Anaxagoras: why am I suffering? That is the rock
of atheism. The faintest quiver of pain, even in an atom, rends
creation from top to b o t t o m .
89

These sentences of Georg Biichner's are a classic description of the

problem: suffering is the rock of atheism, for it is on this rock that
every theism runs aground which lives from the illusion of 'an
unscathed world'.
But can atheism hold its ground on this rock of suffering if it is
only the indictment against God which turns suffering into pain,
and makes of pain so flinty a rock? That is the other side of the
experience of suffering. If it were not for their desire for life, the
living would not suffer. If there were no love of justice, there would
be no rebellion against innocent suffering. If there were no 'longing
for the Wholly Other', we should come to terms with the here and
now, and accept the absence of what does not exist. If there were
no God, the world as it is would be all right. It is only the desire,
the passion, the thirst for God which turns suffering into conscious
pain and turns the consciousness of pain into a protest against
suffering. But the atheism for which this world is all there is, runs
aground on the rock of suffering too. For even the abolition of
God does not explain suffering and does not assuage pain. The
person who cries out in pain over suffering has his own dignity,
which no atheism can rob him of. The story of Job makes this
evident too. His atheistic wife's advice, 'Curse God and die'
(Job 2 . 9 ) , does not reach the soul of the righteous man at all. He
rejects it from the outset. Since that time no atheism can fall below
Job's level. Beneath this level there is no atheism that deserves to
be taken seriously; there is merely triviality.
The theism of the almighty and kindly God comes to an end on

God and

Suffering

49

the rock of suffering. On the rock of suffering the atheism of the

godless person who is left to himself ends too. But then what begins
on that rock of suffering, in the pain which cannot find a divine
answer, and which atheism cannot abolish? What begins is the
dialectic of theodicy's open question: if suffering calls in question
the notion of a just and kindly God, then conversely the longing
for justice and goodness calls suffering in question and makes it
conscious pain. The old theodicy question used to be: Si Deus
Justus unde malum} The sting in the question, unde malum} is
the just God. If we did not long for him, we should not ask the
question at all. On the other hand the sting in the question, an
Deus Justus sit} - is there a God? a just God? - is the experience
of suffering in all its manifold forms.
God and suffering belong together, just as in this life the cry for
God and the suffering experienced in pain belong together. The
question about God and the question about suffering are a joint,
a common question. And they only find a common answer. Either
that, or neither of them finds a satisfactory answer at all. N o one
can answer the theodicy question in this world, and no one can
get rid of it. Life in this world means living with this open question,
and seeking the future in which the desire for God will be fulfilled,
suffering will be overcome, and what has been lost will be restored.
The question of theodicy is not a speculative question; it is a critical
one. It is the all-embracing eschatological question. It is not purely
theoretical, for it cannot be answered with any new theory about
the existing world. It is a practical question which will only be
answered through experience of the new world in which 'God will
wipe away every tear from their eyes'. It is not really a question at
all, in the sense of something we can ask or not ask, like other
questions. It is the open wound of life in this world. It is the real
task of faith and theology to make it possible for us to survive, to
go on living, with this open wound. The person who believes will
not rest content with any slickly explanatory answer to the theodicy
question. And he will also resist any attempts to soften the question
down. The more a person believes, the more deeply he experiences
pain over the suffering in the world, and the more passionately he
asks about God and the new creation.
Human suffering takes multifarious forms. That is why we can
also find such diverse attempts at an explanation in religious the
ory. The Fathers of the church consistently followed the rabbinic

50

The Passion of

God

and Pauline doctrine: suffering and death are the divinely appoint
ed punishment
for human sin. 'The wages of sin is death'
(Rom. 6 . 2 3 ) . Since all human beings have to die, death proves the
universality of sin. This reduction of suffering and death to sin
means that the beginning of salvation is seen as being the forgive
ness of sins. Human redemption then takes place in two steps: sin
is overcome through grace, in Christ's sacrificial death on the cross;
the consequences of sin - suffering and death - are overcome by
power, through the future resurrection of the dead.
The causal derivation of suffering and death from sin did give
rise to misgivings among some of the Fathers, however. Clement
of Alexandria, Origen and Theodore of Mopsuestia disputed the
causal connection. They taught that death belonged together with
the creation of man as finite being. It is therefore not a consequence
of sin, and not a divine punishment either. This means that for
them death is by no means 'natural' death. They believed that
Christ will overcome not merely sin but death as well, for eternal
life is bound to be a life that is immortal. Through his sacrificial
death on the cross, Christ redeems us from sin and its moral
consequences. Through his resurrection and through his kingdom,
Christ consummates creation-in-the-beginning by overcoming
death as a part of creation and by leading mortal men and women
into the immortality of the divine glory. The doctrine of physical
redemption embraces the suffering and death of the created being.
Augustine and the Latin Fathers, on the other hand, traced all
forms of suffering and death back to sin, reducing the doctrine of
redemption to juridicial form in the doctrine of grace.
90

Of course there is a connection between sin and suffering. The

Old Testament already held guilt and destiny to be so closely linked
that it is impossible to distinguish them as if they were two distinct
things. Misery is the lot of anyone who sins against God. This
misery is already inherent in the sin itself. That is why the sinner
is not really a wrongdoer who has to be punished in addition. He
is someone pitiable, and we must have compassion on him. Of
course there is a connection between evil and suffering, in personal
relationships and in what people do to one another. The suffering
of one person is the guilt of another. But this moral and judicial
interpretation of suffering in the context of evil acts against God
and man is a limited one. It is not well adapted to offer a universal
explanation of suffering in the world. We cannot say, 'if there were

God and

Suffering

51

no sin, there would be no suffering'. Experience of suffering goes

far beyond the experience of guilt and the experience of grace. It
has its roots in the limitations of created reality itself. If creationin-the-beginning is open for the history of good and evil, then that
initial creation is also a creation capable of suffering, and capable
of producing suffering.
What hurts far more than the connection between guilt and
suffering is innocent suffering, the suffering of the righteous, the
suffering of the poor, and the suffering of children. Anyone who
has once perceived the limitations of the moral and judicial link
between suffering and guilt, finds elements of 'innocent' suffering
even in the suffering of the guilty. For to say that guilt has to be
punished through the infliction of suffering is not a view designed
to lessen and overcome suffering in the world; on the contrary: the
guilt-expiation complex increases suffering and gives it permanence
through the archaic religious idea of a world order that has been
spoilt and has to be restored.
The moving psalms of lament in the Old Testament are the
outbursts of pain of the innocent who are persecuted, and the
righteous who suffer. Job's suffering too is suffering that goes
beyond any conceivable measure of punishment and hence does
not even allow the search for some hidden guilt to begin at all. In
the pain over the loss of beloved children the question of guilt
becomes completely obsolete. A possible desire for self-punishment
cannot be satisfied by pain of this kind. On the contrary, it makes
the desire utterly nonsensical. The suffering of Cain may perhaps
be seen as punishment for his fratricide. But Job's sufferings no
longer have anything to do with punishment. Even the customary
phrase about 'innocent suffering' still actually presupposes that we
could accept 'guilty suffering'. But in actual fact the experience of
suffering goes far beyond the question of guilt and innocence,
leaving it behind as totally superficial.
The experience of suffering reaches as far as love itself. The love
which creates life and quickens it is the positive thing; it is against
this that the negativeness of suffering and death shows up and is
perceived. What people call 'innocent suffering' is - if we put it
positively - the suffering of love, and the suffering of those who
are loved. For love there is only 'innocent' suffering, because any
one who loves cannot look on at the other person's suffering any
longer - he wants to overcome it. So his love suffers with the

52

The Passion of God

sufferings of the other, and experiences its own death when the
other dies.
Suffering as punishment for sin is an explanation that has a very
limited value. The desire to explain suffering is already highly
questionable in itself. Does an explanation not lead us to justify
suffering and give it permanence? Does it not lead the suffering
person to come to terms with his suffering, and to declare himself
in agreement with it? And does this not mean that he gives up
hope of overcoming suffering?
91

Suffering reaches as far as love itself, and love grows through

the suffering it experiences - that is the signpost that points to true
life.
The universal significance of the crucified Christ on Golgotha is
only really comprehended through the theodicy question. The his
tory of Christ's sufferings belongs to the history of the sufferings
of mankind, by virtue of the passionate love which Christ manifests
and reveals. The interpretation of Christ's death on the cross as an
atoning event in the framework of the question of human guilt is
the central part of this universal significance; but it is not the whole
of it, or all its fullness.

%7 GOD'S FREEDOM

The second question which we have to discuss in considering the

theology of the divine passion is the question of God's freedom. Is
the suffering God free or is he a prisoner of his own history?
What is the reason behind the passion of God that makes him
suffer with his creation and his people? What freedom can be
called divine freedom?
An initial answer is to be found in the nominalist doctrine of
decree: God is free. He is compelled to nothing. He can do and
leave undone whatever he likes. His creative and suffering love is
founded on his groundless decision. Karl Barth tried to get over
the nominalist doctrine of potentia absoluta, especially in his cri
ticism of Luther. None the less, in his doctrine of God's primordial
decision a nominalist fringe still remains:
92

He could have remained satisfied with Himself and with the

impassible glory and blessedness of His own inner life. But he
did not do so. He elected man as a covenant-partner.
93

God's

Freedom

53

This God has no need of us. This God is self-sufficient. This

God knows perfect beatitude in Himself. He is not under any
need of constraint. It takes place in an inconceivably free over
flowing of His goodness if he determines to co-exist with a
reality distinct from Himself, with the world of creatures,
ourselves.
94

God in His love elects another to fellowship with Himself. First

and foremost this means that God makes a self-election in favour
of this other. He ordains that He should not be entirely selfsufficient as He might b e .
95

What concept of liberty is Barth applying to God here? Is this

concept of absolute freedom of choice not a threat to God's truth
and goodness? Could God really be content with his 'impassible
glory'? Does God really not need those whom in the suffering of
his love he loves unendingly?
If God is the truth in that he corresponds entirely to himself,
then his revelation can only be true if he entirely corresponds to
himself in that revelation. That is to say, not to reveal himself and
to be contented with his untouched glory would be a contradiction
of himself. And if he himself determines not to be sufficient for
himself (although he could be so), then there is after all a contra
diction between his nature before and after this decision; and this
would mean a contradiction between his nature and his revelation.
The reasoning 'God could', or 'God could have', is inappropriate.
It does not lead to an understanding of God's freedom. God's
freedom can never contradict the truth which he himself is. 'He
remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself (II Tim. 2 . 1 3 ) . God's
freedom cannot contradict the highest good which constitutes his
essence: 'God is light and in him is no darkness at all' (I John 1.5).
But then if God is love, and if he reveals his being in the delivering
up of his Son, is he conceivable at all as not-love? Can God really
be content to be sufficient for himself if he is love? How is the God
who suffers in his love supposed to correspond to a God who
exists in untouched glory? How can the God who is glorified in
the cross of the Son possess an untouched glory at all?
If the eternal origin of the creative and suffering love of God is
seen as lying in God's decision of will, then time's 'beforehand afterwards' structure has to be carried into the divine eternity as
well; and we have to talk about a divine nature before this decision

54

The Passion of God

and a divine nature after it. There would be no other way of

defining the decision more closely. But that would mean that God
has two natures: describing his nature before his self-determina
tion, we would have to say that God is in himself blessed and
self-sufficient; whereas describing his nature afterwards, we would
have to say that God is love - he chooses man - he is not selfsufficient. 'On the one hand God must be conceived of as selfsufficient, and needing no one - "not having need of anything"
(Acts 17.25) - and on the other hand His blessedness must be
conceived of as conditional upon the perfecting of His kingdom.'
When Hans Martensen wrote these words he was thinking of the
kabbalistic idea that 'in the outer chambers is sadness, but in the
inner ones unmixed joy'.
96

Apparently Barth was himself dissatisfied with his nominalist

exposition of God's self-determination. Consequently he interpret
ed God's decree as God's self-determination, and saw in God's
self-determination, a free 'over-flowing of his goodness'. The
eternal origin of God's creative and suffering love must have these
two sides. It is God's free self-determination, and at the same time
the overflowing of his goodness, which belongs to his essential
nature. His decision is a disclosure of himself. It is only when we
see both sides that God's self-determination ceases to be something
arbitrary, and the overflowing of his goodness ceases to be a natural
event. That is why the continual polemic against the (originally
neo-Platonic) doctrine of emanation - a polemic carried on in the
name of God's presumptive liberty - is out of place. If God's
self-determination is not an essential emanation of his goodness,
it is not self-determination at all. Neither the fact of God's selfdetermination nor what he determines himself to be can be viewed
as arbitrary, in the sense that it need not have been. God makes
nothing out of himself which he was not already from eternity.
97

The formalistic concept of liberty does not lead to a deeper

understanding of God. The concept of absolute power of disposal
derives from the Roman law of property; it is hardly appropriate
for the God who is love. Consequently we must look round for a
material concept of liberty, and one which describes personal re
lationships, not laws applying to property.
Where his self, his truth and goodness is concerned, God by no
means has the choice between mutually exclusive possibilities. For
he cannot deny himself. So he does not have the choice between

God's

Freedom

55

being love and not being love. If he is love, then in loving the
world he is by no means 'his own prisoner'; on the contrary, in
loving the world he is entirely free because he is entirely himself.
If he is the highest good, then his liberty cannot consist of having
to choose between good and evil. On the contrary, it lies in doing
the good which he himself is, which means communicating himself.
Friedrich von Hiigel pointed to the stages in the Augustinian
doctrine of freedom in order to declare, rightly, that freedom of
choice is by no means freedom's highest stage - not even if it is
heightened into potentia absoluta. * The freedom of having to
choose between good and evil is less than the freedom of desiring
the good and performing it. M a n does not already participate in
God's eternal freedom in the posse non peccare of his primordial
condition; he only partakes of it in the non posse peccare of grace
and glory. This is therefore freedom for the good. The person who
is truly free no longer has to choose. A German proverb tells us
that 'wer die Wahl hat, hat die QuaP - the person who chooses
has the torment of choice. Anyone who has to choose is continually
threatened by evil, by the enemy, by injustice, because these things
are always present as potentialities. True freedom is not 'the tor
ment of choice', with its doubts and threats; it is simple, undivided
joy in the good.
9

Freedom as it truly is, is by no means a matter of power and

domination over a piece of property. So total power is by no means
identical with absolute freedom. Freedom arrives at its divine truth
through love. Love is a self-evident, unquestionable 'overflowing
of goodness' which is therefore never open to choice at any time.
We have to understand true freedom as being the self-communi
cation of the good.
Karl Barth tried to mediate between his concept of liberty and
the concept of God's goodness by defining God as 'the One who
loves in freedom'. He did not want to talk about God's freedom
without continually relating it to his love. He saw God's freedom
and his love as complementary. But all the same there are still
ambiguities in this mediation between liberty and love: either God
loves as one who is free, who could just as well not love; or his
freedom is not distinguished from his love at all, and he is free as
the One who loves. In the first case there is still an arbitrary
element which makes responding love difficult. In the second case
there is a tautology.
99

The Passion of God

56

Which concept of freedom is appropriate to God? As we have

seen, the nominalist concepts of freedom of choice and free power
of disposal only have a very limited value for our understanding
of God's freedom. They derive from the language of domination.
In this language only the lord is free. The people he is master of
are not free. They are his property, and he can do with them what
he likes. In this language freedom means lordship, power and
possession.
It is this interpretation of freedom as power and
lordship over possessions which is being theologically employed if
we assume as our starting point that God reveals himself as 'God
the Lord'. Then 'God's liberty' means his sovereignty, and his
power of disposal over his property - creation - and his servants
- men and women.
100

The other concept of freedom belongs to the language of com

munity and fellowship. Here 'free' has the same etymological root
as 'friendly'; its cognates in meaning are 'kind', 'to be well dispo
sed' 'to give pleasure'. The German word for hospitable, gastfrei
(literally 'guest-free') still shows this meaning even today. If we
take this line of approach, freedom does not mean lordship; it
means friendship. This freedom consists of the mutual and common
participation in life, and a communication in which there is neither
lordship nor servitude. In their reciprocal participation in life,
people become free beyond the limitation of their own
individuality.
101

Which of these freedoms corresponds to God's freedom? The

triune God reveals himself as love in the fellowship of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit. His freedom therefore lies in the
friendship which he offers men and women, and through which he
makes them his friends. His freedom is his vulnerable love, his
openness, the encountering kindness through which he suffers with
the human beings he loves and becomes their advocate, thereby
throwing open their future to them. God demonstrates his eternal
freedom through his suffering and his sacrifice, through his selfgiving and his patience. Through his freedom he keeps man, his
image, and his world, creation, free - keeps them free and pays
the price of their freedom. Through his freedom he waits for man's
love, for his compassion, for his own deliverance to his glory
through man. Through his freedom he does not only speak as
Lord, but listens to men and women as their Father.

God is Love

57
8 GOD IS LOVE

The theology of the divine passion is founded on the biblical tenet,

'God is love' (I John 4 . 1 6 ) . So at the end of this chapter let us
come back to this statement and develop it in a number of theses.
1. Love is the self-communication of the good. It is the power
of good to go out of itself, to enter into other being, to participate
in other being, and to give itself for other being. If we interpret
love as the passionate self-communication of the good, then we
have distinguished it plainly enough from destructive passions.
Love wants to live and to give life. It wants to open up the freedom
to live. That is why love is the self-communication of the good
without self-renunciation, and the self-giving of the good without
self-dissolution. The loving person enters entirely into the other
whom he loves, but in that other he is entirely himself. The unsel
fishness of love lies in the loving person's communication of him
self, not in his self-destruction.
2. Every self-communication presupposes the capacity for selfdifferentiation. The lover communicates himself. He is the one who
communicates and the one communicated. In love he is both sim
ultaneously. Love is the power of self-differentiation and self-iden
tification, and it has its source in this process. The greater the
self-differentiation of the lover, the more unselfish the self-com
munication. When we say 'God loves the world' (John 3 . 1 6 ) , then
we mean God's self-communication to the world by virtue of his
self-differentiation and his self-identification. When we say 'God
is love', then we mean that he is in eternity this process of selfdifferentiation and self-identification; a process which contains the
whole pain of the negative in itself. God loves the world with the
very same love which he himself is in eternity. God affirms the
world with the energy of his self-affirmation. Because he not only
loves but is himself love, he has to be understood as the triune
God. Love cannot be consummated by a solitary subject. An in
dividuality cannot communicate itself: individuality is ineffable,
unutterable. If God is love he is at once the lover, the beloved and
the love itself. Love is the goodness that communicates itself from
all eternity. The theology of love is a theology of the Shekinah, a
theology of the Holy Spirit. This means that it is not patriarchal,
but rather feministic. For the Shekinah and the Holy Spirit are 'the
feminine principle of the Godhead'.

58

The Passion of God

Thou seest the Trinity
when Thou seest love . . .
For the lover, the beloved and the love
are t h r e e .
102

3. By deciding to communicate himself, God discloses his own

being; otherwise his decision would not be a self-communication
of the good which he is. If he discloses his inner being through his
decision, then his being, his goodness and his own being flow into
this decision, and through that into the world. God communicates
himself to other being, not out of compulsion and not out of some
arbitrary resolve, but out of the inner pleasure of his eternal love:
In this context 'God is love' means: God is self-communication,
and also the desire for self-communication. Amor extasim facit:
'Love does not permit the lover to rest in himself. It draws him out
of himself, so that he may be entirely in the beloved' wrote
Pseudo-Dionysius. It is in accordance with the love which is God
that he should fashion a creation which he rejoices over, and call
to life his Other, man, as his image, who responds to him. Not to
do this would contradict the love which God is. In the love which
God is already lies the energy which leads God out of himself and in that energy the longing, to use Berdyaev's word. Love not
only has the potentiality for this, but the actual tendency and
intention as well. 'Love as the one that communicates does not yet
find the real place of its activity in God himself, but only where
there is purely free, primal giving, only where there is pure neediness in the receiver.'
In this sense God 'needs' the world and man. If God is love, then
he neither will nor can be without the one who is his beloved.
4. God is love means in trinitarian terms: in eternity and out of
the very necessity of his being the Father loves the only begotten
Son. He loves him with the love that both engenders and brings
forth. In eternity and out of the very necessity of his being the Son
responds to the Father's love through his obedience and his sur
render to the Father. Father and Son are alike divine beings, but
they are not identical. The Son is other than the Father, but not
other in essence. The inner-trinitarian love is therefore the love of
like for like, not the love for one who is essentially different. It is
necessary love, not free love. If this love goes out of itself, then it
is no longer merely engendering and bringing forth, it is creative
103

God is Love

59

too; it is not merely the love which essential nature makes necess
ary, but free love as well. It is no longer addressed to the Other in
the like, but to the like in the Other. Like is not enough for like.
If his free and creative love is responded to by those whom it calls
to life, then it finds its echo, its answer, its image and so its bliss
in freedom and in the Other. God is love. That means he is engen
dering and creative love. He communicates himself to his like and
to his Other. God is love. That means he is responsive love, both
in essence and freely. The love with which God creatively and
sufferingly loves the world is no different from the love he himself
is in eternity. And conversely, creative and suffering love has always
been a part of his love's eternal nature. 'The creation of the world
. . . is a moment of the deepest mystery in the relation between
God the Father and God the S o n . '
Creation is a part of the
eternal love affair between the Father and the Son. It springs from
the Father's love for the Son and is redeemed by the answering
love of the Son for the Father. Creation exists because the eternal
love communicates himself creatively to his Other. It exists because
the eternal love seeks fellowship and desires response in freedom.
That is why we have indeed to see the history of creation as the
tragedy of the divine love, but must view the history of redemption
as the feast of the divine joy.
5. With the creation of a world which is not God, but which
none the less corresponds to him, God's self-humiliation begins the self-limitation of the One who is omnipresent, and the suffering
of the eternal love. On the one hand the Creator has to concede to
his creation the space in which it can exist. He must take time for
that creation, and allow it time. He must allow it freedom and
keep it free. The creation of a world is therefore not merely 'an act
of God outwardly' - an act in an outward direction; it is at the
same time 'an act of God inwardly', which means that it is some
thing that God suffers and endures. For God, creation means
self-limitation, the withdrawal of himself, that is to say selfhumiliation. Creative love is always suffering love as well. On the
other hand the Creator participates in his creation, once it has
emerged from his love. That is why the creation is:
104

at the same time the subjection of God to the sufferings that

follow from it . . . If God appoints all these sufferings, they are
also sufferings for God himself . . . The idea of divine love is

60

The Passion of God

only complete when we do not surrender to the illusion that
God does not suffer. On the contrary, it is an essential point in
that holy love of his that He subjects himself to suffering. The
problem is not merely an intellectual one: we feel, we experience
suffering differently if it is not something fortuitous, but is part
of the meaning of the w o r l d .
105

Creative love is ultimately suffering love because it is only through

suffering that it acts creatively and redemptively for the freedom
of the beloved. Freedom can only be made possible by suffering
love. The suffering of God with the world, the suffering of God
from the world, and the suffering of God for the world are the
highest forms of his creative love, which desires free fellowship
with the world and free response in the world.
6. This means that the creation of the world and human beings
for freedom and fellowship is always bound up with the process
of God's deliverance from the sufferings of his love. His love,
which liberates, delivers and redeems through suffering, wants to
reach its fulfilment in the love that is bliss. But love only finds bliss
when it finds its beloved, liberates them, and has them eternally at
his side. For that reason and in this sense the deliverance or re
demption of the world is bound up with the self-deliverance of
God from his sufferings. In this sense, not only does God suffer
with and for the world; liberated men and women suffer with God
and for him. The theology of God's passion leads to the idea of
God's self-subjection to suffering. It therefore also has to arrive at
the idea of God's eschatological self-deliverance. Between these
two movements lies the history of the profound fellowship between
God and man in suffering - in compassionate suffering with one
another, and in passionate love for one another.

Ill
The History of the Son

1 TRINITARIAN HERMENEUTICS

The dogma of the Trinity stands at the end of the theological

labours of the patristic period over the concept of God. It was
finally established in the West through the Athanasian creed:
Fides autem catholica haec est,
ut unum Deum in trinitate
et trinitatem in unitate veneremur
Qui vult ergo salvus esse,
ita de trinitate sentiat.
If we turn back from this dogmatic acknowledgment of the Trinity
to the proclamation of God as we find it in the New Testament,
we feel the hermeneutic difference, and ask: are the seeds of the
development that ended in the church's doctrine of the Trinity
already to be found in the New Testament? Or is this doctrine
merely the result of a subsequent dogmatization on the part of the
Christian faith?
It is impossible to overlook this difference. But liberal Protestant
scholars and theologians have made an irreconcilable contradiction
out of it. They were only able to see the theology of the patristic
period as a dogmatization of the Bible's living proclamation of
God: 'The living faith seems to be transformed into a creed to be
believed; devotion to Christ into Christology.' But in making this
judgment they had even to go one step further back still. Paul
already obscured 'the religion of Jesus' through his dogmatic ac1

62

The History of the Son

knowledgment of Jesus as the Son of God, replacing the moral

discipleship of Jesus by a religious cult of Christ. Jesus proclaimed
the kingdom of God: 'He desired no other belief in his person and
no other attachment to it than is contained in the keeping of his
commandments.' But Paul proclaimed Jesus as the Christ. So even
Jesus' apostles falsified his orthopraxy, turning it into the ortho
doxy of faith in Christ. Adolf von Harnack summed up this criti
cism in the famous thesis: 'The Gospel, as Jesus proclaimed it, has
to do with the Father only and not with the Son.'
2

But is the acknowledgment of Jesus, 'the Son of God', really

only a later apotheosis of Jesus by the people who worshipped
him? Is this confession of faith nothing more than the personal cult
of Christians and therefore a superstition that draws people away
from Jesus' real concern?
It is not my intention to dispute the critical seriousness of these
questions. But they arise out of a preliminary hermeneutical deci
sion which is highly questionable. History means human history,
and human history is the sphere of morals. So Jesus has to be
understood as a human person. But he is only authoritative as a
human person to the extent in which he is able to be a pattern for
our own moral actions. All theological statements which the Christ
ian faith makes about God therefore have to be understood and
interpreted as the expressions of Christian moral existence. If they
cannot be understood as the expression of moral existence then we
have to reject them as dogmatistic. Ever since Kant people have
held that 'nothing whatsoever can be gathered for practical pur
poses' from the doctrine of the Trinity. Ever since Schleiermacher
we have been told that this doctrine 'cannot count as being the
direct statement of the devout personal consciousness'. So it is
unbiblical. It does not belong to Jesus himself. It is speculative,
superfluous for faith and harmful for morals. This criticism of the
church's doctrine of the Trinity has become generally accepted,
and it can be traced back to the preliminary decision which led to
the moral interpretation of the Bible: faith means being man in the
true sense, morally.
4

If the doctrine of the Trinity in its dogmatic form is not already

established in the New Testament, could it not all the same be a
way of interpreting what the Bible proclaims? In the conflict be
tween different interpretations, it could after all have emerged as
the 'true' one. But what is it that the Bible proclaims for which the

Trinitarian

Hertneneutics

63

later doctrine of the Trinity can be viewed as the true interpret

ation? Here we may take Karl Barth's answer: The Bible is the
testimony of God's Word. God's Word is God himself in his reve
lation. God is in unobliterated unity the revealer, the revelation
and the being-revealed. God reveals himself as Lord. This, ac
cording to Barth, is the biblical root of the doctrine of the Trinity.
What was revealed through Christ is the concrete self-revelation of
God. Its content is: 'God reveals himself as Lord.' God's revelation
of himself as Lord has a trinitarian structure. Consequently the
church's doctrine of the Trinity is the correct interpretation of the
self-revelation of God the Lord. What has to be interpreted is the
divine lordship, and the interpretation is the doctrine of the Trinity.
6

This is really a monotheistic conception of the doctrine of the

Trinity. Since God's lordship can only be fulfilled by a single
subject, identical with itself, it follows that the unity of God himself
is to be found in the unified lordship of God. The doctrine of the
Trinity is designed to secure and interpret God's sovereignty in
every direction. T o say that 'God is one in three modes of being'
is simply a way of saying that God 'is one God in threefold repe
tition'. In this way he is the supreme Lord per se. This is the way
in which he is to be the 'Thou' who in indissoluble unity confronts
the human T . In this respect the church's doctrine of the Trinity
is nothing other than 'Christian monotheism'.
8

10

It is not my intention to dispute the positive significance of this

proposition. But it too arises out of a preliminary hermeneutical
decision which is in itself questionable, and needs to be tested
against the testimony of the New Testament. Is God's lordship
really what has to be interpreted, and is the Trinity merely its
interpretation? Does the sole sovereignty of the one God precede
the divine Trinity? Is it not the reverse which is true? Is the history
of the divine lordship not an interpretation of the eternal life of
the triune God?
Every monotheistic interpretation of the New Testament testi
mony finds itself in a similar dilemma to the moral interpretation.
It too has to reduce the history to which the Bible testifies to a
single subject, and has to interpret it as the work of that one
subject. If God is the subject of this history, then this history is his
work, his revelation and his rule. He influences everything and is
influenced by no one. 'God in Christ' is the subject of this history
for Christian monotheism. It therefore has to talk about God's

64

The History of the Son

revelation of himself, where according to the testimony of the New

Testament it is not God who reveals himself, but the Son who
reveals the Father (Matt. 11.27) and the Father who reveals the
Son (Gal. 1.16). Consequently Christian monotheism has to talk
about 'God's giving of himself, where the New Testament witness
tells us that it is God who has 'given up his own Son for us'
(Rom. 8.32) and the Son who 'gave himself for me' (Gal. 2 . 2 0 ) .
This means that Christian monotheism has to reduce the interpret
ation of Christ's history in a monotheistic sense to the one divine
subject. But this does not do justice to the history of Christ.
Basically, both modes of interpretation depend on the same
monotheistic premise: history is the work of a single, prevailing
subject, whether it be the work of man, in the realization of his
moral potential, or whether it be the work of the God who reveals
himself. But this premise is not in accordance with the biblical
history. According to the witness of the New Testament Jesus is
manifested as 'the Son'. His history springs from the co-efficacy of
the Father, the Son and the Spirit. His history is the history of the
reciprocal, changing, and hence living relationship between the
Father, the Son and the Spirit. The history in which Jesus is man
ifested as 'the Son' is not consummated and fulfilled by a single
subject. The history of Christ is already related in trinitarian terms
in the New Testament itself. So we start from the following pre
supposition. The New Testament talks about God by proclaiming
in narrative the relationships of the Father, the Son and the Spirit,
which are relationships of fellowship and are open to the world.
Both the monotheistic ways of interpretation we have described
have the same failing: whether we understand the biblical history
as the true expression of human faith, or as the unique revelation
of the one divine rule, these views coincide if human faith is viewed
as unconditional trust, and therefore as the pure sense of depend
ence, and if God's lordship is viewed as mere sovereignty. These
ways of interpretation, which seem so contradictory, are simply
two sides of the same shield. If the feeling of absolute dependence
corresponds to the unconditional sovereignty of God, then the
liberation of man for freedom becomes inconceivable - an unstatable proposition.
We will describe the biblical beginnings of a doctrine of the
Trinity in such a way that we shall be able to recognize the trini
tarian origin of the biblical history itself. Otherwise the doctrine

The Sending of the Son

65

of the Trinity would remain a problematical approach to the

origins of the Christian faith. At the same time, this will bring us
face to face with a further task - the task of revising the church's
doctrine of the Trinity on the basis of the Bible. For ultimately we
must always see to it that the liberating force of the biblical witness
is preserved and not obscured.

2 THE SENDING OF THE SON

In order to grasp the Trinity in the biblical history, let us begin

with the history of Jesus, the Son, for he is the revealer of the
Trinity. It is in his historical and eschatological history that we can
perceive the differences, the relationships and the unity of the
Father, the Son and the Spirit. We shall notice the relationships
and functions in which the name of the Son is used in the New
Testament. Since it is the relationship of Jesus to the Father which
we are concerned with here, we have to distinguish between the
title 'Son of God' and the name 'the Son', used in an absolute
sense. Where the title 'Son of God' is used as a synonym for 'the
Son of Man' and 'Lord', it does not fall within our terms of
reference. For we have to distinguish between the sonship of Jesus
in relation to the Father, and the sonship of Jesus in his exemplary
and liberating impact on God's children. Finally, at every stage in
the history of the Son we shall be stressing the form of the Trinity
that it reveals. In each case we shall be interpreting the individual
stages in the history of the Son Jesus in their historical aspect and
in their theological one.

1. Jesus' Baptism and

11

Call

It is a well attested fact, historically, that the ministry of John the

Baptist preceded Jesus' public ministry; that Jesus belonged for a
considerable time to the group round John; that John baptized
him; but that he then left the group of John's disciples in order to
preach his own message. The baptismal movement was widespread
at that time. John the Baptist was lifted out of the ruck and became
well known because of his connection with Jesus. Jesus started
from John's eschatological message. So this remains the presup
position for Jesus' gospel.
John preached repentance 'in the final hour' before the coming

66

The History of the Son

divine judgment: 'Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees'
(Matt. 3 . 1 0 ) . In the coming judgment of God's wrath it is only the
person who accepts, and accepts now, the chance to repent offered
him who will be able to endure. John was not merely a prophet;
he was simply 'the Baptist'. He baptized in the River Jordan and
proclaimed 'the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins'
(Mark 1.4). The place itself had a symbolic significance: it marked
the new exodus out of slavery and the entry into the promised land
in the End-time; 'Prepare in the desert the way of the Lord'
(Isa. 4 0 . 3 ) . John apparently did not found any new sect. He worked
for repentance as a popular movement. We may assume that his
eschatological message was not merely directed towards God's
coming wrathful judgment on Israel, but that it also pointed to 'the
One who is to come'. According to Isaiah 3 5 . 4 'the coming one'
is a cypher for God himself, and a cypher too for God's promised
Messiah (Matt. 3 . 1 1 ) .
Jesus publicly acknowledged and praised the baptism John prac
tised. His baptism was 'from heaven' (Mark 1 1 . 3 0 ) ; he came 'in
the way of righteousness' (Matt. 2 1 . 3 2 ) ; he was 'more than a
prophet' (Matt. 1 1 . 9 ) , indeed 'there has risen no one greater among
those born of women' (Matt. 1 1 . 1 1 ) .
Jesus' baptism by John counts as historical because it must have
been a stumbling block for the Christian church that their Redee
mer himself should have received baptism for the forgiveness of
sins. According to the story in Mark 1 . 9 - 1 1 , Jesus' messianic call
took place at his baptism. And certainly Jesus' public ministry
began after he had been baptized by John. In his baptism, together
with many others, he must have experienced the special character
of his call. The interpretative accounts talk about 'the Spirit of
God descending upon him'. This means first of all his personal
inspiration and legitimation as prophet. But it also means the
beginning of the messianic era, in which the Spirit will be poured
out 'on all flesh'. This messianic (and not merely inspirational)
significance of Jesus' baptism is no more than underlined by the
vision of 'the heavens opening' and the sound of God's voice. The
prophetic-messianic gift of the Spirit to Jesus is bound up with the
divine proclamation: 'Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased' (Mark 1.11 AV), or 'This is my beloved Son'
(Matt. 3 . 1 7 ) . When Jesus is declared 'the Son', what does this
mean? This form of address is evidently picking up the royal
12

The Sending of the Son

67

Israelite ritual in Psalm 2 . 7 : 'You are my son, today I have begotten

you.' It is a ritual which itself already displays messianic dimensions
('Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,/and the
ends of the earth your possession'). At the moment of enthrone
ment the king is pronounced the 'Son of God'.
We must notice, however, that the synoptic gospels add some
thing: 'Thou art my beloved Son.' In the traditions of the Old
Testament, the son who is especially 'dear' is always the only son
- Isaac, for instance. This indicates that Jesus is 'the Son' in a
similar way to Israel itself (Deut. 3 2 . 6 , 1 8 ; Isa. 3 . 4 ) , or the king
(II Sam. 7.14ff.), or even the Messiah. He has a special relationship
to God, a relationship corresponding to the one between Isaac and
his father Abraham. John replaces the 'beloved Son' by the expres
sion 'only begotten Son' (John 1.14 and frequently elsewhere). Paul
chooses the expression 'his own Son' (Rom. 8 . 3 2 ) . These phrases
also point to Isaac, as Hebrews 1 1 . 1 7 shows. This is important for
our understanding of the Father's surrender of the Son on the
cross.
13

We must also consider that we do not only have to remember

the Son of God of Psalm 2 . 7 ; we can also think of the Servant of
God in Isaiah 4 2 . 1 : 'Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my cho
sen, in whom my soul delights.' The history of Jesus was not the
triumphal history of a messianic victor. It was much more like the
suffering history of the Servant of God promised in Isaiah 5 3 . But
apparently the name of the Son was linked with the passion history
of Jesus very early on in Christian tradition, so that the suffering
history of the Servant of God also constitutes the majesty of the
royal Son of God.
14

The application of the name of Son in its absolute sense in the

story of Jesus' baptism suggests that it is to this baptism that we
ought to relate the revelation of Jesus reported in Matthew 1 1 . 2 7 :
All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one
knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father
except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal
him.
Apart from this passage, it is only the Gospel of John in the New
Testament which talks about an exclusive and mutual knowing,
loving and participating of this kind. At the same time, there is
nothing that contradicts the synoptic origin and the Palestinian-

68

The History of the Son

Jewish background of the revelation formula. Its pre-history be

longs to Israelite ideas about God's eternal Wisdom - which was
later called the Shekinah. Wisdom was already thought of in hy
postatic form as 'the child of God', or as the 'daughter' or 'son'.
Proverbs 8 talk about the Wisdom of God as if it were a person
with its own consciousness and will. It is more than simply one of
Yahweh's 'characteristics'. But Wisdom is probably not yet being
thought of ontologically as a divine 'hypostasis'. This means that
it would be wrong to talk in any way about a 'wisdom speculation'.
Through the Wisdom which God has 'poured out over all his
works' (Ecclus. 1.9), God himself has his mysterious dwelling in
creation (Job 2 8 ) . In this way Wisdom is identical with God's
'Spirit' which quickens everything that lives. Its indwelling is a
form of God's 'glory', which according to Isaiah 6.3 will fill 'the
whole earth'. If this Wisdom of God's is called 'his delight'
(Prov. 8 . 3 0 ) , which he has pleasure in because it 'rejoices always
before him', then it is one with God and yet at the same time it is
a subject of its own, over against God.
We even have to go a step further than this. Really, when Jesus
is called the Son it is Israel as a whole that is being thought of, not
merely individuals in Israel. 'Israel is my first-born son' (Ex. 4 . 2 2 ) .
This is the name with which the people are called out of slavery in
Egypt. According to Matthew, Joseph's flight into Egypt, with
Mary and the child, is intended to fulfil the saying: 'Out of Egypt
have I called my Son' (Hosea 1 1 . 1 ; Matt. 2 . 1 5 ) . Other features of
the synoptic account of Jesus' history also reflect the history of
Israel as a whole - for example, the forty days' temptation in the
wilderness. The representation of the whole of Israel extends into
the very passion of 'the Son'.
The mutual knowing of the Father and the Son is a mutual
loving. The mutual loving of the Father and the Son is a love of
like for like. Consequently it is exclusive. The opening statement
of Matthew 1 1 . 2 7 , signifies the installations of the Son as lord of
the divine kingdom through the Father. The final clause distin
guishes the act of revealing from the exclusive mutual knowing of
the Father and the Son, and makes knowledge - by virtue of
revelation - knowledge of the one who is unlike. 'Like is known
by like' applies to the exclusive relationship of the Father and the
Son. 'Those who are unlike know one another' is true of the
15

The Sending of the Son

69

revelation to men and women through the Son. This axiom only
permits a trinitarian interpretation, not a monotheistic o n e .
This revelatory saying brings out precisely what distinguishes
Jesus from John the Baptist, and makes it clear why Jesus left John;
and it indicates the way in which Jesus' message went beyond the
eschatological repentance movement of his time.
The external difference is recognizable clearly enough: John pro
claims the coming kingdom as God's wrathful judgment on the sin
of men and women, and calls for repentance in the final hour,
offering baptism as the last hope of salvation; Jesus proclaims the
coming kingdom as the kingdom of God's coming grace and mercy.
He presents it, not through an accusation of sinners, but through
the forgiveness of sins. What John depicts in the baptism in Jordan
is messianically implemented in the gospel of Jesus. For Jesus, the
gospel of the kingdom is a messianic message of joy, not an apoca
lyptic threat to the world. The signs that legitimate him are not
signs marking the end of the world; they are the tokens of the
messianic era: 'The blind receive their sight and the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the good news preached to them' (Matt. 11.5).
But according to Isaiah 3 5 . 4 this means: 'Behold your God will
come and save you.' Unlike John's disciples, Jesus' disciples do not
fast. They do not leave their oppressed country and emigrate into
the desert; they go into the villages with Jesus and teach the people.
John lived the life of an ascetic, in expectation of judgment. Jesus'
life is a festive life, in joy over the dawn of God's kingdom.
16

What is the inward justification for this difference? The justifi

cation is that Jesus knows and proclaims the Lord of the coming
kingdom as his Father. This is where his unique authority is to be
found. The content of the revelation bestowed on Jesus through
his baptism and call must lie in the name for God which he used
uniquely and exclusively: Abba, my F a t h e r . It was not Israelite
tradition to address God like this. What the name 'Abba' stresses
is not the fatherly lordship of God, but an unheard-of intimacy.
John did not see the Lord of the coming judgment like this either.
The revelation of God's name as Father is Jesus' new and unique
message. The name of Father stamps his proclamation of the com
ing kingdom, his turning to the poor and sick, his prayers, and his
preparedness for suffering. According to the Christian traditions
that have come down to us, Jesus never addressed God simply as
17

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The History

of the

Son

'Father' or as 'our Father', but always exclusively a s 'my Father'.

He revealed him as 'my Father in heaven'. We h a v e to conclude
from this that in the relationship to his God a n d Father J e s u s
understood himself as 'the Son', 'the beloved Son', 'the only' o r
'the only begotten' Son. This does not mean that h e also under
stood himself as 'Son of God' or allowed himself t o be acknow
ledged as such. He is the Son of the Father. The general title 'Son
of God' and Jesus' special relationship of sonship to his F a t h e r
were only fused together later, in early Christian tradition. C o n
sequently here we only have to ask about the significance of t h e
exclusive use of the name of Father and the absolute use of t h e
name of Son in Jesus' own proclamation and behaviour.
18

What is the relation between the eschatological message of t h e

kingdom of Jesus the Messiah, and this exclusive revelation of t h e
Father by Jesus 'the Son'?
This question is seldom asked, oddly enough, and the description
of Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom often does n o t take Jesus'
revelation of the Father into account at all. 'Only in the sphere o f
the basileia is God the Father.' But is it not the very reverse t h a t
is true? Jesus did not proclaim the kingdom of God the Lord, but
the kingdom of God his Father. It is not that lordship is the m a r k
of God's fatherhood, but the very reverse: God's fatherhood t o
wards Jesus the Son is the mark of the lordship and kingdom which
Jesus preaches. That gives the kingdom he proclaimed a new qual
ity. The basileia only exists in the context of God's fatherhood. In
this kingdom God is not the Lord; he is the merciful Father. In
this kingdom there are no servants; there are only God's free
children. In this kingdom what is required is not obedience and
submission; it is love and free participation.
19

How does Jesus manifest the kingdom which he proclaims? H e

manifests it (as the link with the revelation formula in Matt. 1 1 . 2 8 f .
shows) by having mercy on the poor, by calling the weary and
heavy-laden to himself and refreshing them, by bringing to the
poor the joyful message that theirs is the kingdom, and by gathering
the oppressed into the liberty of his fellowship. His kingdom is the
kingdom of 'compassion'. In Hebrew this word is used for the
mother's painful love for the child in her womb. This spontaneous
physical impulse is a maternal symbol. If God is called merciful
and compassionate, then what is being attributed to him is moth
erly love in its most elemental form. That is why for Isaiah 4 9 . 1 5

The Sending of the Son

71

God's compassion is like the compassion of a mother, while Psalm

103.13 compares it with a father's pity for his children. This means
that his kingdom is the kingdom of fatherly and motherly com
passion, not the kingdom of dominating majesty and slavish sub
jection. It is the kingdom which 'the Son' manifests through his
brotherliness and friendship. God is the Father, not because he is
Lord over everything, but because, as the Father of Jesus the Son,
he is the Lord of the coming liberty of the universe. The Lord's
Prayer shows this too, ultimately speaking. It is the Father's king
dom, the Father's will and the Father's name for whose coming,
fulfilment and hallowing we pray in the fellowship of Jesus. By
revealing the Father's name, Jesus has given the proclamation of
God's kingdom his own unmistakable character. This means that
(contrary to what Harnack says) it is not merely the Father who
belongs to the gospel which Jesus proclaimed; it is the Son as well.
It means that not merely the Father, but the Son too, belongs to
the kingdom which Jesus preached. It is impossible to divide Jesus'
proclamation of the kingdom from his person. For the kingdom
which Jesus proclaims is the kingdom which the Father has made
over to the Son. Its structure is not monotheistic, as the word 'rule'
or 'kingdom' suggests; it is trinitarian, as the relationship of Jesus
the Son to his Father proves; for it is this Father to whom the
kingdom belongs and who confers it on the Son, so that it may be
manifested and spread. As the later epistle to the Colossians says,
it is 'the kingdom of his beloved Son' (1.13).

2. The Sending of the Son

For the synoptic gospels the messianic call of Jesus begins with his
baptism in the Spirit of God. It is understandable that Paul and
John - with a point of view markedly determined by Easter should see in this call of Jesus his eternal sending by God the
Father. We always encounter the 'sending' formula in conjunction
with the name of the Son, for the One sent. The One who sends
is called God or Father. The sending formula covers more than the
story of Jesus' call. It includes the whole coming, the whole ap
pearance and activity of Jesus seen in the light of his divine origin.
We are adopting Pauline theology here, because it especially stress
es the soteriological significance of Jesus' sonship.
20

72

The History

of the Son

When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of
a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under
the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal. 4 . 4 ) .
The sending of the Son includes Jesus' birth and circumcision. The
Son is subjected to the law so that he may redeem those who live
under the law: the Jews. He redeems them for what is his own
existence and relationship to God - for sonship. In so doing he
fulfils Israel's true destiny. If, according to what we are told here,
God sends 'his Son', then it is the Father's Son who is sent, not
some 'son of God'. The idea of the Son employed by Paul is in line
with the Christian tradition we described in the previous section.
In the sending, the Son is wholly understood in the light of the
Father, and in this sending the Father is revealed as the Father
through the Son. Through the sending of the Son, that is to say,
the sonship is communicated and received in faith. By sonship
therefore we certainly have to understand the special relationship
between Jesus and the One who sent him; but this relationship is
no longer merely exclusive; it is now inclusive at the same time. It
is communicated to believers in such a way that they are absorbed
into it. But the difference between the sending and the receiving
forbids us to reduce the sonship of Jesus to the sonship of believers
or, conversely, to reduce the sonship of believers to the sonship of
Jesus.
We find the other 'sending' formula in Romans 8.3f.
For God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh . . . in
order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in
us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit.
Again the One who sends is the Father, for in sending 'his own
Son' God reveals himself as the Father of the Son. As the sentence
structure of Galatians 4 . 4 also shows, the sending in the form of
sinful flesh serves to overcome that flesh through the transforma
tion in the Spirit. Whereas in Galatians the goal of the sending was
the communication of sonship, here it is life in the Spirit life in
the Spirit of a child of God. This is shown by Romans 8 . 1 5 :
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship, whereby we
cry, Abba, Father.

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73

When Paul inserts the Semitic 'Abba' into the otherwise Greek text
at this point, it is because he is talking about the prayer and
proclamation of the 'historical' Jesus. The liberty of his prayer to
the Father reveals the sonship. Through the 'Abba' prayer believers
are taken into the fellowship of the Son with the Father. This
happens through the Spirit. Luther translated the phrase which the
English Bible (RSV) knows as 'the spirit of sonship' by the phrase
kindlicher Geist - childlike spirit; but he does not mean any regres
sion into irresponsibility. On the contrary, what he means is eman
cipation: the people who believe through the Son are no longer
slaves under the law of a divine master. They are the beloved
children of the heavenly Father. Sonship and to be the child of God
therefore means liberation, the chance to come of age. As the
Father's own sons and daughters, believers become 'heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ' in the fellowship of the Son. That is to
say, they acquire both the rights of domicile and the rights of
inheritance in the kingdom of the Father and the Son. The prayer
to the Father is therefore the supreme expression of this new liberty
of God's children and these new rights of the justified. In the
fellowship of the Son, sons and daughters talk to God as to a
Father. God does not speak like the master or lord who has to be
unquestioningly obeyed; God listens to the requests and sugges
tions of his children like a Father. The men and women who are
liberated through the Son are not supposed merely to listen and
obey; they can also ask, and share decisions. In the context of the
spirit of sonship, the sending of the Son shows nothing less than
the opening of the fellowship of the Father to his own Son, and
the opening of the fellowship of the Son to his Father, for the
world.
Whereas in Paul the Father of the Son is always called 'God', in
the Gospel of John we find a consistent acceptance and develop
ment of the synoptic tradition, which talked about Jesus as 'the
Son'. Where Jesus is called the Son, God is always termed the
Father. It is always the Father of the Son and the Son of the Father.
In the First Epistle of John 2 . 2 2 - 2 4 , confession of faith and denial
touch on both at once: 'No one who denies the Son has the Father.
He who confesses the Son has the Father also.' In John's Gospel
the revelatory saying of Matthew 1 1 . 2 7 seems to be the basic
pattern of many statements: the Father loves the Son, the Son loves
the Father. The Father knows the Son, the Son knows the Father.
21

74

The History of the Son

The Father has given everything to the Son: judgment, life, inher
itance, those that are his own. The statements about the sending
correspond to the statements about the revelation, and in John's
Gospel too show the fellowship of the Father and the Son as a
fellowship open to the world in the Spirit. It is only the statements
about the glorification of the Father through the Son that go be
yond Matthew 1 1 . 2 7 .

3. The Form of the Trinity

In the synoptic story of Jesus' baptism and call, as well as in Jesus'
own manifestation of the Father, we come across a clearly percep
tible trinitarian form. It is founded conceptually on the self-differ
entiation of God inherent in the Jewish idea of the divine Wisdom,
which is in eternity God's beloved child and seeks a home on earth.
The idea took many forms, none of them fixed in Judaism; but
through the history of Jesus it became specific. The 'inward' or
'theological' history of Jesus is the history of the Son with the
Father. It is not the history of a person with a god. In relation to
God Jesus understood himself as 'the Son'. The 'Abba' revelation
of God's nature dominated his own relation to God as well as his
proclamation of God to men and women. His preaching of the
kingdom and the effect he had were founded on his relationship to
his Father. Consequently they cannot be interpreted monotheistically; they have to be understood in a trinitarian sense: Jesus
reveals God as the Father of the Son and himself as this same Son
of the Father. He takes people - weary and heavy-laden men and
women - into the history between this Father and this Son. He
reveals that history. The secret of the kingdom which he brings to
the poor is to be found in his fellowship with the Father.
The baptism, call, proclamation and ministry of Jesus takes place
through the Spirit and in the Spirit. Both the story of the baptism
and the account of his earliest proclamation in Nazareth refer to
this (Luke 4.18ff.). This Spirit allows the Son to say 'Abba, beloved
Father'. This Spirit 'leads'Jesus to his temptations in the wilderness
and up to Jerusalem, to his sufferings and death there. It accom
panies Jesus' proclamation with signs and wonders. It is the Spirit
who descends upon the Son from the Father. It is the Spirit of the
messianic era, which is to descend on all flesh. The history of Jesus
is as incomprehensible without the action of the Spirit as it would

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of the Son

75

be without the God whom he called my Father, or without his

activity out of the existence of 'the Son'.
The Trinity which is descernible in the sending formulas has an
analogous form. The Father sends his Son. The Son is sent by his
Father. Through the sending, the fellowship of the Father and the
Son becomes so all-embracing that men and women are taken into
it, so that in that fellowship they may participate in Jesus' sonship
and call on the Father in the Spirit. What the call of Jesus reveals
is not merely the sending of a prophet or the sending of the
Messiah, but this sending of the Son. In the sending of the Son,
God differentiates himself from himself and yields himself up. The
sending of the Son therefore finds its foundation in a movement
which takes place in the divine life itself: it is not merely a move
ment outwards. It comes from the trinitarian differentiation of the
divine unity. There is no other way in which we can understand
the sending of the Son through the Father.
At this stage in the history of the Son the Trinity means:
- The Father sends the Son through the Spirit.
- The Son comes from the Father in the power of the Spirit.
- The Spirit brings people into the fellowship of the Son with
the Father.

3 THE SURRENDER OF THE SON

1. The Passion of Jesus

The history of Jesus' passion did not only begin when he was taken
prisoner and tortured by the Roman soldiers. It began at the mo
ment when he resolved to go to Jerusalem with the men and women
who were his disciples. In Jerusalem his passion for the messianic
kingdom - a passion which he had expressed through proclama
tion, healing, and by eating and drinking with the poor, the sick
and the outcasts of society - was bound to come up against the
protest of the priests of his own people and the resistance of the
Roman occupying power. The announcement that 'the Son of man
must suffer many things, and be rejected' (Mark 8.31) hung heavy
over the road to Jerusalem. Jesus' passion has its active side in his
resolve to go to Jerusalem. It is no unwilling, fortuitous suffering;
it is a passio activa.
Jesus' passion has an outward and an inward side. On the out-

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The History of the Son

ward side are Jesus' rejection by the most prominent groups of his
people as a blasphemer, and his execution by the Romans as a
rebel against the Roman world order. The inward aspect is his
forsakenness by the God whom he calls 'Abba, my Father', and
whose fatherly kingdom he proclaimed to the poor. The pain which
Jesus suffered from his God and Father is the special thing about
this passion on Golgotha compared with the history of the suffer
ings of so many innocent and righteous people. The stories of
Gethsemane and Golgotha tell the history of the passion which
takes place between the Father and the Son.
In the night before his arrest, Jesus went into the garden of
Gethsemane. He took three disciples with him and 'began to be
greatly distressed and troubled', writes Mark (14.33). 'He began
to be sorrowful and fearful [troubled]' writes Matthew ( 2 6 . 3 7 ) .
'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death' he says (Mark 14.34)
and begs his friends to stay awake with him. Then he throws
himself on the ground in horror and fear (Mark 1 4 . 3 5 ) . Earlier
too, he had often withdrawn at nights to the solitariness of some
mountain in order to be united with his Father in the prayer of his
heart. But in Gethsemane for the first time he does not want to be
alone with his God. He is evidently afraid of him. That is why he
seeks the protection of his friends. Then comes the prayer which
in its original version sounds like a demand: 'Father, all things are
possible to thee; remove this cup from me' (Mark 1 4 . 3 6 ) - spare
me this suffering. In Matthew and Luke this prayer has a more
modest sound: 'if it be possible' or 'if thou art willing' 'let this cup
pass from me'.
22

What suffering is meant by 'the cup' - 'the cup of staggering'

(Isa. 5 1 . 1 7 , 2 2 ) ? Is it the plea to be kept from having to die? Is it
the prayer for deliverance from death? I think it is fear of separation
from the Father, horror in the face of 'the death of God'. God,
Jesus' Father, does not hear his prayer. He rejects it. Elsewhere the
gospel tells us 'I and the Father are one'. But here the Father
withdraws from the Son, leaving him alone. That is why the dis
ciples fall into a deep sleep, out of grief. It is only by contradicting
his very self that Jesus clings to fellowship with the God who as
Father withdraws from him: 'Not what I will, but what thou wilt.'
This unanswered prayer is the beginning of Jesus' real passion
- his agony at his forsakenness by the Father. Of course there is
also quite simply fear of the horribly slow death ahead of him. It

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77

would be ridiculous to say - as Augustine did - that, as the Son

of God, Jesus could not have experienced the fear of death, because
his soul lived in unbroken enjoyment of divine bliss and power;
and that he only suffered in the body. But it would be equally
foolish to see him as an especially sensitive person who was over
come by self-pity at the prospect of the torments of death awaiting
him. In the fear that laid hold of him and lacerated his soul, what
he suffered from was God. Abandonment by God is the 'cup'
which does not pass from him. The appalling silence of the Father
in response to the Son's prayer in Gethsemane is more than the
silence of death. Martin Buber called it the eclipse of God. It is
echoed in 'the dark night of the soul' experienced by the mystics.
The Father withdraws. God is silent. This is the experience of hell
and judgment.
Luther related the church's doctrine about Christ's descent into
hell to this agony of his from Gethsemane to Golgotha. The
experience of being forsaken by God is the nadir of Christ's hu
miliation: 'Derelinqui enim a deo hoc est a vita et salute ire in
regionem longinquam mortis et infernV 'Not only in the eyes of
the world and his disciples, nay, in his own eyes too did Christ see
himself as lost, as forsaken by God, felt in his conscience that he
was cursed by God, suffered the torments of the damned, who feel
God's eternal wrath, shrink back from it and flee.' This was how
he interpreted the passion of the assailed and tempted Christ - the
Christ who was assailed and tempted by God. That is why for
Luther Christ was not the most perfect of men; he was the most
tempted and therefore the most miserable of all 'the damned of
this earth'. And he was not merely assailed by fear and suffering
in his human nature, as scholastic tradition would have it. He was
assailed in his person, his very essence, in his relationship to the
Father - in his divine sonship. The much later Epistle to the
Hebrews also links Jesus' sufferings in Gethsemane with the rela
tionship between the Son and the Father:
23

24

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplica

tions, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save
him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although
he was the Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered
(Heb. 5 . 7 - 8 ) .
2 5

At the end of Christ's passion there is another prayer: the de-

78

The History of the Son

spairing cry to God with which Christ dies: 'My God, why hast
thou forsaken me?' (Mark 1 5 . 3 4 ) . He hung nailed to the cross for
three hours, evidently in an agony which reduced him to silence,
waiting for death. Then he died with a loud cry which is an
expression of the most profound rejection by the God whom he
called 'Abba', whose messianic kingdom had been his whole pas
sion, and whose Son he knew himself to be.
This must surely be the very kernel of the Golgotha story, his
torically speaking; for the notion that the Saviour's last words to
God his Father could possibly have been this cry of despair could
never have taken root in the Christian faith if it had never been
uttered, or if the despair had not been at least perceptible in Christ's
death cry.
People cannot get used to the idea that this cry of the God
forsaken Son stands at the centre of the Christian faith. The history
of the tradition shows that the horror and dismay that emanates
from it was later softened down, and the saying was replaced by
more pious parting words - the words of the evening prayer in
Psalm 3 1 . 5 which we find in Luke, for example: 'Into thy hands
I commit my spirit' ( 2 3 . 4 6 ) ; or John's 'It is finished'. It is only the
Epistle to the Hebrews (5.7) which reminds us again of the great
cry with which Jesus dies.
This cry is not made any more acceptable to us because it echoes
the opening words of Psalm 2 2 and - according to Jewish custom
- stands for the whole psalm. For one thing, the psalm ends with
a glorious prayer of thanksgiving for deliverance from death - and
there was no deliverance on Golgotha. For another, after a short
time the crucified Jesus was no longer capable of saying anything
at all. Early manuscripts of Mark's Gospel express the cry of
dereliction even more drastically: 'Why hast thou exposed me to
shame?' and 'Why hast thou cursed m e ? ' And the Epistle to the
Hebrews holds fast to this remembrance of the assailed Christ
when it says t h a t ' x^Qh #ot>' - far from God or, perhaps better,
without God 'he tasted death for us all' (Heb. 2 . 9 ) . It is not by
chance, either, that this cry is the only time that Christ does not
call God familiarly 'my Father', but addresses him as if from a long
way off and quite officially and formally as 'my God'.
26

2 7

What he was afraid of, what he struggled with in Gethsemane

and implored the Father to save him from, did not pass from him.
It happened on the cross. The Father forsook him and delivered

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79

him up to the fear of hell. The One who knew himself to be the
Son is forsaken, rejected and cursed. And God is silent. Paul was
therefore interpreting this rightly when he took it to mean that
from Gethsemane to Golgotha Christ suffered God's judgment, in
which everyone is alone and against which no one can stand: 'For
our sake he made him to be sin' (II Cor. 5 . 2 1 ) , 'he became a curse
for us' (Gal. 3 . 1 3 ) .
Where, after Easter, were these remembrances of Jesus' death
kept alive and present in the church? It was in the celebration of
the Lord's supper; for Paul already cites, as the early tradition of
the primitive church: 'for as often as you eat this bread and drink
this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes' (I Cor.
11.26). Psalm 2 2 as a whole can be shown to have had an influence
on the structure of the eucharistic celebrations of the early church,
because it talks about the forsakenness of the righteous man, and
about his salvation and the feast of thanksgiving. When the
gospels give us Jesus' death cry in the words of the first verse of
Psalm 2 2 , it is true that they are really thinking of the whole psalm,
because they are thinking of Easter and are speaking at the Lord's
table. So there can be no question of their having meant by their
interpretation of Jesus' death cry that Jesus prayed the whole psalm
on the cross, as a lament. In this case the quotation from the
opening of the psalm certainly does not mean that the whole psalm
was quoted.
28

The curious supposition that when he uttered the first verse of

the psalm he was already thinking of the final verses (in which
the innocent and righteous sufferer who has for a time been
forsaken by God, once more partakes of divine grace) . . . finds
no justification in the Gospel accounts.
29

The Fathers were wrong when, in order to preserve Christ's

divinity, they declared that Jesus was praying for us, not for himself
(Cyril's view); or that he only made himself out to be weak in
order to deceive Satan and so to vanquish him all the more com
pletely (Athanasius). And modern theologians are just as wrong
when they try to preserve Jesus' inward faith against all the ap
pearances of despair. By doing so they only make Jesus a pattern
for faith in the sense of the motto 'despairing yet consoled'; and
they obscure Jesus as the sacrament of salvation, who through his
own forsakenness overcomes ours.

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The History of the Son

Finally, it is important to notice that it is only here on the cross

that, for the first and only time in his life, the Son addresses God,
not as Father but as God (Hebrew Eloheni, Aramaic Eloi). The
prayer in Gethsemane was still addressed to 'the Father'. But the
Father did not hear the prayer. On the cross the Father forsook
the Son and hid his face from him, as the sun was hidden in deepest
darkness on Golgotha. According to Amos 8 . 9 - 1 0 , this darkness
is grief over the loss of 'the only son'. It is precisely this that is the
cross in Jesus' crucifixion; the being forsaken by the God whom
he called 'my Father', and whose Son he knew himself to be. Here,
in the relationship between the Father and the Son, a death was
experienced which has been rightly described as 'eternal death',
'the death of God'. Here 'God' is forsaken by 'God'. If we take the
relinquishment of the Father's name in Jesus' death cry seriously,
then this is even the breakdown of the relationship that constitutes
the very life of the Trinity: if the Father forsakes the Son, the Son
does not merely lose his sonship. The Father loses his fatherhood
as well. The love that binds the one to the other is transformed
into a dividing curse. It is only as the One who is forsaken and
cursed that the Son is still the Son. It is only as the One who
forsakes, who surrenders the other, that the Father is still present.
Communicating love and responding love are alike transformed
into infinite pain and into the suffering and endurance of death.

2. The Surrender of the Son

Paul comes closest to the mystery of Golgotha with his theology
of surrender, of giving u p . In the gospels, which depict the death
of Jesus in the light of his life and his message, jiagadidovcu
has
an unequivocally negative sense. It means to deliver up, to betray,
to make over, to cast out; this is clear from the story of the betrayer
Judas. To say that Jesus was forsaken by the Father on the cross
means that the Father cast him off and cursed him. Paul too uses
the expression 'given up' in Romans 1.18ff. for the divine wrath
and judgment over the sin of men and women. People who aban
don the invisible God and worship created things will be aban
doned by God and given up to their own cravings.
Paul expresses a radical reversal of what is meant by 'surrender'
or 'giving up' when he stops looking at Jesus' abandonment by
God in the light of his life, and views it in the light of his resur30

The Surrender

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81

rection. The God who has raised Jesus from the dead is the same
God who has 'given him up' to death on the cross. In the forsak
enness of the cross itself - the forsakenness out of which Jesus cries
'Why?' - Paul already sees the answer to the cry: 'He who did not
spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give
us all things with him?' (Rom. 8. 3 2 ) . According to this the Father
has forsaken, abandoned his own Son, as Paul especially stresses
here, and given him up to death. He puts it even more strongly:
'For our sake he made him to be sin' (II Cor. 5 . 2 1 ) and 'he became
a curse for us' (Gal. 3 . 1 3 ) . The Father forsakes the Son 'for us' that is to say, in order to become the God and Father of the
foresaken. The Father 'delivers up' the Son in order through him
to become the Father of those who have been delivered up
(Rom. 1.18ff.). The Son is given over to his death in order that he
may become the brother and saviour of the condemned and the
cursed.
The Son suffers death in this forsakenness. The Father suffers
the death of the Son. So the pain of the Father corresponds to the
death of the Son. And when in this descent into hell the Son loses
the Father, then in this judgment the Father also loses the Son.
Here the innermost life of the Trinity is at stake. Here the com
municating love of the Father turns into infinite pain over the
sacrifice o f the Son. Here the responding love of the Son becomes
infinite suffering over his repulsion and rejection by the Father.
What happens on Golgotha reaches into the innermost depths of
the Godhead, putting its impress on the trinitarian life in eternity.
But according to Galatians 2 . 2 0 , the Son was not only given up
by the Father. He also 'gave himself for me'. In the event of
surrender there is not merely an object; there is a subject too. His
suffering and death was active, a passio activa, a path of suffering
that he entered upon quite deliberately, a dying that he consciously
affirmed. According to the hymn which Paul took up in Philippians
2, the self-giving of the Son consists in his emptying himself of his
divine form, in his taking on himself the form of a servant, in his
lowering of himself, and in his obedience 'unto death, even the
death of the cross' (AV). For the Epistle to the Hebrews (5.8) 'he
learned obedience through what he suffered'. He suffered from the
prayer which went unanswered, from his forsakenness by the Fath
er. It was from this that he 'learned' obedience and self-giving.
This is in accordance with the synoptic account of the passion.

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The History of the Son

Theologically this means an inner conformity between the will

of the surrendered Son and the surrendering will of the Father.
That is what the Gethsemane story is about too. But this profound
community of will arises at precisely the point when the Son is
furthest divided from the Father, and the Father from the Son, in
the accursed death on the cross, in 'the dark night* of that death.
On the cross the Father and the Son are so deeply separated that
their relationship breaks off. Jesus died 'without God' - godlessly.
Yet on the cross the Father and the Son are at the same time so
much one that they represent a single surrendering movement. 'He
who has seen the Son has seen the Father.' The Epistle to the
Hebrews expresses this by saying that Christ offered himself to
God 'through the eternal Spirit' (did. nvevfiaxoc, aicoviov) (9.14).
The surrender through the Father and the offering of the Son take
place 'through the Spirit'. The Holy Spirit is therefore the link in
the separation. He is the link joining the bond between the Father
and the Son, with their separation.

;
i

31

Paul interpreted the event of God-forsakenness on the cross as

the giving up of the Son, and interpreted the giving up of the Son
as the love of God. What the love of God is - the love 'from which
nothing can separate us' (Rom. 8.39) - becomes event on the cross
and is experienced under the cross. The Father who sends his Son
through all the abysses and hells of God-forsakenness, of the divine
curse and final judgment is, in his Son, everywhere with those who
are his own; he has become universally present. In giving up the
Son he gives 'everything' and 'nothing' can separate us from him.
This is the beginning of the language of the kingdom of God, in
which 'God will be all in all'. Anyone who perceives God's presence
and love in the God-forsakenness of the crucified Son, sees God in
all things, just as, once having faced the experience of death, a
person feels the living character of everything in a hitherto un
dreamed of way.

'
;

The Gospel of John sums up this giving up of the Son in the key
sentence: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that ,
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life'
(3.16). 'So' means 'in this way', the way of forsakenness in the
death on the cross which he suffered 'for us'. And the First Epistle
of John (4.16) defines God by saying 'God is love'. It is not just
that God loves, in the same way that he is sometimes angry. He is
love. His very existence is love. He constitutes himself as love. That ;

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83

is what happens on the cross. This definition only acquires its full
force when we continually make the way that leads to the definition
clear to ourselves: Jesus' forsakenness on the cross, the surrender
of the Son by the Father and the love which does everything gives everything - suffers everything - for lost men and women.
God is love. That means God is self-giving. It means he exists for
us: on the cross. T o put it in trinitarian terms - the Father lets his
Son sacrifice himself through the Spirit. 'The Father is crucifying
love, the Son is crucified love, and the Holy Spirit is the unvanquishable power of the cross.' The cross is at the centre of the
Trinity. This is brought out by tradition, when it takes up the Book
of Revelation's image of 'the Lamb who was slain from the foun
dation of the world' (Rev. 5 . 1 2 ) . Before the world was, the sacrifice
was already in God. N o Trinity is conceivable without the Lamb,
without the sacrifice of love, without the crucified S o n . For he is
the slaughtered Lamb glorified in eternity.
32

33

34

What happens in Jesus' passion is the giving up of the Son

through the Father. In giving up his own Son, God cuts himself off
from himself and sacrifices his own self. The giving up of the Son
reveals a pain in God which can only be understood in trinitarian
terms, or not at all.
The form of the Trinity which is revealed in the giving up of the
Son appears as follows:
- The Father gives up his own Son to death in its most absolute
sense, for us.
- The Son gives himself up, for us.
- The common sacrifice of the Father and the Son comes about
through the Holy Spirit, who joins and unites the Son in his for
sakenness with the Father.

4 THE EXALTATION OF THE SON

Now that we have looked at the history of Jesus the Son from its
historical and its theological viewpoints let us turn to its eschato
logical future. His resurrection from the dead and his future ir
glory have to be understood from the aspects of the manifestatior
of the Son and his homecoming to the Father. And here we shal
show that a trinitarian structure also underlies the eschatologica
proclamation of the risen Christ and the Christ who is to come. IJ
what follows we shall be concentrating on this trinitarian structure

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The History of the Son

1. The Raising of Jesus from the Dead

Without at this point developing a detailed theology of the resur

rection, we must none the less show the eschatological character
of the Easter appearances and the trinitarian form of the Christ
perceived in them. We shall take our bearings here from those
passages in the Easter kerygma which talk about Jesus as 'the Son
of God'.
35

Jesus was crucified publicly. But the risen Christ encountered

only the women and the disciples who had gone up to Jerusalem
with him. Many people saw his death in weakness on Golgotha.
But only a few were aware of his appearance in power and glory.
What did the Easter witnesses see? In what living form did they
see the crucified Jesus? How did they recognize him?
'Seeing' is always the reason which is given for the Easter pro
clamation and the Easter faith. The Greek axpdrj has a whole
series of meanings here. It can mean 'Christ was seen'; or 'Christ
appeared'; or 'Christ let himself be seen'; or 'God revealed him'.
In all these possible interpretations, what is intended is a revelation
formula. It is the seeing of something which someone is permitted
to see in a particular way. The activity issues from the one who
appears. The person affected is passive; he 'suffers' this appearance.
Consequently what is meant is not the recognition of something
which is always present and which everyone can see, if he only
takes the trouble to look carefully enough. A 'seeing' of this ex
ceptional kind is usually called a vision. The Easter visions of the
women and the disciples are not open to proof, for they are not
repeatable; whereas every proof rests on the repeatability of the
experience, or on the ability to reproduce the experiment. The texts
never talk at any point about a possible repetition of the Easter
'seeing' of the risen Jesus. But then how are we to interpret it?
How did the people affected understand it themselves? Even if
these visions are not general, in the sense that they are repeatable,
they can none the less embody a universal claim.
36

As the language through which it is described shows, the struc

ture of the Easter 'seeing' takes the form of the messianic prereflection of what is in the future, and of the apocalyptic antici
pation of what is to c o m e . In the Last Days the God of the
promises to the patriarchs will appear in his glory and fulfil
throughout the whole world the hopes which he has awakened.
37

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85

The whole world will then be full of his glory (Isa. 6 0 ) . In the
calling of the patriarchs, in the people of the covenant, and in the
prophets, this coming glory already enters history, pointing the
way towards its own consummation. When the crucified Jesus
'appears' in glory to the women and the disciples after his death,
this then means the pre-reflection of his future in the coming glory
of God. Christ appears to the people concerned in the light of
the future which cannot otherwise be perceived in the world as yet.
One day he will appear to the whole world as he now appears to
the Easter witnesses. That is to say, his Easter appearances have to
be understood as the pre-reflection of his future; and what the
disciples see at Easter is, correspondingly, the form taken by an
ticipating perception. Anyone who sees the risen Christ is looking
in advance into the coming glory of God. He perceives something
which is not otherwise perceptible, but which will one day be
perceived by everyone.
38

On the foundation of this eschatological structure of Jesus' ap

pearances and on the basis of what they themselves saw, the dis
ciples then took up an apocalyptic symbol of hope, in order to
explain what happened to the dead Jesus - which, after all, none
of them actually saw. They called this event the resurrection from
the dead. It is of course true that the apocalyptic expectation was
directed towards the unique and universal raising of the dead in
the Last Days (Dan. 12.2). In talking about a resurrection of Jesus
from the dead, the Christians have altered the old apocalyptic hope
in a quite decisive way. In making this alteration, what they are
saying is: in this one person, ahead of all others, the End-time
process of the raising of the dead has already begun. With Jesus'
resurrection from the dead, history's last day is beginning: 'The
night is far gone the day is at hand' (Rom. 1 3 . 1 2 ) . That is why
they proclaim him as 'the first fruits of those w h o have fallen
asleep' (I Cor. 1 5 . 2 0 ) , 'the first-born from the dead' (Col. 1.18),
'the pioneer of salvation'.
The idea of the raising of the dead is a metaphor taken over
from the process of sleeping and waking up in the morning, which
is now transferred to death and the promised life in God's own
day. But as a symbol of the apocalyptic hope this idea was uniquely
suited to represent the contradictory experiences of the disciples:
crucified in shame - seen in glory. For the symbol of resurrection
from the dead allows us to take Jesus' death seriously. It excludes

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The History of the Son

every notion that Jesus revived after death, or that his soul went
on living. On the other hand, the symbol of raising, of being
wakened, allows the Easter appearance and seeing of Jesus to stand
in its full dignity and significance; for it excludes all notions of a
projection.

2. The Revelation

of the Son

The Easter witnesses saw the crucified Jesus in the pre-reflection of

God's coming glory on earth. On the other hand, they recognized
the one appearing in this glory as Jesus, from the marks of the
cross's nails, and in the breaking of bread. In what form did Jesus
appear to them, according to what they say themselves ? Whom did
they see?
According to II Corinthians 4 . 6 , they saw 'the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ'. Jesus appeared to them as 'the likeness of
God' (II Cor. 4 . 4 ) , as 'the brightness of his glory and the express
image of his person' (Heb. 1.3 AV). In the 'likeness' (eikon) and
'reflection' (epaugasma) they talk about, the glory of God himself
takes f o r m . It is not reflected back from something else, but
reflects itself. Although Jesus' title 'the image of God' is bound to
make us think of the general vocation which man was destined for
at creation (Gen. 1.26), this reference is not enough: the eternal
Wisdom, God's beloved before time began, is also called 'the image
of his goodness' and the 'effulgence from everlasting light'
(Wisd. 7 . 2 6 ) . The glory of God is reflected on the unveiled face of
Christ, not merely as a pattern for believers, but in eternity too,
for God himself. God himself finds in Christ his eternal counter
part. Yet the closeness of all men to being the image of God and
the nearness of believers to that unveiled face must not be dimmed
by these references.
39

In Galatians 1.15 Paul described his own vision of the risen

Christ: 'But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and
had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to
me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles . . .' The
revelation which Paul experiences in the vision where he received
his call has a subject and an object: God reveals his Son. He reveals
the Son so that Paul may proclaim him among the Gentiles. God
does not reveal 'himself. He reveals 'his Son'. The Son is not
identical with God's self. He is a subject of his own. The One who

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87

was raised from the dead and who appears in the reflection of
God's coming glory is perceived by Paul as the Son. That is why
Paul also said that Jesus, or the Son, or God's Son, was the real
content of his gospel (Rom. 1.9; II Cor. 1.19). He calls his apostolic
message God's gospel of his Son. He proclaims the lordship of the
Son. He preaches the liberty of the sons of God. He establishes
brotherhood with Jesus, the first-born among many brethren
(Rom. 8.29). In this brotherhood people become like to the image
of the Son, and are thereby made glorious.
For this 'gospel of the Son' Paul appeals to an early Christian
confession of faith, which he takes up in Romans 1.3f., claiming
to be set apart to preach
The gospel concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, (AV) who
was descended from David according to the flesh and designated
Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his
resurrection from the dead.
Without going into this early two-stage christology in detail, we
can notice that through the resurrection from the dead God has
'enthroned' Jesus to be the Son of God in power. This has taken
place through 'the sanctifying Spirit' (RSV 'the Spirit of holiness').
Who Jesus is for us is expressed by the title 'Lord'. The expression
'Son of God' is used as title here too. The royal ritual in Psalm 2 . 7
is being recalled here, as it was at Jesus' baptism. But the context
shows that Paul has related the adoptionist formula Son of God
used in Psalm 2.7 to the special Christian title 'his Son'. The
enthronement as Son of God through the resurrection certainly
marks a particular point in Jesus' history as men and women
perceive it. Paul did not see this as being in any way a contradiction
of the statement that Jesus is God's own Son in eternity. The
temporally marked beginning of Jesus' ministry as 'the Son of God
in power' and the statements about the pre-existence of the Son
(Phil. 2 . 6 ; Col. 1.15) stand side by side, without any attempt to
reconcile them. Apparently different statements are possible and
necessary, in view of Jesus' different relationships and functions.
The theological formulations about the sending, the delivering
P and the resurrection show that for Paul Jesus is God's own Son.
He is the Son of the eternal Father. 'God's own Son' is the Son of
the eternal Father. 'God's own Son' can hardly be viewed as christological title, or as a title of sovereignty. Nor is it the name for 'a
U

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The History of the Son

calling'. Like the word Father, in this context 'Son' must be under
stood as a name, not as a title.
If this is true, then Jesus' sonship puts its impress on his whole
ministry and activity as representative, as liberator, as redeemer,
and as lord. As God's own Son he is the Lord. Consequently it is
his sonship which stamps his lordship, not his lordship which gives
its character to his sonship. The kingdom of the Son is the kingdom
of brothers and sisters, not a kingdom of the lord and his servants.
If, finally, we ask by what means the Father raised the Son from
the death to which he delivered him up, then we come face to face
with the activity of the Holy Spirit: He was raised through the
creative Spirit (Rom. 1.4; 8 . 1 1 ; I Peter 3 . 1 8 ; I Tim. 3 . 1 6 ) . He was
raised through the glory of the Father (Rom. 6 . 4 ) . He was raised
through the power of God (I Cor. 6 . 1 4 ) . God's power, God's glory
and the divine Spirit are used synonymously here. They are the
name for something which is not the Father, and not the Son either,
but which is a third divine subject in the history of Jesus, the Son.
We ought not to interpret Jesus' resurrection in merely eschatological terms. In its innermost process it is trinitarian too. This
makes the express use of the Son's name necessary in these con
texts. Which form of the Trinity can be perceived at this stage in
the history of the Son?
- The Father raises the Son through the Spirit;
- the Father reveals the Son through the Spirit;
- the Son is enthroned as Lord of God's kingdom through the
Spirit.

3. The Sending of the Creative Spirit through the Son

Where was Jesus raised fo? The answer emerges from our insight
into the means by which he was raised from the dead - the means
which we have already considered. Jesus was raised into the coming
glory of the Father. That is the eschatological dimension. That is
why he 'sitteth at the right hand of God the Father'. That is the
category of heaven as the space in which God dwells. Jesus is risen
into the coming kingdom of God. Jesus is risen into the innermost
being of God himself. He has been exalted into the divine origin
of the Holy Spirit. That is the trinitarian centre. That is why God's
glory is manifested through him in this world. That is why in this
present history he is the Lord of the divine kingdom. That is why

The Exaltation

of the Son

in this present time he is the 'life-giving spirit' (I Cor. 1 5 . 4 5 ) ,

sending the Spirit upon the disciples, and the energies of the Spirit
upon the church, and through the church 'on all flesh'.
Here our interest is concentrated particularly on the relationship
of the risen Son to the quickening Spirit. Whereas in the sending,
in the surrender and in the resurrection, the Spirit acts on Christ,
and Christ lives from the works of the creative Spirit, now the
relationship is reversed: the risen Christ sends the Spirit; he is
himself present in the life-giving Spirit; and through the Spirit's
energies - the charismata - he acts on men and women. The Spirit
witnesses to Christ, and whoever confesses Christ as his Lord does
so in the power of the Spirit who creates life from the dead. That
is why after Easter the Spirit is called 'the Spirit of sonship' (Rom.
8.15), 'the Spirit of faith' (II Cor. 4 . 1 3 ) , or the 'Spirit of Christ':
'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom' (II Cor. 3 . 1 7 ) .
The Spirit proceeds from the Father and is now 'sent' by the Son
(John 1 5 . 2 6 ) . Through his resurrection the Son is evidently so near
to the Father, and so much in the Father, that he participates in
the sending of the Spirit out of its divine origin. Whereas the
sending, the surrender and the resurrection of Christ were the
works of the life-giving Spirit, so now the sending and outpouring
of the Spirit who makes all things new becomes a work of the Son.
Here it cannot be forgotten that in the whole of the New Tes
tament the Spirit is understood eschatologically. He is the power
of the new creation. He is the power of the resurrection. He is the
earnest and pledge of glory. His present efficacy is the rebirth of
men and women. His future goal is the raising up of the kingdom
of glory. His activity is experienced inwardly, in the heart; but it
points ahead into what is outward and public. He lays hold on the
soul, but will only find rest when he 'gives life to mortal bodies'
(Rom. 8 . 1 1 ) .
Which form of the Trinity do we encounter here?
The Father raises the dead Son through the life-giving Spirit;
the Father enthrones the Son, as the Lord of his kingdom;
the risen Son sends the creative Spirit from the Father, to
renew heaven and earth.
Whereas until his resurrection we were able to perceive in the
history of Jesus the sequence: Father - Spirit Son, we now
encounter the sequence Father - Son - Spirit. What does this mean?
It means that in the sending of the Spirit the Trinity is an open

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The History of the Son

40

Trinity. Through the sending of the creative Spirit, the trinitarian

history of God becomes a history that is open to the world, open
to men and women, and open to the future. Through the experience
of the life-giving Spirit in faith, in baptism, and in the fellowship
of believers, people are integrated into the history of the Trinity.
Through the Spirit of Christ they not only become participators in
the eschatological history of the new creation. Through the Spirit
of the Son they also become at the same time participants in the
trinitarian history of God himself. That is the profounder reason
why acknowledgment of the Trinity was developed in the context
of baptism first of all.
The explicitly 'triadical' formulations in the New Testament are
without exception baptismal formulations (Matt. 2 8 . 1 9 ) . Didache
7.1 stipulates baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the
Spirit. All the acknowledgments of the Trinity that follow are
baptismal ones. That is to say, Trinitarian theology is baptismal
theology. It has to be, because the history of the Son and the
creative Spirit of God which the New Testament relates is not a
completed history. It is an inviting, eschatological history that is
open in a forward-looking direction. Through baptism people are
absorbed into it. The doctrine of the Trinity has baptism as its
original Sitz im Leben its situation in life.
Which form of the Trinity do we encounter in baptism?
In baptism we encounter the divine Trinity as the eschatolog
ical history of God which is open in a forward-looking direction.
The unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit is hence an
open unity, not a closed one.
It is open for unification with believers, with mankind, and
with the whole creation.
41

5 THE FUTURE OF THE SON

The eschatological hope is also directed towards a trinitarian event

in the New Testament. Let us first of all pursue exegetically the
other uses of the name of Son which is given to Jesus in the New
Testament.
In I Thessalonians 1 . 9 - 1 0 Paul demands that people turn away
from the service of idols and turn to the 'living and true God'. This
new direction comes about in the power of the expectation o f 'his
42

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91

Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who
delivers us from the wrath to come'.
The hope of the church is directed towards the parousia of Jesus,
whom God has raised from the dead. He will come as 'the Son of
God'. Here expectation of the parousia is expectation of the Son.
The Son is expected as the saviour of his brothers and sisters. He
will not come as the unknown judge. He will come as the familiar
brother. We may hope for his judgment. We do not have to be
afraid of it.
The way that Paul conceived of the eschatological future
(I Cor. 1 5 . 2 2 - 2 8 and Phil. 2. 9 - 1 1 ) is no different from this, but
it is a little more precise; for he presents the eschatological future
as an event within the Trinity.
The subject of I Corinthians 15.22ff. is the future of world
history and the consummation of the divine rule.

For as in Adam all die,

so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order:
Christ the first fruits,
then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
Then comes the end,
when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father
after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
When all things are subjected to him,
then the Son himself will also be subjected
to him who put all things under him,
that God may be everything to every one (AV: that God may be
all in all).
First of all the resurrection process will be brought to an end:
first Christ; then Christians in Christ's parousia; and after that
death will be destroyed, and all men and women will be liberated
from his power. If God exalts Christ alone to be Lord, then he
'must' reign over everything and everyone; otherwise God would
not be God. That is why all other rulers have to be destroyed. The

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of the Son

sole lordship of Christ is universal. And because he is 'Lord both

of the dead and of the living' (Rom. 14.9) he cannot rest until
death too has been destroyed. But if death is no more, then Christ
with his life-giving Spirit has made all the dead live. Then his rule
is consummated. Then his goal is achieved. Then all promises and
hopes are fulfilled.
But Christ himself is not then as yet complete. That is why Paul
now talks about an inner-trinitarian process: the Son to whom the
Father has subjected everything will then subject himself to the
Father and will give the kingdom (basileia) over to him. In verse
28 Paul calls Christ explicitly the Son. His aim in doing so is to
make it clear that it is only in the eschatological transfer of the
divine rule to the Father that the Son completes his obedience and
his sonship.
43

The divine rule was given by the Father to the Son through
Christ's resurrection. In the final consummation it will be trans
ferred from the Son to the Father. 'The kingdom of the Son' will
then become 'the kingdom of glory' of the triune God in which
'God will be all in all'. The rule of Christ is therefore eschatologically limited. It begins in hiddenness with his sending and in open
manifestation with his resurrection. It extends to 'the dead and the
living'. It will be consummated in the parousia, in which Christ
will make the dead live and will destroy death itself. But the rule
of Christ, for its part, serves the greater purpose of making room
for the kingdom of glory and of preparing for God's indwelling in
the new creation, 'so that God will be all in all'. The lordship of
Christ, the risen One, as well as the kingdom of the One who is to
come, is in an eschatological sense provisional. It is only completed
when the universal kingdom is transferred to the Father by the
Son. With this transfer the lordship of the Son ends. But it means
the consummation of his sonship. It follows from this that all Jesus'
titles of sovereignty - Christ, kyrios, prophet, priest, king, and so
forth are provisional titles, which express Jesus' significance for
salvation in time. But the name of Son remains to all eternity.
According to Paul, the whole Christian eschatology ends in this
inner-trinitarian process, through which the kingdom passes from
the Son to the Father. Eschatology accordingly is not simply what
takes place in the Last Days in heaven and on earth; it is what
takes place in God's essential nature.
44

Here we must particularly note the mutual workings of the

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93

Father and the Son: the Father subjects everything to the Son, the
Son subjects himself to the Father. Through 'the power of the
resurrection' the Son destroys all other powers and death itself,
then transferring the consummated kingdom of life and the love
that is free of violence, to the Father. The kingdom of God is
therefore transferred from one divine subject to the other; and its
form is changed in the process. So God's triunity precedes the
divine lordship. The divine lordship is exercised within the divine
trinity. It follows from this:
1. It is not the doctrine of the Trinity which interprets the rule
of God; it is the very converse that is true: the rule of God in the
form of the rule of the Son and in the form of the lordship of the
Father interprets the eternal life of the divine Trinity.
2. God's rule is not merely an opus trinitatis ad extra; it is at
the same time an opus trinitatis ad intra. At this point the Augustinian distinction is not correct.
Finally, we again ask: what form of the Trinity can we perceive
in these eschatological processes?
The Father subjects everything to the Son;
the Son transfers the consummated kingdom to the Father;
the Son subjects himself to the Father.
This corresponds precisely to the close of the famous hymn in
Philippians 2 . 9 - 1 1 :
Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
God assigns the universe to Jesus, his Son. All confess and enjoy
the lordship of Jesus 'to the glory of God the Father'. So ultimately
Christ's whole lordship serves the purpose of glorifying the Father.
It is the Son who is the real actor in this consummation of
salvation and in this glorification of God; and the Father is really
the one who receives. In eschatology all activity proceeds from the
Son and the Spirit; the Father is the receiver of the kingdom, the
power and the glory, for ever and ever.

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The History of the Son

What trinitarian order can we perceive in the eschatological

consummation?
In the sending, delivering up and resurrection of Christ we find
this sequence:
Father - Spirit - Son.
In the lordship of Christ and the sending of the Spirit the
sequence is:
Father - Son - Spirit.
But when we are considering the eschatological consummation
and glorification, the sequence has to be:
Spirit - Son - Father.

6 TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE OPEN TRINITY

1. The rule of Christ is the rule of the Son. It displays a trini

tarian structure in both history and eschatology, for it springs from
the co-workings of three divine subjects: Father, Son and creative
Spirit.
2. Father, Son and Spirit do not only combine or work together
according to a single pattern. In the sending, in the surrender and
in the resurrection, the Father is the actor, the Son the receiver,
and the Spirit the means through which the Father acts on his Son
and the Son receives the Father.
In the lordship of the Son and the diffusion of the creative Spirit,
the Son together with the Father are the actors. The Spirit takes
his sending from the Son, just as he takes his issue from the Father.
In eschatology, finally, the Son is the actor: he transfers the
kingdom to the Father; he subjects himself to the Father. But in
eschatology the Holy Spirit is the actor equally: he glorifies the
Father through the praise of all created beings who have been
liberated by Christ's rule. The Father is the One who receives. He
receives his kingdom from the Son; he receives his glory from the
Spirit.
3. A theological doctrine of the Trinity can only be biblically
justified if the history of God to which the Bible testifies, itself
displays trinitarian forms. It then has to follow these trinitarian
forms. In the historical and eschatological testimony of the New

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of the Open

Trinity

95

Testament, we do not merely find one, single form of the Trinity.

We find a trinitarian co-working of Father, Son and Spirit, but
with changing patterns.
We find the order Father - Spirit - Son; the order Father - Son
- Spirit; and finally the order Spirit - Son - Father. Up to now,
however, dogmatic tradition has only worked with a single pattern.
And in the West this pattern has always been Father - Son - Spirit.
4. There is no doubt that the common denominator of the
changing trinitarian patterns is the rule of God. The scarlet thread
that runs through the biblical testimonies might be called the his
tory of the kingdom of God. But what this history of the kingdom
of God is about, is really the trinitarian history of the kingdom. It
does not merely run its course on earth - which is to say outside
God himself - as dogmatic tradition ever since Augustine has
maintained. On the contrary, it takes place in its earthly mode
within the Trinity itself, as the history of the kingdom of the Father,
the Son and the Spirit.
5. The trinitarian history of the kingdom of God is an eschatologically open history now. Baptism is the practice of the doctrine
of the Trinity, because it is through faith and baptism that the
trinitarian history of God's kingdom takes possession of men and
women. The concept of the Trinity is formulated first of all in a
person's confession of faith in baptism, in prayer and in praise.
6. If the history of the kingdom is this history of God which is
open and inviting in a trinitarian sense, how can we talk about
God's unity} If the three divine subjects are co-active in this history,
as we have shown they are, then the unity of the Trinity cannot be
a monadic unity. The unity of the divine tri-unity lies in the union
of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, not in their numerical unity.
It lies in their fellowship, not in the identity of a single subject.
That is quite clear from the Gospel of John. Jesus says according
to John 10.30: 'I and the Father are one' (ev). He does not say 'I
and the Father are one and the same' (eig). The unity of Jesus the
Son with the Father is a unity which preserves their separate char
acter, indeed actually conditions it. Moreover it is not a closed
unity, it is an open union. That is why we can read in the High
Priestly prayer (John 1 7 . 2 1 ) : 'that they may all be one; even as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us
. . . ' . The fellowship of the disciples with one another has to resem
ble the union of the Son with the Father. But not only does it have

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The History of the Son

to resemble that trinitarian union; in addition it has to be a union

within this union. It is a fellowship with God and, beyond that, a
fellowship in God. But that presupposes that the triunity is open
in such a way that the whole creation can be united with it and
can be one within it. The union of the divine Trinity is open for
the uniting of the whole creation with itself and in itself. So the
unity of the Trinity is not merely a theological term; at heart it is
a soteriological one as well.

IV
The World of the Trinity

Whereas up to now we have derived our knowledge of the Trinity-^

from the history of Jesus the Son, we must now see the figure o&
the Son against the comprehensive horizon of the history of t h ^ s
triune God with the world. For the universal significance of t h ^ s
history of the Son could not otherwise be understood. As far a s
the order of perception is concerned, the doctrine of the T r i n i t y
we have expounded has cbristology as its premise; for it is onl>*^
christology that makes the knowledge and concept of the t r i u n e s
God necessary. But the christology it presupposes is an open c h r i s
tology: open for perception of the creation of the world t h r o u g h *
the Father of Jesus Christ, and open for perception of the t r a n s
figuration of the world through the Holy Spirit, who proceeds frorr
the Father of Jesus, the Son. The Apostles' Creed already s h o w ^
how special, historical christology is fitted into the all-embracing^
divine Trinity of God; for the creed groups acknowledgment ofEE
God the Creator and his works, and acknowledgment of God t h e =
Holy Spirit and his work, as first and third articles, round t h e =
second article, which treats of God the Son and the events of h i s life. And most Christian dogmatics follow the structure of the^=
Apostles' Creed.
-

Starting from the christology of the Son as we have developed it, we must now enquire about its consequences for belief in t h e creation of the world and for the hope of its transfiguration. T h e works of the Trinity' are traditionally ascribed in each case to o n e
person of the Trinity in particular (although this does not m e a n
the exclusion of the others). Consequently creation is seen as 'the
work' of the Father, atonement as 'the work' of the Son, a n d

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The World of the Trinity

sanctification as 'the work' of the Spirit. We shall adhere to this

disposition, but we shall change the names given to the divine
works, considering 'the creation of the Father', 'the incarnation of
the Son' and 'the transfiguration of the Spirit'. Our purpose here
is not to describe these trinitarian works themselves. That is the
function of the doctrine of creation, christology, and eschatology.
Here - in order to deepen and extend the insights acquired in
the previous chapter - we shall be asking what we know about the
Trinity from these divine 'works'. Although we have here initially
taken up the traditional Augustinian concept of the opera trinita
tis , we shall not follow the traditional epistemological method,
deducing the actor from the act and the master from the work.
These ethical and pre-eminently masculine analogies between actor
and acts, master and works, have only a very limited value for a
perception of the relationship between God and his world. They
obscure more than they illuminate.
1

We shall start from the assumption that the relationship between

God and the world has a reciprocal character, because this rela
tionship must be seen as a living one. Every living and life-pro
moting determination of someone else has its origin in selfdetermination, and it reverberates on that self-determination. A
purely one-sided relationship is not a living relationship at all. If
the relationships that make up life are reciprocal, then even God
cannot be thought of simply in his significance for the world and
for human history. The world and human history must also be
perceived in their significance for God. What God means for the
world was expressed in the doctrine of the opera trinitatis ad extra.
But this doctrine was incapable of expressing what the world means
for God. We shall be enquiring about the reciprocal effects. That
is to say, in our consideration of all the opera trinitatis ad extra
- the creation of the world, the incarnation, and the world's trans
figuration - we shall also be asking about the opera trinitatis ad
intra which are bound up with them, meaning by that the love of
the Father for the Son, the love of the Son for the Father, and the
glorification of the Father and the Son through the Spirit. But in
actual fact it is not a question of the 'works' of the Trinity 'out
wards' and 'inwardly' at all; it is a matter of the 'sufferings' which
correspond reciprocally to the works. Outward acts correspond to
inward suffering, and outward suffering corresponds to inward
acts. This means that God's outward and inward aspects are in-

The Event of Salvation and Belief in Creation

99

tertwined in a totally different way from the picture suggested by

the spatial metaphors, outward/inward. The creation is a work of
divine humility. The suffering of love is God's supreme work on
God himself.
We can already show these reciprocal workings of actio and
passio in the concept of decision as well. 'God decides in favour of
the world.' His decision affects himself first of all and then, through
his self-determination, it affects the world. This two-sided structure
of decision has been depicted first of all as the opera dei ad extra
interna and then, secondly, as the opera dei ad extra externa. But
this fails to bring out the divinely determined self of God which
suffers the decision. The definition does not comprehend the pas
sion of God which is the foundation of his action. Nor is the
world's retroactive effect on God comprehended either, as long as
God can be thought of merely as the One who is eternally
efficacious.
1

If we ask the reverse question: what does the creation of the

world and its history mean for God himself? then we are presup
posing that the world is not a matter of indifference for God
himself, but that it represents an object, a counterpart, for his
passionate interest. His world in heaven and on earth is the object
of his will towards good; it is the counterpart of his love for
freedom; and in both these things it is the fulfilment of his hope
for a free response to his own goodness and love. Just as God goes
out of himself through what he does, giving his world his own
impress, so his world puts its impress on God too, through its
reactions, its aberrations and its own initiatives. It certainly does
not do so in the same way; but that it does so in its own way there
can be no doubt at all. If God' is love, then he does not merely
emanate, flow out of himself; he also expects and needs love: his
world is intended to be his home. He desires to dwell in it.

1 THE EVENT OF SALVATION AND BELIEF IN CREATION

Both the Old and the New Testaments make it plain that the
biblical belief in creation is determined by experience of the event
of salvation and by hope for that salvation's completion. Both
Israel and the Christian faith, each in its own way, has 'a soteriological understanding of the work of creation', and an eschatological understanding of the event of salvation. This is so because the
3

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The World of the

Trinity

experience of salvation is not merely the experience of 'my' or 'our'

salvation; what is experienced is salvation for everything and every
one. A universal significance is always inherent in the particular
experience of salvation. Otherwise it could not be the experience
of salvation at all.
The universal presupposition of the particular experiences out of
which Israel and the church emerged is expressed by the fact that
belief in the God who liberates and redeems them is belief in the
Creator of all people and things. The universal goal of the special
experiences of God shared by Israel and the church can be summed
up by saying that the God who liberates and redeems them is
hoped for as the One who will complete and fulfil the history of
all people and all things. Through belief in creation and hope for
salvation, the salvation that is experienced in a particular and
individual way is understood in its universal dimensions. This
process has of course its other side too. If salvation is understood
in a universal sense, then, conversely, the universe too is viewed in
the redeeming light of its salvation.

1. The Exodus Experience

and the Messianic

Hope

The biblical belief in creation grew up in its initial form out of

Israel's historical experience of God in exodus, covenant, and the
occupation of the promised land. It took its particular character
from these experiences: the God who led Israel out of Egypt is the
Creator who leads the world out of chaos and makes its orders the
orders of his covenant. In both the Yahwist and the Priestly Writ
ing, 'creation in the beginning' does not mean a primordial paradisal state. It means the history that precedes salvation history.
That is why creation is grasped as being the work of God's grace.
The orders of creation are narrated in the form of a 'history'. It is
creation that opens up the prospect of history. God's history with
his world therefore begins with creation, not just with the Fall. The
creation of the world is open for the history of the world. For it
is with the creation of the world that time begins. Because time is
only perceived through change - change in things and conditions
- the world of creation is a changeable world. Stamped by the
saving experience of the exodus from slavery into freedom, the
world with its orders is understood as a creation of God's, formed
from the primal waters and from chaos. It is a creation open to
5

The Event of Salvation and Belief in Creation

101

time, open to the future, and open to change. It is an 'open system',

full of every potentiality. Consequently it also has to be under
stood as a threatened world: it is surrounded by chaos. The powers
of corruption reach into the midst of it, in night and the sea.
The writings of Israel which we find in the Old Testament do
not merely testify to the exodus experience and to faith in creation.
In prophecy, they also witness to the messianic hope for the new,
final exodus into eternal freedom; and this is associated with an
eschatological hope for the final salvation out of chaos, and its
eternal transfiguration in the presence of God. In thinking about
the new, Babylonian captivity of the people, DeuteroTsaiah espe
cially proclaims a new exodus, a new Servant of God and a new
saving event. This also means a change in the view of the world as
this God's creation: it is going to become the scene of his coming
glory.
The messianic vision of the new exodus picks up the remem
brance of the first exodus but goes beyond it, by virtue of hope.
Those that go out will neither hunger nor thirst (Isa. 4 8 . 2 1 ) . Their
path is easy, because all hindrances will be cleared away
(Isa. 4 9 . 1 1 ) . The people will not leave 'in haste', but will move as
if they were taking part in a festive procession, led by God himself
(Isa. 5 2 . 1 2 ) . Nature will participate in the joy of the final liberation
of God's people. The mountains will break out into rejoicing and
the trees will clap their hands (Isa. 4 9 . 1 3 ; 5 5 . 1 2 ) . 'Waters shall
break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert' (Isa. 3 5 . 6 ) .
All nations will see it. Their idols shall be as nothing and will
perish in their impotence (Isa. 4 1 . 1 1 ; 4 2 . 1 7 ; 4 5 . 2 4 ) . They will
know the God of Israel as their salvation and their strength
(Isa. 45.14f.).
We need only add to this the visions of the future in the First
and Third Isaiahs to see how this prophetic hope for salvation
became the source for a new understanding of creation. In the
vision in which he received his call (Isa. 6.3), the prophet looks
into the future: 'The whole earth full of his glory.' What does this
mean?
7

The whole land will be 'full of the knowledge of the Lord'

(Isa. 11.9). 'The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid . . . The cow and the bear shall feed;
their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw

102

The World of the

Trinity

like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp
. . . (11.6ff.). The peace of this creation goes beyond the creation
story told by the Yahwist or the Priestly Writing. The vision of
the great banquet of the nations on Mount Zion (Isa. 25.6ff.)
also goes further than the creation accounts: 'He will swallow
up death for ever.' Trito-Isaiah sums up the whole wealth of the
images in the terse promise: 'Behold, I create new heavens and
a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or
come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which
I create' (65.17f.).
The messianic future of creation completes and fulfils the initial
creation. The exodus out of chaos and the viable order existing
within the threat of chaos will be followed by the transfiguration
of creation in the eternally unveiled presence of God; by the en
during righteousness of the world and its eternal pacification. God
himself will dwell in 'his world'.

2. Faith in Christ and Experience

of the Spirit

The Christian understanding of creation is coloured by the new

experience of salvation in Christ. The first accounts of creation
were determined by Israel's experience of exodus and covenant;
the prophets' hopes for salvation evoked the visions of the new
creation; and in the same way Christian experiences of salvation
and hopes for redemption also determine the Christian belief in
creation. In the New Testament too belief in creation is intended
to demonstrate the universal significance of the experience of sal
vation, presented as the salvation of the universe. If Christ is the
foundation for the salvation of the whole creation, then he is also
the foundation of creation's very existence. If, being the foundation
of salvation, he is all creation's goal, then he has been its founda
tion from eternity. This idea lies behind the statements about Christ
as the mediator of creation.
9

The first approaches to statements of this kind are to be found

in Paul. Here they are merely thoughts, drawn into service to help
justify the universality of Christ's rule and in order to show the
world-wide liberty of believers. In the dispute which arose in Cor
inth about whether to buy the meat that had been offered to idols
or whether to abstain from it, the apostle declares: 'For us there

The Event of Salvation and Belief in Creation

103

is one God, the Father from whom are all things and for whom we
exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and
through whom we exist' (I Cor. 8.6). Consequently the Christian's
acts are free in every situation. The world belongs to his Lord.
In the deutero-Pauline Epistle to the Ephesians (1.9ff.) this idea
is expressed as 'the uniting of all things' (dvaxe<podai(ooig)
in
Christ. It is only in the Epistle to the Colossians ( 1 . 1 5 - 1 7 ) and in
Hebrews 1.2 that it is explicitly stated for the first time that God
created the world 'through him'.
This 'mediator of creation' is called 'the image of the invisible
God', 'the first-born of all creation', 'the brightness of his glory'
(AV) and 'the express image of his person' (AV). These are all
images which were used to describe God's eternal Wisdom in the
Wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Wisdom is one with
God and yet confronts him independently. It is not merely under
stood as one of God's attributes, although it is probably not yet
viewed as a person in God either. Through Wisdom God creates
the world, through Wisdom he orders the world, and through
Wisdom he will one day glorify the world. The mediation of glory
and the mediation of creation are one and the same in the Wisdom
tradition. Job 2 8 , Proverbs 8 and Ecclesiasticus describe the Wis
dom that mediates between God and his world in a more and more
personal way. The New Testament perception of Christ as media
tor of creation has a clear Sophia christology as its premise. The
Logos christology of the Gospel of John goes back to this when it
is stated that 'All things were made through him (the Word, the
Logos), and without him was not anything made that was made'
(John 1 . 3 ) .
10

11

On the one hand, through Christ's creative mediation, the sal

vation experienced and revealed through him is related, not merely
to believers, and not merely to men and women, but to the whole
of reality. Christ came 'to his own home' (John 1.11), not into a
strange land. That is why even though Christians are 'strangers
and sojourners' in this perverted world, they too are at home in
God's real creation as its true citizens. The experience of salvation
makes the extension of the experience of salvation to the whole of
existence and to 'all things' necessary. Salvation is liberating be
cause it includes everything, accepting all things into an all-em
bracing hope.
On the other hand, it is only through the understanding of Christ

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The World of the Trinity

as the mediator of creation that an explicitly Christian doctrine of

creation comes into being. It represents an interpretation of God's
world which is quite individual, compared with the Old Testament
creation accounts, and with the prophetic creation hopes as well.
If Christ is the mediator of creation, then creation can only be
conceived of in trinitarian terms, if it is to be understood in Christ
ian terms at all.
The New Testament writings do not only witness to the experi
ence of salvation in Christ, and to faith in Christ as the mediator
of creation; they also testify to the experience of the Holy Spirit,
and the hope that through him the world will be transfigured,
transformed into God's world, which means into God's own
h o m e . This hope is expressed in continually new visions of the
indwelling of God in this new world. The experience of the Spirit
is expressed in words quite distinct from those describing creation
and God's 'works' in history. The words used for the Spirit are
'outpouring', 'flowing', and so forth. The Spirit is 'poured out' on
all flesh in the Last Days (Joel 2.28ff.; Acts 2.16ff.), and then old
and young, men and women, all alike, will have dreams and vi
sions. Through the Holy Spirit the love of God is 'poured out' into
our hearts, Paul says when he is talking about believers (Rom. 5.5).
People are 'born' anew of the Spirit (John 3 . 3 , 5 f . ) . The charismata,
the gifts and energies of the Spirit in the new fellowship, will not
be 'created'; as fruits of charis, the gift of the Spirit itself, they will
be 'effected' (I Cor. 1 2 ) . These are the divine energies which already
quicken life now, in the present, because they are the energies of
the new creation of all things.
12

A new divine presence is experienced in the experience of the

Spirit. God does not simply confront his creation as creator. He is
not merely, as the incarnate One, the representative and advocate
for men and women. In the Spirit God dwells in man himself. The
experience of the Spirit is therefore the experience of the Shekinah,
the divine indwelling. The Shekinah is a divine presence which was
otherwise only experienced in the Temple, in worship on the Lord's
day. But now men and women themselves, in their own bodies,
already become the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6 . 1 3 - 2 0 ) . In
the end, however, the new heaven and the new earth will become
the 'temple' of God's indwelling. The whole world will become
God's home. Through the indwelling of the Spirit, people and
churches are already glorified in the body, now, in the present. But

The Creation of the Father

105

then the whole creation will be transfigured through the indwelling

of God's glory. Consequently the hope which is kindled by the
experience of the indwelling Spirit gathers in the future, with panentheistic visions. Everything ends with God's being 'all in all'
(I. Cor. 1 5 . 2 8 AV). God in the world and the world in God - that
is what is meant by the glorifying of the world through the Spirit.
That is the home of the Trinity. If the world is transformed and
glorified into this through the Holy Spirit, then creation can only
be conceived of in trinitarian terms, if it is to be understood in
Christian terms at all.

2 THE CREATION OF THE FATHER

In order to avoid anticipating a detailed doctrine of creation, here

we shall only consider the questions about the creation of the
world that affect God himself, presenting the doctrine of creation
as a doctrine of God.

1. Contingentia

mundi

One of the first and most important questions about the doctrine
of creation is the question of the contingentia mundi. Is the creation
of the world necessary for God himself, or is it merely fortuitous?
Does it proceed from God's nature, or from his will? Is it eternal,
or temporal?
Christian theism has always been anxious to depict creation as
solely the work of God's free will; as a work depending entirely
on God, without any significance for God himself. In order to
stress the free nature of the act of creation and its character as a
pure act of grace, this tradition ascribed to God absolute liberty,
in the sense of unlimited power of disposal: God need not have
created the world. There are no inner reasons and no outward
compulsions for his action. God is self-sufficient. His bliss is selfcomplete. He is perfect and needs neither his own creative expres
sion of himself, nor a creation. But it was his good pleasure to
create a world with which he could be 'well pleased'. That is why
he created a reality corresponding to himself.
Christian theism, in ascribing creation solely to the decree of
God's free will, therefore has to fall back on God's essential nature
in order to avoid the impression of divine arbitrariness: even if
13

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The World of the Trinity

God can create what he wants, he only actually creates what is in

accord with himself. If his nature is perfect goodness, then he
cannot create evil. In the biblical concept of 'what is well pleasing
to him', the liberty of the divine will and correspondence with the
divine nature are reconciled in the best possible way. Reconciling
chance and necessity, and excluding arbitrariness and compulsion,
God's world must then be understood as 'a play of his divine good
pleasure'. But all the same, the fictitious suggestion of arbitrari
ness in God leaves behind it a residue of despotism in the concept
of God: the relationship of love which God had in view when he
created free men and women is not in accord with the absolutism
of pure power; for power is replaced by mutual friendship.
14

15

16

Christian panentheism, on the other hand, started from the di

vine essence: Creation is a fruit of God's longing for 'his Other'
and for that Other's free response to the divine love. That is why
the idea of the world is inherent in the nature of God himself from
eternity. For it is impossible to conceive of a God who is not a
creative God. A non-creative God would be imperfect compared
with the God who is eternally creative. And if God's eternal being
is love, then the divine love is also more blessed in giving than in
receiving. God cannot find bliss in eternal self-love if selflessness is
part of love's very nature. God is in all eternity self-communicating
love. The Father loves the Son eternally, and the Son also eternally
returns the Father's love. But this inner-trinitarian love is the love
of like for like, not love of the other. It is blissful love in the
continual response from the being like in nature to itself. But it is
not yet creative love, which communicates itself by overcoming its
opposite, which 'gives life to the dead and calls into existence the
things that do not exist' (Rom. 4 . 1 7 ) . It is not yet the love that
responds out of the being that is other. Is this not the reason why
the divine love presses even beyond the Trinity? Does it not seek
its 'image', which is to say its response, and therefore its bliss, in
men and women?
17

The speculative theology of the nineteenth century picked up

mystical ideas and maintained that it was God's nature to reveal
and communicate himself. For as eternal love God was also his
own self-communication, indeed his own self-giving. And that
meant that the world and the image to which God wanted to
communicate himself (man) was already envisaged from eternity
in God himself. God emptied himself by virtue of his love, out of

The Creation of the Father

107

the necessity of his being, going out to 'his Other', the world, and
only came fully to himself by virtue of that Other's response to his
love. But this is to identify the idea of the world with the Son of
God. The process of creating the world is then identified with the
inner-trinitarian life of God, and vice versa: the world process is
the eternal life of God himself. God's love for his Other is then in
actual fact nothing else than the extended love of God for the one
like himself. The deification of the world and humanity is the
necessary conclusion: anyone who knows that he is eternally loved
by God becomes God's eternal Son. So God is as dependent on
him as he is on G o d . The elements of truth in this view are turned
into their opposite once the capacity to distinguish is suppressed
by the will towards synthesis. What is Other in confrontation with
God is not identical with the otherness of God. It is true that the
love of God the Father for the world is the same love as the love
for his only begotten Son, but that does not turn the world into
the Son, or make the Son the world. It is true that those who are
loved by God and those who return his love become 'sons of God'
(Rom. 8.14). But they do not become 'the only begotten Son'. They
become 'God's sons' because God's only begotten Son is as such
predestined to be 'the first-born among many brethren'. In order
to understand the history of mankind as a history in God, the
distinction between the world process and the inner-trinitarian
process must be maintained and emphasized.
One way of reconciling the elements of truth in Christian theism
and Christian pantheism emerges when we cease to interpret God's
liberty as arbitrariness, and the nature of God as a divine natural
law. The naturalistic images of an eternally productive divine sub
stance (natura naturans) are just as inappropriate as the images of
the absolutist monarch in heaven. If God's nature is goodness, then
the freedom of his will lies in his will to goodness. That is why we
have to say: 'The world is a goodly purpose, in accord with God's
love, not a fortuitous o n e . ' If we lift the concept of necessity out
of the context of compulsive necessity and determination by some
thing external, then in God necessity and freedom coincide; they
are what is for him axiomatic, self-evident. For God it is axiomatic
to love, for he cannot deny himself. For God it is axiomatic to love
freely, for he is God. There is consequently no reason why we
should not understand God as being from eternity self-communi18

19

20

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The World of the

Trinity

eating love. This does not make him 'his own prisoner'. It means
that he remains true to himself.
From eternity God has desired not only himself but the world
too, for he did not merely want to communicate himself to himself;
he wanted to communicate himself to the one who is other than
himself as well. That is why the idea of the world is already
inherent in the Father's love for the Son. The eternal Son of God
is closely related to God's idea of the world. The Logos through
whom the Father has created everything, and without whom
nothing has been made that was made is only the other side of the
Son. The Son is the Logos in relation to the world. The Logos is
the Son in relation to the Father. The Father utters the eternal
Word in the Spirit and breathes out the Spirit in the eternal utter
ance of the Word. Through the eternal Son/Logos the Father creates
the world. He is the mediator of creation. It is for his incarnation
that God preserves the world. He is creation's liberator. It is in
looking towards his kingdom of freedom that God loves those
whom he has created. He is the crown of creation.

2. God's

Self-Limitation

There is one question which has barely been considered at all in

Christian theology, although it is a much discussed point in the
Jewish kabbalistic tradition. That is the idea of creation outwards
or inwards.
Christian theology - following the pattern of the creation ac
count in the Priestly Document - has consistently distinguished
between an act of God inwards and an act of God outwards. God
has an inner, self-sufficing life. Creation is an act of the triune God
in his unity, directed outwards. W e therefore have to distinguish
between the inner life of God and an act of God outwards, in
creation, incarnation and redemption. The inner life of God only
has significance for his outward acts in that it provides their reason
and justification. For it is only as causa sui that God can be causa
mundi. Augustine's formulation became definitive for the Western
church's doctrine of God: 'Opera trinitatis ad extra indivisa esse,
tribus personis communia, salvo tamen earum ordine et
discrimine.'
21

The simple counter-question is: can the omnipotent and omni

present God have an 'outward' aspect at all? Is there, in fact, an

The Creation of the Father

109

extra Deum for these opera ad extra} If we start from the assump
tion that there is, then we must assume, not only God's self-con
stitution in eternity, but an equally eternal non-divine or counterdivine entity, which would be 'outside'. But would this not be to
contradict God's divinity, which means his omnipresence?
And if (because of creation out of chaos and creatio ex nihilo)
we have to say that there is a 'within' and a 'without' for God and that he therefore goes creatively 'out of himself, communi
cating himself creatively the one who is Other than himself - then
we must after all assume a self-limitation of the infinite, omnipre
sent God, preceding his creation. In order to create something
'outside' himself, the infinite God must have made room for this
finitude beforehand, 'in himself. But does not creation as opera ad
extra then presuppose an inversion of God which releases that
extra in the first place?
It is only God's withdrawal into himself which gives that nihil
the space in which God then becomes creatively active. But is
creation then really a being and an other existing 'outside' God?
Must we not say that this 'creation outside God' exists simul
taneously in God, in the space which God has made for it in his
omnipresence? Has God not therefore created the world 'in him
self, giving it time in his eternity, finitude in his infinity, space in
his omnipresence and freedom in his selfless love?
The trinitarian relationship of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit is so wide that the whole creation can find space, time and
freedom in it. Creation as God's act in Nothingness and as God's
order in chaos is a male, an engendering notion. Creation as God's
act in God and out of God must rather be called a feminine
concept, a bringing forth: God creates the world by letting his
world become and be in himself: Let it be!
Isaac Luria developed this idea in his doctrine of
zimsum.
Zimsum really means 'concentration' or 'contraction', a with
drawal into the self. Luria transformed the ancient doctrine about
God's concentration at the single point of his Shekinah in the
Temple, into the doctrine of God's concentrated inversion for the
purpose of creating the world. The 'existence of the universe was
made possible through a shrinkage process in God'. That is his
answer to the question: since God is 'all in all', how can anything
else that is not God exist at this specific point? How can God
create out of 'nothing' when there cannot be such a thing as
22

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nothing, since his essence is everything and interpenetrates every

thing? Luria's answer is that God has released a certain sector of
his being, from which he has withdrawn - 'a kind of primal,
mystical space'; and into this, accordingly, he can issue from him
self in his creation and his revelation. The very first act of the
infinite Being was therefore not a step 'outwards' but a step 'in
wards', a 'self-withdrawal of God from himself into himself, as
Gershom Scholem puts it; that is to say, it was a passio Dei, not
an actio. The very first act of all is therefore an act that veils, not
one that reveals; a limitation on God's part, not a de-limitation. It
is only in Act II that God issues from himself as creator into that
primal space which he had previously released in Act I.
The world process is therefore to be understood as a two-sided
one. Every stage in the creation process contains within itself the
tension between the light flooding back into God and the light that
breaks forth from him. In other words, every act outwards is
preceded by an act inwards which makes the 'outwards' possible.
God, that is to say, continually creates inwards and outwards
simultaneously. He creates by withdrawing himself, and because
he withdraws himself. Creation in chaos and out of nothing, which
is an act of power, is also a self-humiliation on God's part, a
lowering of himself into his own impotence. Creation is a work of
God's humility and his withdrawal into himself. God acts on him
self when he acts creatively. His inward and his outward aspects
therefore correspond to one another and mirror one another. His
action is grounded in his passion. Jakob Emden is no doubt right
when he says that the doctrine of zimzum is the only serious
attempt ever made to think through the idea of 'creation out of
nothing' in a truly theological w a y . Even if we do not follow the
speculations in natural philosophy which developed out of it, the
basic idea of this doctrine gives us the chance to think of the world
in God without falling victims to pantheism, and to see the history
of the divine self-humiliation and the history of human freedom in
a continual relationship of reciprocity.
23

Luria's doctrine of zimzum is part of his doctrine of God's

Shekinah. Christian theology talks about 'God's indwelling' in the
doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit 'into
our hearts' (Rom. 5.3) and 'on all flesh' (Joel 2 . 2 8 - 3 2 ; Acts 2 . 1 7 )
is the beginning of the new, eschatological creation. It will be
completed when God is 'all in all' (I Cor. 1 5 . 2 8 AV). God will

The Creation of the Father

dwell in this perfected creation and, on the other hand, creation

itself will live from God.
If Christian faith looks back to 'creation in the beginning', it will
already discover the presence of the Holy Spirit there, as the cre
ative Spirit. Faith cannot develop any view of creation that excludes
the Spirit. Creation only exists in the power of the divine Spirit,
which has entered into it. It would perish if God withdrew his
Spirit from it (Ps. 104.29f.). That is why the whole creation also
sighs and longs for the revealing of the liberty of the children of
God. It is the divine Spirit who cries out for redeeming freedom in
enslaved creation (Rom. 8.9ff.). The existence of creation in the
Spirit shows itself in the torment, the striving and the tension of
all matter, and in the hunger of all living things for freedom.
24

If we think about this external state of affairs, transferring it by

a process of reflection to the inner relationship of the Trinity, then
it means that the Father, through an alteration of his love for the
Son (that is to say through a contraction of the Spirit), and the
Son, through an alteration in his response to the Father's love (that
is, through an inversion of the Spirit) have opened up the space,
the time and the freedom for that 'outwards' into which the Father
utters himself creatively through the Son. For God himself this
utterance means an emptying of himself - a self-determination for
the purpose of a self-limitation. Time is an interval in eternity,
finitude is a space in infinity, and freedom is a concession of the
eternal love. God withdraws himself in order to go out of himself.
Eternity breathes itself in, so as to breathe out the Spirit of life.
The federal theological tradition has termed this God's trinitarian decision to create the world, interpreting it as God's innertrinitarian covenant. But it has never developed the implications.
For it is in this eternal covenant of the Trinity, a covenant made
for creation and glorification, that the self-determination of the
Father, the Son and the Spirit takes place; and this self-determi
nation, as self-limitation, means making room for creation and
making possible the liberty of the non-divine image of God in God.
25

3. Trinitarian

Creation

What inner-trinitarian form can be perceived in the creation of the

world out of God in God?
It is in his love for the Son that the Father determines to be the

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Creator of the world. It is because he loves the Son that he becomes

the Creator. His self-communicating love for the one like himself
opens itself to the Other and becomes creative, which means an
ticipating every possible response. Because he creates the world by
virtue of his eternal love for the Son, the world is, through his
eternal will, destined for good, and is nothing other than an expres
sion of his love. The world is good, just as God is himself goodness.
That is why God has pleasure in it. T h a t is why he can expect his
image, man, to respond to his creative love, so that he may not
only enjoy bliss with his Son, in eternity, but may also find bliss in
man, in time. If we were to understand creation merely as an opus
trinitatis indivisum ad extra, then we could only proceed from a
decision of will on the part of the one God, and would not be in
a position to define the act of creation any more precisely than
that. But if we proceed from the inner-trinitarian relationships of
the Persons in the Trinity, then it becomes clear that the Father
creates the one who is his Other by virtue of his love for the Son.
So creation does not only correspond to God's will; it corresponds
to his eternal love as well. Contrary to the Augustinian tradition,
it is not that the work of creation is only 'appropriated' to the
Father, though being actually the work of the whole Trinity. On
the contrary, creation is actually a product of the Father's love and
is ascribed to the whole Trinity.
If the Father creates the world in his love for the Son, then he
also creates the world through him. In his eternal Son he sees the
world. It is for fellowship with the Son that he destines men and
women. Everything that is made, is made to point in the direction
of the free kingdom of the Son. So it is from eternity that the Son
has been destined to be the Logos, the mediator of creation. If he
is destined to be the mediator of creation, then he is also destined
to be the 'centre' for free mankind - destined, that is, for incar
nation, and to be the leader and Lord of the kingdom of liberty.
The idea of the Son's mediating function in creation (which is
necessary for the trinitarian concept) stands in correlation both to
the idea of the incarnation of God's Son, and to the idea of the
lordship of the Son of Man.
Can we say that, since the Son is destined to be the Logos, he is
the divinely immanent archetype of the idea of the world? This can
be said in the sense of eternal love, since the Son is in eternity the
complete response to the self-communicating love of the Father, so

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113

that in the Son the Father arrives at blissful love. If the Father
creates the world by virtue of his love for the Son, then by virtue
of the Son's answering love the world becomes the bliss of God
the Father and the Son. That is what is meant by the ancient
statement according to which the 'purpose' of creation was 'to
glorify God'. The purpose of creation, and God's desire for selfcommunication, is fulfilled in the free joy of existence, in the
happiness of gratitude and the eternal praise of created beings. It
is in fellowship and in the correspondence to the Son's responding,
self-giving love for the Father that creation arrives at its truth and
God's image on earth achieves freedom. So it is through the Son
that the Father creates the world.
He creates through the operation of the Holy Spirit. He does not
only create out of chaos, through his word of command, as the
formulations in the Priestly Writing would have us suppose. Nor,
as Ecclesiasticus later writes, does he simply create ex nihilo. True
though that is, he creates out of the powers and energies of his
own Spirit. It is the powers and energies of the Holy Spirit that
bridge the difference between Creator and creature, the actor and
the act, the master and the work - a difference which otherwise
seems to be unbridged by any relation at all. This certainly does
not make creation divine, but it is nevertheless brought into the
sphere of the Spirit's power, and acquires a share in the inner life
of the Trinity itself. A trinitarian doctrine of creation is able to
absorb the elements of truth in the idea of creation as God's 'work'
and in the notion of creation as a divine overflowing or 'emana
tion'. The Holy Spirit is 'poured out'. The metaphor of emanation
belongs to the language of pneumatology. It is therefore wrong to
polemize continually against the neo-Platonic doctrine of emana
tion in considering the Christian doctrine of creation. Creation in
the Spirit has a closer relationship to the Creator than the act has
to the actor or the work to the master. All the same, the world is
not 'begotten' by God, as is the Son, who is one in essence with
the Father. This intermediate situation, between creation and en
gendering, is expressed by the 'pouring out' of the energies of the
creative Spirit. This Spirit is the divine breath of life which fills
everything with its own life. For the creation from God in God,
the trinitarian order is this:
The Father creates the world out of his eternal love through the
Son, for the purpose of finding a response to his love in time, in

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Trinity

the power of the Holy Spirit, which binds together what is in itself
different.
In creation all activity proceeds from the Father. But because the
Son, as Logos, and the Spirit, as energy, are both involved - each
in its own way and yet equally - creation must be ascribed to the
unity of the triune God. In his creative love God is united with
creation, which is his Other, giving it space, time and liberty in his
own infinite life.

3 THE INCARNATION OF THE SON

Again, without anticipating a detailed christology, let us here only

consider the questions arising from the doctrine of the incarnation
as they affect the concept of God.

1. Cur Deus

homo?

In christology too it is a fundamental question whether for God

the incarnation is fortuitous or necessary. Is it based on God's will
or on his nature?
Dogmatic tradition is familiar with two answers:
{a) The incarnation of the Son of God was made necessary by
man's sin; it was necessary for his reconciliation.
{b) God intended the incarnation of the Son of God from etern
ity. His intention was formed together with the idea of the world,
though taking precedence over it; so that creation represents the
external framework and preparation for the Son's incarnation.
In the first case the incarnation is merely an 'emergency measure'
on God's part, taken in order to counter the emergency of sin in
the world. In the second case the incarnation belongs to the eter
nally self-communicating love of God itself.
In the first case the incarnation is only thought of as the func
tional presupposition for the atoning sacrifice on the cross. It has
no significance of its own. Consequently the bond between God
and man in Christ will be dissolved once reconciliation has been
completed and sin, with its consequences, has been eliminated. In
the second case it is only the incarnation of the Son which com
pletes creation-in-the-beginning through the new bond between
God and man manifested in Christ the Son, and through the
brotherhood into which he receives believers. The incarnation of
26

27

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115
28

the Son then becomes the foundation of the new creation. The
fundamental theological decision about this question has often
been talked out on the basis of the speculative question: would the
Son of God have become man if the human race had remained free
of sin?
If the incarnation of the Son is viewed merely as the functional
presupposition for the atoning sacrifice made necessary by sin, then
it is an expression of the saving will of God outwards. It only
affects God's relationship to the world, not his understanding of
himself. God can save sinners by sending his Son; but he does not
have to do so. His own nature remains untouched by the sending
of the Reconciler. He did not suffer through human sin and does
not gain anything - anything additional to himself - through the
reconciliation of the world. Once the incarnate Son of God has
achieved the reconciliation of the world with God, he himself
becomes superfluous. His mediation between the gracious God and
sinful men and women is bound to come to an end when he himself
ceases to have a function. This is already inherent in the concept
of the mediator; otherwise the mediator would stand in the way
of what he mediates. Once creation has been redeemed, purified
from sin and liberated from death, the God-Man no longer has any
place in it. Any functional and merely soteriological christology is
manifestly on the wrong track, simply because it abolishes itself in
this w a y . This applies to the patristic definition according to
which God becomes man so that we men may become as gods;
and it is equally true of modern 'representative' christologies. The
incarnation of the Son is more than merely a means to an end.
Christology is more than the presupposition for soteriology.
29

30

Even if we make the 'emergency' of human sin the starting point,

so as to grasp the necessity of divine reconciliation, and in order
to expect the coming of the divine Reconciler, we must go beyond
the measure of human need if we are to understand grace as God's
grace.
It is true that love is brought to its act of mercy through the need
of the beloved; but as love it precedes this form of mercy - precedes
even the pitiable state of the beloved. The beloved's need is only
the occasion (occasio) for the love, not its reason (causa). The
necessity moulds the specific form which the love has to assume if
it is to save; but love's inward passion and its manifest interest
come first. That is why love cannot stop loving once the acute need

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Trinity

of the beloved is at an end. Ultimately, love cannot be content

simply to overcome sin. It only arrives at its goal when it has also
overcome the conditions that make sin possible. Love does not
merely want to vanquish the death of the beloved; it wants to
overcome the beloved's mortality too, so that he may be eternally
beside the beloved and so that the beloved may be eternally beside
himself.
Applied to christology, this means that the incarnation of the
Son is the perfected self-communication of the triune God to his
world. But the fact that, from the manger to the cross, the incarnate
Son has to take upon him the form of a servant, in order to heal
through his sufferings and save through his death, is determined
by sin and death, which pervert God's world and enslave men and
women.
According to Paul Christ was not merely 'delivered for our
offences' but was also 'raised again for our justification' (Rom.
4.25 AV). Reconciling sinners with God through his cross, he
brings about the new righteousness, the new life, the new creature
through his resurrection. The justification of the sinner is more
than merely the forgiveness of sins. It leads to new life: 'Where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more' (Rom. 5 . 2 0 ) . This is the
way Paul expresses the imbalance between sin and grace, and the
added value of grace. This surplus of grace over and above the
forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation of sinners, represents the
power of the new creation which consummates creation-in-thebeginning. It follows from this that the Son of God did not
become man simply because of the sin of men and women, but
rather for the sake of perfecting creation. So 'the Son of God would
have become man even if the human race had remained without
sin'. That is how we should have to answer the question, if we
wanted to embark on empty speculation.
31

But how are the creation of the world and the incarnation con
nected? The creation of the world culminates in the making of
human beings 'to be the image of God' (Gen. 1.26L; Ps. 8 ) . This
statement about man has to be interpreted as both destiny and
promise. If Christ is called the incarnation of the Son, and if in his
manifested form he is called the One who has become man, then
in him we have the fulfilment of the promise made to man that he
will be 'the image of the invisible God'. Christ is the 'true man' in
this perverted and inhumane world. It is therefore in fellowship
3 2

33

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117

with him that believers discover the truth of human existence. And
this means that the incarnation of the Son has a significance of its
own.
This brings us to a further definition in the trinitarian concept
of creation: the Son is the Logos through whom the Father creates
his world. The Son is that image of God for which God destines
human beings. In relation to them the Son is God's true 'ikon'.
That is why the initial creation is open: it waits for the appearance
'of man', of true man, the person corresponding to God, God's
image. These dimensions are inherent in the New Testament christological titles 'ikon', 'image', 'reflection of God'. It is only because
in relation to human beings the Son is God's primordial image that
he can become 'the first-born among many brethren' (Rom. 8 . 2 9 ) .
Anyone who is 'made like unto the Son of God' enters into the
truth of his human destiny and fulfils his divine promise.
But if God's world is designed for men and women, and if the
incarnation of the Son fulfils this design of creation, then in inten
tion the incarnation precedes the creation of the world. The fact
that the eternal Son of the Father becomes God's created ikon then
belongs to his eternal destiny. This is in accordance with the Son
as Logos, which he becomes for the sake of creation. The creation
of the world and the incarnation therefore intervene deeply in the
inner-trinitarian relationships of God. Again, we can make the
meaning of this event clear to ourselves from the life of love.
The incarnation of the Son is neither a matter of indifference for
God nor is it necessary for his divinity. If God is love, then as we
have already said - it is part of his loving self-communication and
a matter of course for him to communicate himself, not only to his
'like' but also to his 'other'. It is only in and through its Other that
love becomes creative love. Self-communicating
love, however,
only becomes fulfilled, blissful love when its love is returned. That
is why the Father finds bliss in the eternal response to his love
through the Son. If he communicates his love for the Son creatively
through him to the one who is other than himself, then he also
desires to find bliss through this other's responsive love. But this
responsive love is a free response. If the Son becomes 'man' that
is to say, the image of God - then he communicates his responsive
love to those who are destined for manhood and womanhood destined, that is, to be the image of God; he gathers them into his
relationship of sonship to the Father and communicates to them

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his own liberty, which is above the world. In this way the incarnate
Son glorifies the Father in his world and perfects humanity's cre
ation, which destines men and women to be the image of God.
This of course presupposes the forgiveness of sins and the rec
onciliation of sinners through his death, as well as the liberation
of men and women in his universal kingdom. But reconciliation
and liberation through Christ are directed towards man's destined
'likeness' to 'the image of God'. That is to say, what is at stake is
the fulfilment of the promise given with creation.

2. The Kenosis of God

We must again ask whether the incarnation of the Son is really a
divine act directed outwards, or whether it corresponds to an
inner-trinitarian process. If, as we have shown, the significance of
the Son's incarnation is his true humanity, then the incarnation
reveals the true humanity of G o d . That is not an anthropomorph
ic way of speaking, which is therefore not in accordance with
God's divinity; it is the quintessence of his divinity itself.
34

The self-humiliation of God, which we already talked about in

connection with the doctrine of the creation of the world, is fulfilled
in the incarnation of the Son. God permits an existence different
from his own by limiting himself. He withdraws his omnipotence
in order to set his image, men and women, free. He allows his
world to exist in his eternity. The divine kenosis which begins with
the creation of the world reaches its perfected and completed form
in the incarnation of the Son.
But we also talked about God's humiliation of himself in con
nection with the indwelling of the Spirit and the divine Wisdom in
history. For through his Shekinah God participates in man's des
tiny, making the sufferings of his people his own. Conversely,
through his indwelling, people participate in his life and in his will;
they love with his love and suffer with his suffering. The God
who in his indwellings confronts himself, becomes recognizable in
the incarnate Son who confronts the Father in the world.
In the incarnation of the Son the triune God enters into the
limited, finite situation. Not only does he enter into this state of
being man; he accepts and adopts it himself, making it part of his
own, eternal life. He becomes the human God.
If this is the meaning which is inherent in the incarnation of the
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119

Son as such, then God's self-humiliation is completed and perfected

in the passion and death of Jesus the Son. Here too an indwelling
significance is perceptible: God does not merely enter into the
finitude of men and women; he enters into the situation of their
sin and God-forsakenness as well. He does not merely enter into
this situation; he also accepts and adopts it himself, making it part
of his own eternal life. The kenosis is realized on the cross. Of
course it serves the reconciliation and redemption of men and
women, but it also contains in itself this other significance: God
becomes the God who identifies himself with men and women to
the point of death, and beyond. The incarnation of the Son is not
something transitional. It is and remains to all eternity. There is
no God other than the incarnate, human God who is one with men
and women.
The outward incarnation presupposes inward
self-humiliation.
That is why the incarnation intervenes in the inner relations of the
Trinity.
Again we can make this clear from the image of love. Love that
communicates itself requires response if it is to find bliss. But from
his image in the world the Father can only expect the love that is
a free response; and in order to make this free response possible,
love must concede freedom and offer freedom to the beloved. In
order to experience the free response it desires, love must wait
patiently. It cannot compel a response by violence. For the sake of
freedom, and the love responded to in freedom, God limits and
empties himself. He withdraws his omnipotence because he has
confidence in the free response of men and women.
God does not encounter men and women 'as God'; he encounters
them in human form, in the incarnate and crucified Son. With
respect to God's omnipotence this means a limitation. But with
respect to God's goodness it is a de-limitation. His strength is made
perfect in weakness. The traditional doctrine about God's kenosis
has always looked at just the one aspect of God's self-limitation,
self-emptying and self-humiliation. It has overlooked the other
side: God's limitations inwardly are de-limitations outwards. God
is nowhere greater than in his humiliation. God is nowhere more
glorious than in his impotence. God is nowhere more divine than
when he becomes man.

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3. The Only Begotten Son, the First-Born of Many

Brethren

The twofold meaning of the sonship of Jesus, inwards and out

wards, for God and for man, can be perceived best from the change
from 'only begotten Son' (^lovoyevtjg) to 'the first-born of many
36

brethren' (ngajToroxog).

The 'only begotten Son' is the Father's only, own, eternal Son.
We are told that the Father sends him into the world, that he
delivers him up to death on the cross 'for us all', that he raises and
exalts him. The idea of the 'only begotten' Son invokes the category
of exclusiveness. It is in this category that he exists; it is in this
that he is delivered up and exalted: he and he alone, the one for
the many.
'The first-born among many brethren', on the other hand, means
the first among many successors, one brother among other brothers
and sisters. What the only begotten Son does and suffers is unique;
it happens only once. What the first-born brother does and suffers
is for the first time, in an open fellowship.
What the dogmatic doctrine of the two natures termed 'Christ's
divinity' really means Jesus as 'only begotten Son' in his exclusive
ness and uniqueness. What it called 'Christ's humanity' really has
to do with Jesus as 'the first-born among many brethren'. For the
one person of Jesus Christ is not a matter of two metaphysically
different 'natures'. It is an expression of his exclusive relationship
to the Father, by reason of his origin, and his inclusive relationship
of fellowship to his many brothers and sisters. His relationship to
God is the relation of God's own Son to his Father. His relationship
to the world is the relationship of the eldest to his brethren
(Rom. 8.29) and of the first-born of all creation to other created
beings (Col. 1.15). There is no brotherhood of Christ without his
sonship. But his sonship is never without his brotherhood.
37

What do the words 'first born' mean? The link with the term
eikon, image, suggests that the only begotten Son of the Father is
at the same time the prototype for the brothers and sisters who
find their way t o the Father in fellowship with him, and who with
him become the heirs of the coming kingdom. But what is meant
too (as the connection with the phrase 'of like form' shows) is that
the only begotten Son of the Father is at the same time the leader
of salvation and liberty for the brothers and sisters who follow
him. It is not only the being of Jesus Christ, but also his way into

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121

passion and glory which is meant by 'being of like form'. Believers

enter into the fellowship of Christ's sufferings and take the impress
of the cross - become cruciform. They hope to become of like
form with the transfigured body of Christ in glory (Phil. 3 . 2 1 ) .
That is why we can talk about both 'our crucified Brother' and
'our risen Brother'. What is meant is the whole form of existence
which is lived by Jesus Christ and which takes its stamp from him.
There is no fellowship with Jesus the Son except what we find
in fellowship with Jesus the brother. Fellowship with Jesus the
brother is participation in his mission and his fate. Fellowship with
Jesus the brother means ultimately participation in the liberation
of the whole enslaved creation, which longs for the 'revealing of
the liberty of the Sons of God' (Rom. 8 . 1 9 , 2 1 ) and for the experi
ence of the 'redemption of the body' (Rom. 8 . 2 3 ) .

4. Trinitarian

Incarnation

In the incarnation of the Son the triune God communicates himself

wholly and utterly. In the incarnation of the Son God himself fulfils
the promise made to mankind in creation - the promise that man
should be 'the image of God'. In the incarnation of the Son God
humiliates himself, accepting and adopting threatened and perv
erted human nature in its entirety, making it part of his eternal life.
In the incarnation the only begotten Son becomes the first-born of
many brothers and sisters, who find the Father through his brother
hood, so becoming free to deliver enslaved creation.
Through the incarnation of the Son the Father acquires a twofold
counterpart for his love: his Son and his image. In this he experi
ences a twofold response to his love: the response of the Son,
which is self-evident - a matter of course - and the free response
of the image; the unique response of the Son, and the multifarious
response of the Son's brothers and sisters. This means an increase
of his riches and his bliss.
In his character as ikon, the Son becomes the first-born among
many brethren. Through this he throws open to his brothers and
sisters his relationship of sonship to the Father, gathering them
into his divine liberty and into his rule over God's world. In
fellowship with the only begotten Son, people become co-opted
sons and daughters of the Father.
In the incarnation of the Son the Trinity throws itself open, as

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Trinity

it were. The Father of the Son becomes the Father of the new, free
and united human race. Through the brotherhood of the Son God's
children enter into the trinitarian relations of the Son, the Father
and the Spirit. As people in the world, they simultaneously exist
'in God' and 'God in them'.

4 THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE SPIRIT

In this section too we shall only be dealing with those pneumatological questions that touch on the concept of God. But for this
some basic concepts which have a bearing on the understanding of
the Holy Spirit and his activity have to be clarified.

1. The Resurrection

and the Outpouring

of the Spirit

According to the gospels, before Easter the activity of the Spirit

was apparently confined exclusively to Jesus. He preaches and
acts in the power of the Spirit, but the Spirit is not transferred to
the disciples. They only receive the divine Spirit after Easter, and
because of Easter. That is why John 7 . 3 9 says: 'For as yet the
Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.' This
is also reflected in the history of baptism. Up to Easter Jesus was
the only one in the whole circle of the disciples who had been
baptized. But after Easter the disciples baptized all believers. Bap
tism takes place in the divine Spirit. It presupposes his presence: in
the case of Jesus, in his own person; after his resurrection, in the
community of believers.
38

The resurrection of the crucified Jesus precedes the general out

pouring of the Spirit. On this date the eschatological era begins.
According to Luke, the pentecostal event (Acts 2) fulfils the Joel
promise in salvation history. Paul expounded this in a detailed
christological interpretation. Jesus was raised 'through the Spirit'
(Rom. 8.11). The Spirit is the divine power that gives life to the
dead (I Cor. 6 . 1 4 ) . He is the divine energy of the new creation. If
Jesus is raised through the Spirit, then he is obviously raised in the
Spirit. As the second Adam, the risen One becomes the life-giving
Spirit (I Cor. 1 5 . 4 5 ) . This makes the identifying formula possible:
'The Lord is the Spirit' (II Cor. 3 . 1 7 ) . This identification provides
the justification for the phrase according to which Jesus, from
being an object of the Spirit's activity, becomes the subject of the

The Transfiguration

of the Spirit

123

sending of the Spirit on to the church. In sending the disciples out

into the world with the mission of his Father, the risen Christ gives
them the Holy Spirit (John 20.21f.). It is through the risen Christ
that God pours out the Holy Spirit (Titus 3.5f.).
It is on the strength of this that the New Testament calls the
Spirit the Spirit of God (Rom. 8 . 9 , 1 1 , 1 4 ; I Cor. 2 . 1 1 , 1 4 ) . He
'proceeds from the Father', 'comes from the Father', 'is sent by the
Father' (John 1 5 . 2 6 ; 1 4 . 2 6 ; I John 4 . 1 ) . But he is also called 'the
Spirit of Christ', 'the Spirit of the Lord', or 'the Spirit of his Son'
(Phil. 1.19; II Cor. 3 . 1 7 ; Gal. 4 . 6 ) . In considering the eschatological event of Christ's resurrection and the experience of the Spirit
we therefore have to talk about the Holy Spirit in trinitarian terms.
In this context, however, this does not as yet say anything about
the character of the Spirit. If he is linked with the Father as subject,
or with the Son as subject, then this can also mean the strength,
the power, the energy which proceeds from God or from Christ.
3 9

If the resurrection of Christ from the dead is the Spirit's first

eschatological 'work', how then are we to understand Christ's
resurrection ? Christ is raised from the dead into God's eternal life.
That is what is meant by the word resurrection. But it also means
at the same time the transfiguration of the humiliated and crucified
Jesus into the glory of G o d . Transfiguration means both a glo
rifying and a transformation.
The story of the transfiguration in the synoptic gospels (Mark
9 . 2 - 9 ; Matt. 1 7 . 1 - 9 ; Luke 9 . 2 8 - 3 6 ) describes what is meant by
the word. The story of what happened on the mountain is to be
understood as something that anticipates the disciples' Easter ex
perience. The glorification of Jesus in the eternal presence of God
is told in the form of a theophany. His form begins to shine in a
supernatural light.
Paul tells us what is meant by transformation in Philippians
3 . 2 1 , when he says that 'our lowly body will be like his (Christ's)
glorious body'. What is meant is a change in the body's form: a
change from the form of humility, marked by sin and death, to the
form of glory, liberated from sin and death, marked by the inex
haustible, creative livingness of God. Resurrection is therefore
either to be understood as Christ's bodily metamorphosis, or it is
not understandable at all. The Old Testament idea of the resurrec
tion of the dead already resists every form of spiritualizing reinterpretation. The eschatological 'work' of the Holy Spirit is phys40

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The World of the Trinity

ical resurrection, physical transfiguration, and transformation of

the physical form of existence. It is from the transfigured humanity
of the risen Christ that the Holy Spirit proceeds. It is through this
that the Spirit is mediated. The One who is physically transfigured,
transfigures physically, as the first-born, his brothers and sisters,
who are made in the same form as himself.
The expression glorification is also used for Christ's resurrection,
by John especially: the raising of Jesus from the dead is his glori
fication in a twofold way. He is exalted to be Lord of the dawning
kingdom of God; and he is transfigured into the Lord of the coming
glory of God (I Cor. 2 . 8 ) . The coming glory of God therefore
already shines on the face of Christ, lighting up the hearts of men
and women, as the light shone in darkness on the first day of
creation (II Cor. 4 . 6 ) . God the Father glorifies Christ the Son
through his resurrection, while the Son glorifies the Father through
his obedience and his self-surrender. The event of their mutual
glorification is the work of the Holy Spirit.

2. The Beginning of Glory

With Jesus' resurrection, transfiguration, transformation and glor
ification, the general outpouring of the Holy Spirit 'on all flesh'
begins. This experience was, and is, interpreted eschatologically by
Christians. The Spirit is merely the special 'first fruits' (Rom. 8.23)
and the assuring 'earnest' or 'guarantee' (II Cor. 1.22) of the com
ing glory which fills the universe. In the Spirit people already
experience now what is still to come. In the Spirit is anticipated
what will be in the future. With the Spirit the End-time begins. The
messianic era commences where the forces and energies of the
divine Spirit descend on all flesh, making it alive for evermore. In
the activity of the Spirit, consequently, the renewal of life, the new
obedience and the new fellowship of men and women is experi
enced. The marks of the eschatological experience of the Spirit are
boundless freedom, exhuberant joy and inexhaustible love. In the
Spirit the 'new song' is sung.
The experience of the Spirit does not separate those affected by
it from 'the rest of the world'. On the contrary, their experience
brings them into open solidarity with it. For what they experience
is - pars pro toto - the beginning of the world's future. The
experience of the Spirit is the presence of the Spirit in full and
41

The Transfiguration

of the Spirit

125

complete form. But this presence of the Spirit is the presence of

future glory, which fulfils the times; it is not the presence of etern
ity, which obliterates time altogether. That is why this experience
does not snatch people out of time but makes them open for time's
future.
Finally, the experience of the Holy Spirit, as distinct from human
forms of spiritualization and sublimation, is always a physical
experience. This experience is the beginning of 'the resurrection of
the body' (Rom. 8 . 2 3 ) , which is the direct opposite of the body's
repression or exploitation. The experience of the Spirit sets the
person who is touched by it in a beginning event which is open for
the coming liberty of the whole creation, and is therefore still
incomplete. The experience of the Spirit begins the completion and
perfecting of the creation of human beings and all things, which
makes them the home of the triune God. In the indwelling of the
Spirit, whether it be in the heart, in the community of believers, or
in the new creation, God always comes to be at home in his own
world.
42

3. The Spirit as Subject

Is the Holy Spirit to be understood as an energy of God the Father
and the Son (which means dynamistically), or as a divine person,
like the Father and the Son?
It is possible to establish exegetically that 'in Paul every approach
to a personalization of the Spirit is lacking', whereas in the Johannine writings the ground is slowly being prepared for the notion
of the Holy Spirit as a person. But whether we ought to interpret
the Holy Spirit in a dynamistic or a personalistic sense is not a
question of ideas about his nature which have already been formed,
or still have to be formed. It is a question of what necessarily has
to be said about his activity. Whether it is termed the Spirit of God
or the Spirit of Christ, what is meant is an energy or power whose
subject is God or Christ. Are there also statements which suggest
that we ought to assume that the Holy Spirit is the independent
subject of his own acts? Is the Holy Spirit the subject of acts
affecting the Son and the Father? For it is only in this sense that
it would be justifiable to call the Holy Spirit a divine person.
43

What we have just described as being the eschatological work of

the Holy Spirit has not merely this aspect of liberating and per-

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The World of the Trinity

fecting the world so that it may become God's home. It has another
aspect too: Jesus' glorification as Lord, and the glorification of the
Father through him (Phil. 2 . 1 0 - 1 1 ) . By renewing men and women,
by bringing about their new solidarity and fellowship, and by
delivering the body from death, the Holy Spirit glorifies the risen
Lord and, through him, the Father. This glorification of the
Father through the Son in the Spirit is the consummation of crea
tion. It expresses its perfect joy in eternal rejoicing - 'to him be
glory for ever and ever' (Rev. 1.6). This is the eternal feast of
heaven and earth with God, which makes creation's joy complete.
The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus the Son and through him God the
Father. It does so through the people and things which it lays hold
of, transforms and transfigures. People and things are therefore
gathered into the trinitarian glorification of the Son and the Father
through the Spirit. In this way they are also united with God and
in God himself.
44

If the glorification of the Son and the Father proceeds actively

from the Spirit, then the union of God also proceeds from him.
This means the union of the Son with the Father, and of the Father
with the Son. But it also means the union of men and women with
God and their union in God (John 1 7 . 2 1 ) .
The Spirit is the glorifying God. The Spirit is the unifying God.
In this respect the Spirit is not an energy proceeding from the
Father or from the Son; it is a subject from whose activity the Son
and the Father receive their glory and their union, as well as their
glorification through the whole creation, and their world as their
eternal home. If the Holy Spirit means the subject who glorifies the
Father and the Son, and unites the Father and the Son, then the
'exegetical question' should be capable of solution as well; for in
this respect Paul too in fact understands the Holy Spirit as the
centre of the act, which is to say as 'person'.

4. Trinitarian

Glorification

What form of the Trinity is manifested in the activity of the Holy

Spirit? A twofold trinitarian order is perceptible here:
(a) In the outpouring of the Spirit upon men and women, the
Spirit comes from the Father through the Son. Consequently he is
called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the
Father and the Spirit of his Son. The Spirit proceeds from the

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of the Spirit

127

Father. The Father sends him. The Son begs for the sending of the
Spirit. He mediates the Spirit. He moulds it into the Spirit of
sonship. At this point we do not as yet need to go into the dogmatic
problem about 'Son and Spirit'. It is sufficient to perceive the
trinitarian structures in the biblical testimony, in which the coming
and efficacy of the Holy Spirit is understood and witnessed to. The
difference between the Father and the Son, and the fellowship
between them, also shapes the interpretation of the Spirit's activity.
(b) In glorification through the Spirit, however, we find the
order of the Trinity reversed. In the wake of glorification, the song
of praise and the unity proceed from the Spirit through the Son to
the Father. Here all the activity proceeds from the Spirit. He is the
maker of the new creation. He achieves the glorification of God
through the new creation's praise and testimony. He creates for
the Father in heaven that joy on earth which finally gives him bliss.
It is through the Spirit that the Father receives his honour and his
glory, and his union with the world. W e have 'access to the Father'
(Eph. 2 . 1 8 ) through Christ in the Spirit.
45

If we want to describe in pictorial terms the two orders of the

Trinity which are to be found in the biblical testimony, we can say:
In the first order the divine Trinity throws itself open in the sending
of the Spirit. It is open for the world, open for time, open for the
renewal and unification of the whole creation. In the second order
the movement is reversed: in the transfiguration of the world
through the Spirit all men turn to God and, moved by the Spirit,
come to the Father through Christ the Son. In the glorification of
the Spirit, world and times, people and things are gathered to the
Father in order to become his world.
The trinitarian movement of the sending of the Spirit from the
Father through the Son may still be viewed as a 'work outwards'
although it too is preceded by inner changes in the divine Trinity
- changes from which this movement arises. But the trinitarian
movement of the gathering of the Spirit through the Son to the
Father is a work 'inwards', a movement of the Trinity; by virtue
of the opening of the Trinity in the sending of the Spirit, however,
it is a movement into which the whole creation is gathered. All
things are assembled under the head, Christ, and all tongues will
confess him Lord - to the glory of the Father. All people and things
then partake of the 'inner-trinitarian life' of God. They join in the
responding love of the Son and will thereby become the joy of the
46

The "World of the

128

Trinity

Father's blissful love. Then the triune God is at home in his world,
and his world exists out of his inexhaustible glory. This is the
eternal feast of heaven and earth. This is the dance of the redeemed.
This is 'the laughter of the universe'. Then all things join in the
Song of Wisdom: 'Then I was daily his delight, rejoicing before
him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and there was delight
over me among the sons of men' (Prov. 8.30f.).
47

48

V
The Mystery of the Trinity

1 A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIAN MONOTHEISM

1. Monotheism

and

Monarchy

The patristic doctrine of the Trinity does not originate in an ab

sorption of the philosophical doctrine of the Logos, and of neoPlatonic triadologies, as has often been maintained. Its source is to
be found in the New Testament witness to the trinitarian history
of the Son, and in the church's practice of baptism in the name of
the triune God.
The early church's doctrine of the Trinity took on form during
its resistance against dangerous heresies, in which the unity of
Christ with God was called in question, either on God's behalf or
on Christ's. It was only in these controversies that trinitarian dog
ma grew up; and with the dogma grew its formulation, as philosphical terminology was given a new theological mould.
The necessary resistance against Arianism on the one hand, and
the laborious surmounting of Sabellianism on the other, led to the
development of an explicit doctrine of the Trinity. Both heresies
are christological in nature. Consequently the dogma of the Trinity
was evolved out of christology. It is designed to preserve faith in
Christ, the Son of God, and to direct the Christian hope towards
full salvation in the divine fellowship. The doctrine of the Trinity
cannot therefore be termed 'a speculation'. On the contrary, it is
the theological premise for christology and soteriology.
The heresies which forced the church to formulate the doctrine
of the Trinity in its early centuries, are by no means historically
fortuitous and a thing of the past. They are permanent dangers to

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

Christian theology. The deviations which are called by the names

o f Arius and Sabellius are continually among us theologically.
Consequently it is useful to repeat the fundamental decisions of the
early creeds, in spite of all the hermeneutical differences which we
today, rightly, feel and perceive. These heresies have to be treated
typologically and systematically, not merely historically.
2

The Second Epistle of Clement (1.1) already puts its finger on

the fundamental problem when it demands that Christians think
about Jesus 'as they do about God' (&g negi deov). The reason
it gives is a soteriological one: 'For if we think any less of him than
this, then we expect but little of him.' Even externally, the adora
tion of Christ as God must be clearly recognizable. Pliny the
Younger reported to Rome in the first century that the Christians
in Bithynia praised Christ in their worship as if he were God {quasi
Deo). Ignatius of Antioch called Christ God without any differ
entiation at all, even though he generally added 'my' God or 'our'
God, which permits the distinction compared with 'God per se'. It
is here that the theological problem arises.
What is the relationship between Christ and God, and how is
the divine revelation in Christ related to God himself? How is the
differentiable relationship of Christ to God the Father related to
the unity of God himself? And how is the adoration of Christ as
God reconcilable with God's unity?
These questions became all the more important because, from
the time of the Christian apologists onwards, Christians won over
the educated in the Roman Empire by proclaiming the One God:
'Zs/27 &E02'.
It was the acceptance of philosphical monotheism
and the idea of the universal monarchy of the one God that made
Christianity a 'world religion', and that got over Christianity's
appearance of being a Jewish messianic sect, or a private religion.
But monotheism and monarchianism are only the names for two
sides of the same thing: the One is the principle and point of
integration for the Many. The One is the measure of the Many.
The One God has always been appealed to and comprehended in
the context of the unity of the world.
The expression fiovagxia
is a curious hellenistic word-forma
tion, deriving from fiovag and fiia dgxrj- It was most probably
in Alexandria that the divine monas - a pythagorean numerical
term - was linked together with dgxv to make up the word
fiovagxict. Erik Peterson has shown that it was the doctrine of the

A Criticism of Christian

Monotheism

131

universal monarchy of the One God which moulded Philo's hellenistic re-formation of Jewish belief: 'The God of the Jews was fused
with the monarchical concept of Greek philosophy.' Among the
Christian apologists Justin, Tatian and the church Father Tertullian, this concept therefore replaces the biblical term fiaodeia and
is used for the lordship of God (Justin), the monarchical constitu
tion of the universe (Tatian), or the singular and unique divine rule
or empire (Tertullian).
4

Let me point out at once here that this monotheistic monarchianism was, and is, an uncommonly seductive religious-political
ideology. It is the fundamental notion behind the universal and
uniform religion: One God - one Logos - one humanity; and in
the Roman empire it was bound to seem a persuasive solution for
many problems of a multi-national and multi-religious society. The
universal ruler in Rome had only to be the image and correspon
dence of the universal ruler in heaven.
Both the acceptance of the fundamental monotheistic monarchi
cal idea and its conquest through the doctrine of the Trinity must
be counted among the great theological achievements of the early
church; and this is true, not merely in the sphere of the doctrine
of faith, but in the realm of political theology as well. For mon
otheism was, and is, always a 'political problem' t o o .
Strict monotheism has to be theocratically conceived and imple
mented, as Islam proves. But once it is introduced into the doctrine
and worship of the Christian church, faith in Christ is threatened:
Christ must either recede into the series of the prophets, giving
way to the One God, or he must disappear into the One God as
one of his manifestations. The strict notion of the One God really
makes theological christology impossible, for the One can neither
be parted nor imparted. It is ineffable. The Christian church was
therefore right to see monotheism as the severest inner danger,
even though it tried on the other hand to take over the monarchical
notion of the divine lordship.
6

Strict monotheism obliges us to think of God without Christ,

and consequently to think of Christ without God as well. The
questions whether God exists and how one can be a Christian then
become two unrelated questions. But if on the other hand trinitarian dogma maintains the unity of essence between Christ and God,
then not only is Christ understood in divine terms; God is also
understood in Christian ones. The intention and consequence of

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132

the doctrine of the Trinity is not only the deification of Christ; it

is even more the Christianization of the concept of God. God
cannot be comprehended without Christ, and Christ cannot be
understood without God. If we are to perceive this, we not only
have to reject the Arian heresy; the Sabellian heresy must be dis
missed with equal emphasis.

2. Monotheistic

Christianity:

Arius

The first possible way of abandoning Christ's divinity in favour of

the One God can be found in what is known as
suhordinationism.
The doctrine of Jesus' divinity grew up out of the biblical testimony
to Jesus' sonship, and out of the Johannine doctrine of the Logos.
The alternative, on the other hand, has its roots in early Christian
Spirit christology} According to this pneumatological christology,
it was not the eternal Son of the Father who in Jesus became man;
it was the divine Spirit, who took up his dwelling in him. That is
to say, Jesus taught and ministered as a man imbued with the
Spirit. His power was the power of the divine Spirit. Through the
power of the Spirit he led a perfect life which provides an author
itative model for all believers. This can be termed dynamistic suh
ordinationism. It sets Jesus among the prophets, even if as the last
and most perfect of them. Spirit christology dominates adoptionist
suhordinationism as well. According to this, Jesus was adopted as
Son of God through the Spirit, so that he might become the first
born among many brethren. The strength of these christologies lies
in the fact that they bring out the force of the Spirit as subject in
Jesus' life and ministry. Their weakness is that, for the sake of the
One God, they are unable to bring Jesus into any essential unity
with the Father. This means that although they can find in him the
foundation for a new morality, they cannot arouse any hope for
full fellowship with God through him. The confession of faith in
Christ does not burst apart the concept of the One God. Conse
quently Christ has to be subordinated to this One God.
Paul of Samosata went a step further. He took up the doctrine
of the Logos, which had meanwhile become prevalent, but inter
preted the divine Logos as an attribute of the One God. God is
o n e and has only one visage. Consequently Jesus cannot be God
himself, but only the manifestation of one of God's attributes, an
attribute which is called Wisdom, Spirit or Logos. This is the inner

A Criticism of Christian Monotheism

133

power in which Jesus led a sinless and hence exemplary life. Jesus
was essentially perfect and a model for us, precisely because he
subordinated himself to the one God.
Arius, a pupil of Lucian of Antioch, then became the advocate
of subordinationism in its fullest form. He too starts from the idea
of the One God. He thinks of God as the simple, supreme substance
which, by virtue of its indivisible unity, also represents the ground
of all being. The One is the cause of the many and their measure,
but it is not caused itself. The One God is therefore the causeless
Cause of all things. But because the One is indivisible, it is also
ineffable. The One God is by definition 'incommunicable'. Con
sequently, for the fellowship of God and all things, there has to be
a mediation through intermediaries. Arius called the mediating
intermediary between the One God and the manifold world 'Son'
(in terms of Christian tradition) and (in philosophical terminology)
'Logos'. He is the creation of the One God, but the first, and hence
the created being who is prototypical for all others. If he occupies
this first mediating position, then he must himself, like all created
beings, be alterable, mutable and temporal. If he were not, he could
neither form the world nor rule over it. Arius can only see 'the
Son' as 'the first-born of creation', not as the only begotten Son of
the Father, because he feels compelled to adhere to the unity of the
One God.
This first-born of all creation, God's Wisdom and Reason, has
appeared in Jesus. Consequently Jesus can be called the first-born
Son, but not the only begotten Son. Arianism's greatness lay in the
way it brought Jesus and the divinity manifested in him as close as
possible to the One God, yet without destroying God's undivided
unity. Its monarchianism took the form: One God - one Logos one world - one world monarchy. Its christology of the first-born
Son permitted only this graduated succession of being and
authority.
Arianism is monotheistic Christianity in its purest form. Its me
diator christology admittedly moves Christ into the sphere of myth
ical intermediaries. At the same time, it is impossible to talk about
a 'created' or 'semi-divine' God, which was what Harnack com
plained of. It is rather a question of a universal 'prototype chris
tology'. A christology of this kind cannot provide any foundation
for the redemption that makes full fellowship with God possible;
9

10

11

The Mystery of the Trinity

134

it can only offer the basis for a new morality, for which Jesus' life
provides the pattern and standard.
It was with difficulty, and only with the help of Constantine's
imperial authority, that the Council of Nicaea was able to comdemn Arianism in 3 2 5 , and that it was able to win acceptance for
(and establish as dogma) the complete unity of nature between
Jesus Christ 'the only begotten Son', and the Father. 'The onlybegotten Son of God' (jiovoyevtjg) is 'God of God, light of light,
very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance
with the Father'. But this thesis of the homousios cast up a whole
series of new problems.
What is the relation between the only begotten Son of the Father
and the first-born of creation?
If Jesus, the only begotten Son, is 'of one substance' with God
the Father, how are we to understand God's unity?
If the Father is 'of one substance' with the only begotten Son,
how are we to interpret the sovereignty of God?
If the homousios does not merely identify Christ with God, but
identifies God with Christ as well, then the divine unity can no
longer be interpreted monadically. It has to be understood in trinitarian terms. But that leads to fundamental changes in the doctrine
of God, in christology and in politics. Christian faith can then no
longer be called 'monotheistic' in the sense of the One God. God's
sovereignty can then no longer be understood as the 'universal
monarchy' to which everything is subjected. It has to be interpreted
and presented as the redeeming history of freedom.

3. Christian Monotheism:

Sabellius

The other form of Christian monotheism is to be found in modalism. It is often viewed as the other extreme from subordinationism and its precise opposite; but in fact it is only the reverse side
of the same thing. For modalism too is dominated by the basic idea
of the One God and of the universal monarchy, which can be
exercised only by this one subject. Of course the method of safe
guarding this undivided unity of God's is a different one: Christ is
no longer subordinated to the one God; he is dissolved, dissipated
in that one God.
'We must think about Jesus Christ as we do about God', the
Second Epistle of Clement demands. This is modalism's starting
11

A Criticism of Christian Monotheism

135

point: Jesus Christ is God, he is our God. This was undoubtedly

the belief of the early Christian community. But theologically it
gives rise to a problem: if Christ is our God, then the Father and
the Son must be, not merely one but in fact one and the same. The
One God is then called Father, inasmuch as he makes himself the
subject of his revelation. He is then called 'Son' and 'Holy Spirit',
inasmuch as he becomes the object and power of his own
revelation.
An early form of maintaining God's simple unity in this way can
be found in Syrian patripassianism: 'The Father himself appeared
in the flesh by making himself the Son; he himself suffered; he
himself died; he himself raised himself.' According to this thesis,
the history of Christ can have only one subject. It is the One God
who appears to us as Father, as Son and as Spirit. The trias only
comes into being in the revelation of the monas.
13

In the Christian community modalistic piety was, and is, often

supported by bishops who think that they are standing on the sure
ground of the church when they declare that Christ is God. In
Rome this was apparently the church's official teaching in the
second century. It was only the theological polemic of Hippolytus
against Noetus, and Tertullian's struggle against Praxeas, which
showed the dangers inherent in this view and which made it ob
vious that it was in fact a heresy.
14

It was Sabellius who gave modalism its theological formulation,

and it was he who later gave his name to this whole trend. The
basic ideas are not at all complicated. In the history of his revelation
and his communication of salvation, the One God takes on three
forms: in the form of the Father he appears to us as the creator
and law-giver; in the form of the Son he appears as the redeemer;
in the form of the Holy Spirit he appears as the giver of life. Father,
Son and Spirit are the three manifestations or modes of appearance
of the One God. But this One God himself is as unknowable,
unnamable and ineffable as the 'One' itself.
15

Sabellius called the three modes of appearance of the One God

not merely manifestations, but also idia/jTEQiygcKprj, that is to
say, 'something in God, something indwelling in him'. The One
God therefore does not merely appear to us in a threefold manner:
in salvation history he is actually threefold to a certain degree, in
so far as he is 'the indweller' of his own manifestations and,
through them, dwells in the world. Sabellius distinguishes between

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the One God and his indwellings. The One God himself is without
distinction, incommunicable and hence unknowable. But he allows
himself to be known in history in the indwellings which are known
by the three names. Sabellius even succeeds in thinking of God's
monadic unity, not rigidly but (with the help of Stoic terms) as
containing movement. It can expand itself and contract, develop
and gather together. Of course, as Marcellus of Ancyra critically
added, this does not mean expanding the divine being; it means
expansion of the divine will and activity. This already indicates
that the One God is not merely to be thought of as monadic
substance but at the same time as identical subject as well.
16

17

Sabellius and Marcellus reduced the one God and the Christian
Trinity to a common denominator in what seems at first sight to
be a quite convincing way. The One God is the eternal, uncompounded, undivided light whose rays are refracted in different
ways, according to receptivity, in the world of men and women.
But if the One God only appears as Father, as Son and as Spirit,
then this phraseology already indicates the 'unreal' nature of the
manifestations. W h o or what the One God himself is cannot be
perceived, because it cannot be communicated. Consequently the
recognition of the manifestations of God as . . . cannot communi
cate any fellowship with God himself either.
This modalism is only seemingly a theology of Christ's divinity.
In actual fact it leads to the dissolution of Christ's divinity in the
ineffable and incommunicable Oneness of the Godhead per se. The
statement that 'Christ is God' ultimately makes Christ disappear
in the One God. Conversely, the manifestation of the One God as
Christ is condemned to unreality. In this way too the intellectual
compulsions of monotheistic thinking prevail. Monotheism is com
mon to both Sabellianism and Arianism. But whereas throughout
the history of the church Arianism was always tainted with 'lib
eralism' and heresy, Sabellian modalism was at times established
church doctrine; and whether it has really been overcome even
now is the question which the Eastern church still puts to the
whole trinitarian doctrine of the churches of the West.
In modern times, the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher shows
how closely these two extremes converge. His christology of the
productive prototype or model certainly absorbed Arian elements,
as his concept of the first-born Son shows. But his doctrine of God
displays Sabellian features, as can be seen from the pamphlet in
18

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which he pays tribute to the Sabellian doctrine of the Trinity

compared with the Athanasian one. For 'the father of modern
Protestantism', Jesus counted as being God's Son because he was
the first-born, prototypical and pattern man of God. In the wake
of his rehabilitation of the elements of truth in Sabellianism,
Schleiermacher arrived at the recognition 'that the highest Being,
as He really is, apart from this Trinity - the monas - would also
be entirely contained within himself and totally unknown to all
others; but that this could only be so provided there were nothing
outside H i m . ' Even in Schleiermacher the compulsion inherent in
the concept of the One God prevails: subordinationism in his
christology and modalism in his trinitarian doctrine are the results.
19

4. The Foundation

of the Doctrine of the Trinity:

Tertullian

With his treatise against Praxeas (c. 2 1 5 ) Tertullian counts as being

the initiator of a trinitarian solution of the problems in the Christ
ian doctrine of God which were thrown up by subordinationism
and modalism. The Fathers learnt from Tertullian, even if they did
not mention his name. He perceived the problems more clearly
than anyone before him, and the brilliance of his language and his
skill in definition made new answers possible. Through him the
theological discussion moved on to a new level. Admittedly new
questions cropped up on this level t o o .
20

For Tertullian, God is from all eternity One, but not alone. His
Reason (logis, ratio) or Wisdom (sophia, sermo) must be called
equally eternal. The One God is in reality not a numerical or
monadic One, but a unity which is differentiated in itself. The
Logos proceeds from God through the act of eternal generatio,
thereby becoming 'the Son'. Tertullian interprets this process as
prolatio, in order to be able to say that the Son and the Father are
distincti but not divisi, discreti but not separati. They are distin
guished in their divine unity and are hence in their distinction one.
The third to issue forth is the Holy Spirit. The Father sends him
through the Son, and he is bound to the Father and the Son through
the unity of the divine substance. In order to make this differen
tiated unity clear, Tertullian draws on gnostic and neo-Platonic
images such as sun - ray reflection; or source - brook - river.
The images are used to describe distinguishable individualities of
the same matter. The monarchy of God is not abolished through

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The Mystery of the Trinity

this trinitarian differentiation, for the Son and the Spirit are sub
ordinated to the Father. The Father is at the same time the whole
divine substance. As portiones totius the Son and the Spirit have
their being from him, and they carry out his will. When the work
of the world's redemption and perfecting has been fulfilled, they
will give back their authority to the Father.
The remarkable features of this initial outline are:
1. The trinitarian differentiation of the divine monas: una sub
stantia tres personae;
2. The distinctions in the unity: distincti, non divisi; discreti,
non separati;
3. The new verbal coinage trinitas, which now takes the place
of the divine monas.
But Tertullian was only able to develop these trinitarian differ
entiations in God because he replaced the 9edg eoriv eXg by Oebg
eoriv ev. Yet if God is one, and not one-and-the-same, who ex
ercises the monarchy? The Father: for the Father is at the same
time the total substance; the Son is a derivation and the Spirit is
a part of him. But are the trinitarian differentiations then not after
all merely modes of manifestation of the One God in the work of
redemption? Tertullian tried to fend off this conclusion by distin
guishing between monarchy and economy. The monarchy of the
Father belongs within the divine Trinity itself, and it must be
distinguished from the dispensation of salvation (economy) in cre
ation. The Son is begotten, the world is created. The Holy Spirit
goes forth, the world is redeemed.
Yet the line which Tertullian draws between the immanent and
the economic Trinity is a fluid one, for if the Son and the Spirit
proceed from the Father for the purpose of creating the world and
for the work of redemption, then they must also return into the
Oneness of the Father when these purposes are fulfilled, so that
'God may be all in all'.
The original One would then only differentiate itself in a trini
tarian sense, in order to complete and perfect itself into the AllOne. But that would mean that God is only to be thought of in
trinitarian terms where his creative and redemptive self-communi
cation is concerned, and not for his own sake. In these ideas the
category of unity after all prevails over the triunity once more.
This proves that it is not merely the concept of the monas which
is the basic problem of the Christian concept of God. It is the

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concept of monarchia too. If these terms are not differentiated and

altered, a Christian doctrine of God is not really possible.

5. Trinitarian Monarchy:

Karl Barth

As we said in Chapter I, under the conditions of modern European

times God is no longer thought of as supreme substance. He now
counts as absolute subject. Consequently, ever since German Idealism the divine monas has been interpreted as the absolute, identical
subject. God is the subject of his own being and his own revelation.
The concept of God's 'self-revelation' pushes out earlier ideas about
mediations that reveal God; and the notion of God's 'self-communication' now becomes the quintessence of the Christian doctrine of salvation.
The primordial image of the 'absolute subject' in heaven corresponds to the modern perception of human subjectivity as regards
nature and history; and the personal God in eternity corresponds
to the bourgeois culture of personality. It is the absolute personality
of God that makes man a person. Out of the eternal divine Thou,
man receives his personal ego and becomes the subject who is
superior to the world. For these historical reasons it is quite understandable that the early church's trinitarian formula: una substantia - trs personae should now be replaced by the formula: one
divine subject in three different modes of being. The modern
bourgeois concept of personality and subject seems to make traditional talk about the three Persons of the Trinity impossible. But
if the subjectivity of acting and receiving is transferred from the
three divine Persons to the one divine subject, then the three Persons are bound to be degraded to modes of being, or modes of
subsistence, of the one identical subject. But viewed theologically
this is a late triumph for the Sabellian modalism which the early
church condemned. The result would be to transfer the subjectivity
of action to a deity concealed 'behind' the three Persons. And the
consequences of this would be a monotheism only fortuitously
connected with Christianity in any way, a general transcendentality
and a vague human religiosity which would simply swallow up the
particular identity of the Christian faith. These are certainly only
dangers if these ideas are taken to their ultimate conclusion. But
the germs are already present whenever idealistic modalism penetrates the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, threatening to disperse
21

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The Mystery of the Trinity

the three distinct persons and subjects of 'the history of the Son'
in favour of 'the One God'. Consequently we must be alive to these
tendencies in even the best contemporary theologies.
It is of decisive importance for the doctrine of God whether we
start from the Trinity in order to understand the sovereignty of
God as the sovereignty of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, or
whether we think in the reverse direction, proceeding from the
sovereignty of God in order to secure this as being the sovereignty
of the One God by means of the doctrine of the Trinity. If we start
from the sovereignty of God, then our premise is God as the
identical subject of his rule. The doctrine of the Trinity can then
only be presented as 'Christian monotheism'. It is nothing other
than a development of the recognition that God is Lord. This was
the starting point Karl Barth chose, both in Christlichen
Dogmatik
itn Entwurf (1927), 9 and in Church Dogmatics ( 1 9 3 2 ; E T 1 9 3 6 ) ,
8. A comparison of the two indicates the original problems of
Barth's trinitarian doctrine.
22

In 1 9 2 7 Barth developed the doctrine of the Trinity out of the

logic of the concept of God's self-revelation. Consequently his
guiding principle is: 'God's word is God in his revelation. God
reveals himself as the Lord. He alone is the revealer. He is wholly
revelation. He himself is what is revealed.' With this answer to
the logical questions about the subject, predicate and object of the
statement 'God has spoken, Deus dixit' Barth believed that he was
entering upon 'the whole field of the doctrine of the Trinity'.
'God's revelation is God's word without any foundation in an
Other. It is God's speech grounded in itself.' God's revelation is
'the revelation of his rule . . . over against men, in men, over men,
for men.' In order to justify the absolute sovereignty of revelation
and lordship as God's self-revelations and his own lordship, Barth
employs the doctrine of the Trinity. It is to this, therefore, that
man's 'absolute dependency' corresponds. The idea of self-revela
tion secures the 'autousia' the 'subjectivity of G o d ' . Consequent
ly, according to Barth the doctrine of the Trinity has to be the
'assertion and emphasizing of the notion of the strict and absolute
unity of God.' What unity is meant? 'The one divine I or subject,
which reveals in revelation the triuneness of his Godhead, his rule,
his divine I-ness or subjectivity.' As this string of interchangeable
terms shows, according to Barth the lordship of God precedes the
Trinity, logically speaking. He defines God's essence as being God's
23

24

25

26

27

28

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Monotheism

141

sovereignty. The revelation of God's sovereignty is nothing other

than the assertion of his divine subjectivity or T-ness', i.e., God's
'personality'. 'The Deus unus trius, the one personal God who is
the threefold personal God who can never become an object to the
thought directed towards him.' This last sentence shows Barth's
particular interest in the doctrine of the Trinity especially clearly.
He is interested in it for the sake of securing the sovereignty of
God - and in order to ward off the danger of the objectification
of God by human beings.
In 1 9 3 2 as well, in 8 of the Church Dogmatics, Barth clings to
this 'The Root of the Doctrine of the Trinity' in the concept of
revelation and sovereignty. But where earlier he thought he could
develop the Trinity out of the logic of the concept of revelation,
and therefore began with God the revealer, he now begins with
'the concrete form of (biblical) revelation', with God the Son, the
Godhead Jesus Christ. Consequently he arrives at the curious
sequence 'unveiling, veiling and impartation' in the biblical testi
mony of revelation: Easter, Good Friday, Pentecost, or the figure
of the Son, the Father and the Spirit.
Barth equates the sovereignty of God with the concept of God's
nature, and makes the latter the equivalent of God's divinity. This
equation then also includes 'what we to-day call the "personality"
of God'. But if all these terms are used for the sovereign subject
of the divine lordship and revelation, then it is impossible to go on
talking about 'three Persons', to whom subjectivity and 'I-ness'
would have to be ascribed in relation to the other persons. The
only remaining possibility is to talk about 'three modes of being'
in God. Barth quotes the neo-scholastic Diekamp approvingly: 'In
God as there is one nature so there is . . . one self-consciousness'.
In this case 'God is one in three ways of being' means: God is 'the
one personal God' in the mode of the Father, in the mode of the
Son, in the mode of the Holy Spirit.
Barth holds that the Trinity is a repetitio aeternitatis in aeternitate, and believes that he can reconstruct this by means of a shift
of emphasis in the statement: 'God reveals himself as the Lord.'
But to understand God's threefold nature as eternal repetition or
as holy tautology does not yet mean thinking in trinitarian terms.
The doctrine of the Trinity cannot be a matter of establishing the
same thing three times. T o view the three Persons merely as a triple
29

30

31

32

33

34

35

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repetition of one and the same God would be somewhat empty

and futile.
Barth's Idealist heritage finally betrays itself in the use of the
reflection structure to secure God's subjectivity, sovereignty, self
hood and personality. Thus Fichte talked about 'being', about 'the
existence of being' and about 'the bond of love' or of reflection,
which permits the two to be o n e . If instead of thinking of God
deistically as substance, we think of him theistically as subject,
then this triadic process of reflection is intellectually necessary. It
is through self-distinction and self-recollection that God shows
himself to be the absolute subject. That is the reflection structure
of absolute subjectivity. A reflection of subjectivity like this has not
necessarily anything whatsoever to do with the biblical testimony
to the history of God. The notion of God's reflexively differentiated
subjectivity and self-revelation can be conceived even without any
biblical reference at all. Consequently Barth's new approach in
the Church Dogmatics in 1 9 3 2 is understandable. It was necessary.
Christian belief must begin, not with the God who reveals himself,
the Father, but with the concrete and specific revelation, the Son,
the Godhead Jesus Christ. But this idea of the revelation of the
God who reveals himself was developed out of that reflection logic.
Consequently in the Church Dogmatics the same problems crop
up again. They are the problems of pneumatology.
36

37

38

The God who reveals himself in three modes of being can no

longer display subjectivity in his state-of-revelation, the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is merely the common bond of love linking the Father
with the Son. He is 'the power that joins the Father and the Son'.
But this bond is already given with the relationship of the Father
to his beloved Son and vice versa. The Father and the Son are
already one in their relationship to one another, the relationship
of eternal generation and eternal self-giving. In order to think of
their mutual relationship as love, there is no need for a third Person
in the Trinity. If the Spirit is only termed the unity of what is
separated, then he loses every centre of activity. He is then an
energy but not a Person. He is then a relationship but not a subject.
Basically, the reflection Trinity of the absolute subject is a duality.
It is only when the Holy Spirit is understood as the unity of the
difference, and the unity of the Father and the Son, that a personal
and active function in the trinitarian relationship can be ascribed
to him. Barth then only formally secures the divine person of the
39

40

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143

Holy Spirit through the common 'proskynesis' of the Spirit with

the Father and the Son. He is not alone in this. Ever since Au
gustine, whenever the Spirit is merely termed the vinculum amoris
between the Father and the Son, it is enough to assume a 'duality'
in God. The third 'mode of being' does not add anything special
and individual to the Revealer and his Revelation. 'That the Father
and the Son are the one God is the reason why they are not just
united but are united in the Spirit in love; it is the reason, then,
why God is love, and love is G o d . ' According to this statement
of Barth's, the Spirit is a duplication of the love in which the Father
eternally generates the Son and the Son eternally obeys the Father.
He is this love itself. But both ideas contradict tradition, which has
termed the Holy Spirit the third Person of the Trinity, and not
merely the correlation of the two other Persons.
41

42

If this approach provides no justification for the Holy Spirit's

independent existence as Person in the Trinity, we must ask in
return whether in this 'duality' God the Son can really be called
Person in the full sense of the word. The principle 'God reveals
himself as the Lord' means that all activity proceeds from the
Father, both within the Trinity and in history. The Father must in
the strict sense be termed God, subject, T , the one divine 'person
ality'. Barth's phrase about 'God in Christ' can in trinitarian terms
only mean: the Father in the Son. But in the reflection logic of the
absolute subject, the Son is nothing other than the self of the divine
T , the counterpart, the other, in whom God contemplates himself,
finds himself, becomes conscious of himself and manifests himself.
No real independent, personal activity can be assumed in God's
self in the implementation of the divine sovereignty. W e must
therefore either ascribe 'the one divine personality' to the Father
(as Athanasius did), or, like Sabellius, we must ascribe it to a
subject for whom all three trinitarian Persons are objective, even
as 'modes of being'. The way of speaking about the three Persons
or modes of being in God tempts one to the latter assumption. But
who, then, should that absolute personality be in whom the three
modes of being manifest themselves, and who constitutes himself
in three modes of being?
The reason for the difficulties Barth gets into here with his
acceptance of the Idealistic reflection Trinity of the divine subject,
is that he puts the divine lordship before the Trinity and uses the
'doctrine of the Trinity' to secure and interpret the divine subjec-

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Trinity

tivity in that lordship. That is why Barth presents the 'doctrine of

the Trinity' as Christian monotheism and argues polemically
against a 'tritheism' which has never existed. That is why he uses
a non-trinitarian concept of the unity of the one God - that is to
say, the concept of the identical subject.
Barth uses the doctrine of the Trinity in order to secure the
sovereignty of God in his rule. If he had stopped here, then his
theology of the sovereignty of God would only really be an exten
sion of Schleiermacher's anthropology of man's 'absolute depen
dency'. It is difficult to find in this a justification for human liberty.
It is true that by 'lordship' Barth means nothing other than liberty:
'Lordship means freedom.' 'Godhead in the Bible means free
dom.' But in Barth's early works it is always only a question of
God's liberty, which man has to recognize and welcome as lordship
over him himself. It is only in the later volumes of Church Dog
matics that the biblical idea of covenant makes it possible for Barth
to talk about a partnership, a mutual relationship, even about
friendship between God and free man, in which God does not
merely speak and decree, but also hears and receives.
43

44

45

6. Threefold

Self-Communication:

Karl

Rahner

Karl Rahner developed his doctrine of the Trinity with an aston

ishing similarity to Barth and almost the same presuppositions.
And the conclusions he arrives at are in accordance with this. On
the basis of the modern, changed concept of the person, we ought
no longer to talk about una substantia tres personae, but about
a single divine subject in three 'distinct modes o f subsistence'. This
thesis is certainly only given its apologetic justification on the basis
of the changed consciousness of the modern world; but it leads to
a profound alteration in the substance of the Christian doctrine of
the Trinity. In order to avoid drawing attention to this, Rahner
also conjures up the dangers of a 'vulgar tritheism', which he
describes from the outset as 'a much greater danger than Sabellian
modalism'. But Sabellian modalism - or, t o be more precise,
Idealistic modalism - is what Rahner himself is in danger of, like
Schleiermacher and Barth.
46

47

Rahner claims that the statement about there being three Persons
in God almost inevitably evokes t h e misunderstanding that in God
there are three different consciousnesses, spiritualities, centres of

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activity, and so forth. But it is tritheistic, and therefore wrong, to

think of the three Persons of the Trinity as three different 'person
alities with different centres of activity'. We therefore have to
exclude from the concept of person everything which would mean
three 'subjectivities'. Why is this open to misunderstanding and
wrong? Because, Rahner maintains, in secular speech today we
talk about one 'person' as distinct from another person, and then
think 'that in each of these persons, simply so that they can be
persons and different from one another, there is an independent,
free, self-disposing centre of action in knowledge and freedom,
different from others; and that the person is constituted by this
very fact.' But in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity a centre of
activity defined in this way can only be postulated about 'the one,
unique, divine essence'. 'The uniqueness of the essence means and
includes the uniqueness of a single consciousness and a single
freedom.' In saying this Rahner is only repeating Diekamp's
neo-scholastic thesis about the 'one nature, the one cognition, the
one consciousness' in God, which Barth follows too.
48

49

The critical question which has to be asked here is directed

towards the modern concept of person. What Rahner calls 'our
secular use of the word person' has nothing in common with
modern thinking about the concept of person. What he describes
is actually extreme individualism: everyone is a self-possessing,
self-disposing centre of action which sets itself apart from other
persons. But the philosophical personalism of Hlderlin, Feuer
bach, Buber, Ebner, Rosenstock and others was designed precisely
to overcome this possessive individualism: the T can only be under
stood in the light of the 'Thou' - that is to say, it is a concept of
relation. Without the social relation there can be no personality.
What Rahner reads into 'the secular use of the word' is the indi
vidual's freedom of disposal, which is determined by property, not
the person's social liberty, which is opened up through community.
And 'the individual and his property' (Stirner) is a concept that
suits neither free men nor God. Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exer
cises may inculcate the freedom of the individual who disposes
ver himself, with the thesis 'anima mea in manibus mea semper':
hut this is far from being the modern concept of person; it is that
concept's individualistic reduction. Rahner accepts this idea, how
l e r , and then, understandably enough, finds that it is not appli
cable to the three Persons of the Trinity but can only be used for
50

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146

the unique essence and consciousness of God. And in this way he

introduces this individualistic idea into the nature of God himself.
The 'one unique essence' of God is 'the sameness' of the absolute
subject and must hence be understood in an exclusive sense. In
order to stress the subjectivity of the 'One' God, who acts towards
us 'in a threefold way' Rahner prefers to use the description 'the
threefold God' (Dreifaltigkeit) instead of the usual 'triune God',
the three-in-one {Dreieinigkeit). The phrase of his choice is not
merely modalistic but also a bad German translation of trinitas.
51

'The one God subsists in three distinct modes of subsistence.'

With the phrase 'distinct modes of subsistence' Rahner would like
to rehabilitate the truth behind the terms 'hypostasis' and 'person'
in the doctrine of the Trinity - a truth which today has become
open to misunderstanding. He appeals to Aquinas's definition of
person: 'subsistens distinctum in natura rationale, in order to put
aside Boethius' definition: 'Persona est naturae rationalis individua
substantia.' For Boethius substantia and subsistentia means 'exist
ing in itself and not in another'. Rational nature acquires existence
through its person, so that this nature, as predicate of this person,
can be stated to be its subject/ Boethius's classic definition of
person does in fact imply subjectivity, act-centre, 'I-ness' and con
sciousness. In order to avoid this impression Rahner picks up a
definition of person which he ascribes to Aquinas but which Aqui
nas never used. It derives from the neo-scholasticism of Lonergan,
whose book De Deo Trino Rahner used.
2

53

Is then, according to Rahner, 'mode of subsistence' to be under

stood non-personally as a mode of actuality without subject, con
sciousness and will? Because the modes of subsistence within the
Trinity do not represent distinct centres of consciousness and ac
tion, there cannot be any mutual 'Thou' between them either. 'The
Son is the self-utterance of the Father, and must not be conceived
as again "uttering", the Spirit is the "gift" which does not, in its
turn, again give.' Here again Rahner is citing Lonergan. But if
there is no 'Thou' within the Trinity, then there is 'not really any
mutual love between the Father and the Son within the Trinity
either, since "mutual" presupposes two acts; there is a loving
self-acceptance of the Father - which is the foundation of difference
- and of the Son, because of the taxis of knowledge and love.'
But if, in order to avoid 'the danger of tritheism', we are not
permitted to think of mutual love between the Father and the Son
54

55

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147

within the Trinity, then it is impossible to say, either, that the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the love of the Father and the Son, and
constitutes 'the bond of love' between the Father and the Son.
But then who is the Holy Spirit? According to Rahner he is God
inasmuch as 'the salvation that deifies us has arrived in the inner
most centre of the existence of an individual person'. Who then is
the Son? He is 'this one and the same God in the concrete historicity
of our existence, strictly present as himself for us in Jesus Christ'.
And who is the Father? 'Inasmuch as this very God who comes to
us in this way as Spirit and Logos is the incomprehensible ground
and origin of his coming in Son and Spirit and maintains himself
as such, we call the one God, the Father.' To sum up: 'The one
and the same God is given for us as Father, Son-Logos and Holy
Spirit, or: the Father gives us himself in absolute self-communica
tion through the Son in the Holy Spirit.' In this last formulation
it becomes clear that Rahner transforms the classical doctrine of
the Trinity into the reflection trinity of the absolute subject; and
the way he does this is plain too. The 'self-communication' of the
Absolute has that differentiated structure which seems so similar
to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. But in fact it makes the
doctrine of the Trinity superfluous. The fact that God gives us
himself in absolute self-communication can be associated with
Father, Son and Spirit but it does not have to be. On the other
hand what is stated biblically with the history of the Father, the
Son and the Spirit is only vaguely paraphrased by the concept of
God's self-communication.
56

For Rahner the one, single God-subject is the Father. The Son
is the historical instrument, and the Holy Spirit 'in us' is the place
of God's self-communication. Rahner therefore prefers to use the
term Logos instead of the name of the Son. But can one then still
go on talking about a self-communication and self-giving on the
part of the Son? Can one then talk about a vouchsafing of the
Spirit? If salvation history is reduced to the self-communication of
the Father, the history of the Son is no longer identifiable at all. If
the self-communication of the Father is the one and only direction
of the Trinity, then a particular light is thrown on Rahner's thesis
that 'The "economic" Trinity is the "immanent" Trinity and vice
versa'. The process of self-communication is the very essence of
God, and the divine essence consists of the trinitarian process of
self-communication. Rahner certainly stresses that the 'absolute
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Trinity

self-communication of God is something totally undeserved', just

as Barth stresses the free grace of God's revelation of his lordship.
But if the lordship of God is God's essence, and God's essence is
his own self-communication, then not only is the trinitarian differ
entiation in God surrendered; the distinction between God and the
world is in danger of being lost too. In the Holy Spirit who is
experienced in the 'innermost centre of existence of an individual
person', people rise into the inexhaustible mystery of God himself.
This can no doubt be viewed as the mystical variant of the
Idealistic doctrine of the 'trinitarian' reflection structure of the
absolute subject. Rahner's Idealistic modalism leads back again
from the doctrine of the Trinity to the Christian monotheism of
'the one unique essence, the singularity of a one, single conscious
ness and of a single liberty of the God' who is present in the
innermost centre of existence 'of an individual person'. Here the
absolute subjectivity of God becomes the archetypal image of the
mystic subjectivity of the person who withdraws into himself and
transcends himself, that 'self-possessing, self-disposing centre of
action which is separate from others'. Rahner's reinterpretation of
the doctrine of the Trinity ends in the mystic solitariness of God.
It obscures the history of the Father, the Son and the Spirit to
which the Bible testifies, by making this the external illustration of
that inner experience. Is there really any 'greater danger' than this
'modalism'?

7.

What Divine

Unity?

Trinitarian theology grew up through the theological remoulding

of philosophical terms. This can be seen very well from the history
of the concept 'person'. The remoulding of the concept of God's
unity necessary for a n understanding of the triune God and his
history, on the other hand, was evidently much more difficult. The
philosophical starting point, which was the monadic interpretation
of the One God, continually asserted itself in the history of the
early church, even though Arianism was rejected and Sabellianism
was overcome. Even where people were able to differentiate the
concept of God's unity in trinitarian terms, the monadic interpret
ation held its ground in the concept of monarchy, whether it was
understood as the monarchy of the Father within the Trinity or as
the extra-trinitarian divine monarchy over the world.

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Monotheism

149

The early creeds, which set the trend for tradition, remain
ambivalent where the question of God's unity is concerned. The
Nicene Creed, with its use of homousios as keyword, suggests a
unity of substance between Father, Son and Spirit. But the Athanasian Creed, with the thesis 'unus Deus\ maintains the identity
of the one divine subject.
So are Father, Son and Spirit one in their possession of the same
divine substance, or one and the same, in being the same divine
subject? Can the unity of the three distinct Persons lie in the
homogeneity of the divine substance, which is common to them
all, or does it have to consist in the sameness and identity of the
one divine subject?
In the first case we should have to think of the unity of God as
neuter, as the terms ovoia or substantia suggest. In the second
case we ought really only to talk about the One God, as the concept
of the absolute subject demands.
In the first case the threeness of the Persons is in the foreground,
while the unity of their substance is the background. In the second
case the unity of the absolute subject is in the foreground, and the
three Persons recede into the background. The first case is obvious
ly open to the charge of tritheism; the second case to the reproach
of modalism. In the first case the word tri-unity is used, while in
the second case the threefold God (the Dreifaltigkeit) is the pre
ferred term. In the first case we proceed from the three Persons and
enquire about their unity; in the second case we start from the One
God and ask about his trinitarian self-differentiation. If the biblical
testimony is chosen as point of departure, then we shall have to
start from the three Persons of the history of Christ. If philosophical
logic is made the starting point, then the enquirer proceeds from
the One God.
After considering all this, it seems to make more sense theolog
ically to start from the biblical history, and therefore to make the
unity of the three divine Persons the problem, rather than to take
the reverse method to start from the philosophical postulate of
absolute unity, in order then to find the problem in the biblical
testimony. The unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit is then
the eschatological question about the consummation of the trini
tarian history of God. The unity of the three Persons of this history
must consequently be understood as a communicable unity and as
an open, inviting unity, capable of integration. The homogeneity

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The Mystery of the Trinity

of the divine substance is hardly conceivable as communicable and

open for anything else, because then it would no longer be homo
geneous. The sameness and the identity of the absolute subject is
not communicable either, let alone open for anything else, because
it would then be charged with non-identity and difference. Both
these concepts of unity - like the monadic concept - are exclusive,
not inclusive. If we search for a concept of unity corresponding to
the biblical testimony of the triune God, the God who unites others
with himself, then we must dispense with both the concept of the
one substance and the concept of the identical subject. All that
remains is: the unitedness, the at-oneness of the three Persons with
one another, or: the unitedness, the at-oneness of the triune God.
For only the concept of unitedness is the concept of a unity that
can be communicated and is open. The one God is a God at one
with himself. That presupposes the personal self-differentiation of
God, and not merely a modal differentiation, for only persons can
be at one with one another, not modes of being or modes of
subjectivity. The at-oneness of the three divine Persons is neither
presupposed by these Persons as their single substance nor is it
brought about as the sameness or identity of the divine lordship or
self-communication. The unitedness, the at-oneness, of the triunity
is already given with the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the
Spirit. It therefore does not need to be additionally secured by a
particular doctrine about the unity of the divine substance, or by
the special doctrine of the one divine lordship.
The Father, the Son and the Spirit are by no means merely
distinguished from one another by their character as Persons; they
are just as much united with one another and in one another, since
personal character and social character are only two aspects of the
same thing. The concept of person must therefore in itself contain
the concept of unitedness or at-oneness, just as, conversely, the
concept of God's at-oneness must in itself contain the concept of
the three Persons. This means that the concept of God's unity
cannot in the trinitarian sense be fitted into the homogeneity of the
one divine substance, or into the identity of the absolute subject
either; and least of all into one of the three Persons of the Trinity.
It must be perceived in the perichoresis of the divine Persons. If
the unity of God is not perceived in the at-oneness of the triune
God, and therefore as a perichoretic unity, then Arianism and
Sabellianism remain inescapable threats to Christian theology.

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151

2 THE DOXOLOGICAL TRINITY

1. The Economy

and Doxology

of

Salvation

Ever since the repulse of modalism through Tertullian, it has been

usual to distinguish between the economic and the immanent Trin
ity. The economic Trinity designates the triune God in his dispen
sation of salvation, in which he is revealed. The economic Trinity
is therefore also called the revelatory Trinity. The immanent Trinity
is the name given to the triune God as he is in himself. The
immanent Trinity is also called the substantial Trinity. This dis
tinction cannot mean that there are two different Trinities. It is
rather a matter of the same triune God as he is in his saving
revelation and as he is in himself.
Is the distinction between God for us and God in himself a
speculative one? And if it is speculative, is it necessary? This dis
tinction is usually substantiated by the freedom of the divine de
cision and by human salvation's character of grace. God is perfect;
he is self-sufficient; he is not bound to reveal himself. We experi
ence our salvation by his grace, undeservedly and beyond our
deserts. The distinction between an immanent Trinity and an econ
omic Trinity secures God's liberty and his grace. It is the logically
necessary presupposition for the correct understanding of God's
saving revelation.
This distinction between immanent and economic Trinity would
be necessary if, in the concept of God, there were really only the
alternative between liberty and necessity. But if God is love, then
his liberty cannot consist of loving or of not loving. On the con
trary, his love is his liberty and his liberty is his love. He is not
compelled to love by any outward or inward necessity. Love is
self-evident for G o d . So we have to say that the triune God loves
the world with the very same love that he himself is. The notion
of an immanent Trinity in which God is simply by himself, without
the love which communicates salvation, brings an arbitrary element
into the concept of God which means a break-up of the Christian
concept. Consequently this idea safeguards neither God's liberty
nor the grace of salvation. It introduces a contradiction into the
relationship between the immanent and the economic Trinity: the
God who loves the world does not correspond to the God who
suffices for himself. Before the unchangeable God, everything is
58

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

equal and equally indifferent. For the loving God, nothing is a

matter of indifference. Before an equivocal, an undecided God,
nothing is significant. For the God who in his love is free, every
thing is infinitely important. But the immanent and the economic
Trinity cannot be distinguished in such a way that the first nullifies
what the second says. The two rather form a continuity and merge
into one another.
The other and specific starting point for distinguishing between
the economic and the immanent Trinity is to be found in doxology.
The assertions of the immanent Trinity about eternal life and the
eternal relationships of the triune God in himself have their Sitz im
Leben, their situation in life, in the praise and worship of the
church:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost!
Real theology, which means the knowledge of God, finds expres
sion in thanks, praise and adoration. And it is what finds expression
in doxology that is the real theology. There is no experience of
salvation without the expression of that experience in thanks,
praise and joy. An experience which does not find expression in
this way is not a liberating experience. Only doxology releases the
experience of salvation for a full experience of that salvation. In
grateful, wondering and adoring perception, the triune God is not
made man's object; he is not appropriated and taken possession
of. It is rather that the perceiving person participates in what he
perceives, being transformed into the thing perceived through his
wondering perception. Here we know only in so far as we love.
Here we know in order to participate. Then to know God means
to participate in the fullness of the divine life. That is why in the
early church the doxological knowledge of God is called theologia
in the real sense, being distinguished from the doctrine of salvation,
the oeconomia Dei. The 'economic Trinity' is the object of kerygmatic and practical theology; the 'immanent Trinity' the content
of doxological theology.
If we start from this distinction, then it becomes clear that
doxological theology is responsive theology. Its praise and its
knowledge of God are a response to the salvation that has been
experienced. If the immanent Trinity is the counterpart of praise,
then knowledge of the economic Trinity (as the embodiment of the

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Trinity

153

history and experience of salvation) precedes knowledge of the

immanent Trinity. In the order of being it succeeds it.
But how and why do we arrive at the one perception from the
other? In doxology the thanks of the receiver return from the
goodly gift to the giver. But the giver is not thanked merely for the
sake of his good gift; he is also extolled because he himself is good.
So God is not loved, worshipped and perceived merely because of
the salvation that has been experienced, but for his own sake. That
is to say, praise goes beyond thanksgiving. God is recognized, not
only in his goodly works but in his goodness itself. And adoration,
finally, goes beyond both thanksgiving and praise. It is totally
absorbed into its counterpart, in the way that we are totally ab
sorbed by astonishment and boundless wonder. God is ultimately
worshipped and loved for himself, not merely for salvation's sake.
Of course all the terms of doxology crystallize out of the experience
of salvation. But they grow up out of the conclusion drawn from
this experience about the transcendent conditions which make the
experience possible. And in this way they necessarily go beyond
any individual experience and arrive at that experience's transcen
dent ground. In this way doxological terms remain inescapably
bound to the experience of salvation and do not go speculatively
beyond it. They remain related to the experience of salvation pre
cisely because they are directed towards the God himself whose
salvation and love has been experienced.
It follows from this interlacing of the doctrine of salvation with
doxology that we may not assume anything as existing in God
himself which contradicts the history of salvation; and, conversely,
may not assume anything in the experience of salvation which does
not have its foundation in God. The principle that the doctrine of
salvation and doxology do not contradict one another is founded
on the fact that there are not two different Trinities. There is only
one, single, divine Trinity and one, single divine history of salva
tion. The triune God can only appear in history as he is in himself,
and in no other way. He is in himself as he appears in salvation
history, for it is he himself who is manifested, and he is just what
he is manifested as being. Is this a law which infringes God's
liberty? No, it is the quintessence of God's truth. God can do
anything, but 'he cannot deny himself (II Tim. 2 . 1 3 ) : 'God is faith
ful.' Consequently we cannot find any trinitarian relationships in
salvation history which do not have their foundation in the nature

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The Mystery of the Trinity

of the triune God, corresponding to him himself. It is impossible

to say, for example, that in history the Holy Spirit proceeds from
the Father 'and from the Son', but that within the Trinity he
proceeds 'from the Father alone'. God's truth is his faithfulness.
Consequently we can rely on his promises and on himself. A God
who contradicted himself would be an unreliable God. He would
have to be called a demon, not God. The true God is the God of
truth, whose nature is eternal faithfulness and reliability. That is
why the principle behind the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is:
Statements about the immanent Trinity must not
contradict
statements about the economic Trinity. Statements about the econ
omic Trinity must correspond to doxological statements about the
immanent Trinity.

2. The Historical Experience

of Salvation

Where is the empirical starting point of the experience of salvation,

if we want to draw inferences from it about the immanent Trinity?
A starting point often chosen in the nineteenth century is the fact
that man is made in God's image. This point of departure is already
at the root of the psychological doctrine of the Trinity, which
originated with Augustine and became widespread in the West.
God's image, man, leads us to draw certain inferences about man's
divine prototype. Of course this does not mean starting from the
ambiguity of man as he actually exists. What is meant is rather
man as he had been renewed through the experience of salvation
and faith, so that he may become God's image. In the bourgeois
world of the nineteenth century, this was what was understood by
personality:
Nations, ruler, slave subjected,
All on this one point agree:
Joy of earthlings is perfected
In the personality.
59

If the destiny and the goal of God's image on earth is to be found

in the development of the personality, then the divine prototype
must also be the model for this personality. Richard Rothe was the
first to declare that God is 'absolute personality', and out of the
metaphysics of personality he derives a curious doctrine of the
Trinity. God can only become personal by means of an eternal

The Doxological

Trinity

155

process which is trinitarian in kind. Defined as he is by self-con

sciousness and self-activity, God becomes absolute personality in
an eternal process of self-objectification and self-subjectification.
In later editions of his Theological Ethics', Rothe gave up this
metaphysical construction. But, instead, I. A. Dorner picked up the
idea again, letting 'absolute personality' proceed from the trinitar
ian process of the divine life and spirit, as its result. Martin
Khler followed him with the thesis: 'The Trinity is the unique
form of the divine personality.' He meant by this 'that the divine
nature consummates its life in three hypostases (persons) by means
of a threefold personal relationship which reverts back to itself.
The fact that the Trinity is the unique form of the divine personality
therefore only emerges from knowledge of the biblical Christ.'
Kahler called the distinction between Father and Son 'God's selfdifferentiation', holding the 'threefold personality' to be the unique
and incomparable definition of God. Yet this reduces the three
Persons of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to modalities of
the one absolute personality. The process of self-differentiation and
self-identification of the absolute subject has little to do with the
Christian doctrine of God, even if Martin Khler was able to
believe that the idea of the 'threefold personality' emerged from
knowledge of the biblical Christ. But in fact the idea of the three
fold, absolute personality is just as speculative as the neo-Platonic
triadologies, which patristic theology drew upon to illustrate the
doctrine of the Trinity.
60

61

62

But if God is absolute personality, differentiated in a threefold

way, then the fully developed human personality of the bourgeois
world is this personality's image. The modalistic reduction of the
Trinity to absolute personality leads anthropologically to a theo
logical reason and religious justification for the modern bourgeois
world's cultivation of the individual: every individual must be able
to develop himself into a many-sided personality. He only has to
observe the equal rights of every other person to life, liberty and
happiness. The other person is the only thing that limits the de
velopment of one's own personality and the realization of one's
own self. But as individuals are we already God's image in our
relationship to ourselves? Is it possible to become a personality
solely in our self-relationship and its development? A person is
only God's image in fellowship with other people: 'In the image of
God he created him; male and female he created them' (Gen. 1.27).

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

That is the reason why men and women can only become persons
in relation to other men and women. It is not the completed and
fulfilled individual personality that can already be called the image
of God on earth; it is only the completed community of persons.
But this does not point to an 'absolute personality' in heaven. It
points to the vc'mnity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
The empirical starting point Karl Barth chose for knowledge of
the Trinity was the sovereignty or lordship of God. He decided
that the proclamation and the belief that 'God is the Lord' was the
root of the doctrine of the Trinity. God's subjectivity is perceived
in his lordship and is expressed and preserved through the doctrine
of the Trinity. Here the lordship of God takes over the position
which 'absolute personality' enjoyed in I. A. Dorner. And, as in
Dorner, the reduction of the trinitarian Persons to divine modes of
being follows. But because, in contrast to Dorner, Barth links the
idea of God's lordship indissolubly with the idea of his self-reve
lation in Christ, Christ alone is the image and correspondence of
God on earth.
Karl Rahner certainly defined the 'threefold God as transcendent
primal ground of salvation history', as the title of his treatise
indicates; but the treatise's content is not in accordance with its
title. In reality Rahner talks about the threefold God as the tran
scendent primal ground of his own 'self-communication'. For
Barth, God's self-revelation could only be consummated by a single
identical subject; and for Rahner the same is true of God's selfcommunication. It is inescapably obvious that, for the sake of the
identity of the self-communicating divine subject, Rahner has to
surrender the interpersonal relations of the triune God. And with
this, of course, the prototypical character of the triune God for the
personal fellowship of men and women in the church and in society
collapses too. The person who corresponds to the God who com
municates himself under a threefold aspect, is the person who
makes himself available, who transcends himself, but who is none
the less turned inwards and solitary.
In Chapter III we interpreted salvation history as 'the history of
the Son' of God, Jesus Christ. We understood this history as the
trinitarian history of God in the concurrent and joint workings of
the three subjects, Father, Son and Spirit; and we interpreted it as
the history of God's trinitarian relationships of fellowship. The
history of the Son is not implemented by a single subject. Conse-

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Trinity

157

quently even the divine life itself cannot be implemented by a single

subject either. So we have to comprehend the triune God as the
'transcendent primal ground' of this trinitarian history of God if
we are to praise him, to magnify him, and to know him as the one
who he himself is. In contrast to the psychological doctrine of the
Trinity, we are therefore developing a social doctrine of the Trinity,
and one based on salvation history.
The reduction of the Trinity to a single identical subject (even if
the subject is a threefold one) does not do justice to the trinitarian
history of God. The reduction of the three Persons to three modes
of subsistence of the one God cannot illuminate salvation history
in the fullness of God's open trinitarian relationships of fellowship.
We have understood the unity of the divine trinitarian history as
the open, unifying at-oneness of the three divine Persons in their
relationships to one another. If this uniting at-oneness of the triune
God is the quintessence of salvation, then its 'transcendent primal
ground' cannot be seen to lie in the one, single, homogeneous
divine essence {substantia), or in the one identical, absolute subject.
It then lies in the eternal perichoresis of the Father, the Son and
the Spirit. The history of God's trinitarian relationships of fellow
ship corresponds to the eternal perichoresis of the Trinity. For this
trinitarian history is nothing other than the eternal perichoresis of
Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their dispensation of salvation,
which is to say in their opening of themselves for the reception and
unification of the whole creation.
The history of salvation is the history of the eternally living,
triune God who draws us into and includes us in his eternal triune
life with all the fullness of its relationships. It is the love story of
the God whose very life is the eternal process of engendering,
responding and blissful love. God loves the world with the very
same love which he is in himself. If, on the basis of salvation
history and the experience of salvation, we have to recognize the
unity of the triune God in the perichoretic at-oneness of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit, then this does not correspond to the
solitary human subject in his relationship to himself; nor does it
correspond, either, to a human subject in his claim to lordship over
the world. It only corresponds to a human fellowship of people
without privileges and without subordinances. The perichoretic
at-oneness of the triune God corresponds to the experience of the
community of Christ, the community which the Spirit unites

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

through respect, affection and love. The more open-mindedly

people live with one another, for one another and in one another
in the fellowship of the Spirit, the more they will become one with
the Son and the Father, and one in the Son and the Father
(John 1 7 . 2 1 ) .
God as almighty power and lordship - this notion of God is
mediated and enforced from 'above to below'. But God as love is
experienced in the community of brothers and sisters through mu
tual acceptance and participation. That applies too to any human
order of society which deserves the name of 'human' in the Christ
ian sense: the further the acceptance of the other goes, the deeper
the participation in the life of the other is the more united people
who have been divided by the perversions of rule will become. In
the community of Christ it is love that corresponds to the perichoretic unity of the triune God as it is manifested and experienced
in the history of salvation; in human society it is solidarity that
provides this correspondence. We shall be taking up and developing
this idea in Chapter VI.

3. The Relationship

between the Immanent and the

Trinity

Economic

The patristic tradition liked to distinguish and relate the Trinity's

immanence and its economy as the Platonists distinguished and
related the Idea and its appearance. T o talk Idealistically about the
substantial and the revealed Trinity presupposes a similar distinc
tion. It is this distinction which the modern differentiation between
'God in himself and 'God for us' is following. People would like
to distinguish God and the world from one another, so as to be
able to say that the world is dependent on God, but that God is
not dependent on the world. A distinction of this kind between
God and the world is generally a metaphysical one: the world is
evanescent, God is non-evanescent; the world is temporal, God is
eternal; the world is passible, God is impassible; the world is
dependent, God is independent. It is obvious that these distinctions
in the metaphysical doctrine of the two natures are derived from
experience of the world, not from experience of God. This judg
ment, which distinguishes God in the world from the world itself,
is then used in the doctrine of the Trinity to distinguish between
God's immanence and his economy. But the distinction between

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Trinity

159

God and the world cannot be sufficient to distinguish God from

God. It imposes limitations on the triune God which are laid down,
not by him, but by human experience of the world. This results in
insolluble problems such as whether the impassible Son of the
eternal Father can have suffered on the cross, whether the immu
table Father can love his creation, and whether the eternal Spirit
can liberate a world that is essentially dependent. The general
metaphysical distinctions between God and the world become false
if they are applied to the history of the Son. So in the doctrine of
the Trinity we have to set about things in the reverse way: God
distinguishes himself from the world through his own self. The
distinction between the Trinity's immanence and its economy must
lie in the Trinity itself and must be implemented by it itself. It must
not be imposed on it from outside.
In his distinction between the immanent and the economic Trin
ity, Barth first of all adhered to the Platonic notion of correspon
dence: what God revealed himself as being in Jesus Christ, he is in
eternity, 'beforehand in himself. For this is the truth of God in
time and eternity: 'God corresponds to himself. It is only in his
account of Christ's death on the cross that Barth breaks through
the unilinear view of correspondence, which thinks of it from above
to below, from within to without. Christ's death on the cross acts
from below upwards, from without inwards, out of time back into
the divine eternity 'He is the Lamb slain, and the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. For this reason, the crucified Jesus is
the "image of the invisible God".' The meaning of the cross of
the Son on Golgotha reaches right into the heart of the immanent
Trinity. From the very beginning, no immanant Trinity and no
divine glory is conceivable without 'the Lamb who was slain'. So
in Christian art too there are hardly any representations of the
Trinity in heaven without the cross and the One crucified. If we
start from the assumption that the perceptions and conceptions
about the immanent Trinity in doxology are built up on the basis
of the experience of salvation, then this immediately becomes com
prehensible: anyone who owes his salvation to the delivering up of
the Son to death on the cross can never think of God in the
abstract, apart from the cross of Christ. For him, God is from
eternity to eternity 'the crucified God'. Only 'the Lamb that was
slain is worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and
strength, and honour, and glory and blessing' (Rev. 5 . 1 2 ) .
63

The Mystery of the

160

Trinity

I myself have tried to think through the theology of the cross in

trinitarian terms and to understand the doctrine of the Trinity in
the light of the theology of the c r o s s . In order to grasp the death
of the Son in its significance for God himself, I found myself bound
to surrender the traditional distinction between the immanent and
the economic Trinity, according to which the cross comes to stand
only in the economy of salvation, but not within the immanent
Trinity. That is why I have affirmed and taken up Rahner's thesis
that 'the economic Trinity 5 the immanent Trinity, and vice versa'. If the central foundation of our knowledge of the Trinity is
the cross, on which the Father delivered up the Son for us through
the Spirit, then it is impossible to conceive of any Trinity of substance in the transcendent primal ground of this event, in which
cross and self-giving are not present. Even the New Testament
statement 'God 5 love' is the summing up of the surrender of the
Son through the Father for us. It cannot be separated from the
event on Golgotha without becoming false. The thesis about the
fundamental identity of the immanent and the economic Trinity of
course remains open to misunderstanding as long as we cling to
the distinction at all, because it then sounds like the dissolution of
the one in the o t h e r . What this thesis is actually trying to bring
out is the interaction between the substance and the revelation, the
'inwardness' and the 'outwardness' of the triune God. The economic Trinity not only reveals the immanent Trinity; it also has a
retroactive effect on it. The Augustinian distinction between the
opera trinitatis ad extra, which are undivided (indivisa) and the
opera trinitatis ad intra, which are divided (divisa) is insufficient.
It ascribes unity to God outwards and 'threeness' inwardly. But the
event of the cross (which is an 'outward' event) can only be understood in trinitarian terms - i.e., terms that are 'divided' {divisa)
and differentiated. Conversely, the surrender of the Son for us on
the cross has a retroactive effect on the Father and causes infinite
pain. On the cross God creates salvation outwardly for his whole
creation and at the same time suffers this disaster of the whole
world inwardly in himself. From the foundation of the world, the
opera trinitatis ad extra correspond to the passiones trinitatis ad
intra. God as love would otherwise not be comprehensible at all.
64

65

66

67

The relationship of the triune God to himself and the relationship

of the triune God to his world is not to be understood as a oneway relationship - the relation of image to reflection, idea to

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Trinity

161

appearance, essence to manifestation - but as a mutual one. The

concept 'mutual relationship' does not equate God's relationship
to the world with his relationship to himself. But it says that God's
relationship to the world has a retroactive effect on his relationship
to himself - even though the divine relationship to the world is
primarily determined by that inner relationship. The growth of
knowledge of the immanent Trinity from the saving experience of
the cross of Christ makes this necessary. The pain of the cross
determines the inner life of the triune God from eternity to eternity.
If that is true, then the joy of responsive love in glorification
through the Spirit determines the inner life of the triune God from
eternity to eternity too. Just as the cross of the Son puts its impress
on the inner life of the triune God, so the history of the Spirit
moulds the inner life of the triune God through the joy of liberated
creation when it is united with God. That is why Christian doxology always ends with the eschatological prospect, looking for
'the perfecting of thy kingdom in glory, when we shall praise and
adore thee, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for ever and ever'.
68

If it is the quintessence of doxology, then the doctrine of the

immanent Trinity is part of eschatology as well. The economic
Trinity completes and perfects itself to immanent Trinity when the
history and experience of salvation are completed and perfected.
When everything is 'in God' and 'God is all in all', then the
economic Trinity is raised into and transcended in the immanent
Trinity. What remains is the eternal praise of the triune God in his
glory.

3 THE IMMANENT TRINITY

We have seen that the knowledge and the representation of the

immanent Trinity is to be found in the sphere of doxology, which
responds to the experience of salvation and anticipates the kingdom
of glory. In this eschatological sense the Trinity is a mystery (mysterion) which is only manifested to us here in the experience of
salvation. T o talk about 'the mystery of the Trinity' does not mean
pointing to some impenetrable obscurity or insoluble riddle. It
means with unveiled face already recognizing here and now, in the
obscurity of history, the glory of the triune God and praising him
in the hope of one day seeing him face to face.
The ideas and concepts with which we know God and conceive

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162

him for ourselves all derive from this impaired life of ours. They
have the imprint of a history of Godlessness and Godforsakenness.
It is only in a fragmentary way that they are suited to bring to
expression the doxology of liberated life in fellowship with God.
By the phrase 'in a fragmentary way' we mean here that these ideas
and concepts have to suffer a transformation of meaning if they
are to be applied to the mystery of the Trinity. All theological work
on the doctrine of the Trinity is devoted to this transformation of
meaning. The concepts and terms must correspond to and be suited
to the thing that has to be conceived and comprehended. This
theological effort of understanding is itself already a part of
doxology.
In the following pages we are going to discuss some basic con
cepts in the doctrine of the Trinity in this light, though I have no
intention of covering the ground with the completeness of a hand
book. We shall begin with the constitution of the Trinity itself
and shall then go on to think about some trinitarian concepts.
69

1. The Constitution

of the Trinity

The Father, the Son and the Spirit are worshipped and extolled
together and in one breath.
(a) Who is the Father?
In the Apostles' Creed God is called 'Father' twice: firstly at
creation - T believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven
and earth'; secondly after Christ's ascension - 'He sitteth at the
right hand of God, the Father Almighty'. This double mention has
led to an ambiguity in the understanding of God the Father. Are
we to call God the Father because he is almighty and - by virtue
of his almighty power - is the creator of heaven and earth? Or is
he the almighty Father of the Son, who sits at his right hand?
If God is the almighty Father because he is the origin and lord
of all things, then he will be feared and worshipped, as Zeus
already was, because he is the father of the universe:
When the primordial holy Father
with tranquil hand
sends blessed lightnings
from rolling clouds

The Immanent

Trinity

over the earth,

I kiss the hem of his garment,
childlike in awe, faithful in heart.

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70

As father of the universe he is the universe's highest authority. All

other authorities take their powers from him, so that patriarchal
hierarchies grow up on this pattern: God the Father - the father
of the church - the father of his country - the father of the family.
This patriarchal religion is quite obviously not trinitarian; it is
purely monotheistic. It is understandable that the European move
ment for freedom should have been sparked off, both religiously
and politically, by this patriarchal, father religion. European athe
ism means nothing other than the liberation of human beings from
this super-ego in the soul and in heaven, which does not really
deserve the name of Father at all.
If we think in trinitarian terms on the other hand, we begin with
the second definition in the Apostles' Creed: God the Father is the
Father of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, who became our elder
brother. It is in respect of this Son that God must be called 'Father'.
His fatherhood is defined by the relationship to this Son, and by
the relationship of this Son Jesus Christ to him. Consequently, in
the Christian understanding of God the Father, what is meant is
not 'the Father of the universe', but simply and exclusively 'the
Father of the Son' Jesus Christ. It is solely the Father of Jesus
Christ whom we believe and acknowledge created the world. It is
in the trinitarian sense that God is understood as Father - or he
cannot be understood as Father at all. But anyone who wants to
understand the trinitarian God as Father must forget the ideas
behind this patriarchal Father religion the super-ego, the father
of the family, the father of his country, even 'the fatherly provi
dence'. He must gaze solely at the life and message of his brother
Jesus: for in fellowship with the only begotten Son he will recognize
that the Father of Jesus Christ is his Father too, and he will
understand what the divine fatherhood really means. The name of
Father is therefore a theological term - which is to say a trinitarian
one; it is not a cosmological idea or a religious-political notion. If
God is the Father of this Son Jesus Christ, and if he is only 'our
Father' for his Son's sake, then we can also only call him 'Abba',
beloved Father, in the spirit of free sonship. It is freedom that
distinguishes him from the universal patriarch of father religions.

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The Mystery of the Trinity

The ambiguity of the Father of the universe and the Father of

Jesus Christ ceases if we distinguish clearly between the creation
of the world and the generation of the Son. God is Father solely
in respect of the only begotten Son. No fatherliness in the literal
sense can be detected from the creation of the universe, or from
providence. When the Creator is called 'Father', what is meant in
Christian terms is that creation proceeds from the Father of the
Son - that is to say, from the first Person of the Trinity: the Father
creates heaven and earth through the Son in the power of the Holy
Spirit. Factually, the trinitarian definition of the Father precedes
the cosmological one. Consequently the creation process is mani
festly a work of the Trinity. The Lord's prayer is in fact directed
towards the first Person of the Trinity, not the whole Trinity, as
Augustine thought. It is in fellowship with the first-born Son that
Jesus' brothers and sisters pray to his Father, calling him 'our
Father'. Through the doctrine of the Trinity, therefore, God's name
of Father is indissolubly linked with Jesus the Son, and is in that
way Christianized.
It is only this Father who can be said to have 'generated' his only
begotten Son in eternity. Here, significantly enough, the statements
of Trinitarian doctrine vary between the 'generation' and the 'birth'
of the Son from the Father. The German creed, for example, talks,
not about the only begotten Son, but about the only Son born to
the Father. Both statements are intended to make it clear that the
Son was not 'created' by the Father, as the world was, but that he
proceeded from the substance of the Father and is hence of the
same substance as the Father, which cannot be said of any created
being, not even men and women.
But if the Son proceeded from the Father alone, then this has to
be conceived of both as a begetting and as a birth. And this means
a radical transformation of the Father image; a father who both
begets and bears his son is not merely a father in the male sense.
He is a motherly father too. He is no longer defined in unisexual,
patriarchal terms but - if we allow for the metaphor of language
- bisexually or transexually. He has to be understood as the moth
erly Father of the only Son he has brought forth, and at the same
time as the fatherly Mother of his only begotten Son. It was the
Orthodox dogmatic tradition especially which took the Trinity
seriously, defending it against any danger of monotheism; and it
was just this tradition which made the boldest statements at this

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165

point. According to the Council of Toledo in 6 7 5 'it must be held

that the Son was created, neither out of nothingness nor yet out of
any substance, but that He was begotten or born out of the Father's
womb (de utero Patris), that is, out of his very essence'. Whatever
may be said about God's gynaecology according to this explana
tion, the point of these bi-sexual statements about the trinitarian
Father is the radical rejection of monotheism, which is always
patriarchal.
71

Monotheism was and is the religion of patriarchy, just as panthe

ism is probably the religion of earlier matriarchy. It is only the
doctrine of the Trinity, with the bold statements we have quoted,
which makes a first approach towards overcoming sexist language
in the concept of God. It leads to a fellowship of men and women
without privilege and subjection, for in fellowship with the first
born brother, there is no longer male or female, but all are one in
Christ, and joint heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3.28f.).
In the eternal begetting and birth of the Son, God proves himself
Father and is Father indeed. The Son and the Spirit proceed eter
nally from the Father, but the Father proceeds from no other divine
person. Hence - or so the doctrine of the trinitarian processions
states - he cannot himself be constituted out of a relation to
anything else. The Father must be constituted through himself.
That is the reason why he - the origin of the Son and the Spirit
- is called the one who is 'utterly and absolutely without origin or
beginning', principium sine principio. He, being himself without
origin, is the origin of the divine Persons of the Son and the Spirit.
If one does not want God to disappear into Sabellian obscurity,
then one must see the eternal origin of the Trinity in the Father.
But this means that God the Father must be doubly defined: first
of all, being himself without origin, he is the origin of the Godhead;
secondly, he is the Father of the Son and the One who brings forth
the Spirit. The Father is therefore defined through himself and
through his relations to the Son and to the Spirit. The Son and the
Spirit, on the other hand, are defined through the Father and
through their own relations. But this inner-trinitarian 'monarchy
of the Father' only defines the inner-trinitarian constitution of God,
not the world monarchy of a universal Father.
Metaphysical thinking in terms of origin has been employed in
the doctrine of the inner-trinitarian processions from earliest times.
The Trinity, which is the origin of the world, is in its turn traced

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

back to an eternal 'origin of the Godhead' in the Father. This

thinking in terms of origin derives from cosmology and can there
fore only be haltingly applied to the mystery of the Trinity, that is
to say, in realization of its inappropriateness. It can only be used
appropriately if the logical compulsion to monarchial reduction
and the non-trinitarian notion of the single origin (both of which
are inherent in it) are overcome. In spite of the 'origin' of the Son
and the Spirit in the Father, we have to adhere to the equally
primordial character of the trinitarian Persons (if we want to go
on thinking in these terms at all) because otherwise the Trinity
threatens to dissolve in monotheism. But if we talk about an order
of origin within the Trinity, we must underline its uniqueness and
its incomparability when contrasted with any order of origin which
is thought of cosmologically. If we keep these differences in mind,
then the concept of origin (CLQX^) can certainly be used as an aid
to thinking; and we shall be employing it in this way in what
follows.
(b) Who is the Son?
The statements about the second Person of the Trinity are not
so problematical. The Son is the 'only', the 'only begotten', eternal
Son of the Father. He is not created ex nihilo but - as the metaphors
of generation and birth suggest - proceeds from the substance of
the Father. Consequently he is one in substance or essence with
the Father and has everything in common with him, except his
'Personal' characteristics. The statements about the 'eternal gener
ation' or 'begetting' of the Son make the name of Son an exclusively
theological term, that is to say, a trinitarian one. The world is
God's creation, not his Son. Man is God's image, not his Son. The
history of the world is God's passion, not the process of his selfrealization. It is only in fellowship with the first-born of creation
that the world will be drawn into the trinitarian life of God; it is
only in fellowship with the first-born of many brethren that men
and women are drawn into that life. It is the trinitarian statements
about the eternal generation and birth of the Son which bring
about the christological concentration of cosmology and
anthropology.
The Father who generates and brings forth communicates every
thing to the eternal Son - everything e x c e p t his fatherhood. The
Father communicates to the Son his divinity, his power and his

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Trinity

167

glory, but not his fatherhood; otherwise the Son for his part would
be a second Father. The Son therefore receives in eternity divinity
and his being as Person from the Father. He does not for his part,
however, become an 'origin of the Godhead'; otherwise there
would be two such origins within the triune God. This difference
in the characters of the Father and the Son is important for the
dispute about the Filioque; for it already excludes the idea that the
Spirit could proceed 'from the Father and the Son' in the sense of
the Son's being a 'second origin' of the divinity of the Holy Spirit,
in competition with the Father. The Father is the 'origin' of the
Son and communicates to him his whole essence, with the sole
exception of the capacity for being himself the 'origin' or 'source'
of the Godhead.
72

The generation and birth of the Son come from the Father's
nature, not from his will. That is why we talk about the eternal
generation and birth of the Son. The Father begets and bears the
Son out of the necessity of his being. Consequently the Son, like
the Father, belongs to the eternal constitution of the triune God.
In Christian terms, no deity is conceivable without the eternal
Father of the Son and without the eternal Son of the Father.
Tradition distinguishes between the eternal birth of the Son from
the Father, and the sending of the Son through the Father in time:
the temporal sending issues from the liberty of the Father and the
Son; the eternal birth springs from necessity of being.
A difficult question often arises at this point: the question wheth
er a reason can be given - given not merely a posteriori, on the
basis of the experience of salvation, but a priori too, out of the
eternal constitution of the Trinity - why it was the eternal Son
who had to become man in order to suffer and to die, and not just
'any one of the Persons of the Trinity'. Is there something in the
eternal generation of the Son through the Father which from etern
ity, potentially and in tendency, destines the Son for incarnation
- the Son, but not the Father, and not the Spirit either? This
'speculative' question is seldom answered. In the framework of the
doctrine of the Trinity which we have developed here, it can be
said that the Father's love, which generates and brings forth, reach
es potentially and in tendency beyond the responding and obedient
love of the eternal Son. The love of the Father for the Son, and the
love of the Son for the Father are not the same - are not even
congruent - simply because they are differently constituted. They

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The Mystery of the Trinity

do not stand in an equal reciprocal relationship to one another.

The Father loves the Son with engendering, fatherly love. The Son
loves the Father with responsive, self-giving love. The love of the
Father which begets and brings forth the Son is therefore open for
further response through creations which correspond to the Son,
which enter into harmony with his responsive love and thereby
fulfil the joy of the Father. Hence the love of the Father which
brings forth the Son in eternity becomes creative love. It calls
created beings into life, beings made in the image of the Son, who
in fellowship with the Son return the Father's love. Creation pro
ceeds from the Father's love for the eternal Son. It is destined to
join in the Son's obedience and in his responsive love to the Father,
and so to give God delight and bliss.
On the other hand, the Son's sacrifice of boundless love on
Golgotha is from eternity already included in the exchange of the
essential, the consubstantial love which constitutes the divine life
of the Trinity. The fact that the Son dies on the cross, delivering
himself up to that death, is part of the eternal obedience which he
renders to the Father in his whole being through the Spirit, whom
he receives from the Father. Creation is saved and justified in
eternity in the sacrifice of the Son, which is her sustaining
foundation.
(c) Who is the Holy Spirit?
Whereas according to biblical testimony clear personal concepts
are associated with the names of the Father and the Son, the 'third
Person' of the Trinity has a certain anonymity. It is not always
clear from the New Testament that the Holy Spirit is not merely
a divine energy, but a divine subject too. On the other hand we
read in the Gospel of John that 'God is spirit' (4.24). Spirit is
therefore also a description of the divine existence, similar to the
statement that 'God is love'. The attribute 'holy', too, does not
describe any unique feature of the third Person of the Trinity, for
the triune God himself is holy. Thomas Aquinas consequently
thought that the third Person of the Trinity had no name of his
own, but that he was only given the name 'Holy Spirit' because of
biblical usage that is to say, on the basis of the economy of
salvation to which the Bible testifies: the Spirit is holy because he
himself sanctifies.
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74

In Christian art - both Western and Eastern - the Trinity has

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Trinity

169

therefore generally been represented by two Persons and a bird,

the dove. Rublev's ikon is a notable exception. T o depict the Spirit
as a dove between the Persons of the Father and the Son expresses
a duality rather than a Trinity.
The concept of the Holy Spirit's origin is difficult as well. As the
source of the Godhead and as the Father of the Son, God breathes
out the Holy Spirit in eternity. The Spirit proceeds in eternity from
the Father, but from the Father inasmuch as he is 'the origin of the
Godhead'. It is lacking in inner logic to understand the procession
of the Spirit only from 'the Father'; for the first Person of the
Trinity is only 'Father' in relation to the Son. The Spirit is 'breathed
out' {spiratio) not begotten (generatio). So the Spirit cannot be a
second Son of the Father. He proceeds from the Father. He does
not equally proceed from the Son. If this were so, the Son would
be the second Father and there would be two different 'origins' for
the divine Spirit. This idea, which some Orthodox theologians find
in the Western church's Filioque, would destroy God's unity and
nullify the personal distinctions between the Father and the Son.
We can therefore only say about the origin of the Spirit that: 1.
He is not without origin, like the Father; 2. He is not generated,
like the Son; 3 . His procession from the Father (exTtdgevoig) is a
relationship peculiar to himself, the factor determining him alone.
His unique character is therefore defined negatively rather than
positively.
Western theology ever since Augustine has suggested with a
certain reserve that the Holy Spirit issues from the mutual love of
the Father and the Son, and that the Spirit is the vinculum amoris,
the bond of love which brings the Father and the Son to the truth
in one another and with one another; that is to say, that the Spirit
is the trinitarian Person who both truly distinguishes and truly
unites the Father and the Son in their relation to one another. But
that means that the inner-trinitarian efficacy of the Holy Spirit is
only presented by and in the mutual relationship of the Father and
the Son.
The concept of the Holy Spirit really has no organic connection
with the doctrine of God the Father and the Son. Consequently it
often simply seems like an appendix, either because of the biblical
testimony, or for the sake of a 'trinity' in which the duality is
brought to unity. But the inner coherence immediately becomes
perceptible when we understand the Son as the Word (Logos). The

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The Mystery of the Trinity

Father utters his eternal Word in the eternal breathing out of his
Spirit. There is in God no W o r d without the Spirit, and no Spirit
without the Word. In this respect the uttering of the Word and the
issuing of the Spirit belong indissolubly together. It is even difficult
to perceive that the second Person has any priority over the third
Person of the Trinity. Word and Spirit, Spirit and Word issue
together and simultaneously from the Father, for they mutually
condition one another. The difficult thing then is only to call the
common origin of the Word and the Spirit 'Father'.
The real problems about the knowledge and description of the
immanent Trinity lie in the integration of these two different pat
terns: the logic of the Father and the Son, and the logic of the
Word and the Spirit. Inasmuch as the Son of the eternal Father is
at the same time the eternal Word of God, the eternal procession
of the Spirit is bound up with him.
If the Spirit, together with the eternal Word, proceeds from the
Father as 'origin of the Godhead', then we must also say that the
Spirit is not created, but that he issues from the Father out of the
necessity of the Father's being and is of the same essence or sub
stance as the Father and the Son. In experiencing the Holy Spirit
we experience God himself: we experience the Spirit of the Father,
who unites us with the Son; the Spirit of the Son, whom the Father
gives; and the Spirit who glorifies us through the Son and the
Father.
According to John 1 5 . 2 6 , 'the Spirit of truth proceeds from the
Father' but is 'sent' by Christ the Son. According to John 1 4 . 2 6 ,
the Father 'sends' the Spirit in Christ's name. If, according to the
experience of salvation, the Holy Spirit is 'sent' by the Father and
by the Son, then does not the perception of doxology tell us
that he is then also bound to 'proceed' from the Father and from
the Son} Can we - without destroying the truth of God himself assume anything about the economy of salvation which does not
originally correspond to something in the actual Trinity itself? But
if - because the Spirit is sent from the Father and from the Son in
time - we assume that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and
from the Son in eternity, are we not then destroying the unity of
the triune God? This is the double dilemma of the dispute over the
Filioque, which we shall be discussing later.

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Trinity

171

2. The Life of the

Trinity

(a) Person and Relation

The word persona (TIQOWJIOV)
originally meant 'mask' and
comes from the language of the theatre. What is meant is the mask
disguising the actor's features, through which his voice is heard
(personare).
In modern speech this corresponds exactly to the
sociological concept of the 'role'. 'Role sociology' has also bor
rowed this term from the theatre and applied it to the social
functions of men and w o m e n . In Latin theology the concept of
person was used first of all in Sabellian modalism: one God in
three masks. In the anthropology of role sociology, man becomes
homo absconditus, 'the man without qualities' in a 'world of qual
ities without man'. That is anthropological modalism in its extreme
form.
7s

76

77

In Greek theology, on the other hand, the term hypostasis was

used quite early on, parallel to the term prosopon, in the doctrine
of the Trinity. Hypostasis does not mean the mask or mode of
appearance; it means the individual existence of a particular nature.
If the Latin term 'person' is to be used to cover the same content,
then the concept of person has to be changed - which means
deepened ontologically. It must no longer describe the interchange
able mask or role; on the contrary, it must describe the noninterchangeable, untransferable individual existence in any particu
lar case. This is what Boethius's classic definition means: 'persona
est rationalis naturae individua substantia.' * For Boethius nature
consisted of substance and accident. Consequently a person cannot
be constituted of accidents but only out of substance. As individual
substance, the person is characterized by substantiality, intellec
tuality and incommunicability. If we take Boethius' definition, the
trinitarian Persons are not 'modes of being'; they are individual,
unique, non-interchangeable subjects of the one, common divine
substance, with consciousness and will. Each of the Persons pos
sesses the divine nature in a non-interchangeable way; each pre
sents it in his own way.
7

But since the trinitarian Persons are unique, they cannot merely
be defined by their relationship to their common nature. The lim
itation to three would then be incomprehensible. The personality
which represents their untransferable, individual being with respect
to their common divine nature, means, on the other hand, the

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

character of relation with respect to the other Persons. They have

the divine nature in common; but their particular individual nature
is determined in their relationship to one another. In respect of the
divine nature the Father has to be called 'individua substantia', but
in respect of the Son we have to call him 'Father'. The position is
no different in the case of the Son and the Spirit. The three divine
Persons exist in their particular, unique natures as Father, Son and
Spirit in their relationships to one another, and are determined
through these relationships. It is in these relationships that they are
persons. Being a person in this respect means existing-inrelationship.
This relational understanding of the person was pre-eminently
introduced by Augustine. It expands and takes us beyond the
'substance' thinking of Boethius. It permits the differentiation: the
three divine Persons possess the same individual, indivisible and
one divine nature, but they possess it in varying ways. The Father
possesses it of himself; the Son and the Spirit have it from the
Father. There are three relations in the Trinity: fatherhood, sonship, the breathing of the Spirit [paternitas, filatio, spiratio). The
inner being of the Persons is moulded by these relationships in
accordance with the relational difference. The three Persons are
independent in that they are divine, but as Persons they are deeply
bound to one another and dependent on one another. But this
relational understanding of the Persons has as its premise the 'sub
stantial' interpretation of their individuality; the one does not re
place the other.
Here there is a difference between the Orthodox and the Western
trinitarian doctrine. It is a difference that became clear at the
Council of Florence. It is impossible to say: person is relation;
the relation constitutes the person. It is true that the Father is
defined by his fatherhood to the Son, but this does not constitute
his existence; it presupposes it. Certainly, fatherhood is a relation,
a 'mode of being'. But the fact that God is the Father says more
than merely that: it adds to the mode of being, being itself. Person
and relation therefore have to be understood in a reciprocal rela
tionship. Here there are no persons without relations; but there are
no relations without persons either. The reduction of the concept
'person' to the concept 'relation' is basically modalistic, because it
suggests the further reduction of the concept of relation to a selfrelation on God's part. But is person merely a 'concrete and really
79

The Immanent

Trinity

173
80

existing relation of God to himself'? If it were, then God in the

three Persons would be thrice himself, and the Persons would be
nothing more than the triple self-repetition of God. This modalistic
view not only dissolves the trinitarian concept of person; it does
away with the interpersonal concept of relation as well. Moreover
the number 'three' becomes incomprehensible.
But on the Orthodox side it is no less one-sided to say: the
relations only manifest the persons. For that presupposes the con
stitution of the Persons simply in themselves, and without their
relations. Then the relations would only express the difference in
kind of the Persons, but not their association, their fellowship. But
if, as we are maintaining here, personality and relationships are
genetically connected, then the two arise simultaneously and to
gether. The constitution of the Persons and their manifestation
through their relations are two sides of the same thing. The concept
of substance reflects the relations of the Person to the common
divine nature. The concept of relation reflects the relationship of
the Persons to one another. These are two aspects which have to
be distinguished from one another. The trinitarian Persons subsist
in the common divine nature; they exist in their relations to one
another.
The doctrine of the Trinity of love carried on the development
of the concept of Person, and took it one step further. This doctrine
was evolved in the West from the time of Augustine and Richard
of St Victor and was pursued right down to the Idealistic theology
of the nineteenth century. According to Richard of St Victor, being
a person does not merely mean subsisting; nor does it mean
subsisting-in-relation. It means existing. He proposed as improve
ment of the old definition: 'A divine Person is a non-interchange
able existence of the divine nature.' By the word 'existence' eksistentia - he meant: existence, in the light of another. It is true
that in the first place he related this other to the divine nature. But
it can be related to the other Persons too. Then existence means a
deepening of the concept of relation: every divine Person exists in
the light of the other and in the other. By virtue of the love they
have for one another they ex-ist totally in the other: the Father
ex-ists by virtue of his love, as himself entirely in the Son; the Son,
by virtue of his self-surrender, ex-ists as himself totally in the
Father; and so on. Each Person finds his existence and his joy in
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The Mystery of the

Trinity

the other Person. Each Person receives the fullness of eternal life
from the other.
Hegel then picked up this idea and deepened it. It is the nature
of the person to give himself entirely to a counterpart, and to find
himself in the other most of all. The person only comes to himself
by expressing and expending himself in others.
The substantial understanding of person (Boethius) and the re
lational understanding of person (Augustine) was now expanded
by the historical understanding of person (Hegel). The Persons do
not merely 'exist' in their relations; they also realize themselves in
one another by virtue of self-surrendering love.
This brings a third term into the doctrine of the Trinity, in
addition to the concept of person and the concept of relation; and
this makes it possible to perceive the living changes in the trinitarian relations and the Persons which come about through the reve
lation, the self-emptying and the glorification of the triune God.
We have termed it the history of God, which takes place in the
Trinity itself, and have in this sense talked about God's passion
for his Other, about God's self-limitation, about God's pain, and
also about God's joy and his eternal bliss in the final glorification.
82

Only when we are capable of thinking of Persons, relations, and

changes in the relations together does the idea of the Trinity lose
its usual static, rigid quality. Then not only does the eternal life of
the triune God become conceivable; its eternal vitality becomes
conceivable too.
(b) Perichoresis and Transfiguration
If the concept of person comes to be understood in trinitarian
terms - that is, in terms of relation and historically - then the
Persons do not only subsist in the common divine substance; they
also exist in their relations to the other Persons. More - they are
alive in one another and through the others in each several case.
This idea found expression in the early church's doctrine about
the immanentia and inexistentia of the trinitarian Persons: intima
et perfecta inhabitatio unius personae in alia.
John Damascene's profound doctrine of the eternal nsQix(ogr}Oig
or circumincessio of the trinitarian Persons goes even further. For
this concept grasps the circulatory character of the eternal divine
life. An eternal life process takes place in the triune God through
the exchange of energies. The Father exists in the Son, the
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The Immanent

Trinity

175

Son in the Father, and both of them in the Spirit, just as the Spirit
exists in both the Father and the Son. By virtue of their eternal
love they live in one another to such an extent, and dwell in one
another to such an extent, that they are one. It is a process of most
perfect and intense empathy. Precisely through the personal char
acteristics that distinguish them from one another, the Father, the
Son and the Spirit dwell in one another and communicate eternal
life to one another. In the perichoresis, the very thing that divides
them becomes that which binds them together. The 'circulation' of
the eternal divine life becomes perfect through the fellowship and
unity of the three different Persons in the eternal love. In their
perichoresis and because of it, the trinitarian persons are not to be
understood as three different individuals, who only subsequently
enter into relationship with one another (which is the customary
reproach, under the name of 'tritheism'). But they are not, either,
three modes of being or three repetitions of the One God, as the
modalistic interpretation suggests. The doctrine of the perichoresis
links together in a brilliant way the threeness and the unity, without
reducing the threeness to the unity, or dissolving the unity in the
threeness. The unity of the triunity lies in the eternal perichoresis
of the trinitarian persons. Interpreted perichoretically, the trinitar
ian persons form their own unity by themselves in the circulation
of the divine life.
The unity of the trinitarian Persons lies in the circulation of the
divine life which they fulfil in their relations to one another. This
means that the unity of the triune God cannot and must not be
seen in a general concept of divine substance. That would abolish
the personal differences. But if the contrary is true - if the very
difference of the three Persons lies in their relational, perichoreti
cally consummated life process - then the Persons cannot and must
not be reduced to three modes of being of one and the same divine
subject. The Persons themselves constitute both their differences
and their unity.
If the divine life is understood perichoretically, then it cannot be
consummated by merely one subject at all. It is bound to consist
of the living fellowship of the three Persons who are related to one
another and exist in one another. Their unity does not lie in the
one lordship of God; it is to be found in the unity of their tri-unity.
Finally, through the concept of perichoresis, all subordinationism
in the doctrine of the Trinity is avoided. It is true that the Trinity

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The Mystery of the Trinity

is constituted with the Father as starting point, inasmuch as he is

understood as being 'the origin of the Godhead'. But this 'mon
archy of the Father' only applies to the constitution of the Trinity.
It has no validity within the eternal circulation of the divine life,
and none in the perichoretic unity of the Trinity. Here the three
Persons are equal; they live and are manifested in one another and
through one another.
There is another, analogous process to the circulation of the
divine life through the trinitarian Persons in their relations: the
process of the mutual manifestations of the Persons through their
relations in the divine glory. The expression and presentation of
the divine life in the glory that characterizes it, is part of that divine
life itself. The trinitarian Persons do not merely exist and live in
one another; they also bring one another mutually to manifestation
in the divine glory. The eternal divine glory is for its part displayed
through the trinitarian manifestation of the Persons. From all etern
ity the Father is 'the Father of glory' (Eph. 1.17), the eternal W o r d
is 'the reflection of glory' (Heb. 1.3) and the Holy Spirit is 'the
spirit of glory' (I Peter 4 . 1 4 ) . The Persons of the Trinity make
one another shine through that glory, mutually and together. They
glow into perfect form through one another and awake to perfected
beauty in one another.
8 4

In all eternity the Holy Spirit allows the Son to shine in the
Father and transfigures the Father in the Son. He is the eternal
light in which the Father knows the Son and the Son the Father.
In the Holy Spirit the eternal divine life arrives at consciousness of
itself, therein reflecting its perfect form. In the Holy Spirit the
divine life becomes conscious of its eternal beauty. Through the
Holy Spirit the eternal divine life becomes the sacred feast of the
Trinity.
In Orthodox theology the doctrine of the trinitarian manifest
ations actually stands at the point where the theology of the West
ern church talks about the trinitarian relations. But this doctrine
of the manifestation of the perichoresis of the divine life in the
divine glory goes even further. And it is only this doctrine that
corresponds doxologically to 'the glorification of the Spirit' in the
experience of salvation.
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Trinity
3. The Unity of the

177
Trinity

The unity of the Trinity must be understood in a trinitarian sense,

not monadically. Otherwise the unity would abolish the triple
character of the Persons.
The tradition of the Western church liked to see the unity of the
Trinity in the one, fundamental divine substance, in which the
divine hypostases subsist. Tertullan's formula, 'una substantia trespersonae',
already suggests this interpretation. But if the one
divine substance is to represent the unity of the Trinity, then the
three-in-oneness of the Persons is secondary in comparison. The
threeness then contains no inherent unity in itself, and is easily
reduced to the fundamental unity of the divine substance, as its
threefold character. What can be said 'de Deo uno' is perceived by
the light of natural reason. It is only what is perceived 'de Deo
trino' that is supposed to be due to revelation. If the doctrine of
God is built up in two parts like this, then God's unity has to be
dealt with twice. In the past this has meant that the unity of the
trinity receded behind the natural recognition that God is, and that
he is one.
One arrives at similar conclusions if one thinks about God as
subject and no longer as substance. Then too, the underlying prem
ise is a non-trinitarian unity of the God-subject, and the Trinity is
reduced to the threefold character of this one, identical subject.
The unity of the three-in-one then no longer finds expression. The
one lordship and the one self-communication of the One God now
merely have a threefold structure.
If we follow the concepts described here for the constitution and
the eternal life of the Trinity, then we have to talk about the unity
of the triune God in three respects.
In respect of the constitution of the Trinity the Father is the
'origin-without-origin' of the Godhead. According to the doctrine
of the two processions, the Son and the Spirit take their divine
hypostases from him. So in the constitution of the Godhead, the
Father forms the 'monarchial' unity of the Trinity.
But in respect of the Trinity's inner life, the three Persons them
selves form their unity, by virtue of their relation to one another
and in the eternal perichoresis of their love. They are concentrated
round the eternal Son. This is the perichoretic unity of the Trinity.
Finally, the mutual transfiguration and illumination of the Trin-

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

ity into the eternal glory of the divine life is bound up with this.
This uniting mutuality and community proceeds from the Holy
Spirit.
The unity of the Trinity is constituted by the Father, concentrated
round the Son, and illumined through the Holy Spirit. So, summing
up, we can say the following.
In the history and experience of salvation this illumination is
perceived through the Spirit first of all. It is in the power of the
Spirit that doxology begins. The perichoretic unity of the triune
God is perceived in salvation history and reflected in salvation
history. Lastly, the monarchy of the Father is perceived in the
Trinity because everything in the history of salvation comes from
him and strives towards him. T o throw open the circulatory move
ment of the divine light and the divine relationships, and to take
men and women, with the whole of creation, into the life-stream
of the triune God: that is the meaning of creation, reconciliation
and glorification.

4 DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT PROCEED FROM THE FATHER 'AND FROM
THE SON'?

Et in Spiritum Sanctum,
Dominum et vivificantem,
qui ex Patre (Filioque) procedit,
qui cum Patre et Filio simul
adoratur et glorificatur,
qui locutus est per prophetas.
{Symbolum
Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum)

1. The State of the Modern Discussion

about the Filioque

The inclusion of the Filioque in the text of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 3 8 1 (first of all in Spain, then through Charle
magne, and finally through Pope Benedict VIII) led to the schism
in the church in 1 0 5 4 . In addition, the defence of the Filioque by
theologians of the Western church, contrary to the denial of it by
Eastern theologians, led to a one-sided trinitarian doctrine in the
West, and hindered the development of a trinitarian pneumatology.
The overcoming of the ecclesiastical dispute about the late inclusion
of the Filioque into the confessional text of an ecumenical council,

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from the Father 'and from the Son'?

179

must therefore go hand in hand with the theological development

of a more comprehensive doctrine of the Trinity. Consequently the
new ecumenical conversations on the subject have at least three
essential aims: 1. to clear up the dispute about the early council
tradition; 2. to arrive at a common theological declaration about
the relationship of the Son to the Holy Spirit; and 3 . in the West,
to achieve a more open-minded insight into the trinitarian inde
pendence of the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of his energies and
influence in salvation history and in his eternal glorification of the
Son and the Father.
The Councils of Lyons in 1 2 7 4 and Florence in 1 4 3 8 - 1 4 4 5 were
impeded by different political and church-political power groups:
the more powerful West, under the leadership of Rome, tried to
force the Filioque on the East, which had been weakened by the
struggle against Islam. These attempts proved unsuccessful theo
logically and left bitterness behind them in the East.
It is curious that after their separation from Rome the Protestant
churches made no serious attempt to take up conversations with
the Orthodox Church again by returning to the original text of the
creed, i.e., by renouncing the Filioque. The arguments that were
put forward in the correspondence between Tubingen Protestant
theologians and the theologians of the Patriarch Jeremiah II of
Constantinople between 1 5 7 3 and 1 5 8 1 , for example, were the
ones familiar from mediaeval times. They offered no new points
of view. Protestant theologians continued to cling to the Filioque.
Consequently Orthodox theologians also merely went on repeating
the objections to Augustine put forward by Photius and Gregorius
Palamas. The trinitarian pneumatology of the orthodox Lutherans
and Calvinists in no way differed from the ideas of their models,
Augustine and Anselm. But this means that the Reformation saw
itself as a Reformation of the Western church, with the schism of
1054 as its premise.
86

87

Old Catholic theology, on the other hand, sought contact with

the Orthodox Church immediately after its separation from Rome
in 1871 (which was brought about by the First Vatican Council);
and as early as 1 8 7 4 / 7 5 it held 'union conferences' on the subject
in Bonn. Anglican and German Protestant theologians also took
part in these, even if not as official representatives of the churches.
Old Catholic theologians thought from the very beginning that the
Filioque had been introduced in an illegitimate way in the West.

The Mystery of the Trinity

180

But it is only in recent years that liturgical and canon-law conclu

sions have been drawn from this: the Old Catholic church is the
first church in the West that has officially struck out the 'Filioque'
addition from the creed. And Old Catholic theology is the furthest
advanced in developing a new formulation of trinitarian doctrine,
in the tradition of the Western church, but without the Filioque.
It is not only on the Western side that the fronts have begun to
move in this matter, which for so long could only be described as
tangled. In 1 8 9 8 the Revue Internationale de thologie published
in No. 2 4 'Theses on the Filioque: by a Russian theologian'. The
author was the famous church historian Boris Bolotov. It is true
that these theses are a matter of dispute between Russian Orthodox
and Greek Orthodox theologians. But they intuitively indicate
the direction in which an understanding between Western and
Eastern traditions can be sought and achieved. Bolotov adheres to
the procession of the Holy Spirit, 'from the Father alone'. But he
sees the Son in such close proximity to the Father that the Son
becomes the logical 'presupposition' and the factual 'condition' for
the procession of the Spirit from the Father and to some extent
involved in it. Consequently the Son is not removed from the
procession of the Spirit from the Father, and is not uninvolved in
it. Whereas Photian and Palamitic neo-Orthodoxy lays its main
stress on the strict division between the generation of the Son
through the Father, and the procession of the Spirit from the
Father, we find in Bolotov a theological approximation to the
truth which the West tried to express through the Filioque - even
if in an inappropriate way. Though it must be noted that Bolotov
firmly rejects the Filioque in the procession of the Spirit from the
Father. It is therefore not yet possible to judge Bolotov's 'theses'
as being representative of the Eastern church's views; but they can
certainly be acknowledged to be the most accommodating sugges
tion from the side of Orthodox theology in the direction of rec
onciliation with the West in this question.
88

89

90

91

92

2. The Creed and its Theological

Interpretation

As far as the official teachings of the church are concerned, the

external, canonistic and liturgical problem can be solved if the
Western churches acknowledge in so far as they have not already
done so - that the Filioque is a later addition to the credal text of

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from the Father 'and from the Son'?

181

an ecumenical council which was itself only recognized as such at

a late stage. The Filioque was not originally intended as a polemical
attack on the Eastern church. Its aim was simply to interpret and
define the trinitarian statement of the creed more clearly. In the
East too, the creed's statement was interpreted analogously (though
in the opposite direction) through the interpretative 'x fivov rov
jiaxcoc'. In actual fact, therefore, whatever the intention may have
been in secular and in ecclesiastical politics, what were at issue
were really interpretative formulas, not attempts at a unilateral
correction of the common creed. And if this is so, then the addition
can be withdrawn and treated as what it is: an interpretation of
the original text made in a particular situation of theological conflict. The actual theological discussion about the 'filioquistic' and
the 'monopatristic' interpretation of the Trinity is unaffected by
this. By withdrawing the Filioque a schism in the church can be
ended; but a common discussion about the doctrine of the Trinity
must be begun at the same time. The one is impossible without the
other.
The creed itself avoids any comment about the participation of
the Son in the procession of the Spirit from the Father. Nor does
it say anything about the relationship between the Son and the
Spirit. This silence may be understandable in the light of the struggle against the Pneumatomachians of the time, who understood
the Spirit as a created being and subordinated him to the Son. At
all events, it is impossible to interpret this silence as meaning a
dogmatic decision of the Fathers of the council against a participation of the Son in the procession of the Spirit from the Father.
They talked only about the procession of the Holy Spirit from the
Father because they wanted to stress the Spirit's full divinity. Earlier
formulations by Cappadocian theologians certainly talk about the
Son's relationship to the Holy Spirit, so that they are able to
interpret the Spirit as being also 'the Spirit of the Son' and 'the
Spirit of Christ'. Dogmatically, however, it must be seen as a
deficiency that the question of the participation of the Son in the
procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father, or his participation
in the form of the Spirit, did not receive any binding formulation
either in the creed of 3 8 1 or later. Many Eastern and Western
theologians have therefore called the creed's statements about the
Holy Spirit incomplete and have proposed an attempt at a new,
common formulation.

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

The real root of the theological differences between the Eastern

church's triadology and the trinitarian doctrine of the Western
church can be found in the question left open in 3 8 1 . Consequently
the schism in the church cannot be overcome simply by a return
to the original text of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The
schism can only be healed if we find a common answer to the
question about the relationship of the Son to the Holy Spirit and
of the Holy Spirit to the Son.

3. The Procession of the Spirit from the Father of the Son

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (John 1 5 . 2 6 ) . The Father
eternally 'breathes out' the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not
proceed from the Son. Consequently it is a correct interpretation
to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds 'solely' from the Father. This
'solely' is intended to denote the unique mode of the Spirit's proces
sion from the Father, and aims to fend off any blurring or confusion
of the inner-trinitarian relationships. The uniqueness of the proces
sion of the Spirit from the Father (and therefore the 'sole causality'
of the Father in respect of the Spirit) has in fact never been disputed
by theologians of the Western church. Although their Filioque has
given rise to this misunderstanding, they have in spite of it never
seen the Son as 'competing' with the Father as regards the issuing
of the Holy Spirit; there has never been any question of two sources
for the Godhead. Consequently the Filioque could also be inter
preted as per Filium. The Filioque was never directed against the
'monarchy' of the Father, even though this formula was supposed
to ward off tendencies towards subordinationism in trinitarian
doctrine, as well as trends towards a subordinationist dissolution
of the Trinity in its own economy of salvation. It has never been
denied in the West that the Son (John 16.27) and the Holy Spirit
(John 15.26) proceed from the Father, each in his own way; and
that therefore the Father is - in different ways - the 'origin' of
them both; or that the Son and the Spirit glorify the Father in all
eternity. The Father, being himself without origin, was always the
first Person in the Trinity. And whereas he was called 'avxodeoc.',
it proved impossible in the West too to describe the Son and the
Holy Spirit in the same way. Consequently we have to assent to
the formula about the Spirit's proceeding from the Father, without
the addition 'Filioque'.
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Proceeding

from the Father 'and from the Son'?

183

But the exclusive addition ' "solely" from the Father' must be
understood in the sense that it only refers to the proceeding of the
Spirit - that is to say to his divine existence (hypostasis), and not
also to his inner-trinitarian form in his relations to the Father and
to the Son. This is shown by the Eastern church's argument in
favour of the interpretitive addition of ' fiovov ': the Father brings
forth the Spirit inasmuch as he is the sole origin, the sole ground
and the sole source of the Godhead, not inasmuch as he is the
Father of the Son. This argument only after all tells us that the
Holy Spirit has his divine existence and divine substance solely
from 'the source of the Godhead', who is the Father. It does not
as yet tell us anything about the relation of the Father as 'proboleus'
or 'breather' to what he brings forth or breathes out - the Spirit.
Nor is anything as yet stated about the relational and perichoretic
form which the Holy Spirit takes on in his relationship to the Son.
The Filioque was and is disputed, not because of the fatherhood
of the first Person of the Trinity, but because of his monarchy and rightly so at this point, provided that the Filioque is moved to
this point at all. We have to distinguish between the constitution
of the Trinity and the Trinity's inner life. This is admittedly difficult
if, like Augustine and Aquinas, one now only understands 'person'
in a relational sense and hence identifies the two levels of 'consti
tution' and 'relation'.
The creed tells us that the Holy Spirit 'proceedeth from the
Father'. The first Person of the Trinity is the Father, but only in
respect of the Son - that is to say, in the eternal generation of the
Son. God the Father is always the Father of the Son.
He is not to be called Father because he is the Sole Cause, and
because all things are dependent on him. God shows himself as the
Father solely and exclusively in the eternal generation of the eternal
Son. In salvation history he is exclusively 'the Father of Jesus
Christ', and it is through Christ the Son and in the fellowship of
this 'first-born' among many brothers and sisters that he is our
Father too. In order to preserve this distinction - which is an
important one in every sense - we would suggest deliberately
talking about 'the Father of the Son'.
The Father is in all eternity solely the Father of the Son. H e is
not the Father of the Spirit. The procession of the Spirit from the
Father therefore has as its premise the generation of the Son
through the Father in eternity, for it is only in this that the Father

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

manifests himself as the Father and 5 the Father. Just as 'Son' is

a theological concept, not a cosmological one (as became clear in
the Arian dispute), so 'Father' too is a theological concept, not a
cosmological one. The doctrine of the Trinity makes this unmistakably clear.
The Spirit is the third hypostasis of the Holy Trinity. His being
presupposes the existence of the Father and the existence of the
Son, because the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and
because the Father is the Father of the Son alone. Consequently,
as soon as God proboleus tou pneumatos is called Father, he is
thought of as having a Son.
94

If, then, God as Father breathes out the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit
proceeds from the Father of the Son. His procession therefore
presupposes, firstly, the generation of the Son; secondly, the existence of the Son; and thirdly, the mutual relationship of the Father
and the Son. The Son is the logical presupposition and the actual
condition for the procession of the Spirit from the Father; but he
is not the Spirit's origin, as the Father is. The procession of the
Spirit from the Father must therefore be essentially distinguished
from the generation of the Son through the Father, and yet it is
connected with that generation relationally.
And if the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father only
because he is the source of the Godhead, but because he is the
Father of the only begotten Son, then he does after all issue from
the fatherhood of God, which is to say from the Father's relationship to the Son. This makes the inner-trinitarian relationship between W o r d (Logos) and Spirit clear. The two 'processions' are
simultaneous and in common. Although it is erroneous to conclude
from this that the Spirit proceeds from the Father 'and the Son' we
must none the less adhere to the fact that the Spirit proceeds from
the Father in the eternal presence of the Son, and that therefore
the Son is not uninvolved in it: 'Le Fils ternel n'est pas tranger
la procession du Saint Esprit' (P. Boris Bobrinskoy). The Son is
eternally with and in the Father. The Father is never without the
Son and nowhere acts without him, just as he is never without,
and never acts without, the Spirit.
Since the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father during the existence of the Son, hyparchontos tou hyou, and since the Father

Proceeding

from the Father 'and from the Son'?

185

and the Son are through of as being directly 'contiguous', as

tangential, the moment of the eternally present procession of
the Holy Spirit is thought of as so taking place that the Holy
Spirit who proceeds from the Father is already received by the
Son as a complete hypostasis . . . The Holy Spirit who proceeds
from the Father as complete hypostasis, comes through the Son,
appears through the Son, reveals through the Son the essence
which he has from the Father. He shines through the Son and
interpenetrates in his light through him.
95

Both Orthodox and Western theologians ought to be able to assent

to these remarks of Bolotov's, for they preserve the procession of
the Spirit 'from the Father alone', and yet move the Son into such
close proximity to the Father that the relationship of the Son to
the Spirit becomes directly intelligible. This leads us to the sugges
tion that in interpreting the creed we should talk about:
The Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father of the Son.

4. What the Holy Spirit receives from the Son

According to the ideas we have developed up to now, it is only
possible to talk indirectly about a participation of the Son in the
procession of the Spirit from the Father, in the sense that this
participation is mediated by way of the Father's fatherhood. W e
cannot yet declare that there is a direct relationship between the
Son and the Spirit. Statements according to which the Son is 'not
alien' to the procession of the Spirit from the Father, or 'not
uninvolved' in it, paraphrase with the help of double negations
what cannot yet be positively expressed, or what it is the intention
to avoid saying. But this remains unsatisfactory.
In order to get away from indirect paraphrases and to arrive at
direct statements, let us go back to Epiphanius' famous dictum,
according to which the Holy Spirit 'proceeds' from the Father and
'receives' from the Son. W e understand this statement in innertrinitarian terms, and not as meaning that the Spirit 'proceeds'
from the Father in an eternally primordial way and only 'receives'
from the Son in a temporal sense.
If we understand the proposition as a description of the primor
dial relationships in the Trinity, then we have to ask: what in the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and what does he receive

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The Mystery of the

Trinity

from the Son? Our proposed answer would be: the Holy Spirit has
from the Father his perfect, divine existence (hypostasis,
hyparxis)
and receives from the Son his relational form (eidos,
prosopon).
Although the procession of the Holy Spirit's divine existence must
emphatically be ascribed to the Father alone, yet it must be equally
firmly recognized that this form or visage is moulded by the Father
and by the Son. That is why he is also called 'the Spirit of the Son'.
The hypostatic procession of the Spirit from the Father must be
clearly distinguished from his relational, perichoretic form with
respect to the Father and the Son. By the very fact of declaring that
the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father 'alone', because he is the
'source of the Godhead', we have confined our statement as yet to
the divinity of the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit, compared with
any divine creation. W e have not as yet said anything about his
inner-trinitarian, interpersonal, perichoretic form.
The distinction which we are introducing between hypostasis
and prosopon (or eidos) - which corresponds in Latin to the
difference between persona and fades - may seem surprising at
first sight. But the distinction can help us to differentiate between
the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the being of the Godhead,
and his relationship to the Father and to the Son in the process of
the divine life itself.
The tradition of the Western church has developed this differ
entiation in the doctrine of the trinitarian relations. According to
this doctrine, the relations and the persons are to be understood as
complementary: the relations consist in the persons and the persons
in the relations. The relations form the basis for the eternal
perichoresis.
The tradition of the Eastern church has approached the complex
that has to be considered here in two doctrines: the doctrine of the
inner-trinitarian transfiguration of the triune God; and the doctrine
of the inter-trinitarian energies. These post-Nicean doctrines cer
tainly do not belong on the same level, but we should draw on
their insights for a clarification of our problem.
We understand hypostasis and hyparxis in this context as bring
ing to expression the being of the Holy Spirit in respect of his
divine origin, whereas the terms prosopon and eidos express his
form in the trinitarian process of eternal life and eternal glory.
Whereas hypostasis is an ontological term, form is an aesthetic

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from the Father 'and from the Son'?

187

one. They therefore do not compete with one another; they are
complementary.
Pure form is supreme beauty, for beauty lies in perfect form, in
so far as this is the expression of the inner nature, and if it is an
expression that arouses love. Form comes to appearance when it
is illumined and reflects the light. Then form is transfigured. For
Paul, the object of a transfiguration of this kind is often the face
(prosopon). The glory of God shines 'in the face of Christ' (II Cor.
4.6). The glory of the Lord is reflected on us all 'with unveiled
face' (II Cor. 3 . 1 8 ) . And one day we shall see God 'face to face'
(I Cor. 1 3 . 1 2 ) . When we talk about the form of the Holy Spirit,
we mean his face as it is manifested in his turning to the Father
and to the Son, and in the turning of the Father and the Son to
him. It is the Holy Spirit in the inner-trinitarian manifestation of
glory.
Objectively speaking, the procession of existence preceeds the
reception of form in the relations we have described, for the exist
ence of the receiver logically preceeds the reception. Consequently
procession and reception are not the same thing. If the procession
means the unique relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Father as
'the source of the Godhead', then the reception means the form of
the Holy Spirit with respect to the Father and the Son. In the
formulation of the relational, perichoretic form of the Holy Spirit,
the Filioque has its justification. But it must be kept well away
from the procession of the Holy Spirit. The Syrian-Orthodox
Church of South India has formulated this point with especial
clarity in the church's Whitsun prayer:
When we say 'Father', the Son and the Holy Spirit come from
him. When we say 'Son', the Father and the Holy Spirit are
known through him. When we say Ruho (Spirit), the Father and
the Son are perfect and complete in him. The Father is the
Creator, not begotten; the Son is begotten, not begetting; the
Holy Spirit (Ruho) proceeds from the Father, taking the person
and the nature of the Father from the S o n .
96

We would therefore propose that we interpret the text of the

creed by saying:
The Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father of the Son, and
who receives his form from the Father and the Son.

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Trinity

5. THE TRINITARIAN PRINCIPLE OF UNIQUENESS

The 'begetting' of the Son through the Father and the 'procession'
of the Spirit from the Father are two different processes. If we sum
them up under the heading of processio, and talk about 'two
processions', the danger of an abstraction of this kind makes itself
felt at once. The specific and particular character of the Son in
relation to the Father, and the special character of the Spirit in
relation to him, are obscured and passed over. It is then only too
easy to interpret the Spirit as 'a second Son' or the Son as 'another
Spirit'. Consequently, at this point we must not take any general
heading at all to cover the generation of the Son through the Father
and the issuing of the Spirit from the Father. We must remain
concrete, and take time to relate the one after the other.
The 'issuing' of the Spirit from the Father and the 'reception' of
his relational, perichoretic form from the Father and from the Son
are two different processes. The Western church's Filioque blurs
this difference. It all too easily suggests that the existence of the
Holy Spirit has 'two origins' in the Father and the Son. So we must
not add things together here, as the formula 'and from the Son'
does, leaving unsettled what comes from the Father and what from
the Son. We must remain specific and can only tell of the relation
ship between the Father and the Holy Spirit, and between the Son
and the Holy Spirit, one after the other.
Orthodox theologians based their justifiable rejection of the un
differentiated Filioque formula on the Father's monarchy; but this,
in its turn, is undifferentiated too. By introducing the Aristotelian
concept of cause or origin (doxy, aixia) into the doctrine of the
Trinity, as the Cappadocians did (and this was not undisputed in
the early church either), the uniqueness of the Father over against
the Son and the Holy Spirit can certainly be emphasized. But if the
Father is only named as the 'origin' of the divinity of the Son and
the divinity of the Holy Spirit, then the specific difference between
the generation of the Son and the procession of the Spirit is blurred.
The Father 'breathed out' the Holy Spirit in eternity as the Father
of the Son, not as the monarch of the Godhead. The introduction
of the concept of origin is understandable, as a defence against the
non-differentiated doctrine of the Filioque. But contains a similar
danger within itself as the position against which it is directed. By
its means, God's universal relationship to the world namely, his

The Trinitarian

Principle of

Uniqueness

189

universal monarchy - is all too easily transferred to the inner

trinitarian life of God. But we cannot expel the dangerous 'Filioqueism' from the doctrine of the Trinity by a 'monopatrism' with
out getting entangled in similar difficulties. Even the concept of the
Father as sole origin threatens to blur the concrete inner-trinitarian
relationships. The concept of origin can therefore only be used in
a transferred sense. It is not a general heading covering both gen
eration and breathing out.
Basically, according to the Cappadocian doctrine of the Trinity,
both the Godhead and relationships of the persons coincide in the
first Person of the Trinity. The first Person must guarantee both
the unity of the Godhead and the threefold character of the Persons.
If we do not keep these different meanings strictly apart, either the
Trinity crumbles away into tritheism, or it is reduced by a subordinationist process to monotheism. It would therefore be helpful
to remove the concept of the First Cause from trinitarian doctrine
altogether, and to confine oneself to an account of the interpersonal
relationships. For out of these the logical priority of the Father
emerges all by itself.
The doctrine of the three hypostases or Persons of the Trinity is
dangerous too, because it applies one and the same concept to the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This suggests that they are
homogeneous and equal, namely hypostases, persons or modes of
being. But the heading hypostasis, person or mode of being blurs
the specific differences between the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit. This became particularly clear to us from the difficulty of
understanding the Holy Spirit as 'Person' and as 'third Person' at
that - that is to say, the difficulty of understanding him in the
same way as the Son and the Father. The 'three Persons' are
different, not merely in their relations to one another, but also in
respect of their character as Persons, even if the person is to be
understood in his relations, and not apart from them. If we wanted
to remain specific, we should have to use a different concept in
each case when applying the word 'person' to the Father, the Son
and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a person in the same,
identical sense as the Son; and neither of them is a person in the
same, identical sense as the Father. Their description as divine
Persons in the plural already shows a tendency towards modalism
in itself. For the generic term hypostasis or person stresses what is
97

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The Mystery of the Trinity

the same and in common, not what is particular and different

about them.
Finally, it is clear how much the doctrine of the substance of the
Godhead, of which all three hypostases or Persons partake, threat
ens to obscure the trinitarian differences in a Sabellian, modalistic
and ultimately unitarian sense. Ever since Thomas Aquinas, the
doctrine of the Godhead's single substance has taken precedence
in the West, logically and epistemologically, over the doctrine of
the Trinity. But inherent in this procedence is the danger of de
priving the doctrine of the Trinity itself of its function. The premise
of the uncompounded nature of the Divine Being made the idea of
the triune God questionable. That is why in the Western church
trinitarian doctrine has almost without exception a tendency to
modalism. This can only be changed if the indispensible idea of
God's unity is expressed in trinitarian terms, and no longer in
pre-trinitarian ones. The unity of God is to be found in the triunity
of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It neither precedes that
nor follows it.
From this brief account of the dangers inherent in the introduc
tion of over-riding headings into the doctrine of the Trinity, we
have to conclude that no summing-up, generic terms must be used
at all in the doctrine of the Trinity. For in the life of the immanent
Trinity everything is unique. It is only because everything in God's
nature is unique that in the ways and works of God it can be
recognized as the origin of other things. In considering the doctrine
of the immanent Trinity, we can really only tell, relate, but not
sum up. We have to remain concrete, for history shows us that it
is in the abstractions that the heresies are hidden. The foundations
of orthodoxy, on the other hand, are to be found in narrative
differentiation. At the centre of Christian theology stands the eter
nal history which the triune God experiences in himself. Every
narrative needs time. For the narrative in which he praises the
triune God, man needs his time too. That is more appropriate for
the eternal divine present than the abstractions in which time is
dissolved.

VI
The Kingdom of Freedom

1 CRITICISM OF POLITICAL AND CLERICAL MONOTHEISM

The functional problem of the doctrine of the Trinity lies in its

relationship to the doctrine of the kingdom. How are God's Trinity
and his kingdom related to one another? Is the doctrine of the
Trinity the appropriate interpretation of the one divine lordship
(Barth's view), or does the history of the kingdom of God reveal
the divine life of the Father, the Son and the Spirit? Does the divine
Trinity act only inwardly in its threefold nature, acting outwardly
'without division' (as Augustine taught)? Or are the 'works of the
Trinity' defined in a trinitarian sense as well? The more we stress
the economy of salvation and the lordship of God, the more we
are compelled to stress God's unity, for this divine rule would seem
only capable of being exercised by a single, identical subject. But
the further doxology is developed, the more it is possible already
to perceive the triunity in the history of salvation and in the lord
ship that makes us free; and the rhore this will be praised to all
eternity.
We have developed the doctrine of the Trinity in the context of
the surmounting of religious monotheism, monotheistic Christ
ianity and Christian monotheism. We must therefore now go on
to see its bearings on the criticism of political and clerical mono
theism as well. We have said that monotheism is monarchism. The
question: does God exist? is an abstract one. Theology is never
concerned with the actual existence of a God. It is interested solely
in the rule of this God in heaven and on earth. The notion of a
divine monarchy in heaven and on earth, for its part, generally

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provides the justification for earthly domination - religious, moral,

patriarchal or political domination - and makes it a hierarchy, a
'holy rule'. The idea of the almighty ruler of the universe every
where requires abject servitude, because it points to complete de
pendency in all spheres of life.
The doctrine of the Trinity which evolves out of the surmounting
of monotheism for Christ's sake, must therefore also overcome this
monarchism, which legitimates dependency, helplessness and ser
vitude. This doctrine of the Trinity must be developed as the true
theological doctrine of freedom. Religiously motivated political
monotheism has always been used in order to legitimate domina
tion, from the emperor cults of the ancient world, Byzantium and
the absolute ideologies of the seventeenth century, down to the
dictatorships of the twentieth. The doctrine of the Trinity which,
on the contrary, is developed as a theological doctrine of freedom
must for its part point towards a community of men and women
without supremacy and without subjection.

1. Political

Monotheism

What is the relationship between the religious ideas of any given

era and the political constitution of its societies? That is the ques
tion asked by political theology.
The originally Stoic concept of political theology presupposes
the unity of politics and religion because it was the polis itself
which exercised the public practice of religion. Political theology
dealt with the sacred rites and sacrifices which the polis had to
offer to the gods. T o reverence the gods counted as the highest
function of the state, for it was the gods who secured the peace
and welfare of the whole community. The correspondence between
the community's religious ideas and its political constitution count
ed as being one of life's self-evident premises.
1

When the churches took on an independent function in the

practice of religion, and as differentiations increased in the sphere
of both religion and politics, it became increasingly difficult to sum
up the relation between religion and politics in any given situation
by means of a single definition. The two modern theories about
this relationship also prove inadequate in the face of the complex
realities of the modern world. The reflection theory, according to
which economic interests and political relationships are merely

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Monotheism

193

reproduced in the superstructure of religion, is only applicable to

a limited degree; while it is only in a very few cases that the
contrary theory of the secularization of religious ideas can clearly
demonstrate that religion has actually determined politics and
economics. Causal reductions and deductions are only very rarely
realistic. Reciprocal influence and conditioning is much more fre
quent. Generally alliances between religious ideas and political
options can be discovered, alliances evoked by particular situations
and the interests of those involved. Within these alliances one can
then discover affinities, correspondences, interdependencies and,
occasionally, contradictions as well. Today's political theology,
therefore, which enquires into the relationship between religious
and political ideas, must note and define the situation and the
constellations of interests in which these correspondences and con
tradictions appear and make themselves felt. This applies to his
torical situations, and to the present even more.
3

It was the Christian apologists of the ancient world who devel

oped one of the first forms of political monotheism. Since it meant
discipleship of the Jesus who had been crucified by the power of
the Roman state, early Christianity was felt to be hostile to the
state and godless, and it was because of this that it was persecuted.
Consequently it was all-important for the Christian apologists to
present their faith as the truly reasonable religion, and hence as
the divine worship which really sustained the state. Following
Josephus, they linked biblical tradition about the one rule of the
one God with philosophical monotheism. Philosophical monothe
ism was already associated with the cosmological doctrine of the
single, hierarchical world order. The universe itself has a monarchi
cal structure: one deity - one Logos one cosmos. The fusing of
biblical and cosmological monarchism gave rise to the notion of
the single, universal pyramid: the one God is Creator, Lord and
possessor of his world. His will is its law. In him the world has its
unity and its peace. By distinguishing between Creator and crea
ture, the biblical doctrine of creation (compared with Aristotelian
and Stoic cosmology) accentuated the idea of God's power of
disposal and the dependency of everything on his will. Stoic
pantheism was heightened into Christian theism. The universal
monarchy was understood in absolutist terms: the world is not the
visible 'body' of the invisible deity (Seneca's view); it is the 'work'
of God the Creator.
5

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The ready convertibility of political into cosmological ideas can

already be perceived in Aristotle. His Metaphysics, Book 1 2 , ex
pounds the view that the deity is one, indivisible, immovable,
impassible and hence perfect. The universe is ruled by the deity
through entelechy and eros. All finite beings are directed towards,
and are dependent upon, the infinite divine being. That is why the
world has a monarchical constitution. This constitution can be
perceived in the hierarchical gradations of inorganic, organic, un
conscious, conscious and animate beings. Aristotle closes his re
marks on cosmology with the famous statement: 'Being refuses to
be badly administered. The rule of the many is not healthy; let
there he only one ruler.' The world must be understood as the
ordering lordship of the one, perfect Being over the multiplicity of
imperfect and finite things. But this statement is a quotation. It
comes from the Iliad. And there it was meant politically. Agamem
non unites the divided and mutually hostile Greek cities against the
Trojans with this cry: 'Let there be only one ruler!' The question
whether Aristotle understood his hierarchical cosmology as a back
ground legitimating the universal empire of Alexander the Great
may be left on one side here. But if political rule was legitimated
in the ancient world by an appeal to its correspondence with the
gods, then polytheism corresponds to the multiplicity of cities and
states, whereas cosmological monotheism calls for analogy in a
universal imperium that unites the cities and states. This is the only
way in which the notion of the correspondence of political and
religious ideas can be maintained and used as a legitimation of
rule.
1

The idea of theocracy was very much alive among the martyrs,
during the Christian persecutions, and among the theological
apologists of Christianity in the first three centuries. Consequently,
from a very early period there was a Christian preference for the
Roman empire. Remembrance of the Emperor Augustus's peaceful
empire outshone even the remembrance of the Christ crucified by
Pontius Pilate. The justification of this political choice in favour
of the Roman empire ran as follows: The polytheism of the heathen
is idolatry. The multiplicity of the nations (which is bound up with
polytheism, because polytheism is its justification) is the reason for
the continuing unrest in the world. Christian monotheism is in a
position to overcome heathen polytheism. Belief in the one God
brings peace, so to speak, in the diverse and competitive world of
8

Criticism of Political and Clerical

Monotheism

195

the gods. Consequently Christendom is the one universal religion

of peace. In place of the many cults it puts belief in the one God.
What political order corresponds to this faith in the one God and
the organization of his worship by the one church? It is the Em
peror Augustus's kingdom of peace, seen as Rome's enduring ob
ligation and commitment, and as the common hope of the nations.
This political theology was widespread from Origen right down
to Eusebius of Caesarea. True, it was not the common stock of
the churches. Nor did it convince the Roman Caesars. But it makes
it easy to understand why Constantine the Great tried to make out
of Christianity a permitted and then a state religion, instead of a
persecuted one. The doctrine of sovereignty suggested by Christian
monotheism is, as we have seen, more absolutist than the theories
based on Aristotle or the Stoics: the one almighty emperor is to a
pre-eminent degree the visible image of the invisible God. His
'glory' reflects God's glory. His rule represents God's rule. Hence
the one God is venerated in him. He is not merely the regent; he
is the actual lord and possessor of the imperium. The law which
applies to all does not bind him; his will is law, makes laws and
changes them. He is ultimately in duty bound to extend the im
perium to all peoples, in order to allow everyone to enjoy the peace
uniting them: 'The one God, the one heavenly king and the one
sovereign nomos and logos corresponds to the one king on earth.'
The idea of unity in God therefore provokes both the idea of the
universal, unified church, and the idea of the universal, unified
state: one God - one emperor one church - one empire.
9

10

We may leave on one side here the millenarian expectations

which some theologians associated with the 'Constantinian turn of
events' and may proceed to modern absolutism, in order to inves
tigate the theological and political doctrine of sovereignty which
we find there too. 'All that the European Enlightenment left of
Christian belief in God was the monotheism which is just as ques
tionable in its theological content as it is in its political results.'
What are these political results? We may take as an example the
seventeenth-century Huguenot doctrine of the state as it developed
in France, the country of absolutism. After the unhappy outcome
of the Huguenot struggles - with the fall of the fortress of La
Rochelle in 1 6 2 8 - many Calvinists turned away from the resistence doctrines of the monarchomachists and adopted Jean Bodin's
absolutist theory of the state, in order to survive in Lous XIV's
11

The Kingdom of

196

Freedom

12

kingdom. They condemned the execution of Charles I by Crom

well and developed their own, modern raison d'etat. Samuel Borchart declared that the king was above the community of men
because he occupied the place of God on earth. For Moyse Amyraut, the image of God shines more brightly in the king than in
other people, because God impresses on the king the character of
his own majesty. It follows from this: 'Summits princeps est
autonomous et a solo Deo pendet.'
He rules by divine right {jure
divino) and is therefore responsible to no one but God. The
seventeenth-century French Calvinists thought that this fundamen
tal avevdvvia (non-accountability towards anyone else) on the
sovereign's part was the complete reflection or 'portrait' of the
majesty of God. 'Our sole care must be to beseech of God that,
just as He has given us a portrait of His majesty in the king's
sovereignty, so He may also grant us an image of His righteousness
in what the king doeth.' It was only the ties of the sovereign with
God, they believed, that protected his subjects from arbitrariness
and tyranny. In this way they were going back to Calvin's theology
of sovereignty, but they took from it only the nominalist features
in his picture of God. Jean Bodin saw the ancient Roman maxim
as authoritative: Princeps legibus solutis est. This maxim crops up
in the nominalist description of potentia divina absoluta in slightly
different form: Deus legibus solutus est. It is impossible to conceive
of any law which is above God, for by the very nature of his being
God himself embodies the highest law. If this divine sovereignty is
made the prototype of the sovereignty of the sate, what emerges is
a hitherto unknown absolutism of power. Theoretically, the union
of the highest power and the highest law in God excludes earthly
tyranny; but in actual practice the ruler's lack of accountability to
anyone else puts him outside the law and 'above the constitution'.
All that remains is John Hobbes' brutal principle: Auctoritas, non
Veritas facit legem.
13

14

15

16

17

The European absolutism of the Enlightenment period was the

final form of political monotheism in its religiously legitimated
form. It was also the last attempt to establish a state based on
religious unity. Through the French Revolution, the contrary idea
of popular sovereignty then became the basis of the modern demo
cratic state. The absolutist idea of sovereignty only continued to
be cultivated by the people whom Carl Schmitt calls 'the state
philosophers of counter-revolution' - Bonald, de Maistre and Don-

Criticism of Political and Clerical

Monotheism

197

oso Cortes and - on the Protestant side - Friedrich Julius Stahl

and Abraham Kuyper. If we trace its history further, as the history
of a particular tradition, this absolutist view was then passed on
to the modern anti-democratic and anti-Communist ideology of
dictatorship. Admittedly, for modern military dictatorships reli
gious legitimation formulas have become superfluous altogether.
The terror of naked force is enough to keep the friend-enemy
alternative alive in a permanent civil war.
18

The expansion of the doctrine of the Trinity in the concept of

God can only really overcome this transposition of religious into
political monotheism, and the further translation of political mono
theism into absolutism, by overcoming the notion of a universal
monarchy of the one God. Historically speaking, however, the
doctrine of the divine monarchy did not in fact 'run aground' on
trinitarian dogma, as Erik Peterson maintains, because in the early
church trinitarian dogma left this particular dogma untouched. As
long as the unity of the triune God is understood monadically or
subjectivistically, and not in trinitarian terms, the whole cohesion
of a religious legitimation of political sovereignty continues to
exist. It is only when the doctrine of the Trinity vanquishes the
monotheistic notion of the great universal monarch in heaven, and
his divine patriarchs in the world, that earthly rulers, dictators and
tyrants cease to find any justifying religious archetypes any m o r e .
19

How must a doctrine of the Trinity be formulated if it is to have

this intention?
{a) The Christian doctrine of the Trinity unites God, the al
mighty Father, with Jesus the Son, whom he delivered up and
whom the Romans crucified, and with the life-giving Spirit, who
creates the new heaven and the new earth. It is impossible to form
the figure of the omnipotent, universal monarch, who is reflected
in earthly rulers, out of the unity of this Father, this Son and this
Spirit.
(b) If we see the Almighty in trinitarian terms, he is not the
archetype of the mighty ones of this world. He is the Father of the
Christ who was crucified and raised for us. As the Father of Jesus
Christ, he is almighty because he exposes himself to the experience
of suffering, pain, helplessness and death. But what he is is not
almighty power; what he is is love. It is his passionate, passible
love that is almighty, nothing else.
(c) The glory of the triune God is reflected, not in the crowns

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of kings and the triumphs of victors, but in the face of the crucified
Jesus, and in the faces of the oppressed whose brother he became.
He is the one visible image of the invisible God. The glory of the
triune God is also reflected in the community of Christ: in the
fellowship of believers and of the poor.
(d) Seen in trinitarian terms, the life-giving Spirit, who confers
on us the future and hope, does not proceed from any accumulation
of power, or from the absolutist practice of lordship; he proceeds
from the Father of Jesus Christ and from the resurrection of the
Son. The resurrection through the life-quickening energy of the
Holy Spirit is experienced, not at the spearheads of progress, but
in the shadow of death.
A political theology which is consciously Christian, and is there
fore bound to criticize political monotheism, will ask what is in
accord with God - what his correspondences on earth are - which
means among other things: in the political constitution of a com
munity? Attempts to restore the unity of religion and politics are
mistaken. The result would be the engulfing of the church by the
state. But we must ask which political options are in accord with
the convictions of the Christian faith, and do not contradict them.
We have said that it is not the monarchy of a ruler that corresponds
to the triune God; it is the community of men and women, without
privileges and without subjugation. The three divine Persons have
everything in common, except for their personal characteristics. So
the Trinity corresponds to a community in which people are de
fined though their relations with one another and in their signifi
cance for one another, not in opposition to one another, in terms
of power and possession.
The monotheistic God is 'the Lord of the world'. He is defined
simply through his power of disposal over his property, not
through personality and personal relationships. He really has no
name - merely legal titles. But the triune God represents an inex
haustible life, a life which the three Persons have in common, in
which they are present with one another, for one another and in
one another. What the doctrine of the Trinity calls perichoresis
was also understood by patristic theologians as the sociality of the
three divine Persons. Two different categories of analogy have
always been used for the eternal life of the Trinity: the category of
the individual person, and the category of community. Ever since
Augustine's development of the psychological doctrine of the Trin20

Criticism of Political and Clerical

Monotheism

199

ity, the first has taken precedence in the West; whereas the Cappadocian Fathers and Orthodox theologians, down to the present
day, employ the second category. They incline towards an em
phatically social doctrine of the Trinity and criticize the modalistic
tendencies in the 'personal' trinitarian doctrine of the Western
church. The image of the family is a favourite one for the unity of
the Triunity: three Persons - one family. This analogy is not just
arbitrary. What it means is that people are made in the image of
God. But the divine image is not the individual; it is person with
person: Adam and Eve - or, as Gregory of Nazianzus declared,
Adam and Eve and Seth - are, dissimilar though they are, an
earthly image and parable of the Trinity, since they are consubstantial persons. Whatever we may think about the first human
family as trinitarian analogy, it does point to the fact that the
image of God must not merely be sought for in human individ
uality; we must look for it with equal earnestness in human
sociality.
21

22

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity provides the intellectual

means whereby to harmonize personality and sociality in the com
munity of men and women, without sacrificing the one to the
other. In the Western church's doctrine of the Trinity the concept
of Person was developed with particular emphasis. This had a
strongly formative effect on Western anthropology. If today we
understand person as the unmistakable and untransferable individ
ual existence, we owe this to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
But why was the concept of the perichoresis - the unity and
fellowship of the Persons - not developed with equal emphasis?
The disappearance of the social doctrine of the Trinity has made
room for the development of individualism, and especially 'pos
sessive individualism', in the Western world: everyone is supposed
to fulfil 'himself but who fulfils the community? It is a typically
Western bias to suppose that social relationships and society are
less 'primal' than the person.
If we take our bearings from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity,
personalism and socialism cease to be antitheses and are seen to be
derived from a comfnon foundation. The Christian doctrine of the
Trinity compels us to develop social personalism or personal social
ism. For, right down to the present day, the Western cult of the
person has allied itself with monotheism, whereas the basis of the
socialism of the Eastern countries, if we look at it from a religious

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viewpoint, is not so much atheistic as pantheistic. That is why

Western personalism and Eastern socialism have not hitherto been
reconcilable. The human rights of the individual and the rights of
society fall apart. Today it is vitally necessary for the two to
converge in the direction of a truly 'humane' society; and here the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity can play a substantial role. In this
respect the new ecumenical conversations about questions of trinitarian doctrine in the Western and Eastern churches has a trendsetting importance for the future.

2. Clerical

Monotheism

We find another form of monarchical monotheism in the church's

doctrine of authority, by which we mean the doctrine and practice
of the monarchical episcopate and its further development in the
teachings about papal sovereignty.
In the period of the apostolic Fathers, Christianity spread rapidly
in Asia Minor. New congregations sprang up everywhere. The
church's apostles vied with the free prophets. Consequently the
unity of the church, and unity within the different congregations,
was a burning issue. It was at that time that Ignatius of Antioch
formulated the principle of the episcopate which has remained
valid in many churches until the present day: one bishop - one
church. He founded this episcopal unity of the church by means of
the following theological hierarchy: one God - one Christ - one
bishop - one church. The bishop represents Christ to his church
just as Christ represents God. This representative derivation of
divine authority is obviously monarchical monotheism. The
church's hierarchy is supposed to correspond to and represent the
divine monarchy. The doctrine of the monarchical episcopate
certainly brought unity into the Christian churches, but it did so
at the cost of eliminating the charismatic prophets. The Spirit was
now bound to the office. God's grace became the grace of the
office. If the bishop guarantees the unity of the church through his
sovereignty (because for the church he represents Christ), this unity
is preserved even if there is no unity in the Christian community
in the senses of a consensus. If the consensus collapses, the result
is either subjugation or excommunication.
23

24

In the middle ages and in the nineteenth century the doctrine of

the monarchical episcopate was developed further in the theology

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Monotheism

201

25

of the papacy. The legitimation of the papal authority in ques

tions of faith and morals, and its commissioning for 'the ministry
of unity' is derived from the representative sequence: one church
- one pope - one Peter - one Christ - one God. Papal authority
guarantees the unity of the church. That authority is itself guar
anteed by the Petrine apostolic succession. Peter's authority, in
turn, is guaranteed by the words of the historical Jesus
(Matt. 16.18) and the historicity of the conferring of the keys on
Peter. From this the formula follows: 'Ubi Petrus - ibi Ecclesia.'
In the context of this progression, the 'vicar of Christ' on earth
possesses graduated divine authority, and his 'ex cathedra' decla
rations are therefore infallible, with an infallibility that can in fact
only be enjoyed by the truth itself. This theological justification
of papal authority and the unity of the church it guarantees is
visibly dominated by the monotheistic way of thinking. According
to Thomist theology, indeed, the unity of highest power and total
truth is peculiar to God, so that nobody should assent to the divine
revelation without his own perception of, and insight into, the
truth. And if this is true even of God's truth, how much more does
it apply to the truth of the church and the papal definitions! Yet
nominalism put the power of God above his truth and righteous
ness. Its absolutist interpretation of God's sovereignty has, under
standably enough, also evoked a corresponding interpretation of
papal sovereignty. It will be difficult to reduce the theologicalecclesiastical doctrine of authority again to the unity of power and
truth in God himself, and to correct the bias in the historical
development. It is more easily possible to expose the one-sidedness
of the whole existing complex of ideas which is used to justify
papal sovereignty and its guarantee of unity.

26

27

To base a justification of the church's unity and the pope's

'ministry of unity' on Matthew 16 is not only dubious and fraught
with assumptions historically; it is also theologically weak. It
would be just as legitimate to draw a line of historical continuity
from the historical Jesus to the historical Peter, and then to the
historical popes, even if Jesus had never risen. His resurrection
plays no part at all in this justificatory complex of ecclesiastical
authority. Yet according to the New Testament Christ's death and
resurrection are the central mystery of the divine revelation.
But there is another, different justification for the church's unity
- a trinitarian one. We find it in Jesus' High Priestly prayer in John

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17.20f.: 'That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me.' Here the unity o the Christian
community is a trinitarian unity. It corresponds to the indwelling
of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Father. It participates
in the divine triunity, since the community of believers is not only
fellowship with God but in God too. This unity of the church is
already given through the prayer of Jesus, which the church can be
sure was heard by the Father.
The trinitarian justification for the unity of the church is not
merely more profound theologically than the monotheistic justifi
cation of the monarchical episcopate; it also defines the unity of
the community of Christians differently. The universal and infal
lible authority of the pope represents God as almighty, and it is
this almighty power which is experienced in the recognition of
papal authority. But it is God as love who is represented in the
community of believers and who is experienced in the acceptance
of one person by another, as they have both been accepted by
Christ. Monarchical monotheism justifies the church as hierarchy,
as sacred dominion. The doctrine of the Trinity constitutes the
church as 'a community free of dominion.' The trinitarian prin
ciple replaces the principle of power by the principle of c o n c o r d .
Authority and obedience are replaced by dialogue, consensus and
harmony. What stands at the centre is not faith in God's revelation
on the basis of ecclesiastical authority, but faith on the basis of
individual insight into the truth of revelation. The hierarchy which
preserves and enforces unity is replaced by the brotherhood and
sisterhood of the community of Christ. The presbyterial and syn
odal church order and the leadership based on brotherly advice are
the forms of organization that best correspond to the doctrine of
the social Trinity. Of course most churches will in actual fact have
mixed forms, with episcopal and synodal elements. But the trini
tarian justification of the church's unity put forward here shows
what the priorities are for a credible, a convincing church: 'that
the world may believe'.
28

29

2 THE TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE OF THE KINGDOM

If political and clerical monotheism is to be superseded, we are

faced with the question of a positive theological doctrine of free-

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Kingdom

203

dom. The theological doctrine of freedom must grow up out of a

new understanding of the lordship and kingdom of God. Otherwise
the doctrine of freedom cannot be a theological one. Ernst Bloch
remarked that 'Where the great Lord of the universe reigns, there
is no room for liberty, not even the liberty of the children of God,
or the mystically democratic image of the kingdom which belonged
to the millenarian hope'. In saying this, Bloch is pointing on the
one hand to the foundation of modern atheism, which started from
the assumption that a God ruling in omnipotence and omniscience
would make human liberty impossible. Consequently the denial of
a God like this is the necessary presupposition for human liberty.
On the other hand, Bloch reminds us of the Pauline liberty of the
children of God, and the messianic hope for the kingdom of free
dom. What interpretation of God and his rule is implicit in the
Christian experience of liberation and the messianic hope for
freedom?
30

1. Joachim of Fiore's Doctrine

of the

Kingdom

If we want to overcome the monotheistic interpretation of the

lordship of God by the trinitarian understanding of the kingdom,
then we must go back to Joachim of Fiore, and rediscover the truth
of his trinitarian view of history. Joachim counted as an 'Enthu
siast' and an outsider. But in fact, ever since the middle ages, there
is hardly anyone who has influenced European movements for
liberty in church, state and culture more profoundly than this
twelfth-century Cistercian abbot from Calabria, who believed that
in his visions he had penetrated the concordance of the Old and
New Testaments, and the mystery of the Book of Revelation. In
the field of dogmatics, Thomas Aquinas's opinion of Joachim has
generally simply been handed on - that he dissolved the doctrine
of the Trinity in history, because he expected a special era of the
Spirit. This judgment is unfounded. His genuine writings were
never condemned as heretical, even though they were and are
more than revolutionary.
31

32

Joachim succeeded in uniting two different eschatologies, both

of them belonging to the Christian tradition. The first goes back
to Tyconius and was developed by Augustine: God created the
world in seven days. Accordingly world history has seven ages. Six
ages of toil and labour will be followed by the seventh age of rest.

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This is the sabbath of world history, before the end of the world.
When the seventh day of world history comes to an end, Augustine
thought, the eternal day of God will begin - the kingdom of endless
glory.
Joachim took over the other eschatology from the Cappadocian
theologians. They already (even if only in passing) distinguished
between the kingdom of the Father, the kingdom of the Son and
the kingdom of the Spirit; and it was in this sequence that they
conceived of the history of the divine rule. They thought here of
different periods and modes of revelation conferred by the Father,
the Son and the Spirit. The starting point was the promise of the
Paraclete in the Gospel of John. Ever since Phrygian prophecy and
montanism, this promise has continually awakened the expectation
of a special period of revelation belonging to the Holy Spirit. The
one kingdom of God therefore takes on particular forms in history
corresponding to the unique nature of the trinitarian Persons. It
is the one kingdom of God, but it displays the separate impress of
Father, Son and Spirit, each in his own way. Of course the Spirit
and the Son are no more excluded from the Father's kingdom than
is the Father from the kingdom of the Son and the Spirit. But the
subject of sovereignty changes from the Father to the Son and to
the Spirit. Neither the Cappadocians nor Joachim thought of there
being any 'dissolution' of the Trinity in world history. It was rather
a question of appropriating to the different Persons of the Trinity
the forms which the kingdom took in the different eras of world
history.
Joachim's great idea was to identify the seventh day of world
history with the kingdom of the Spirit. The great 'sabbath' of
history, before the end of the world, and the kingdom of the Spirit
mean the same thing:
33

The mysteries of Holy Scripture point us to three orders (states,

or conditions) of the world: to the first, in which we were under
the Law; to the second, in which we are under grace; to the
third, which we already imminently expect, and in which we
shall be under a yet more abundant grace . . . The first condition
is therefore that of perception, the second that of partially per
fected wisdom, the third, the fullness of knowledge.
The first condition is in the bondage of slaves, the second in the
bondage of sons, the third in liberty.

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205

The first in fear, the second in faith, the third in love.

The first in the condition of thralls, the second of freemen, the
third of friends.
The first of boys, the second of men, the third of the aged.
The first stands in the light of the stars, the second in the light
of the dawn, the third in the brightness of day . . .
The first condition is related to the Father, the second to the
Son, the third to the Holy Spirit.
34

The first form of the kingdom is the kingdom of the Father. This
is the creation and preservation of the world. In this kingdom God
rules over all things through his power and providence. His lord
ship over men and women is determined by his law and the fear
it evokes.
The second form of the kingdom is the kingdom of the Son. It
is the redemption from sin through the servitude of the Son. In this
kingdom God rules through the proclamation of the gospel and
the administration of the sacraments of the church. Through their
fellowship with the Son, people become the children of God instead
of slaves under the Law. Their fear of God is transformed into
trust in God.
The third form of the kingdom is the kingdom of the Spirit. It
is the rebirth of men and women through the energies of the Spirit.
It brings the intelligentia spiritualis. In this kingdom God rules
through direct revelation and knowledge. Through the experience
of the indwelling Spirit people turn from being God's children into
his friends. The form of life lived in the kingdom of the Spirit is a
charismatic one. Here no one will have to teach the other, for in
the Spirit everyone perceives the divine truth directly, and everyone
does what is good just because it is good. This is the full 'day of
God'; this is the 'eternal sabbath'; this is 'the day of liberty'.
According to Joachim, the times and forms o f the kingdom are
so entwined with one another that the one is already pregnant with
the next, and presses forward towards it. The kingdom of the Spirit
is already implicit in the kingdom of the Son, just as the kingdom
of the Son was already prepared for in the kingdom of the Father.
It is true that Joachim likes to date these eras in biblical terms of
salvation history, stating, for example, that the kingdom of the
Father lasts until Zechariah. But although this chronology had an
enduring effect on his followers' sense of time, it is not the main

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of

Freedom

feature of his doctrine of the Trinity. Its main characteristic is the

account of the qualitative transitions. Just as the kingdom of the
Father and the kingdom of the Son press forward to the kingdom
of the Spirit, in order to be perfected in it, so the liberty of men
and women in history thrusts forward to its own kingdom: the
servants of God will become his children, and his children will
become his friends. These are steps of liberty in relation to God.
They mean transitions in the form of qualitative leaps, not as
continuous developments.
'Friend of God' is an old Gnostic and mystical expression for
the person who has been perfected. Friendship with God is an
accurate description of the intimacy of this relationship. Joachim
explains that it is only the era of the Holy Spirit which will be the
era of 'God's friends'. Wherever groups of 'God's friends', influ
enced by him, cropped up in the middle ages, it was this particular
messianic claim which they asserted. For Joachim, therefore, friend
ship with God is also the highest stage of freedom. Moreover, the
kingdom of freedom can only be the kingdom of the Spirit. Joachim
continually appealed to II Corinthians 3 . 1 7 : 'Where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom.'
The enduring effect of Joachim's doctrine of the three eras (or
three empires) of world history on the religious, cultural and poli
tical messianism of Europe has been often enough described. T o
take only a few examples of this influence: in Germany, Lessing's Gedanken iiber die Erziehung des
Menschengeschlechts
('Thoughts on the Education of Mankind') had a formative
influence on the interpretation of the Enlightenment. Lessing quite
deliberately picked up Joachim's ideas. Auguste Comte's teaching
about the law of the three stages of the spirit is a reflection of
Joachim. And when Karl M a r x declares that communism is the
final transition from the realm of necessity to the realm of liberty,
then here too the far-off echoes of Joachim's influence can be
heard.
35

36

What interests us here is what the theological tradition of the

church made out of Joachim's doctrine of the kingdom. Astonish
ingly enough, even orthodox Lutheran and Calvinist theologians
are familiar with what we have called 'a trinitarian history of the
kingdom'. For in the doctrine of Christ's kingly office they distin
guished between the regnum naturae, the regnum gratiae and the
regnum gloriae
- the kingdoms of nature, grace and glory.
37

The Trinitarian Doctrine

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Kingdom

207

The kingdom of nature is the kingdom of God's power (regnum

potentiae). It comprises creation and the general universal rule of
God through his almighty power and providence.
The kingdom of grace is God's spiritual kingdom. Here God
rules over the church through word and sacrament.
The kingdom of glory is also called the kingdom of heaven. Here
God rules through the blissful contemplation of his countenance
in the company of the redeemed.
What is the difference between this theology of the three king
doms, as the church recognized it, and Joachim's trinitarian doc
trine of the kingdom?
Joachim taught that the three kingdoms were eras and stages in
history. The kingdom of the Spirit is the final historical era - the
sabbath day of world history. It is therefore history's completion;
but not its end. The forms and eras of the kingdom of the Father,
the Son and the Spirit again point beyond themselves to that king
dom of glory which replaces this history. Joachim interpreted the
history of the kingdom in trinitarian terms, and the consummation
of the kingdom in eschatological ones. That is to say he in fact
developed a doctrine of four kingdoms: the kingdoms of the Father,
the Son and the Spirit will be consummated in the triune God's
kingdom of glory. This fact is often overlooked.
The orthodox Protestant doctrine about the threefold kingly rule
of Christ, on the other hand, only talked about two historical
kingdoms - the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace. The
third kingdom of glory was thought of eschatologically. But this
simply means that orthodox Protestantism - if we compare it with
Joachim's doctrine - left out 'the kingdom of the Spirit', or com
bined it with the kingdom of the Son in 'the kingdom of grace'. Its
christological theory of the threefold royal rule of Christ is much
narrower than Joachim's trinitarian doctrine of the kingdom. As
far as history and the human problems involved in it are concerned,
orthodox Protestantism kept to the doctrine of the two kingdoms.
God's general rule over the world and his particular will towards
salvation are related only to one another, not to a third, future
kingdom of the Spirit.
If we express this diagramatically, the difference appears as
follows:

208

The Kingdom of

Joachim:
The kingdom
of the Father
Orthodox
Regnum
naturae

~*

the kingdom
of the Son

Protestantism:
regnum
*
gratiae:

~~*

the kingdom
of the Spirit:

Freedom

the kingdom
of glory
regnum
gloriae

This difference had important consequences for the history of Euro

pean thought. Mediaeval theology already concentrated the theo
logical problems connected with liberty on the dialectic of nature
and grace. At the beginning of the Enlightenment, 'nature' was
interpreted by Hobbes, Leibniz and Malebranche as 'the realm of
necessity'. This meant that the old, ontological concept of nature
was replaced by the new, scientific one. Nature now became the
quintessence of what is ordered according to law, what is necess
ary; and so it also became the quintessence of what was unfree. It
followed from this that 'the kingdom of grace' had to be remodelled
and given a new form, as the realm of freedom, which was then
conceived of as being man's morality and his self-determination.
Necessity and freedom therefore arrive at an antinomy which is no
longer resolvable in history. Even for the late Marx there was no
hope of attaining the 'realm of freedom' from 'the realm of neces
sity' through the miracle of 'the leap'. Consequently he broke up
the two kingdoms into two different spheres which he called the
basis and the superstructure. 'This always remains a realm of
necessity. Beyond it begins the development of human power which
is its own end, the true realm of freedom which, however, can
flourish only upon that realm of necessity as its basis.' The se
cularized doctrine of the two kingdoms of necessity and freedom
knows no separate and individual kingdom of the Spirit in which
the antinomy of the others is abolished it is not even aware of
anything corresponding to this. And because it also lost the eschatological gaze forward to 'the kingdom of glory', what remains is
only the tragedy of the irresolvable contradiction of history.
38

39

But is it a sufficient definition of freedom if the definition is

merely a negative one, designed t o distinguish it from a realm of
necessity? H o w should we distinguish liberty from arbitrary licence
if liberty can only be described as what transcends necessity, com
pulsion and bondage?
Drawing on some of Joachim of Fiore's ideas, let us try to
develop a trinitarian doctrine of the kingdom which will get over

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209

the dualism of the church's doctrine of the two kingdoms, without

destroying the useful distinction it contains. We shall not take over
Joachim's modalistic attempt to divide the history of the kingdom
chronologically into three successive eras, however. We shall in
stead interpret the history of the kingdom in trinitarian terms: the
kingdoms of the Father, the Son and the Spirit mean continually
present strata and transitions in the kingdom's history. Just as the
kingdom of the Son presupposes and absorbs the kingdom of the
Father, so the kingdom of the Spirit presupposes the kingdom of
the Son and absorbs that. In developing a doctrine of the kingdom
of God which is differentiated in a trinitarian sense, we are also
searching for a theology of the history of human freedom.

2. The Trinitarian Doctrine

of the

Kingdom

The kingdom of the Father consists of the creation of a world open

to the future, and the preservation both of existence itself and of
its openness for the future of the kingdom of glory. Joachim and
the teachers of the church unanimously described the kingdom of
the Father as regnum naturae or regnum potentiae - the kingdom
of nature or the kingdom of almighty power. W e are expanding
this definition by the dimension of the future; for the goal of the
creation of the world is the glorification of the triune God. A world
which is created for this end has to be understood as an 'open
system'. It is only in the kingdom of glory that creation will be
perfected, for the inner ground of creation is to be found in glory,
not in covenant. Creation 'in the beginning' can only be the com
mencement of God's creative activity - an activity which also
includes creation's continuance {creatio continua) and the new
creation of heaven and earth (creatio nova). The interpretation of
providence must be expanded correspondingly: providence and the
general universal government of God does not merely mean the
continuing preservation of creation from destruction. It also means
that God keeps the world's true future open for it through the gift
of time, which works against all the world's tendencies to close in
on itself, to shut itself off. This must be understood as the divine
patience. God has patience with his world because he has hope for
it. God's hope is manifested in his readiness to endure the apostasy
of the men and women he has created, their self-withdrawal and
closed-in-ness. In the patience of his love he keeps the world's
40

41

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future open for it. It is wrong simply to see the kingdom of the
Father as a 'kingdom of power'. Self-limitation, self-emptying and
the patience of love already begin with the creation of the world,
and it is these things that mark out God's whole government of
the world, and his providence, as being the kingdom of the Father.
Particularly if we understand the creation of the world in trinitarian
terms as a self-restricting activity of the Father through the Son in
the power of the Spirit (see Ch. IV, 2 ) , then creation is the first
stage on the road to liberty. Where it is the Father of Jesus Christ
who reigns, and not 'the great Lord of the universe', the liberty of
created things is given space. Where it is the Father of Jesus Christ
and not 'the great Lord of the universe' who preserves the world
through his patience, the liberty of created beings is given space
and allowed time, even in the slavery they impose on themselves.
The Father 'rules' through the creation of what exists and by
opening up the eras of time.
The kingdom of the Son consists of the liberating lordship of the
crucified one, and fellowship with the first-born of many brothers
and sisters. The Son liberates men and women from servitude to
sin through his own servitude (Phil. 2 ) . He redeems men and
women from death through his own surrender of himself to death.
In this he consummates the Father's patience. He leads people into
the glorious liberty of the children of God by making them like
himself, in fellowship with him. In this he anticipates the kingdom
of the Spirit. If creation is designed in such a way that its future is
open for the kingdom of glory, then men and women are created
as the image of God in order that they may become God's children.
They are open for this future in which their destiny will be fulfilled.
So turning away from the Creator to a life that contradicts God
always means, in addition, being imprisoned in one's own existing
being, and closed against the future (incurvatio in seipsum). This
imprisonment, this closed-in-ness, means the death of every 'open
system'. Liberation from it - liberation for primal openness cannot come about through superior strength or compulsion, but
only through vicarious suffering and the call to that liberty which
vicarious suffering alone throws open. That is why both Joachim
and the teachers of the church called the kingdom of the Son
' - the servant's form of the kingdom'.
42

Hark, hark, the wise eternal W o r d

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Doctrine

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211

Like a weak infant cries.

In form of servant is the Lord,
And God in cradle lies.
43

This must not be understood merely as if it were a limitation of

God's power; it also has to be seen as a de-limitation of God's
goodness. In the history of sin and death the kingdom of freedom
takes on the form of the crucified Christ. It becomes a Christoform
kingdom. Yet, like the kingdom of the Father, the kingdom of the
Son is also directed towards the eschatological kingdom of glory.
The Son will make us free for freedom. People are called and
justified by him for glory. If unfree, closed, introverted people are
opened for this future of theirs in God, they achieve an unimagined
liberty. The Son therefore 'rules' through this surrender of himself
to vicarious suffering and death, and through his resurrection into
the glory that is to come. He 'rules' through 'the freedom for which
he has made us free' (Gal. 5 . 1 ) .
The kingdom of the Spirit is experienced in the gift conferred on
the people liberated by the Son - the gift of the Holy Spirit's
energies. That is the reason why the kingdom of the Spirit is as
closely linked with the kingdom of the Son, as the kingdom of the
Son is with the kingdom of the Father. In the experience of the
Spirit we lay hold on the freedom for which the Son has made us
free. Through the mediation of Christ we experience a kind of
'direct presence of God': God in us - we in God. The mystics were
right to call this 'the birth of God in the soul'. Through faith and
by listening to his conscience, a person becomes God's friend. In
the powers of the Spirit, the energies of the new creation are
experienced too. In the Spirit that new community comes into
being which is without privileges and subjection, the community
of the free. In the Spirit the new creation in the kingdom of glory
is anticipated. As the beginning and 'earnest' or pledge of glory,
the kingdom of the Spirit is directed towards the kingdom of glory;
it is not itself already that kingdom's fulfilment. The New Testa
ment says that the Holy Spirit 'descends' and that he 'indwells'.
Through his descent, his 'condescension' - or so we could interpret
it - the Spirit participates in his own way in the self-limitation of
the Father and the self-emptying of the Son. Consequently the form
the kingdom takes in the Spirit is not yet the kingdom's consum
mation. The indwelling of the Spirit (inhabitatio spiritus sancti in

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corde) is the anticipation of the eschatological indwelling of God's

glory. If through the experience of the Spirit men and women in
their physical nature become God's temple (I Cor. 6.13bff.), then
they are anticipating the glory in which the whole world will
become the temple of the triune God (Rev. 2 1 . 3 ) .
The kingdom of the Spirit cannot well be identified with the
kingdom of the Son, for the Son actually becomes man, while the
Spirit's presence is merely an indwelling. There is no incarnation
of the Spirit, and no servanthood of the Spirit. Nor can the
kingdom of the Spirit be identified with the eschatological kingdom
of glory, for the Spirit is already experienced here and now, in
history, in our bodily nature, through fellowship with Christ. The
kingdom of the Spirit is historical. It presupposes the kingdom of
the Father and the kingdom of the Son and, together with the
kingdom of the Father and the kingdom of the Son, points in its
own way towards the eschatological kingdom of glory.
44

Finally, the kingdom of glory must be understood as the con

summation of the Father's creation, as the universal establishment
of the Son's liberation, and as the fulfilment of the Spirit's indwell
ing. Creation is the material promise of glory, being full of the
cyphers and signs of the beauty to come. The kingdom of the Son
is the historical promise of glory, being full of the experiences and
hopes of brotherhood and sisterhood, which is to say of love.
Finally, the kingdom of the Spirit is the actual dawn of the kingdom
of glory, even though it be still under the conditions of history and
death. The trinitarian doctrine of the kingdom therefore sums up
'the works of the Trinity' (creation, liberation, glorification) and
points them towards the home of the triune God. The kingdom of
glory is the goal enduring and uninterrupted - for all God's
works and ways in history.

3. THE TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE OF FREEDOM

Joachim already viewed the trinitarian history of the kingdom of

God as the history of humanity's progressive and growing liberty.
Let us take up the ideas which we developed in our critical discus
sion of Joachim earlier in the chapter, and develop them a little
further. W e said that the kingdom of the Father is determined by
the creation of the world and its preservation through God's pa
tience. This constitutes the freedom of created things and preserves
4S

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213

for them the necessary space in which to live. The kingdom of the
Son is determined by the liberation of men and women, through
suffering love, from their deadly withdrawal into themselves, their
closed-in-ness. This restores the freedom of created beings and
redeems them from self-destruction. The kingdom of the Spirit,
finally, is determined by the powers and energies of the new crea
tion. Through these powers and energies people become God's
dwelling and his home. They participate in the new creation. This
gives liberty its bearings and fills it with infinite hope. These three
determinations of the history of God's kingdom point towards the
eschatological kingdom of glory in which people will finally, wholly
and completely be gathered into the eternal life of the triune God
and - as the early church put it - be 'deified' (deouoig).
Let us now translate this doctrine of the kingdom of God into
the doctrine of the freedom of men and women which necessarily
corresponds to it.

1. Forms of Human

Freedom

The realm of necessity determines human beings, like all other

things, through laws and necessities. The realm of freedom begins
when people grasp their dependencies on the forces of nature,
understand them and learn to control them. Through science and
technology people try to make themselves the lords of nature in
stead of its slaves. This is certainly the first step into the realm of
freedom, for with the progressive liberation of men and women
from dependency on nature and their progressive self-determina
tion, the particular history of human beings with nature begins. So
this first freedom means power over nature. But the actual acquir
ing of the power does not as yet determine whether it will be used
for good or evil, constructively or destructively. Liberation from
the realm of necessity can therefore only be viewed as the begin
ning; it is not yet the realm of freedom itself; otherwise freedom
would mean nothing more than the end of necessity and would
remain totally undefined in itself.
'The person who chooses has the torment of choice', says the
German proverb. The realm of freedom would be this 'torment'
and nothing more than that, if it were not for the realm of the
Good, beyond necessity and freedom. The realm of the Good
means the place from which moral purposes and values shine into

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The Kingdom of

Freedom

the realm of freedom, so that freedom may be used properly - that

is to say, for life's preservation and not for its destruction. Free
dom's goal cannot be the mere increase of power. Consequently
the moral purposes and values of the realm of the Good transcend
the realm of freedom in quality. So initially we know two sides to
freedom: the liberation from compulsion and necessity, and the
striving for the realization of the Good.
What does the realm of the Good consist of? According to what
we have just said, it must be freedom in its own, moral world, the
world that is in correspondence with itself. It can no longer be this
ambiguous world, in which freedom becomes the torment of
choice; it must be that unequivocal world in which freedom con
sists of joy in the Good and in doing what is right simply as a
matter of course. To do what is good as a matter of course is not
yet a characteristic of the realm of freedom between the liberation
from necessity and the striving for the good. Consequently the
realm of freedom has to be interpreted as the history of freedom,
the struggle for freedom, the process of freedom.
What we have described here as the realms of necessity, freedom
and the Good are certainly not three ages; they are stages and
transitions which are always present in the experience of freedom.
We can therefore also interpret them as strata in the concept of
freedom generally. People always live in the transition from necess
ity to freedom, and always, too, in the transition from freedom of
choice to the free practice of what is good. At the same time, the
tendency to the realm of the Good is inherent in the experience of
freedom. The more power mankind acquires over nature, the more
dangerous the human history of freedom becomes, and the more
urgent the orientation towards the realm of the Good. Otherwise
people could not acquire power over the power they have, and
could make no free use of their liberty.
After this attempt to develop the general concept of 'the realm
of necessity' and 'the realm of freedom', we must finally consider
dimensions in the concept of freedom as it has historically evolved.
The first definition equates 'freedom' with 'rule'; this is a defi
nition that is familiar to us from political history. Because all
previous history can be viewed as a permanent struggle for power
and still more power, it is only the person who wins the struggle,
and therefore rules, who is called free. The losers are subjected and
exploited, and are called 'unfree'. The linguistic history of the word
46

The Trinitarian Doctrine

of

Freedom

215

'freedom' shows that it takes its origin from a slave-owning society.

The only person who is free in a society of this kind is the master,
the lord. The slaves and the women and children he rules over are
not free. Paul uses this language too, when he talks about the
conflicts which are abolished in the community of Christians: Jews
and Gentiles, men and women, freemen and slaves. But the person
who interprets freedom as lordship can only be free at the cost of
other people. His freedom means oppression for others; his riches
make other people poor; his power means the subjugation of his
subjects, and of women and children.
The person who interprets freedom as rule is really only aware
of himself and his own property. He is not aware of other people
as persons. Even when we say that a person is free to do and leave
undone what he likes, we are interpreting freedom as lordship - as
the person's mastery over himself. Even when we say that a person
is free if he is not determined by any inner or outer compulsions,
we are interpreting freedom as lordship: everyone is to be his own
king, his own master, his own slave-owner. And in saying this we
have simply 'internalized' external compulsions, transferring them
to 'an inward compulsion'. The extent to which the interpretation
of freedom as lordship is based on a male society is shown by the
very words 'lord-ship' and 'master-y'.
47

In Western Europe, princely absolutism and feudalism were suc

ceeded by middle-class liberalism; but this liberalism none the less
went on clinging to the model of feudal lordship. Everyone who
bears a human visage has the same right to liberty, say the liberals.
This liberty of every individual only finds its limits where it in
fringes the liberty of others. Anyone who lays claim to his own
freedom must respect the same freedom on the part of the other
person. But that means that for this middle-class liberalism too,
freedom means lordship. Everyone finds in the other person a
competitor in the struggle for power and possession. Everyone is
for everyone else merely the limitation of his own freedom. Every
one is free in himself, but no one shares in the other. In its ideal
form this is a society of individuals who do not disturb one another
but who are themselves solitary. N o one determines the other,
everyone determines himself. Freedom has then really become gen
eral. Everyone has the right to be free. But is this true freedom?
The other definition, which we know from social history, defines
freedom not as lordship but as community. If we link this up with

The Kingdom

216

of

Freedom

what we have just said about the desolateness of middle-class

liberalism, we can say: the truth of freedom is love. It is only in
love that human freedom arrives at its truth. I am free and feel
myself to be truly free when I am respected and recognized by
others and when I for my part respect and recognize them. I become
truly free when I open my life for other people and share with
them, and when other people open their lives for me and share
them with m e . Then the other person is no longer the limitation
of my freedom; he is an expansion of it. In mutual participation
in life, individual people become free beyond the limits of their
individuality, and discover the common room for living which their
freedom offers. That is the social side of freedom. W e call it love
and solidarity. In it we experience the uniting of isolated individ
uals. In it we experience the uniting of things that have been
forcibly divided.
48

'Divide and rule' is the old, familiar method of domination. As

long as freedom means lordship, everything has to be separated,
isolated, detached and distinguished, so that it can be dominated.
But if freedom means community, fellowship, then we experience
the uniting of everything that has hitherto been separated. The
alienation of person from person, the division between human
society and nature, the dichotomy between soul and body, and,
finally, religious anxiety are abolished; liberation is experienced
when people are again one: one with each other, one with nature,
and one with God. Freedom as community is therefore a movement
that counters the history of power and class struggles, in which
freedom could only be viewed in terms of lordship.
Freedom as lordship destroys community. As lordship, freedom
is a lie. The truth of human freedom lies in the love that breaks
down barriers. It leads to unhindered, open communities in soli
darity. It is only this freedom as community that can heal the
wounds which freedom as lordship has inflicted, and still inflicts
today.
Up to now we have interpreted freedom either in the relationship
between subject and object, as lordship, or in the relationship
between subject and subject, as community, fellowship. But there
is a third dimension too: freedom in the relationship of subjects to
a project.
Without this dimension freedom still cannot be com
prehended. In relationship to the project of the future, freedom is
a creative initiative. Anyone who transcends the present in the
49

The Trinitarian Doctrine

of

Freedom

217

direction of the future in what he thinks, says and does is free.

Seen theologically, this is the special dimension given by the ex
perience of the Spirit. In the Spirit we transcend the present in the
direction of God's future, for the Spirit is the 'earnest' or 'pledge
of glory'.
Freedom in the light of hope is the creative passion for the
possible. Unlike lordship, it is not merely directed towards what
already exists. Nor, like love, is it only directed towards the fel
lowship of existing people. It is directed towards the future, in the
light of the Christian hope for the future of the coming God. The
future is the kingdom of not yet defined potentialities, whereas the
past represents the limited kingdom of reality. Creative passion is
always directed towards a project of a future of this kind. People
want to realize new possibilities. That is why they reach forward
with passion. In hope, reason becomes productive fantasy. People
dream the messianic dream of the new, whole life that will at last
be truly alive. They explore the future's possibilities in order to
realize this dream of life. This future dimension of freedom has
long been overlooked, theologically too, because the freedom of
the Christian faith was not understood as being participation in
the creative Spirit of God.
Freedom as the lordship of man over objects and subjects is a
function of property. Freedom as community between people is a
social function. Freedom as a passion for the future is a creative
function. We might sum it up by saying that the first means having,
the second being, and the third becoming.
In this historically developed dimension of freedom, there must
be compromising adjustment. In bourgeois societies the category
of having has overrun the category of being - being in a truly
human sense - and its reduction is an urgent task; but under the
conditions of this life, no total abolition of having in being is
possible and desirable. The abolition of property by means of a
society that has become personal and authentically social only loses
its trend toward romantic regression when the project of the com
mon future is historically understood, is desired, and when every
one accepts common responsibility for it. Freedom as lordship can
only be abolished for the benefit of freedom as community, when
freedom as initiative and the responsibility for a common future
comes to the fore. So in these historical dimensions of freedom too,

218

The Kingdom of

Freedom

there is a recognizable trend towards freedom as initiative, as

creativity, and as a passion for the future.

2. Trinity and

Freedom

The experience of freedom always has a religious dimension. Con

sequently the concept of freedom has a theological dimension as
well. This is shown by the atheistic justification of freedom in
modern times. In order to affirm and desire the liberty of men and
women, God has to be denied: either there is a God who rules and
people are not free; or people are free - but then there must not
be any God. In this crude alternative we have atheistic freedom on
the one hand, over against monotheistic dependency on the other.
And, conversely, the political world order that is allied with religion
is contrary to man's freedom and self-responsibility.
In the doctrine of the Trinity which we shall be developing in
this chapter, we shall be going along with Joachim of Fiore, though
critically. It is a doctrine that overcomes monarchical dependency
and provides the justification for human freedom in more dimen
sions than one. An immovable and apathetic God cannot be under
stood as the foundation of human freedom. An absolutist sovereign
in heaven does not inspire liberty on earth. Only the passionate
God, the God who suffers by virtue of his passion for people, calls
the freedom of men and women to life. He gives human freedom
its divine room for living. The triune God, who realizes the king
dom of his glory in a history of creation, liberation and glorifica
tion, wants human freedom, justifies human freedom and
unceasingly makes men and women free for freedom. Trinitarian
theology is directed towards the justification of a comprehensive,
many-dimensioned doctrine of freedom. The conception we shall
go on to develop is therefore the following:
The trinitarian doctrine of the kingdom is the theological doc
trine of freedom. The theological concept of freedom is the concept
of the trinitarian history of God: God unceasingly desires the
freedom of his creation. God is the inexhaustible freedom of those
he has created.

The Trinitarian Doctrine

3. Freedom

of

Freedom

in the Kingdom

219
of the Triune

God

In the kingdom of the Father, God is the Creator and the lord of
those he has created. Men and women are his created beings and
are hence his property as well. In their naked existence human
beings are completely and utterly dependent on their Creator and
preserver. They can contribute nothing to what God creates, for
they owe everything they are to God's creative activity. If God
takes them into his service, becoming their master and lord, this is
their exaltation and their mark of distinction. To be 'the servant
of God' raises men and women above all the rest of God's crea
tures. To be used and needed by God the Lord, and therefore not
to be useless and superfluous, gives their lives meaning. So to be
the servant of God is not a humiliating title. It is a title conferring
honour. Moses was looked upon as 'the Servant of God' who was
chosen to lead his people into freedom. Isaiah 5 3 promises the
'new Servant of God' who bears the sins of the world. According
to Philippians 2 , the Son of God took upon himself the form of a
servant and was obedient even unto death on the cross. The
apostles viewed themselves as slaves of God and servants of the
kingdom. In this very fact they found the freedom that raised them
above the world. For the person who is a servant of the Most High
is indeed utterly dependent on his master; but he is completely free
from other things and other powers. He fears God alone and
nothing else in the world. He belongs to his Lord alone and to no
one else. He hears his voice alone and no other voice at all. The
sole lordship of God, which the first commandment proclaims, is
the foundation for the extraordinary freedom of having to have
'no other gods' beside him. This is what Paul means too when he
explains freedom with the help of the theological hierarchy of
property: 'All things are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is
God's' (I Cor. 3 . 2 2 L ) .
In the kingdom of the Son, the freedom of being God's servants
is preserved outwardly, but its inward quality is changed. The
servants of the Lord became the children of the Father. In the
fellowship of the Son people enter into a new relationship with
God. The freedom of God's children does not evolve out of the
freedom of God's servants. It only becomes possible where the Son
appears. Knowledge of the Father and free access to him are the

220

The Kingdom

of

Freedom

characteristics which place the freedom of God's children above

the freedom of his servants. Children belong to the family. They
cannot be dismissed like servants. They are one with the father.
They are not the father's property. On the contrary, they are joint
owners of the father's property. They are his heirs. The liberty of
the children of God therefore lies in their personal and intimate
relationship to the Father and, on the other hand, in their partici
pation in the Father's kingdom. Their relationship to one another
also distinguishes them from servants: servants obey the master's
commands, each for himself. What binds them together is merely
sharing the same social position. But the children of God are bound
together because they are brothers and sisters. The liberty of the
children of God lies not least in the free access to each other which
people find in the love that binds them and in the joy they find in
one another.
In the kingdom of the Spirit the sovereign freedom towards the
world of God's servants, and the intimate freedom of his children
are both preserved; but again the inward quality of these things is
changed. The servants of the Lord and the children of the Father
become God's friends: 'No longer do I call you servants, for the
servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called
you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made
known to you' (John 1 5 . 1 5 ) . By virtue of the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, people enter into this new 'direct' relationship with
God. The freedom of God's friends does not evolve out of the
freedom of God's children. It only becomes possible when people
know themselves in God and God in them. That is the light of the
Holy Spirit. As John 15 shows, Jesus saw his disciples not only as
brothers but as his friends as well. This friendship too is born out
of Christ's giving of himself: 'Greater love has no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if
you do what I command you' (John 15.13f.).
The title 'friend of God' was widespread in the ancient Greek
world. The truly wise are 'the friends of the gods'. The Hellenistic
Jews called Moses 'the friend of God'. The New Testament Epistle
of James (2.23) declares: 'Abraham believed God, and it was
reckoned to him as righteousness; and he was called the friend of
God.' Otherwise Abraham is considered as being 'the father of
believers'. Here he is the first of God's friends. Friendship with
God finds its pre-eminent expression in prayer. In obeying God's

The Trinitarian Doctrine

of

Freedom

221

command a person feels himself to be the Lord's servant. In faith

in the gospel he sees himself as being the child of his heavenly
Father. As God's friend he talks to God in prayer, and his prayer
becomes a conversation with his heavenly friend. Friendship with
God means the assurance that his prayer is heard. Of course 'pray
ing' and 'hearing' are still expressions belonging to the language of
servants and children. In friendship the distance enjoined by sov
ereignty ceases to exist. The friend knows that his friend is listening
to him. God 'can be conversed with'. God listens to his friends.
By virtue of friendship with God in the Spirit, we have the chance
to influence God and to participate in his rule. God does not want
the humility of servants or the gratitude of children for ever. He
wants the boldness and confidence of friends, who share his rule
with him. Kant said that friendship combines affection with re
spect. God makes men and women his friends by inclining affec
tionately towards them and by listening to them. He makes people
his friends by letting them find themselves and by respecting their
responsibility. People draw near to God by praying without beg
ging and by talking to him in a way that shows they respect his
liberty. The prayer of the friend is neither the servility of the servant
nor the importunity of the child; it is a conversation in the freedom
of love, that shares and allows the other to share. Friendship is 'the
concrete concept of freedom'.
50

51

The freedom of servants, the freedom of children and the free

dom of God's friends correspond to the history of the kingdom of
God. They are stages on a road; as it were, but without being
stages in a continuous development. Freedom is defined qualita
tively here, not quantitatively. Consequently it is misleading to
date these stages on the road, either chronologically or in salvation
history, as Joachim admittedly did. It is better to think of strata in
the concept of freedom. Then these transitions are present in every
experience of freedom. In the experience of freedom, we experience
ourselves as God's servants, as his children, and as his friends; and
in this way we perceive the stages for ourselves. T o be God's
servant therefore remains just as much a dimension of freedom as
being God's child, even if friendship with God goes beyond both.
Yet there is also a trend in the experience of freedom a trend
from being a servant to being a child, and then to being a friend
of God's. This can be called 'growth', if by growth in faith we do
not mean the further development of a unique experience, but

222

The Kingdom of

Freedom

rather the process of maturing through experiences that are con

tinually new.
Freedom itself is indivisible and all-comprehensive. That is why
every partial freedom presses forward to total freedom and to the
freedom of the whole creation. The thirst for freedom cannot be
quenched by any partial satisfaction. It knows no limits. That is
why even the freedom of God's friends is not yet complete freedom.
In history it is the best of all possible freedoms in our relationship
to God. But even this points beyond itself to the freedom that only
achieves its complete and perfect bliss in God in the kingdom of
glory. When God is known face to face, the freedom of God's
servants, his children and his friends finally finds its fulfilment in
God himself. Then freedom means the unhindered participation in
the eternal life of the triune God himself, and in his inexhaustible
fullness and glory. 'Our hearts are restless until they find rest in
thee', said Augustine. And when we think of freedom we may
surely say: 'Our hearts are captive until they become free in the
glory of the triune God.'

ABBREVIATIONS

CD

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, ET T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh and

Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1936-69
ET
English translation
EvTh Evangelische Theologie, Munich
IKZ
Internationale kirchliche Zeitschrift, Bern
KuD
Kerygma und Dogma, Gttingen
LThK Lexikon fr Theologie und Kirche, Freiburg
MPG Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Paris
MPL Migne, Patrologia Latina, Paris
NF
Neue Folge (New Series)
NTD Das Neue Testament Deutsch
PhB
Philosophische Bibliothek, Leipzig
PTSt Patristische Texte und Studien, Berlin
RE
Realencyklopdie fr protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 3rd
ed. Gotha 1896-1913
RGG
Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 3rd ed. Tbingen 1956
65
ThEx Theologische Existenz heute, Munich
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ET Grand Rapids,
Michigan 1964-76
ZKG
Zeitschrift fr Kirchengeschichte,
Stuttgart
ZThK Zeitschrift fr Theologie und Kirche, Tbingen

NOTES

I Trinitarian

Theology

Today

i. P. Melanchthon, Loci Communes, 1521, Melanchthons Werke II,

ed. R. Stupperich, Gtersloh 1952, p. 7.
z. K. Rahner already complains about this. Cf. 'Remarks on the Dog
matic Treatise De Trinitate\ Theological Investigations IV, ET Darton,
Longman & Todd, London 1966, pp. 77ff.
3. F. Schleiermacher, Glaubenslehre, 2nd ed. 3 and 4.
4. Ibid. 170.
5. J . Sobrino pointed to this dialectic. Cf. 'Theologisches Erkennen in
der europischen und der lateinamerikanischen Theologie' in Befreiende
Theologie, ed. K. Rahner, Stuttgart 1977, pp. 123ff., with reference to the
dialectical principle of knowledge 'sub specie contrarii' as treated in J .
Moltmann, The Crucified God, ET SCM Press 1974, pp. 25ff.
6. Cf. here now C. Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism. American Life in
an Age of Diminishing Expectations, New York 1978.
7. I. Kant, Der Streit der Fakultten, PhB 252, p. 33.
8. Ibid. p. 34.
9. Cf. G. Gutierrez, ET A Theology of Liberation, Orbis Books, New
York 1973, SCM Press 1974, p. 11.
10. I. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, preface to the second edition.
1 1 . Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I qu. 2 a 3.
1 2 . J . Seiler, Das Dasein Gottes als Denkaufgabe. Darlegung und Be
wertung der Gottesbeweise,
Lucerne 1965, pp. 60f.
1 3 . H. Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, 26th ed., Freiburg 1957,
1785.
14. Ibid. 2071.
15. R. Descartes, Discours de la mthode, PhB 26 a, esp. pp. 25ff. For
the investigation and presentation of the modern metaphysics of subjec
tivity, cf. especially W. Schulz, Der Gott der neuzeitlichen
Metaphysik,
6th ed., Pfullingen 1978, and his great work Ich und Welt. Philosophie
der Subjektivitt, Pfullingen 1979.
16. F. Nietzsche, 'Der tolle Mensch' in Die frhliche Wissenschaft, no.
125.

Notes to pages

1422

225

17. Augustine, Soliloquia, I, 2 and II, 1. Cf. M. Grabmann, Die

Grundgedanken
des Heiligen Augustinus ber Seele und Gott (1929),
Darmstadt 1967.
18. R. Descartes, 3. Meditation, PhB 27, p. 42.
19. R. Bultmann, 'What Does it Mean to Speak of God?' in Faith and
Understanding, SCM Press 1969, p. 63.
20. Cf. K. Rahner, 'Remarks on the Dogmatic Treatise De Trinitate'
(see n. 2 above), pp. 77ff.; H. Mhlen, Der Heilige Geist als Person, 2nd
ed., Mnster 1963; C. Heitmann and H. Mhlen, Erfahrung und Theo
logie des Heiligen Geistes, Hamburg and Munich 1974, especially H.
Mhlen, 'Soziale Geisterfahrung als Antwort auf eine einseitige Gottes
lehre', pp. 253ff., and G. Wagner, 'Der Heilige Geist als offenbarmachende
und vollendende Kraft', pp. 214ff.
21. So the influential textbook by C. I. Nitzsch, System der christlichen
Lehre (1829), 6th ed., Bonn 1851, p. 184. The standard work on the
history of the doctrine of the Trinity up to the nineteenth century is still
F. C. Baur, Die christliche Lehre von der Dreieinigkeit und Menschwer
dung Gottes in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, IIII, Tbingen 1843.
22. R. Rothe, Theologische Ethik I, 2nd ed., Wittenberg 1867, 34;
F. H. R. Frank, System der christlichen Wahrheit, 1878-80, 3rd ed. 1893,
14; I. A. Dorner, System der christlichen Glaubenslehre, I, Berlin 1879,
31 and 32.
23. R. Musil, The Man without Qualities, ET Secker & Warburg 1 9 5 3 60, vol. I, p. 175.

II The Passion of God

1. O. Dreyer, Untersuchungen zum Begriff des Gottgeziemenden
in der
Entwicklung der antiken Gottesvorstellung,
Gttingen 1966.
2. J . K. Mozley, The Impassibility of God. A Survey of Christian
Thought, Cambridge 1926, is the classic and most comprehensive treat
ment of the subject. Cf. also W. Maas, Unvernderlichkeit
Gottes, Mu
nich, 1974; Chung Young Lee, God suffers for us. A Systematic Inquiry
into the Concept of Divine Possibility, The Hague 1974; J . Woltmann,
'AjiaOtg inaOev Apathie als metaphysisches Axiom und ethisches Ideal
und das Problem der Passion Christi in der Alten Kirche, Diss. Erlangen
1972; W. McWilliams, 'Divine Suffering in Contemporary Theology' Scot
tish Journal of Theology, 33, 1980, pp. 35-54.
3. G. C. Stead, Divine Substance, Oxford 1977.
4. These questions are treated in detail in W. Eiert, Der Ausgang der
altkirchlichen Christologie. Eine Untersuchung ber Theodor von Pharan
und seine Zeit, Berlin 1957. The more modern German contributions to
the problem start from the dogmatic difficulties which Elert pointed out:
H. Mhlen, Die Vernderlichkeit Gottes als Horizont einer zuknftigen
Christologie. Auf dem Wege zu einer Kreuzestheologie in Auseinanderset-

226

Notes to pages

2226

zung mit der altkirchlichen

Christologie, Mnster 1969; H. Kng,
Menschwerdung Gottes. Eine Einfhrung in Hegels theologisches
Denken
als Prolegomena
zu einer knftigen Christologie, Freiburg 1970; J .
Moltmann, The Crucified God. The Cross of Christ as the Foundation
and Criticism of Christian Theology, ET SCM Press and Harper C Row,
New York 1974; E. Jngel, Gott als Geheimnis
der Welt. Zur
Begrndung der Theologie des Gekreuzigten im Streit zwischen Theismus
und Atheismus, Tbingen 1977.
5. According to Irenaeus the Deus impassibilis has become passibilis.
According to Melito 'the One who cannot suffer, suffers'. In his famous
treatise Gregory Thaumaturgus describes 'the Suffering of Him who cannot suffer'. Cf. H. Crouzel, 'La passion de l'impassibile' in L'homme
devant Dieu I, Paris 1964, pp. 2 6 9 - 2 7 9 , and L. Abramowski, 'Die Schrift
Gregor des Lehrers "Ad Theopompum" und Philoxenus von Mabbug',
ZKG 89, 1978, pp. 2 7 3 - 2 9 0 . Out of the abundance of typical titles we
may mention here G. Stanihurstius' cumbersome Historia von dem heiligen
Leiden des unsterblichen Gottes im sterblichen Leibe, Kempten 1678. The
last great treatment of the subject by B. R. Brasnett is also entitled The
Suffering of the Impassible God, London 1928.
6. D. Merezhkovsky makes this double meaning of the word 'passion'
the guiding idea of his incomparable meditation Tod und Auferstehung,
Leipzig 1935: 'It is astonishing, and can doubtless only be explained by
two thousand years of custom, that we no longer find it surprising that
the church (which calls every "passion" sinful and "lack of passion" holy)
has the courage to call its holy of holies "the passion" ' (pp. 8f.). Heinrich
Heine wrote: 'Eternal renown is due to the symbol of that suffering God,
the Saviour with the crown of thorns, whose blood was, as it were, the
healing balm which ran down into the wounds of mankind' {Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland, Book I, Insel edition,
4.55).
7. H. de Lubac, Histoire et esprit. L'intelligence de l'Ecriture d'aprs
Origne, Paris 1950; Maas, op. cit., pp. 136ff.
8. Origen, Commentary on Romans (VII. 9; MPG 14.1129 A).
9. Selecta in Ezechielem (c. 16; MPG 13.812 A).
10. Homilia VI in Ezechielem (MPG XIII, 714 f).
1 1 . I am here taking up and developing ideas which I have already
expressed in The Crucified God, especially in ch. 6.
12. A. Heschel, Die Prophtie, Cracow 1936, and in more detail in The
Prophets, New York 1962, especially pp. 22Iff.
13. Ibid., ch. 12: 'The Theology of Pathos', pp. 221 ff.
14. This is stressed by K. Woollcombe, 'The Pain of God', Scottish
Journal of Theology 20, 1967, pp. 1 2 9 - 1 4 8 , who thereby carries on the
English discussion on the passibility of God.
15. Heschel, The Prophets, pp. 232ff.
1 6 . Ibid., ch. 18: 'Religion of Sympathy', pp. 307ff.

Notes to pages 27-32

227

17. Cf. P. Lapide and J . Moltmann, Jdischer Monotheismus chris

tliche Trinittslehre. Ein Gesprch, Munich 1979; Moltmann, pp. 32ff.,
and Lapide, pp. 54ff.
18. P. Kuhn, Gottes Selbsterniedrigung in der Theologie der Kabbinen,
Munich 1968; A. M. Goldberg, Untersuchungen ber die Vorstellung von
der Shekhinah in der frhen rabbinischen Literatur, Berlin 1969; Gershom
Scholem, Von der mystischen Gestalt der Gottheit, Zrich 1962,
pp. 135ff.
19. Kuhn, op. cit., pp. 89ff.; Scholem, op. cit., pp. 144f.
20. Scholem, op. cit., pp. 145ff.
21. G. Scholem, Die jdische Mystik in ihren
Hauptstrmungen,
Frankfurt 1957, p. 253. (This book is based on the 3rd US edition of
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism; New York 1954, London 1955.)
22. F. Rosenzweig, Der Stern der Erlsung, III, 3rd ed., Heidelberg
1954, pp. 192ff.
23. Ibid., p. 194.
24. Scholem, Die jdische Mystik, pp. 253f.
25. Scholem, Von der mystischen Gestalt, p. 146. Cf. also E. Wiesel's
moving book about Auschwitz, Night, New York and London, 1960 (with
a foreword by F. Mauriac), p. 76, and the comments in Moltmann, The
Crucified God, pp. 273f.
26. J . K. Mozley, op. cit., p. vm:
27. C. E. Rolt, The World's Redemption, London 1913, p. 95.
28. B. H. Streeter's own work on the subject was interrupted by Rolt's
book. He therefore published a summing up of his own and Rolt's ideas
under the title 'The Suffering of God', The Hibben Journal, 47, April
1914, pp. 6 0 3 - 6 1 1 .
29. Rolt, op. cit., p. 95.
30. Ibid., p. 35.
3 1 . Ibid., p. 27. In Germany Karl Barth and H. Urs von Balthasar were
the first to demand that the being of God and the cross of Christ be
considered together, and to try to do so. Cf. Barth, Church Dogmatics II/
2, and von Balthasar, Mysterium Salutis, ed. J. Feiner and M. Lhrer, III/
2, Einsiedeln and Cologne 1969, pp. 133ff.
32. Canon V. F. Storr, The Problem of the Cross, (1919) 2nd ed.,
London 1924, said that God did not rest in an Olympian heaven, but
suffered himself when Jesus suffered on earth: 'The Divine Love revealed
in and mediated by Jesus, eternally suffers from our sin.' George Campbell
Morgan, The Bible and the Cross, London 1909, also sees the cross against
the background of God's eternal suffering. C. A. Dinsmore, Atonement in
Literature and Life, London, Boston and New York 1906, writes: There
was a cross in the heart of God before there was one planted on the green
hill outside of Jerusalem. And now that the cross of wood has been taken
down, the one in the heart of God abides, and it will remain so long as

228

Notes to pages

32-37

there is one sinful soul for whom to suffer.' References in Mozley, op. cit.,
pp. 148ff.
33. H. Bushnell, The Vicarious Sacrifice, London 1866, p. 35.
34. J . Hinton, The Mystery of Pain, London 1866, p. 40.
3 j . Rolt, op. cit., p. 247: 'God is a Trinity because He is perfect Love.'
36. Ibid., p. 95.
37. Ibid., pp. 203f.
38. Ibid., p. 119.
39. Ibid., p. 124.
40. Ibid., p.126. This is basically Barth's doctrine about nullity; cf. CD
II/2 pp. 122ff., III/3 pp. 289ff. Barth too talks about the 'shadow-world
of Satan' which only exists by virtue of the divine denial.
41. Rolt, op. cit., p. 127.
42. Ibid., p. 246. This idea about the 'experience' which God has to go
through on his 'passage' through history is otherwise only to be found in
mysticism. It corresponds to the Jewish-kabbalistic doctrine about the
wanderings of the divine Shekinah through the dust of this world's streets.
Cf. also P. Tillich, Systematic Theology III, Chicago 1963, reissued SCM
Press 1978, p. 405: 'The Divine Life is the eternal conquest of the negative;
this is its blessedness.'
43. G. A. Studdert Kennedy, The Hardest Part, London 1918.
44. Ibid., p. 14.
45. Ibid., p. 95. Similarly p. 98: 'Men are turning to God in Christ,
even as they curse the Christian God. They do not, and will not, believe
in the Monarch on the throne; they do, and will, believe in the Servant on
the Cross.'
46. Ibid., p. 42. K. Kitamori and D. Bonhoeffer formulated similar
ideas during the horrors of World War II; cf. Kitamori, Theology of the
Pain of God, ET SCM Press and John Knox Press, Richmond, Va. 1966;
Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ET, 3rd enlarged edition,
SCM Press and Macmillan, New York 1971. Similar experiences gave
their stamp to the shared theological insight.
47. Madrid 1912; The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations; ref
erences are to ET Selected Works, vol. 4, Routledge & Kegan Paul and
Princeton University Press 1972 but quotations have been retranslated.
48. Cf. the extensive monograph by R. Garcia Mateo, Dialektik als
Polemik. Welt, Bewusstsein, Gott bet Miguel de Unamuno, Frankfurt
1978; also E. Rivera, El tema de Dios en M. de Unamuno, Cuadernos
Salamancinos de Filosofa V, 1978, pp. 315335.
49. R. Schneider, Verhllter Tag, Cologne 1954, p. 65.
50. Unamuno The Tragic Sense of Life, p. 17.
51. M. de Unamuno, The Agony of Christianity, ET Selected Works,
vol. 5, Routledge & Kegan Paul and Princeton University Press 1972.
52. Quoted in Garcia Mateo, op. cit., p. 156.
53. Unamuno, The Agony of Christianity, pp. 9f.

Notes to pages

3743

229

54. Unamuno, The Tragic Sense of Life, p. 184.

55. Ibid., p. 224.
56. Ibid., p. 224.
57. Ibid., p. 228.
58. The quotation comes from Christmas Eve, V, lines 2325.
59. The Tragic Sense of Life, p. 223.
60. Ibid., p. 223.
61. Ibid., p. 227.
6z. Ibid., p. 229.
63. Ibid., p. 227. S. Kierkegaard already wrote similarly (Papirer XI,
Copenhagen 1970,1 A 422): 'Christianity is: what God has to suffer with
us human beings . . . Now there is, if one may so put it, in God the
contradiction which is the source of all torment: he is love and yet he is
unchangeable . . . When Christ cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me" - that was terrible for Christ, and this is the way it is
commonly represented. But it seems to me that it was still more terrible
for God to hear his cry . . . to be unchangeable and then to be love:
infinite, profound, unfathomable grief!' On this see H. Deuser, Dialektische Theologie. Studien zu Adornos Metaphysik und dem Spatwerk
Kierkegaards, Munich, Mainz 1980.
64. Following R. Schneider, Unamunos
Briefwechsel.
Nachwort,
Nuremberg 1955, pp. 332f.
65. The Tragic Sense of Life, p. 223.
66. Ibid., p. 162.
67. Ibid., p. 225.
68. Ibid., p. 224.
69. Ibid., p. 225.
70. These remarks are a reference to the agreement which R. Garcia
Mateo (op. cit., pp. 157ff.) has detected between what Unamuno says
about the suffering God and my own theology of the cross.
7 1 . For a general characterization cf. P. Evdokimov, Christus im russischen Denken, Trier 1977, pp. 19Iff.
72. N. Berdyaev, The Meaning of History, ET Geoffrey Bles and Scribner's 1939. Cf. also his Spirit and Reality, ET Bles and Scribner's 1939
and 1946.
73. Berdyaev, The Meaning of History, p. 58.
74. Berdyaev, Spirit and Reality, 1946 edition p. 115: 'Christianity does
away with fate, with insoluble destiny. But tragedy survived in the Christ
ian world, although its character was transformed. Christian tragedy is a
tragedy of freedom as distinct from a tragedy of fate.' Cf. here C. Hartshorne, 'Whitehead and Berdyaev. Is there Tragedy in God?' in
Whitehead's Philosophy. Selected Essays, 1935-1970,
Lincoln 1972,
pp. 183ff.
75. The Meaning of History, p. 57 (altered).
76. Ibid., p. 55 (altered).

Notes to pages

230

43-54

77. Ibid., p. 45 (altered). Cf. F. W. J. Schelling, Philosophie der Offenbarung (1841/42), ed. stw. 181, esp. XVI: 'The Trinity, pointing to a
further development of the theogonic process.' Cf. here M. Welker, Der
Vorgang Autonomic, Neukirchen 1975, pp. 9Iff.
78. In fact what is really meant is probably the Western metaphysics
that followed Parmenides and Plato.
79. The Meaning of History, p. 46.
80. Ibid., p. 47.
81. Ibid., p. 47.
82,. Ibid., p. 47 (altered).
83. Ibid., p. 48.
84. Ibid., p. 48 (altered). On the mystical doctrine of 'the divine thirst'
cf. also Lady Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, 31: 'The
same desire and thirst that He had upon the Cross (which desire, longing
and thirst, as to my sight, was in him from without beginning) the same
hath he yet, and shall, unto the time that the last soul that shall be saved
is come up to his bliss . . . The ghostly thirst is lasting in Him as long as
we be in need, drawing us up to His bliss.' Quoted in Woollcombe, op.
cit., p. 135.
85. The Meaning of History, p. 51 (altered).
86. Ibid., p. 48.
87. Spirit and Reality, 1946 edition, p. 98.
88. Ibid., p. 106.
89. G. Buchner, Dantons Tod, Act III.
90. O. Kirn, article 'Tod', R E , 19, pp. 8 0 1 - 5 .
91. Cf. B. Albrecht, Gott und das Leid der Menschen, Meitinger Kleinschriften 52, Freising 1976.
92. Cf. here M. Welker (ed.), Diskussion iiber ] . Moltmanns
Buch
'Das gekreuzigte Gott\ Munich 1979, especially H. H. Miskotte's contri
bution, 'Das Leiden ist in Gott', pp. 74ff., and my reply, pp. 168ff.
93. K. Barth, CD H/2, p. 166. On Barth's doctrine of freedom, cf. the
closely differentiating study by G. S. Hendry, 'The Freedom of God in the
Theology of Karl Barth', Scottish Journal of Theology, 31/3, 1978,
pp. 229-244. Hendry shows that Barth's criticism of Hegel - that he made
God 'his own prisoner' - is a superficial one. He also points to Barth's use
of the doctrine of emanation, which is in contradiction to his (Barth's)
nominalism.
94. CD IV/2, p. 346.
95. Ibid., II/2, p. 10.
96. H. H. Martenson, Christian Dogmatics, ET T. &c T. Clark, Edin
burgh 1866, 51, pp. 99ff. esp. p. 101. As solution Martenson proposes:
'The only way to solve this contradiction, is to assume that God has a
two-fold life - a life in himself of unclouded peace and self-satisfaction,
and a life in and with his creation, in which He not only submits to the
3

Notes to pages

54-63

231

conditions of finitude but even allows His power to be limited by the

sinful will of man.'
97. Cf. n. 94.
98. F. von Hgel, 'Suffering and God', Essays and Addresses, II,
London 1926 quoted in B. R. Brasnett, The Suffering of the Impassible
God, p. 124: 'Perfect liberty excludes choice.'
99. Barth, CD II/l 28.
100. On the modern concept of freedom under the spell of possessive
individualism, cf. C. B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive
Individualism, Oxford 1962: 'Freedom is a function of possession' (p. 3).
101. J . Moltmann, Menschenwrde,
Recht und Freiheit, Stuttgart
1979.
102. Augustine, De trin. VII, 12.14:
Immo vero vides trinitatem,
si vides caritatem . . .
Ecce tria sunt, amans
et quod amatur, et amor.
For this section cf. E. Sartorius, Die Lehre von der Heiligen Liebe. 1. Abt.
Von der ursprnglichen Liebe und ihrem Gegensatz, Stuttgart 1842; also
the profound meditative writings, Im Banne der Dreieinigkeit, Regensburg
1934, and Im Geheimnis, Regensburg 1951, ed. F. Kronseder, SJ.
103. I. A. Dorner, Die Unvernderlichkeit
Gottes, Leipzig 1883,
p. 355.
104. N. Berdyaev, The Meaning of History, p. 48.
105. E. Troeltsch, Glaubenslehre. Nach den Heidelberger
Vorlesungen
aus den Jahren 1911 und 1912, ed. M. Troeltsch, Munich and Leipzig,
1925, 14: 'Gott als Liebe', pp. 218ff.

III The History

of the Son

1. A. von Harnack, What is Christianity}, ET Harper Torchbooks

1957, p. 193. Cf. also pp. 124ff. 'The Gospel and the Son of God, or the
Christological question'.
2. Ibid., p. 125.
3. Ibid, p. 144. One must however also notice the sentence at the end
of the whole section: 'It is not a mere factor that he is connected with the
Gospel: he was its personal realization and its strength, and this he is felt
to be still.' (p. 145)
4. I. Kant, Der Streit der Fakultten, A 50, 57.
5. F. Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, 170, ET of 2nd ed., T. &
T. Clark, Edinburgh 1928.
6. K. Barth CD 1/1 8, pp. 295ff.
7. Ibid, pp. 299ff.
8. Ibid, p. 349: 'We may unhesitatingly equate the lordship of God, to
which we found the whole of the biblical concept to be related, with what

232

Notes to pages

63-71

the vocabulary of the early Church calls the essence of God, the deitas or
divinitas, the divine ovaia, essentia, natura, or substantia. The essence of
God is the being of God as divine being. The essence of God is the
Godhead of God.' Cf. also O. Weber, Grundlagen der Dogmatik I, 2nd
ed. 1957, p. 397: 'God is this sole God as the Lord who acts on us. His
unity is fiovagxia'.
9. Barth, CD 1/1, p. 350.
10. Ibid, p. 354.
1 1 . Here I am following A. Schlatter, Johannes der Tufer, Basle 1956;
W. Wink, John the Baptist in the Gospel Tradition, London 1968; W.
Bieder, Die Verheissung der Taufe im Neuen Testament, Zrich 1966; F.
Lentzen-Deis, Die Taufe Jesus nach den Synoptikern, Frankfurt 1970. Cf.
also F. Mussner, 'Ursprnge und Enfaltung der neutestamentlichen
Sohneschristologie' in Grundfragen der Christologie heute, ed. L. Scheffczyk, Questiones Disputatae 72, Freiburg 1975, pp. 7 7 - 1 1 3 .
12. L. Goppelt, Theologie des Neuen Testaments, 3rd ed., Gttingen
1978, p. 92.
1 3 . Ibid., p. 249.
14. J. Jeremias, New Testament Theology I, ET SCM Press and Scribner, New York, 1971, pp. 53f.; and for criticism, F. Hahn, The Titles of
Jesus in Christology, ET Lutterworth Press and World Publishing Co.,
New York, 1969, pp. 295ff.; M. Hengel, The Son of God, ET SCM Press
and Fortress Press, Philadelphia 1976, p. 66.
15. Cf. here F. Hahn, op. cit., pp. 308ff.; J. Jeremias, op. cit., pp. 56ff
L. Goppelt, op. cit., pp. 251ff.; also G. von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, ET
SCM Press and Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1972, esp. pp. 144ff.; G. Foh
rer, article ' ao<pia\ TDNT VII, pp. 465ff. on Job 28 and Prov. 8.
16. Contrary to L. Goppelt, op. cit. p. 251, who talks about a 'mutual
knowing between God and man'.
17. Cf. here J . Jeremias, Abba, Gttingen 1966, pp. 1567, and NT
Theology, pp. 6Iff.
18. M. Hengel is more cautious in his judgment: 'Even if Jesus probably
did not designate himself "Son of God" in so many words, the real root
of the post-Easter title lies in the relationship to God as Father', op. cit.,
p. 63.
19. J . Jeremias, op. cit., p. 180. If the revelation of the Father is as
central for Jesus as Jeremias has shown (in my view rightly), then we
should no longer talk about 'the [kingly] reign of God' (pp. 3Iff.), but
rather about God's fatherly rule.
20. W. Kramer, Christ, Lord, Son of God, ET SCM Press and A. R.
Allenson, Naperville, 111., 1966, pp. lllff.; W. Thsing, Per Christum in
Deum. Studien zum Verhltnis von Christozentrik und Theozentrik in
den paulinischen Hauptbriefen,
2nd ed., Mnster 1969, pp. 115ff.; E.
Ksemann, The Epistle to the Romans, ET SCM Press and Eerdmans,
Grand Rapids, 1980, pp. 217ff. Even when we consider the christological

Notes to pages

7182

233

'sending' formulations, we should think of the sending of the divine Wis

dom: 'Send her forth out of the holy heavens, And from the throne of thy
glory bid her come' (Wisd. 9.10). F. Christ, Jesus Sophia. Die SophiaChristologie bei den Synoptikern, Zrich 1970.
21. J.-A. Bhner, Der Gesandte und sein Weg im 4. Evangelium,
Tbingen 1977.
22. For the interpretation cf. D. S. Merezhkovsky, Tod und Aufersteh
ung, Leipzig 1935; E. Schweizer, Das Evangelium nach Markus, NTD 2,
5th ed. 1978.
23. E. Vogelsang, Der angefochtene Christus bei Luther, Berlin 1932,
esp. pp. 44ff.
24. Ibid., p. 45.
25. O. Michel, Der Brief an die Hebrer, 12th ed., Gttingen 1966,
p. 132.
26. D. S. Merezhkovsky, op. cit., p. 322; A. von Harnack, Probleme
im Text der Leidensgeschichte Jesu, Berlin 1901.
27. O. Michel, op. cit., p. 74: 'Xcogig 6eov has textual preference. God
leads Christ into suffering (2.10), but at the same time accentuates this
suffering through the trial of God-forsakenness (Mark 15.34).' Michel
considers the canonical reading 'xgiri deov ' to be 'probably a substi
tution and correction'.
28. H. Gese, 'Psalm 22 und das Neue Testament' in Vom Sinai zum
Zion, Alttestamentliche
Beitrge zur biblischen Theologie, Munich 1974,
pp. 180-201.
29. D. S. Merezhkovsky, op. cit., p. 320. W. Kasper in Jesus the Christ,
ET Burns and Oates, London and Paulist Press, New York 1976, thinks
on the other hand that the use of Psalm 22 proves that 'Jesus' faith did
not give way.' Anyone who uses Jesus' faith on the cross for a christology
that makes him a human pattern, is thereby losing sight of Jesus' experi
ence of being cursed on the cross, with its saving efficacy for all sinners.
The modern psychological considerations, according to which Jesus 'broke
down' or just 'did not break down' (W. Kasper, p. 120) on the cross, fail
to grasp anything of the reality of the event that took place between Jesus
and his Father, or between the Father and his Son. The heroic phrases
which R. Bultmann uses when he talks about Jesus' 'foundering' on the
cross, may be applicable to heroes like Leonidas at Thermopylae. At the
cross they are utterly out of place.
30. W. Popkes, Christus Traditus. Eine Untersuchung zum Begriff der
Dahingabe im Neuen Testament, Zrich, Stuttgart 1967, esp. pp. 153ff.,
371ff. Cf. also K. Kertelge, Der Tod Jesus. Deutungen im Neuen Testa
ment, Questiones Disputatae 74, Freiburg 1976.
3 1 . Cf. also further reflections in H. Mhlen, Die
Vernderlichkeit
Gottes als Horizont einer zuknftigen Christologie, 2nd ed., Mnster
1976.

234

Notes to pages

83-90

32.. So already B. Steffen, Das Dogma vom Kreuz. Beitrag zu einer

staurozentrischen Theologie, Gtersloh 1920, p. 152.
33. This astonishing sentence comes from Patriarch Philareth of Mos
cow; quoted in P. Evdokimov, Christus in russischen Denken, Trier 1977,
pp. 64 and 227.
34. Cf. here Adrienne von Speyr, quoted in B. Albrecht, Eine Theologie
des Katholischen. Einfhrung in das Werk Adrienne von Speyrs, vol. II,
Einsiedeln 1973, p. 156: 'In the ties of nature that bind the Father with
. . . the Son in Christ's suffering because of sin and his experience of sin,
the God who is spirit already has an experience - if we may so put it which belongs essentially to the redemption of the world. This "experi
ence" is expanded at the death of the Lord. In the night of the cross that
fell between the Father and the Son, God himself experienced the surrender
in the form of sinful death. He had a new experience, unknown to him in
his eternal life. He therefore gathered death into eternal life . . . Through
this reception into eternal life, the death of sin was destroyed; what
remained was only death as a form and vessel for the divine life. Every
death that is died in Christ is therefore for the future a way to eternal life.
This does not merely make it something different for us; the Trinity has
a different relation to it as well. Death is no longer something alien to it.
The Son tasted death in his estrangement from the Father, and hence the
Father also tasted death in the separation from the Son. Even the source
of life in God, the Holy Spirit, is touched and transformed by this separ
ation of the Father from the Son. For during the duration of the separation
this source was sealed up and closed, as it were. It only begins to flow
again when the Son returns to the Father.' If according to biblical testi
mony the delivering up of the Son takes place 'through the Holy Spirit',
this last statement cannot be maintained. In the experience of death and
in the Son's descent into Hell, the source or 'well of life' rather flows into
death and hell. The life which the Spirit creates is 'life from the dead'
(Rom. 11.15).
35. Cf. J. Moltmann, Theology of Hope, pp. 172ff.; The Crucified God,
pp. 160ff.; The Church in the Power of the Spirit, pp. 98ff.
36. U. Wilckens, Resurrection, ET St Andrew Press 1977; W. Thsing,
Erhhungsvorstellung und Parusieerwartung in der ltesten nachster
lichen Christologie, Stuttgart 1969.
37. On the concept of Vorschein - pre-reflection, pre-figuration or
fore-shadowing - cf. E. Bloch, Das Prinzip Hoffnung, Frankfurt 1959.
38. B. Klappert, Die Auferweckung des Gekreuzigten, Neukirchen
1971.
39. J. Jervell, Imago Dei. Gen. 1.26f. im Sptjudentum, in der Gnosis
und in den paulinischen Briefen, Gttingen 1960; W. Thsing, op. cit.,
pp. 115ff.; L. Goppelt, op. cit., pp. 405ff.; M. Hengel, op. cit., pp. 7ff.
40. The alternative which L. Goppelt sees here does not exist. The
conclusion which he draws is a typically monotheistic and mistaken in-

Notes to pages

90-103

235

terpretation: 'Paul does not aim to explain the inner structure of the deity,
like the later doctrine of the Trinity; he wants to characterize the soteriological happening of the going-out-of-himself of the one God' (op. cit.,
p. 453).
4 1 . O. Weber, op. cit., I, pp. 419ff.: Heilsgeschehen und Trinitatslehre
('The Event of Salvation and the Doctrine of the Trinity').
42. J . Moltmann, The Crucified God, pp. 256ff.; E. Schendel, 'Herrschaft und Unterwerfung Christi. 1. Kor. 15. 2428' in Exegese und
Theologie der Water his zum Ausgang des 4. Jahrhunderts,
Tubingen
1971.
43. W. Thusing, op. cit., p. 246.
44. Here we again have to distinguish between Christ's messianic rule
over the dead and the living (Rom. 14.9) and his chiliastic kingdom, in
which the dead (the martyrs) will be raised (I Cor. 15.23; Rev. 20.14).
Both are provisional compared with the kingdom of glory.

IV The World of the Trinity

1. On Augustine cf. M. Schmaus, Die psychologische Trinitatslehre des
Hl. Augustinus, Mnster 1927, pp. 15Iff.
2. K. Barth took these concepts over from early Protestant orthodoxy,
as did E. Jngel, 'Das Verhltnis von "konomischer" and "immanen
ter" Trinitt', ZThK 72, 1975, p. 362.
3. G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology, I, ET SCM Press and Harper
and Row, New York, 1962, pp. 136ff.; cf. also W. H. Schmidt, Die
Schpfungsgeschichte
der Priesterschrift, 2nd rev. ed., Neukirchen 1967.
4. J . Moltmann, Theology of Hope, ET SCM Press and Harper and
Row, New York, 1967.
5. G. von Rad, op. cit., I, p. 138.
6. L. Khler, Old Testament Theology, Lutterworth Press, London,
and Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1957, p. 87.
7. J . Moltmann, 'Creation as an Open System' in The Future of Crea
tion, SCM Press and Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1979, pp. 115ff.; A. R.
Peacocke, Creation and the World of Science, the Bampton Lectures 1978,
Oxford 1979.
8. Here I am following G. von Rad, op. cit. II, ET SCM Press and
Harper and Row, New York, 1965, pp. 243ff.
9. Cf. W. Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, ET SCM Press and
Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1968; 2nd ed. Westminster Press, Phila
delphia, 1977, pp. 390ff. W. Kasper, Jesus the Christ, pp. 185ff.: 'The Son
of God as the Fulness of Time'.
10. Cf. G. Fohrer and U. Wilckens, article 'ootpia, TDNT VII, pp. 4 6 5 529.
1 1 . Cf. R. Bultmann, The Gospel According to John, ET Blackwell,
Oxford 1971, pp. 13ff.; R. Schnackenburg, The Gospel According to St

236

Notes to pages

103-107

John 1, ET Burns and Oates 1980, pp. 2 2 1 - 8 1 ; H. Gese, 'Der Johannesprolog' in Zr biblischen Theologie, Munich 1977, pp. 192-201.
X2.. I am here picking up ideas which I expressed most recently in
'Theology of Mystical Experience' in Experiences of God, ET SCM Press
and Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1980, pp. 55ff.
For a particularly one-sided example of a Christian-theistic doctrine
of creation cf. O. Weber, Grundlagen der Dogmatik, I, new ed. Neukirchen 1977, pp. 510ff.; he simply polemizes against the doctrine of emana
tion. A. R- Peacocke, op. cit., gives more comprehensive information about
the Christian doctrine of creation.
. K. Barth, CD, Ill/Iff.
J J . Cf. J . Moltmann, Theology of Play, ET Harper and Row, New
York, 1972, Theology of Joy SCM Press, 1973, 'The Theological Play of
the Goodwill of God', pp. 39ff.; For scientific parallels cf. now M. Eigen
and R- Winkler, Das Spiel 2nd ed. Munich 1976.
J 6 . Cf. I. A. Dorner, System der christlichen Glaubenslehre I, Berlin
1879, P- 418.
ij. The basis is Richard of St Victor's doctrine of the Trinity, De
Trinitate, which he developed as a doctrine of divine love. In the nineteenth
century, starting from this and from Hegel's dialectic, Sartorius, Twesten,
Nitzsch, Julius Mller, Liebner and also I. A. Dorner, each in his own
way, took the ethical approach to an exposition of the Trinity. Cf. espe
cially T. A. Liebner, Christologie oder die christologische Einheit des
dogmatischen Systems, Gttingen 1849, esp. pp. 234ff. On 'panentheism'
on the basis of process philosophy cf. N. Pittenger, Process-Thought and
Christian Faith, Welwyn 1968.
8 . Dorner finds this danger in W. Beyschlag, Christologie des Neuen
Testaments, 1866, pp. 249ff. Cf. System der christlichen Glaubenslehre II,
1, Berlin 1880, pp. 363f. This is also the reproach always levied against
Hegel by nineteenth-century theologians.
iy. So Meister Eckehart, Deutsche Predigten und Traktate, ed. and tr.
J. Quint, 4th ed., Munich 1977, p. 185: 'The Father brings forth his Son
in the soul in the same way as he brings him forth in eternity and in no
other way. He must do so whether he will or no. The Father brings forth
his Son unceasingly and I will say more: he brings me forth as his Son and
as the same Son. I will say yet more: he brings me forth as himself, and
himself as myself, and me as his being and as his nature.' Cf. Meister
Eckhart, ET C. de B. Evans, London 1924, vol. I, Sermon 66, p. 164.
Similarly Angelus Silesius, Der cherubinische Wandersmann I: i know
that without me God cannot live an instant. If I become nothing he must
give up the ghost himself . . . I am as of much consequence for God as he
for me. I help him maintain his being as he helps me maintain mine.'
io. L A. Dorner, op. cit., p. 358; 'The meaning can only be that God
did not create out of superfluity of being, which would be incompleteness
and disharmony or suffering; nor did he create in order to complement
I 4

Notes to pages

107-115

237

himself; nor, finally, was he forced by creative intelligence and its will
towards the world. He created out of the bliss and perfection of his love
and out of the self-consistency of that love's free will, part of which is the
pleasure of self-communication.
And by creating we mean: led non-being
out of the mere condition of being-thought - out of potentiality - into
actuality. The world is a goodly purpose, in correspondence with God's
love, not a fortuitous one.'
21. Augustine, De trin. XV, 1; 4, 7 laid the foundation for this for
mulation.
22. Here I am following Gershom Scholem's brilliant account of Luria's
teachings in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, New York 1954, London
1955, pp. 244ff. Cf. also his 'Schpfung aus Nichts und Selbsverschrnkung Gottes', Eranos Jahrbuch 1956, pp. 87-119.
23. J. Emden, Mitpachat Sefarim, Lemberg 1870, p. 82, quoted in Scholem, Trends, p. 411. According to rabbinic doctrine God's 'self-humilia
tion' in history begins with creation. Cf. P. Kuhn, Gottes
Selbsterniedrigung in der Theologie der Kabbinen, Munich 1968. These
ideas were at least taken up by Nicholas of Cusa, F. Oetinger, A. von
Oeningen; and by E. Brunner, Dogmatics 11, London, Lutterworth Press
1952, p. 20: 'This however, means that God does not wish to occupy the
whole of space Himself, but He wills to make room for other forms of
existence. In so doing He limits Himself . . . The xevwoiq which reaches
its paradoxical climax in the cross of Christ, began with the creation of
the world'. Cf. also Schelling, Philosophie der Offenbarung, op. cit. XII,
p. 177: 'But now God at the same time suspends his act of existing, which
is a necessary act, in order to put the being that differs from himself in the
place of that first existing.'
24. So according to Jakob Bhme and of pioneer importance for Ernst
Bloch's ontology of not-yet-being; Karl Marx, Frhschriften, ed. S. Landshut, Stuttgart 1953, p. 330: 'Among the characteristics which are innate
in matter, movement is the first and most important - not merely as
mechanical and mathematical movement, but even more as urge, the spirit
of life, tension, as the torment of matter, to use Jacob Bhme's phrase.'
25. C. Olevian, De substantia foederis gratuiti inter Deum et electos
itemque de mediis, quibus ea ipsa substantia nobis communicator, Geneva
1585.
26. In line with this are the highly questionable words in the Easter
Vigil of the Roman Missal:
'O certe necessarium Adae peccatum
quod Christe morte deletum est!
O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum
meruit habere Redemptorem.'
27. Cf. I. A. Dorner, System der christlichen Glaubenslehre, II/l, Berlin
1880, pp. 422ff.
28. F. Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, op. cit., 89.

238

Notes to pages

115125

29. J . Mller, 'Ob der Sohn Gottes Mensch geworden sein wrde,
wenn das menschliche Geschlecht ohne Snde geblieben wre?' Texte zur
Kirchen- und Theologiegeschichte,
ed. J. Wirsching, Gtersloh 1968.
30. Cf. here J. Moltmann, The Crucified God, pp. 256ff., with criticism
of Calvin, A. von Ruler and D. Solle.
3 1 . This has been specially stressed by P. Ricoeur in Le Conflit des
interpretations, Paris 1969, pp. 393ff.
32. J. Jervell, Imago Dei, Gen. 1.26f. im Sptjudentum, in der Gnosis
und in den paulinischen Briefen, Gttingen 1960.
33. J . Moltmann, Der Mensch. Christliche Anthropologie in den Kon
flikten der Gegenwart, GTB 338, 4th ed. Gttersloh 1979, esp. pp. 152ff.
34. U. Mauser has put this point impressively; cf. Gottesbild und
Menschwerdung, Tbingen 1971.
35. J . Moltmann, The Crucified God, pp. 267ff.
36. Here I am talcing up ideas expressed by H. G. Geyer in 'Anfnge
zum Begriff der Vershnung', EvTh 38, 1978, pp. 235ff., esp. pp. 247ff.
Cf. also C. F. D. Moule, The Origin of Christology, Cambridge 1977,
especially his concept of 'the corporate Christ'.
37. This is the outstanding christological idea underlying the Confession
de Fe de la Iglesia Presbiteriana Reformada en Cuba of 1977 in Article I,
1.01: 'The church believes in Jesus Christ, the "Son of God", our "first
born brother".' Cf. also Article 1.A.06, 1.C.03, 1.C.07. This church pro
claims that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God and our risen Brother.
It thereby testifies in socialist Cuba that the love that is prepared for
sacrifice and is in solidarity with others is both divine and human
"necessity".'
38. Cf. F. Hahn, 'Das biblische Verstndnis des heiligen Geistes' in
Erfahrung und Theologie des Hl. Geistes, ed. C. Heitmann and H. Mhl
en, Hamburg, Munich 1 9 7 4 , pp. 131ff.; E. Schweizer, The Holy Spirit,
ET SCM Press and Fortress Press, Philadelphia 1981, and his article
'nvevua', TDNT VI, pp. 3 3 2 - 4 5 1 ; G. W. H. Lampe, God as Spirit,
Oxford 1977.
39. Cf. H. Schlier, 'Herkunft, Ankunft und Wirkungen des heiligen
Geistes im Neuen Testament' in Erfahrung und Theologie des Hl. Geistes.
op. cit., pp. 118ff.
40. J. Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, ET SCM Press
and Harper and Row, 1 9 7 7 , pp. 108ff.: 'The glory of Jesus and the "feast
without end" '; H. Urs von Balthasar, Herrlichkeit. Eine
theologische
sthetik, I Einsiedeln 1 9 6 1 .
4 1 . E. Ksemann, 'The Cry for Liberty in the Worship of the Church',
in Perspectives on Paul, E T SCM Press 1971, pp. 122ff., esp. pp. 134ff.
42. K. A. Bauer, Leiblichkeit das Ende aller Werke Gottes, Gtersloh
1971.
43. So F. Hahn, op. cit., pp. 143f.

Notes to pages

126131

239

44. J . Moltmann, 'The Trinitarian History of God' in The Future of

Creation, pp. 80ff., esp. pp. 88ff.
4 5 . G. Wagner, 'Der Heilige Geist als offenbarmachende und vollend
ende Kraft. Das Zeugnis der orthodoxen Tradition' in Erfahrung und
Theologie des Hl. Geistes, op. cit., pp. 214ff., esp. pp. 217f. Cf. also 'Sohn
and Geist. Die Frage der Orthodoxie', Concilium 15, 1979, pp. 499ff.,
with contributions by D. Ritsehl, M. Fahey and T. Stylianopoulos (ET
no. 128, Conflicts about the Holy Spirit, ed. H. Kng and J . Moltmann).
46. Cf. Ch. II: "The Passion of God'.
47. I. A. Dorner, Unvernderlichkeit, op. cit., p. 361; 'Thus, out of the
sphere of temporal history and of free creative beings, something results
for God, something which according to his own, absolute judgment is of
value, a satisfaction for the divine consciousness which it did not have
before, a joy which it could not have of itself and without the world . . .
When the song of praise really one day sounds . . . (Rev. 19.6; 21.3),
this will be for God too a truly new song, which did not sound for him
in the same way through his foreknowledge or his eternal decree, as in the
joyful feast that followed the creation of the world; but just as the ac
quiring of history in time is something real and valuable in itself, so it will
also be for God, by virtue of the unalterability of his living love.'
48. Dante, II Paradiso, Canto XXVII, 11,4: 'Un riso dell'universo'.

V The Mystery of the

Trinity

1. O. Weber, Grundlagen der Dogmatik, I, p. 405: 'There really is a

kind of permanence in heresy.'
2. Schleiermacher did this in his own way: Glaubenslehre 22. Cf.
K.-M. Beckmann, Der Begriff der Hresie bei Schleiermacher, Munich
1959.
3. Cf. A. Gilg, Weg und Bedeutung der altkirchlichen
Christologie,
Munich 1955, pp. 12ff.
4. E. Peterson, 'Monotheismus als politisches Problem' in Theologische
Traktate, Munich 1951, pp. 49ff., and for recent comment A. Schindler,
Monotheismus als politisches Problem. Erik Peterson und die Kritik der
politischen Theologie, Gtersloh 1978. For the concept of the One God
in the ancient world cf. also E. Peterson, EIS THEOS.
Epigraphische,
formgeschichtliche
und religionsgeschichtliche
Untersuchungen,
Gttin
gen 1926. On the concept of 'monarchianism' cf. A. von Harnack, article
'Monarchianismus' RE , 13, 324.
5. Quoted in E. Peterson, 'Monotheismus', op. cit., pp. 70ff.
6. On the political theology of monotheism cf., as well as E. Peterson,
H. Berkhof, Kirche und Kaiser. Eine Untersuchung der Entstehung der
byzantinischen und der theokratischen Staatsauffassung im vierten Jahr
hundert, Zrich 1947.
7. On the philosophical concept of the One, cf. the article 'Eine (das),
3

240

Notes to pages

131-137

Einheit', Historisches Wrterbuch der Philosophie, ed. J . Ritter, II, Basle

and Stuttgart 1972, 361 ff. On the theological concept of unity in the early
church cf. C. Stead, Divine Substance, Oxford 1977, pp. 157ff., esp. pp.
180ff. Because both in monotheism and in monarchianism the exclusive
monadic concept of the One is used, but not the uniting concept of 'unity',
I am using the term 'monotheism' where other people, following the ideas
of the nineteenth century, talk about 'theism'. Cf. for example W. Pan
nenberg, 'Die Subjektivitt Gottes und die Trinittslehre', KuD 23, 1977,
pp. 25ff.
8. H. Berkhof, Theologie des Heiligen Geistes, Neukirchen 1968,
pp. 15ff.
9. F. Loofs, Paulus von Samosata. Eine Untersuchung zur altkirchlichen
Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte,
Leipzig 1924. Cf. also the more recent
H. de Riedmatten, Les actes du proces de Paul de Samosata, Fribourg
1952.
10. I. A. Dorner, System der christlichen Glaubenslehre, 1, Berlin 1879,
p. 357.
1 1 . A. Harnack, Dogmengeschichte,
4th ed. Tbingen 1905, p. 192
(ET History of Dogma, 1894-99).
12. Cf. here the extensive investigation by J. A. Heins, Die Grundstruktuur von die modalistiese Triniteitsbeskouing,
Kampen 1953. Heins treats
both the modalism of the early church and its modern form, and stresses
particularly the problem of monism, which he demonstrates from the use
of the terms monas and monarchia.
1 3 . Cf. Heins, ibid., p. 34.
14. Tertullian adversus Praxean, ed. E. Kroymann, Tbingen 1907; cf.
also the introduction, with its detailed account of the dogmatic history.
15. Cf. Heins, op. cit., pp. 49ff.
16. He uses for this the terms platysmos, diastole, ekstasis and systole.
17. W. Gericke, Marcell von Ankyra, Halle 1940. The interpretation
of the divine monas as 'identical subject' derives from F. C. Baur, Die
christliche Lehre von der Dreieingkeit, Tbingen 1841, I, p. 252; but it
is in itself influenced by Hegel.
18. F. Schleiermacher, 'Uber den Gegensatz zwischen der sabellianischen und der athanasianischen Vorstellung von der Trinitt', Theol.
Zeitschrift, 1882, now in Friedrich Schleiermacher und die Trinittslehre,
Texte zur Kirchen- und Theologiegeschichte
11, ed. M. Tetz, Gtersloh
1969.
19. Ibid., p. 82. Schleiermacher's interpretation anticipates modern
Protestant theology of revelation: 'The Trinity, however, is the revealed
God and every member of it is a way of revelation of its own; but the
deity in each one of these members is not an other, but only the same
One, which is not made known to us in itself but only as the One revealed
in these three themselves'. Schleiermacher recognized that the problem of
unity is the main problem of the doctrine of the Trinity. What he criticized

Notes to pages

137-140

241

about the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity was its incapacity to distin
guish between the unity of the divine essence and the Person of the Father.
The inner-trinitarian monarchy of the Father makes the Son and the Spirit
subordinate and unequal. But his attempt to take up the Sabellian doctrine
of the Trinity leads to an impossible position which he himself recognizes:
the one God has to remain indefinably behind and in his three-fold mani
festations, and in addition no reason can be given why he should manifest
himself at all. The relationships between God as Father, as Son and as
Spirit take on no importance, because each of these identifications can
only be understood as a self-relationship of the unknown God. The dif
ficulty of the Athanasian and the Sabellian views of the Trinity, which
Schleiermacher recognized with great acuteness, can only be settled if the
unity of God is equated neither with the essence nor with one person of
the triune God.
20. I am here following the summing up given by E. Kroyman, op. cit.,
xxff. On Tertullian's concept of substance, cf. C. Stead, Divine Substance,
op. cit., pp. 202ff.
21. 1. A. Dorner maintained this thesis, impressively and in detail:
System der christlichen Glaubenslehre, I, Berlin 1879, 32, p. 430: 'The
absolute Personality in its relationship to the divine hypostases and attri
butes': 'In the trinitarian processes of the life and spirit of God, absolute
personality is the eternally present result; so the self-conscious God, who
desires and possesses himself, is also present in such a way in each of the
divine distinctions that these which would not in themselves and indi
vidually be personal yet participate in the One of the divine personality,
each in its own way. But as the absolute divine personality is the single
constitution of the three divine modes of being which participate in it and
has its understanding in them, as they have theirs in it, so this same divine
personality which, in its ultimate relationship and according to its nature,
is holy love, is also the single constitution and the highest power of all
divine characteristics.' Barth took over the concept of 'modes of being'
from Dorner.
22. So Karl Barth, CD 1/1, p. 354: 'With the doctrine of the Trinity,
we step on to the soil of Christian monotheism.' For a detailed justification
cf. pp. 35Iff. So also W. Pannenberg, 'Die Subjektivitt Gottes und die
Trinittslehre', KuD 2 3 , 1977, p. 39. n. 34: 'The doctrine of the Trinity,
in the sense of patristic theology particularly, must be understood as the
Christian form of monotheism. It must actually be interpreted as the
positive condition for a consistent monotheism.' On the other hand he
declares 'Christian theism' to be a heresy (p. 39). In this connection there
is an important demonstration of the considerable similarity of Barth's
doctrine of the Trinity with Hegel's, with impressive criticism of both, by
L. Oeing-Hanhoff, 'Hegels Trinittslehre', Theologische
Quartalschrift,
159, 1979, pp. 2 8 7 - 3 0 3 .
23. Christlichen

Dogmatik

im Entwurf, Mnchen 1927, p. 126.

242

Notes to pages

140-142

24. Ibid., p. 127.

25. Ibid., p. 131.
26. Ibid., p. 132.
27. Ibid., p. 140.
28. Ibid., p. 151.
29. Ibid., p. 170. Cf. also p. 165, where Barth understands by 'person':
'One of the ways in which the one personal God and Lord, who thinks
and wills for himself, grounding himself in himself, is God and Lord.'
Similarly O. Weber, Grundlagen der Dogmatik, I, p. 417. He interprets
the divine Persons as 'God himself and hence understands the homousios
not as participation in divine substance, but as a divine repetition 'Him-self once more'. Similarly H. Berkhof, Theologie des Hl. Geistes, op.
cit., pp. 133ff., who interprets Barth's 'modes of being' as modes of move
ment (modus motus): one God in a threefold movement. Berkhof has now
developed a federal-theological doctrine, however, which comes close to
the doctrine of the 'open Trinity' presented in this book. Cf. Christian
Faith. An Introduction to the Study of the Faith, Grand Rapids 1979,
pp. 330ff.: 'The Covenant as Tri(u)nity.'
30. CD 1/1, pp. 304ff.
3 1 . Ibid., p. 314.
32. Ibid., p. 332.
33. Ibid., p. 350. Also II/l, pp. 287ff.
34. Ibid., p. 358. Cf. similarly O. Weber, Grundlagen der Dogmatik,
I, p. 419: 'The point is to state that God as He-himself lives, acts and rules
in the actuality of his being-God, from eternity and hence also in his
revelation, in a threefold way as the One.'
35. CD VI, p. 359.
36. I. A. Dorner, System der christlichen Glaubenslehre, I, p. 371.
37. J . G. Fichte, Die Anweisung zum seligen Leben oder auch Die
Religionslehre (1812), Stuttgart 1962, Zehnte Vorlesung, pp. 155ff. On
the idea of the Spirit as the bond of fellowship in the deity, cf. also F.
Hlderlin, Fragment 'ber Religion'. Gesammelte Werke IV, Stuttgart
1961, pp. 287ff., with his concept of the 'common' or 'joint Godhead'.
Hlderlin's criticism of Fichte's 'ego' philosophy probably influenced He
gel's philosophy. Cf. D. Henrich, 'Hegel und Hlderlin' in Hegel im
Kontext, ed. Suhrkamp 510, Frankfurt 1971, pp. 9 - 4 0 .
38. This can be seen in an astonishing way in K. Barth, 'Das christliche
Verstndnis der Offenbarung', ThEx NF, 1948, pp. 34. It is only from
p. 5 onwards that the speculatively acquired, general principles of 'God's
self-revelation' are applied to 'revelation as Christians interpret it'. Inter
esting and topical in this connection is F. C. Baur's account and criticism
of C. I. Nitzsch (Dreieinigkeit, op. cit., Ill, p. 943): 'God reveals simply
himself, not something else not himself; he communicates himself. Now
the One who reveals, who is communicated, is none other than the One
who communicates; but the relationship between subject and object has

Notes to pages

142-145

243

in this process of revelatory activity already come into being... With

what right can it then be maintained that the Trinity of revelation must
already have as presupposition an independent Trinity of essence?'
39. CD 1/1, p. 332 (altered). Cf. also p. 480: 'The Holy Ghost is the
love which is the essence of the relation between these two modes of being
of God.'
40. L. Oeing-Hanhoff comes to this conclusion in Hegels Trinittslebre, op. cit., pp. 395ff. He cites in its support F. von Baader's judgment:
'So many hold that they have gone to the root of the matter when they
maintain that the Spirit is love, i.e., the unity of the Father and the Son;
whereby, however, they deny the dogma or principle of the Trinity in that
they set up a God who is two-in-one instead of three-in-one.'
4 1 . CD VI, p. 488.
4 Z . Ibid., p. 487.
43. 'Tritheism' was the reproach levied against Christian belief in the
Trinity from the very beginning. It was consequently continually rejected,
from 260 (Pope Dionysius) onwards. It goes back particularly to the
(Western church's) Athanasian creed: 'Non tres Dii, sed unus Deus.' Since
that time the reproach of tritheism has belonged to the stock of Western
trinitarian doctrines. Cf. M. Schmaus, article 'Tritheismus' in LThK, 2nd
ed., X , pp. 365f.; W. Philipp, article 'Tritheismus' in RGG, 3rd ed., VI,
1043f. As the history of theology shows, there has never been a Christian
tritheist. Even Barth does not name any, although he argues so vigorously
against tritheism. Probably it is the triadology of the Eastern church that
is meant. The standard argument against 'tritheism' practically serves
everywhere to disguise the writer's own modalism. For a criticism of
Barth's 'modalism', cf. L. Hodgson, The Doctrine of the Trinity, London
1943, p. 229; D. M. Baillie, God was in Christ, London 1947, p. 134.
44. CD VI, pp. 306, 384ff.
45. U. Hedinger, Der Freiheitsbegriff in der Kirchlichen Dogmatik K.
Barths, 1962; G. S. Hendry, 'The Freedom of God in the Theology of Karl
Barth', Scottish Journal of Theology, 31, 1978, pp. 2 2 9 - 2 4 4 .
46. K. Rahner, 'Remarks on the Dogmatic Treatise De Trinitate', Theo
logical Investigations IV, ET Darton, Longman & Todd, London 1966,
pp. 7 7 - 1 0 2 ; also his 'Der dreifaltige Gott als transzendenter Urgrund der
Heilsgeschichte', Mysterium Salutis II, Einsiedeln 1967, pp. 317401, and
Grundkurs des Glaubens, Freiburg 1976, pp. 139ff.
47. K. Rahner, Mysterium Salutis, pp. 342f.
48. Rahner, Grundkurs, op. cit., p. 140.
49. Ibid. Cf. also K. Barth, CD VI, p. 351: 'But in it [i.e. the doctrine
of the Trinity] we are speaking not of three divine I's, but thrice of one
divine I.'
50. This is the subject of criticism by H.-J. Lauter, Die doppelte Aporetik der Trinittslehre und ihre berschreitung, Wissenschaft und Weis
heit, pp. 3 6 - 7 3 , pp. 60ff., and F. X . Bantle, 'Person und Personbegriff in

244

Notes to pages

145-162

der Trinittslehre Karl Rahners' in Mnchner Theol. Zeitschrift, 30,

1979, pp. 1 1 - 2 4 . For the subject in the framework of the history of
dogma, cf. S. Otto, Person und Subsistenz, Munich 1968.
5 1 . Mys. Sal., op. cit., p. 392.
52. Cf. the evidence in Bantle, op. cit., pp. 20ff. Cf. also E. J. Fortman,
The Triune God. A Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Trinity, London
1972, pp. 295ff.
5 3 . Evidence in Bantle, op. cit., p. 22.
54. Mys. Sal., p. 366, n. 29.
55. Ibid., p. 387.
56. Grundkurs, op. cit., p. 141.
57. See Theological Investigations IV, op. cit., p. 89. For criticism cf.
Bantle, op. cit., p. 15.
58. Cf. Ch. II 7.
59. J . W. v. Goethe, Der west-stliche Diwan, VIII, 21; ET by J .
Whaley, two language, DTV edition, Munich 1979. Marx's ideal of 'the
total, many-sided and profound person' corresponds to this; cf. K. Marx,
Frhschriften, ed. S. Landshut, Stuttgart 1953, p. 243.
60. R. Rothe, Theologische Ethik, I, pp. 59ff. (1st ed.); Theologische
Ethik I, 2nd ed., Wittenberg 1867, 34, pp. 136f.: 'As the absolute unity
of the divine personality (the divine ego) and the divine nature, God is the
absolute person.' For criticism cf. I. A. Dorner, System der christlichen
Glaubenslehre, I, pp. 390ff.
6 1 . I. A. Dorner, ibid., 32, pp. 430ff. Cf. quotation in n. 21.
62. M. Kahler, Die Wissenschaft der christlichen Lehre, 3rd. ed., Lei
pzig 1905, 372, p. 330. Similarly R. Grtzmacher, Der dreieinige Gott
- unser Gott, Leipzig 1910, p. 52: 'It is because - and only because - God
develops himself into a threefold personality that there is an independent,
self-sufficient and unified personal life in God. God is not also personality
because the three Persons of the Father, the Son and the Spirit are added
to him; the divine personality only comes into being by separating and
closing again in the process of the threefold personal life.'
63. K. Barth, CD, II/2, p. 123; cf. also pp. 166ff. Orthodox theology
is also familiar with the idea of the retroactive effect of the cross on the
eternal Trinity. Cf. P. Evdokimov, Christus im russischen Denken, Trier
1977, pp. 62ff., 222f.
64. The Crucified God, ch. VI, 5, pp. 235ff.: 'Trinitarian Theology of
the Cross'; also Diskussion ber 'Der gekreuzigte Gott', ed. M. Welker,
Munich 1979.
65. Ibid., p. 227.
66. W. Kasper rightly notes this. Cf. his 'Revolution im Gottesver
stndnis?' in Diskussion (cf. n. 64 above), pp. 140ff.
67. Cf. Ch. IV.
68. This doxology is used by the Reformierte Kirche in Deutschland.
69. Cf. here the textbooks by F. Diekamp, Katholische Dogmatik, I,

Notes to pages

162171

245

12th ed., Mnster 1957; E. J . Fortman, The Triune God, London 1972;
Mysterium Salutis. Grundriss heilsgeschichtlicher Dogmatik, ed. J. Feiner
and M. Lhrer, II, Einsiedeln 1967; H. Mhlen, Der Heilige Geist als
Person in der Trinitt, bei der Inkarnation und im Gnadenbund: IchDu-Wir, 2nd ed., Mnster 1966; O. Weber, Grundlagen der Dogmatik,
I, Neukirchen 1964; E. Schlink, article 'Trinitt', RGG, 3rd ed., VI,
1032-1038.1 am following the different positions put forward by tradition
and am discussing them systematically.
70. J . W. von Goethe, 'Grenzen der Menschheit'. The German text
reads as follows:
Wenn der uralte heilige Vater
mit gelassener Hand
aus rollenden Wolken
segnende Blitze
ber die Erde schickt,
kuss ich den lezten Saum seines Kleides,
kindliche Schauer treu in der Brust.
7 1 . J . Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, 26th ed., Freiburg 1947,
no. 276; Nec enim de nihilo, neque de aliaqua alia substantia sed de Patris
utero, id est, de substantia ejus idem Filius genitus vel natus esse credendus
est.' In this sense the trinitarian Father himself is 'Beyond God the Father'
in the words of Mary Daly's basic feminist book (Boston 1973). T. A.
Liebner also declares in his book, Christologie oder die christologische
Einheit des dogmatischen Systems, Gttingen 1849, p. 205: 'In a similar
way people have dared to call that divine act of self-generation and selfrecognition in which God enjoys the assurance of himself, love towards
itself, thereby inventing the androgynous nature of God, by taking sexual
love as symbol.'
72. On this argument cf. V. Lossky, 'The Procession of the Holy Spirit
in Orthodox Trinitarian Doctrine' in In the Image and Likeness of God,
ET from French, Mowbray, London 1975, pp. 71ff.
73. This is Lossky's starting point too. Ibid., p. 74. Cf. also Concilium
15,1979, no. 10: Der Heilige Geist im Widerstreit, esp. 'Sohn und Geist',
with contributions by D. Ritsehl, M. Fahey, T. Stylianopoulos, pp. 4 9 9 514 (ET no. 128, Conflicts about the Holy Spirit, ed. H. Kng and J .
Moltmann). H. Mhlen's attempt in Der Heilige Geist als Person, pp.
lOOff., to constitute the Spirit as We-Person from the I of the Father and
the Thou of the Son, seems like a personalistic postulate, as long as the
counterpart for that 'We' cannot be named in inner-trinitarian terms; for
the first person plural, like the first person singular, is related to a coun
terpart, to the 'you'. If the Spirit forms the 'We' of the Triunity, then he
himself is the perichoresis. The Tri-unity is then only a duality: I -I- Thou
= We.
74. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q 26,a.l.
75. W. Pannenberg, article 'Person' in RGG, 3rd ed., V, 2 3 0 - 2 3 5 . For

246

Notes

to pages

171-180

criticism cf. also Der kleine Pauly. Lexikon der Antike, IV, Munich 1972,
article 'persona', col. 657: 'The etymology (Etr. <t>ersu?) is disputed. But
at all events the derivation (held in both ancient and modern times) that
it comes from the alleged function of the person as voice-amplifier . . .
cannot be maintained because of the difference of quantity between persnare and persona.'
76. R. Dahrendorf, Homo sociologicus, ET Routledge and Kegan Paul,
London 1973; ET originally published in Essays in the Theory of Society,
1968.
77. R. Musil, The Man without Qualities, ET Seeker & Warburg,
London 1 9 5 3 - 6 0 , 1 , p. 175.
78. Boethius, Trin, 3 . 1 - 5 . MPL 64, 1343 C.
79. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q 40, a.2: 'Persona est
relatio.' K. Barth took up this proposition and its neo-scholastic interpret
ation and expressly made it his own. Cf. CD 1/1, pp. 365f. For him it is
an argument for no longer talking about 'persons' but about the 'three
modes of being of the one God'.
80. O. Weber, op. cit., p. 418.
81. Richard of St Victor, De Trinitate, MPL 196, 8 8 7 - 9 9 2 . New critical
edition: P. Ribaillier, Richard de Saint-Victor, De Trinitate. Texte critique
avec introduction, notes et tables, Paris 1958; G. Salet, Richard de
Saint-Victor, La Trinit, Paris 1959.
82. G. W. F. Hegel, Philosophie der Religion. Die absolute
Religion,
PhB 63, pp. 61 and 71f.
83. John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa, MPG 94, 7 8 9 - 1 2 2 8 . New
critical edition: Die Schriften des Johannes Damaskenos, PTSt 12, vol. II,
ed. B. Kotter, Berlin and New York 1973.
84. V. Lossky, op. cit., p. 94.
85. Cf. Ch. IV, 4,
86. Acta et Scripta Theologorum
Wirtembergensium,
et Patriarchae
Constantinopolitani D. Hieremiae: quae utrq; ab anno MDLXXVI.
usque
ad annum MDLXXXI.
de Augustana Confessione inter se miserunt, Wit
tenberg 1584; German: Wort und Mysterium. Der Briefwechsel
ber
Glauben und Kirche 1576-1581
zwischen den Tbinger Theologen und
dem Patriarchen von Konstantinopel, Witten 1958.
87. Cf. here F. C. Baur, Die christliche Lehre von der Dreieinigkeit und
Menschwerdung
Gottes in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, III, Tbin
gen 1843, pp. 389ff. The Wurtemberg theologians held that without the
Filioque, firstly, the unity and identity of being of the Father and the Son
could not be preserved and, secondly, that the hypostatic connection
between the Son and the Spirit could not be shown.
88. Cf. the work of Bishop Urs Kry, 'Die Bedeutung des FilioqueStreites fr den Gottesbegriff der abendlndischen und der morgenlnd
ischen Kirche' in IKZ 33, 1943, pp. 1-19; also his 'Grundstzlich
theologische Erwgungen zur Filioque-Frage' (1969-70), IKZ 58, 1969,

Notes to pages

180-192

247

pp. 81108; also the 'Erklrung der internationalen altkatholischen Bis

chofskonferenz zur Filioque-Frage', IKZ 61, 1971, and the 'Glaubensbrief
der internationalen altkatholischen Bischofskonferenz' IKZ 61, 1971, pp.
65-68. For the Anglican church cf. Anglican-Orthodox
Dialogue. The
Moscow Statement agreed by the Anglican-Orthodox
joint
Commission,
1976, ed. K. Ware and C. Davey; also The Report of the Lambeth Con
ference, 1978.
89. Revue Internationale de Theologie, no. 24, 1898, pp. 6 8 1 - 7 1 2 ,
and comment Istina, Paris 1972, pp. 3 - 4 : 'La procession du Saint Esprit.
Orient et Occident.'
90. Contrary to Bolotov, cf. V. Lossky, op. cit., pp. 72f.
91. A. Papadopoulou, Gregor Palamas' Lehre vom Ausgang des Hei
ligen Geistes, Thessaloniki 1971, pp. 70ff.
90. A working group of Faith and Order in the World Council of
Churches has worked anew on the Filioque question and has taken up
Bolotov's suggestions. The doctrine of the Trinity I have expounded here
owes much to this working group.
93. Cf. here also G. S. Hendry, The Holy Spirit in Christian
Theology,
London 1965, pp. 30ff., with criticism of Barth's adherence to and new
formulation of the Filioque. I. A. Heron gives an excellent summing up of
the dogmatic history and makes a good dogmatic suggestion in ' "Who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son": The Problem of the Filioque',
Scottish Journal of Theology 24, 1971, pp. 149-166; A. M. Aagaard,
Heiliganden sendt til Verden, Aarhus 1973, pp. 207ff.
94. Bolotov, op. cit., p. 692.
95. Ibid., pp. 694f.
96. Quoted in N. J . Thomas, Die syrisch-orthodoxe
Kirche in sd
indischen Thomas-Christen.
Geschichte Kirchenverfassung
Lehre.
Wrzburg 1967, p. 67. In Syrian the Greek word ousia is used for essence
and the Syrian word q'nomo for person.
97. So also B. Lonergan, Divinarum Personarum Conceptionem
anal
ogiam, 2nd ed. Rome 1959, p. 236.

VI The Kingdom

of

Freedom

1. The term and the question both derive from the political theorist
Carl Schmitt, Politische Theologie. Vier Kapitel zur Lehre von der Sou
vernitt, Munich 1922, 2nd ed. 1934; Politische Theologie II. Die
Legende von der Erledigung jeder Politischen Theologie, Berlin 1970. Cf.
K.-M. Kodalle, Politik als Macht und Mythos, Stuttgart 1973. J. B. Metz
began to work out a new theological definition of 'political theology' in
Theology of the World, ET Burns and Oates, London, and Seabury Press,
New York, 1973; he continued his attempt in Glaube in Geschichte und
Gesellschaft, Mainz 1977. Cf. H. Peukert (ed.), Diskussion zur 'politischen
Theologie', Munich, Mainz 1969; also J. Moltmann, 'Theologische Kritik

248

Notes to pages

192-195

der politischen Religion', in J . B. Metz, J . Moltmann and W. Oemller,

Kirche im Prozess der Aufklrung, Munich, Mainz 1970, pp. 11-52; The
Crucified God, pp. 317ff.: 'Ways towards the Political Liberation of Man'.
Cf. also D. Solle, Political Theology, ET Fortress Press, Philadelphia 1974;
S. Wiedenhofer, Politische Theologie, Stuttgart 1976; J . M. Lochman,
Perspektiven politischer Theologie, Zrich 1971.
2. M. Pohlenz, Die Stoa, I, 3rd ed., Gttingen 1964; It was this concept
which E. Peterson made the basis of his famous treatise, 'Monotheismus
als politisches Problem' (1935) in Theologische Traktate, Munich 1951,
pp. 48147; the book views the question in the context of the history of
theology. For an analysis and discussion of this essay, cf. A. Schindler
(ed.), Monotheismus als politisches Problem? Erik Peterson und die Kritik
der politischen Theologie, Gtersloh 1978. When he published his book
in 1935, Peterson took up a critical position with regard to Carl Schmitt's
'political theology': 'The doctrine of the divine monarchy was bound to
run aground on the doctrine of the Trinity. This is not merely the finish,
theologically speaking, of monotheism as a political problem; it also means
a final and fundamental breach with every "political theology" which
misuses the Christian proclamation for the justification of a political si
tuation' (p. 105). Does this mean 'every political theology' or merely
affirmative political theology? C. Schmitt - as the sub-title of his Politisch
en Theologie II shows - assumes that the first is true, and the same applies
to some of the writers in Schindlern collection of essays. But Peterson did
not mean to dismiss every political theology. This is shown by his 'Pre
liminary Remarks': 'For the Christian, political action must always be
subject to the premise of belief in the triune God' (p. 47).
3. E. Peterson uses it none the less, op. cit., p. 91: 'The concept of the
divine monarchy, which was merely the reflection of the earthly monarchy
in the imperium
romanum....'
4. So C. Schmitt, Politische Theologie, op. cit., 1934, p. 49: 'All the
pregnant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theo
logical concepts. Not merely in their historical development, because they
were carried over into constitutional theory from theology . . . but in their
systematic structure as well, a knowledge of which is necessary for a
sociological examination of these terms.'
5. Cf. E. Peterson, op. cit.; A. A. T. Ehrhardt, Politische Metaphysik
von Solon bis Augustin, I, Tbingen 1959; H. Berkhof, Kirche und Kaiser,
Gttingen 1947.
6. For the way Augustine took over and changed the stoic teaching
about natural law, cf. E. Wolf, 'Naturrecht und Gerechtigkeit' in Natur
recht oder Rechtspositivismus,
ed., W. Maihofer, Darmstadt 1962, pp.
52-72.
7. References in E. Peterson, op. cit., p. 49.
8. Ibid., pp. 98ff.
9. W. Eiert, Der Ausgang der altkirchlichen Christologie, Berlin 1957,

Notes

to pages

195-197

249

pp. 26ff.: 'Das Problem des politischen Christus'; C. Gunton, 'The Political
Christ', Scottish Journal of Theology, 32, 1979, pp. 5 2 1 - 5 4 0 .
10. Quoted in E. Peterson, op. cit., p. 91.
1 1 . E. Peterson, Vorbemerkung,
op. cit., p. 47.
iz. J . Bodin, Les six livres de la Rpublique, 2nd ed., Paris 1583. For
comment cf. P. Hazard, The European Mind 1680-1715,
ET Hollis and
Carter, London 1953; C. Hill, The Century of Revolution
1603-1714,
London 1961; A. A. van Schelven, Het Calvinisme gedurende zijn Bloetijd,
I, Amsterdam 1951.
1 3 . S. Borchart, 'De jure ac potestate Regium' in Opera Omnia, Leyden
1692, vol. 1, pp. 995ff., esp. p. 998, 1. Cf. also J. Mllmann, 'Prdestin
ation und Heilsgeschichte bei M. Amyraut', ZKG 65, 1957, pp. 2 7 0 - 3 0 3 .
14. M. Amyraut, Discours de la souverainet des Roys, Saumur 1650.
15. S. Borchart, op. cit., p. 1018
16. A. A. van Schelven, op. cit., p. 241.
17. Cf. here G. Beyerhaus, Studien zur Staatsanschauung Calvins. Mit
besonderer Bercksichtigung
seines Souvernittsbegriffs,
Berlin 1910;
J . Bohatec, Calvins Lehre von Staat und Kirche unter besonderer
Berck
sichtigung des Organismusgedankens,
Breslau 1937, reprinted Aalen 1961,
and Bud und Calvin, Graz 1950, pp. 330ff.: 'Die Autoritt Gottes', p.
335: 'In the statement that God himself is the law, his authority appears
as sovereignty, since it also expresses . . . God's superiority to natural law
as well. Here Calvin is a forerunner of Bodin, the classic exponent of
sovereignty, just as he would also subscribe to Hobbes's statement that
"auctoritas facit legem" . . . According to Calvin the divine law is true
because it has been promulgated by the divine authority.' On Hobbes cf.
D. Braun, Der sterbliche Gott oder Leviathan gegen Behemoth, Zrich
1963.
18. C. Schmitt, Politische Theologie, op. cit., pp. 50ff., and Die Dik
tatur. Von den Anfngen des modernen Souvernittsgedanken
bis zum
proletarischen Klassenkampf, 2nd ed., Munich 1928.
19. This was what A. N. Whitehead also had in mind with his criticism
of theistical philosophy (cf. Process and Reality. An Essay in Cosmology,
New York 1960, pp. 520f.). It was fateful idolatry when the church
formed its idea of God on the model of worldly Egyptian, Persian and
Roman rulers. 'The Church gave unto God attributes which belonged
exclusively to Caesar.' The rise of 'theistic philosophy', which was com
pleted with the emergence of Islam, led to the idea of God which was
based on the model of the imperial ruler, on the model of personified
moral energy, and on the model of the ultimate philosophical principle.
It will be permissible to add that this 'theistic' philosophy represents a
highly patriarchal one. Whitehead rightly draws attention to the difference
from Christianity in its original form a difference which it is impossible
to overlook: 'There is, however, in the Galilean origin of Christianity yet
another suggestion which does not fit very well with any of the three main

250

Notes

to pages

197-201

strands of thought. It does not emphasize the ruling Caesar, or the ruthless
moralist, or the unmoved mover. It dwells upon the tender elements in the
world, which slowly and in quietness operate by love; and it finds purpose
in the present immediacy of a kingdom not of this world. Love neither
rules, nor is it unmoved, also it is a little oblivious as to morals. It does
not look to the future; for it finds its own reward in the immediate
present.'
20. W. R. Matthews already noted this; cf. God in Christian Thought
and Experiences, London 1930, p. 193.
21. Similarly the Anglican L. Hodgson, The Doctrine of the Trinity,
London, and New York, 1944, p. 95; cf. also A. M. Allchin, Trinity and
Incarnation in Anglican Tradition, Oxford 1977; Geervarghese Mar Osthathios, Theology of a Classless Society, London 1979, pp. 147ff.
22. Gregor von Nazianz. Die fnf theologischen Reden. Text und
Kommentar, ed. J. Barbel, Dsseldorf 1963, p. 239 (Oratio V, 11).
23. Cf. the volume of essays Papsttum als kumenische Frage, ed. the
Arbeitsgemeinschaft der kumenischen Institute, Munich, Mainz 1979.
24. The Pauline kephale theology of I Cor. 11.3 shows a corresponding
derivation of male primacy over the woman: 'The head of every man is
Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is
God'; Eph. 5.22L: 'The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the
head of the church.' The derivation in Heb. 12. 5 - 1 0 must also be called
patriarchalist. Karl Barth, CD HI/4, 54, developed a theory of female
subordination out of Paul's kephale theology which rightly met with
astonishment and opposition. Cf. C. Green, 'Karl Barth on Women and
Man', Union Theol. Quarterly Review, 3/4 1974; I. A. Romero, 'K. Barth's
Theology of the Word of God' in Women and Religion, Montana 1974;
cf. L. M. Russell, The Future of Partnership, Philadelphia 1979; E.
Moltmann-Wendel, 'Partnerschaft' in Frauen auf neuen Wegen. Studien
und Problemberichte zur Situation der Frauen in Gesellschaft und Kirche,
Gelnhausen 1978. For exegesis cf. F. Crsemann and H. Thyen, Als Mann
und Frau geschaffen. Exegetische Studien zur Rolle der Frau, Gelnhausen
1978.
25. K. Rahner and J. Ratzinger, Episkopat und Primat, Freiburg 1961;
G. Schwaiger, Papstgeschichte von den Anfngen bis zur Gegenwart, 6th
ed., Munich 1964; A. B. Hasler, Wie der Papst unfehlbar wurde: Macht
und Ohnmacht eines Dogmas, Munich, Zrich 1979.
26. H. de Lubac, Meditations sur l'Eglise, 2nd rev. ed., Paris 1953,
pp. 23Iff., following a saying of Ambrose's. Peter is the centre of truth
and Catholic unity, the one visible centre of all God's children.
27. H. Kng, Infallible} An Enquiry, ET Collins, London, 1971. For
comment cf. K. Rahner (ed.), Zum Problem der Unfehlbarkeit.
Antworten
auf die Anfrage von H. Kng, Freiburg 1971; H. Kng (ed.), Fehlbar?
Eine Bilanz, Einsideln 1973.

Notes

to pages

202-206

251

28. G. Hasenhttl, Herrschaftsfreie Kirche, Sozio-theologische

Grund
legung, Dsseldorf 1974.
29. P. Evdokimov, L'Orthodoxie,
Paris 1965, p. 131. On this complex
cf. also S. Harkianakis 'Can a Petrine office be meaningful in the Church?'
in Concilium 7 no. 4, 1971, ET of Vol 4 no. 7 (reissued as no. 64, The
Petrine Ministry in the Church, ed. Hans Kng), pp. 115-21: 'But these
words (John 17.20ff) become even more meaningful perhaps if we remem
ber that this exemplary mode of unity within the Trinity is the basic
presupposition for the unity of the Church which we hope will be
achieved.' (p. 118)
30. E. Bloch, Das Prinzip Hoffnung, Frankfurt 1959, p. 1413. On this
chapter cf. esp. H.-J. Kraus's great outline of biblical theology, Reich
Gottes: Reich der Freiheit. Grundriss Systematischer Theologie, Neukirch
en 1975.
3 1 . H. Grundmann, Studien ber Joachim von Floris, Leipzig, Berlin,
1927; E. Benz, Ecclesia Spiritualis, Stuttgart 1934; A. Dempf, Sacrum
Imperium, Munich 1929; H. Mottu, La manifestation de l'Esprit selon
Joachim de Fiore, Paris 1977. For the material I am mainly following here
E. Benz, 'Creator Spiritus. Die Geistlehre des Joachim von Fiore, EranosJahrbuch 1956, pp. 2 8 5 - 3 5 5 ; Benz considers especially Joachim's two
works Concordia Novi ac Veteris Testamenti, Venice 1519, and Expositio
in Apocalypsim, Venice 1527.
32. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II 1, q 106, a 4; also E. Benz,
'Thomas von Aquin und Joachim von Fiore', ZKG LIII, 1934, pp. 51
116.
33. Aquinas contested this, pointing to John 7.39 and putting Christ's
glorification, resurrection and ascension on an equal footing.
34. Concordia Novi ac Veteris Testamenti, Venice 1519, Lib. V, 84,
112. Translation by E. Benz, Eranos-)'ahrbuch 1956, pp. 314f. Joachim
gives a similar summing up of his teaching in his Expositio in Apocalypsim,
Venice 1527 (reprinted Frankfurt 1964), pp. 5ff. As far as I can see,
Joachim talks about tempus, aetas, status, but does not actually use the
word regnum.
35. K. Lwith, Weltgeschichte und Heilsgeschichte, 2nd ed. Stuttgart
1953, pp. 136ff.; cf. also F. Gerlich, Der Kommunismus als Lehre vom
tausendjhrigen Reich, Munich 1921.
36. This is especially true of Ernst Bloch: his messianic Marxism is
Joachimite that is to say mystical and democraticsocialism. Cf. J .
Moltmann, 'Philosophie in der Schwebe des Messianismus' in Im Ges
prch mit Ernst Bloch, Munich 1976, pp. 7 3 - 8 9 .
37. H. Schmid, Die Dogmatik der evangelisch-lutherischen
Kirche.
Dargestellt und aus den Quellen belegt, 7th ed., Gtersloh 1893, pp.
266ff.; H. Heppe and E. Bizer, Die Dogmatik der
evangelisch-reformierten
Kirche. Dargestellt und aus den Quellen belegt, Neukirchen 1958, pp.

252

Notes to pages

206-2IS

361; Hutterus Redivivus oder Dogmatik der

evangelisch-lutherischen
Kirche, 3rd. ed., Leipzig 1836, pp. 261ff.
38. References in L. Oeing-Hanhoff, 'Das Reich der Freiheit als abso
luter Endzweck der Welt' in Freiheit. Theoretische und praktische Aspekte
des Problems, ed. J . Simon, Munich 1977, pp. 5 5 - 8 3 . I am indebted to
him for many suggestions and have tried to answer his questions in my
own way.
39. K. Marx, Das Kapital, Berlin 1949, III, pp. 873f., ET Capital,
Chicago 1909, III, pp. 954f. For comment cf. I. Fetscher, Die Freiheit im
Lichte des Marxismus-Leninismus,
4th ed., Bonn 1963.
40. Cf. Ch. IV 2: 'The Creation of the Father'.
4 1 . Cf. J . Moltmann, 'Creation as an Open System' in The Future of
Creation, ET SCM Press and Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1979, pp. 1 1 5 130.
4z. Heppe and Bizer, Dogmatik der evangelisch-reformierten
Kirche,
op. cit., p. 557.
4 3 . T. Pestel (c. 1584-c. 1659). Cf. Nikolaus Hermann's Christmas
hymn:
Er ussert sich all seiner G'walt,
wird niedrig und gering
und nimmt an sich ein's Knechts Gestalt:
der Schpfer aller Ding'.
44. Cf. here H. Mhlen, Der Heilige Geist als Person, op. cit.,
pp. 260ff.
45. On the theological concept of freedom used here cf. J. Moltmann,
'Die Revolution der Freiheit' in Perspektiven der Theologie, Munich 1968,
pp. 189-211; W. Pannenberg, The Idea of God and Human Freedom, ET
Westminster Press, Philadelphia 1973; also G. Gutierrez, Theology of
Liberation, ET Orbis Books, New York, 1973, SCM Press, 1974; P. C.
Hodgson, New Birth of Freedom. A Theology of Bondage and Liberation,
Philadelphia 1976; M. D. Meeks, 'Gott und die konomie des Heiligen
Geistes', EvTh 40, 1980, pp. 40-57.
46. Cf. H. Gnther, Freiheit, Herrschaft und Geschichte. Semantik der
historisch-politischen
Welt, Frankfurt 1979.
. 47. C. B. Macpherson has shown in The Political Theory of Possessive
Individualism, Oxford 1962, how since the beginning of the Englightenment and of capitalism freedom has increasingly been made 'a function of
possession' (p. 3). This individualizes people. They are no longer defined
through their social relationships but through their relationship to pos
session. The individual is free inasmuch as he is the owner of his person,
his working capacity or his property. This transforms human society into
a market of bartering relationships between owners. What makes a person
a person is then certainly freedom; but freedom now means nothing other
than being the owner of himself. For this Macpherson has coined the
phrase 'possessive individualism'.

N o r to pages

216-221

253

48. Hegel stresses this. Cf. Philosophy of Right, ET Oxford University

Press 1952, 21. For comment cf. L. Oeing-Hanhoff, 'Konkrete Freiheit'
in Stimmen der Zeit, 1971, pp. 372ff., and 'Das Reich der Freiheit als
absoluter Endzweck der Welt', op. cit., pp. 67f. Cf. also K. Marx, MEGA
I, Abt. 3, pp. 546f., who calls this the true freedom: 'To have been for
you the mediator between you and the species, i.e., to be known and
experienced by you yourself as complement to your own being and as a
necessary part of yourself - i.e., to know myself to be confirmed both in
your thinking and in your love' (quoted in 1. Fetscher, Die Freiheit im
Lichte des MarxismusLeninismus,
4th ed., Bonn 1963, p. 32).
49. For this term cf. R. Garaudy, Das Projekt Hoffnung, Vienna 1977.
50. K. Barth, CD III/3, p. 285.
5 1 . G. W. F. Hegel, Werke VII, p. 60.

INDEX O F NAMES

Aagaard, A. M., 247

Abramowski, L , 2 2 6
Adrienne von Speyr, 234
Agamemnon, 194
Albrecht, B., 230, 234
Alexander the Great, 194
Allchin, A. M., 250
Ambrose, 2 5 0
Amyraut, M., 196
Angelus Silesius, 236
Anselm of Canterbury, 179
Aquinas, Thomas, 12, 16f., 146, 183,
190, 203, 224, 245, 246, 251
Aristotle, 11, 23, 194, 195
Arius, 129f., 132ff.
Athanasius, xiv, 79, 143
Augustine, xiv, 14, 16, 77, 93, 108,
143, 169, 174, 179, 183, 191, 198,
203ff., 222, 225, 231, 235, 237,
248
Augustus, xi, 194f.
Baader, F. von., 243
Baillie, D. M., 243
Balthasar, H. Urs von, 227, 238
Bande, F. X., 243
Brbel, J., 2 5 0
Barth, Karl, 35, 5 2 - 5 6 , 63, 139.,

144f., 155, 191, 227, 228, 230, 231,

232, 235, 236, 241ff., 244, 246,
247, 250, 253
Bauer, K. A., 238
Baur, F. C., 225, 240, 242, 246
Beckman, K.-M., 239
Benedict VIII, 178
Benz, E., 251
Berdyaev, N., 42-^17, 229, 231
Berkhof, H., 239, 241, 242, 248
Beyerhaus, G., 249
Beyschlag, W., 236
Bieder, W., 232
Bizer, E., 251, 2 5 2
Bloch, E., 203, 234, 237, 251
Bobrinskoy, P. Boris, 184
Bodin, J., 195f., 249
Boethius, 146, 171, 174, 246
Bohatec, J . , 249
Bhme, J., 34, 36, 49, 43, 237
Bolotov, B., 180, 185, 247
Bonald, L. G. A. de, 196
Bonhoeffer, D., 228
Borschart, S., 196, 249
Brasnett, B. R., 226, 231
Braun, D., 249
Brecht, B., 6

254
Browning, R., 38
Brunner, E., 237
Buber, M., 13, 77, 145
Bchner, G., 48, 230
Bhner, J.-A., 233
Bultmann, R., 14, 225, 235
Bushneil, H., 228
Calvin J., 196, 238, 249
Christ, F., 233
Cicero, 11
Clement of Alexandria, 50
Cromwell, Oliver, 196
Charlemagne, 178
Charles I of England, 196
Constantine the Great, 135, 195
Crsemann, F., 250
Curtius, E. R., 36
Cyril of Alexandria, 79
Dahrendorf, R., 246
Daly, M., 245
Dante, A., 239
Darwin, C. R., 30
Davey, C , 247
Dempf, A., 251
Denzinger, H., 224, 245
Descartes, R., 13f., 224, 225
Deuser, H., 229
Diekamp, F., 141, 145, 244
Dinsmore, C. A., 227
Donoso Cortes, J. M., 196f.
Dorner, I. A., 155, 225, 231, 236,
237, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244
Dreyer, O., 225
Ebner, F., 145
Eckhart, Meister, 236
Ehrehardt, A. A. T., 248
Eigen, M., 236
Eiert, W., 225, 248
Emden, J., 237
Epiphanius, 185
Eusebius of Caesarea, 195
Evdokimov, P., 229, 234, 244, 251
Fahey, M., 239, 245
Feiner, J., 227, 245
Fetscher, I., 252, 253
Feuerbach, L., 145
Fichte, J. G., 14, 142, 242
Fohrer, G., 232, 235
Fortman, E. J., 244, 245
Frank, F. H. R., 225
Garaudy, R., 253
Gericke, W., 240
Gerlich, F., 251
Gese, H., 233, 236
Geyer, H.-G., 238
Gilg, A., 239

Index

of

Nantes

Goethe, J. W. von, 244, 245

Goppelt, L., 232, 234
Grabmann, M., 225
Green, C , 250
Gregory Nazianzus, 199
Gregorius Palamas, 179
Gregory Thaumaturgos, 226
Grtzmacher, R., 244
Grundmann, FL, 251
Gnther, H., 252
Gunton, C , 249
Gutierrez, G., 224, 252
Hahn, F., 232, 238
Harkianakis, S., 251
Harnack, A. von., 62, 71, 231, 239,
240
Hartshorne, C , 229
Hasenhttl, G., 251
Hasler, A. B., 250
Hazard, P., 249
Hedinger, U., 243
Hegel, G. W. F., 14, 17, 36, 174, 230,
236, 241, 246, 253
Heidegger, M., 13
Heine, H., 226
Heins, J. A., 240
Heitmann, C., 238
Hendry, G. S., 230, 243, 247
Hengel, M., 232, 234
Henrich, D., 242
Heppe, H., 251, 252
Hermann, N., 252
Heron, A. 1. C , 247
Heschel, A., 25ff., 226
Hill, C , 249
Hinton, J., 32, 228
Hippolytus, 135
Hobbes, J., 196, 208, 249
Hodgson, L , 243, 250
Hlderlin, F., 145, 242
Hgel, F. von, 55, 231
Ignatius of Antioch, 130, 200
Ignatius Loyola, 145
Jehuda Halevi, 25f.
Jeremiah II of Constantinople, 179
Jeremias, J., 232
Jervell, J., 234, 238
Joachin of Fiore, 2 0 3 - 2 0 9 , 212, 221,
251
John of Damascus, 174, 246
Josephus, 193
Jngel, E., 226, 235
Julian of Norwich, 230
Justin Martyr, 131
Kahler, M., 155, 244
Kant, L, 6, 14, 62, 221, 224, 231

Index

of

Nantes

Ksemann, E., 232, 238

Kasper, W., 233, 235, 244
Kertelge, K., 233
Kierkegaard, S., 36, 229
Kirn, O., 230
Kitamori, K., 228
Klappert, B., 234
Kodalle, K.-M., 247
Khler, L., 235
Kotier, B., 2 4 6
Kramer, W., 232
Kraus, H.-J., 251
Kronseder, F., 231
Kroymann, E., 240, 241
Kuhn, P., 227, 237
Kng, H , 226, 239, 250, 251
Kry, U., 246
Kuyper, A., 197
Lampe, G. W. H., 238
Landshut, S., 237, 244
Lapide, P., 227
Lasch, C., 224
Lauter, H.-J., 243
Lee, C. Y., 225
Leeuwen, A. T. van, 13
Leibniz, G. W., 208
Lentzen-Deis, F., 232
Lessing, G. E., 206
Liebner, T. A., 236, 245
Lochman, J. M., 248
Lhrer, M., 227, 245
Lonergan, B., 146, 247
Loofs, F., 240
Lossky, V., 245, 246, 247
Lwith, K., 251
Lubac, H. de, 226, 250
Lucian of Antioch, 133
Luria, I., 109f.
Luther, M., xiv, 52, 73, 77
Maas, W., 225, 226
Macpherson, C. B., 231, 252
Maihofer, W., 248
Maistre, J. M. de, 196
Malebranche, N., 208
Marcellus of Ancyra, 136
Martensen, H., 230
Marx, Karl, 206, 208, 237, 244, 252,
253
Mateo, R. Garcia, 228, 229
Matthews, W. R., 250
Mauriac, F., 227
Mauser, U., 238
McWilliams, W., 225
Meeks, M. D., 252
Melanchthon, P., 1, 224
Melito of Sardis, 226

255
Merezhkovsky, D. S., 226, 233
Metz, J. B., 247f.
Michel, O., 233
Miskotte, K. H., 230
Moltmann, J., 224, 226, 227, 231,
234, 235, 236, 238, 239, 247f., 251,
252
Mllmann-Wendel, E., 250
Morgan, G. Campbell, 227
Moses Maimonides, 25 f.
Mottu, H., 251
Moule, C. F. D., 238
Mozley, J. K., 30, 32, 225, 227f.
Mhlen, H., 225, 233, 238, 245, 252
Mller, J., 236, 238
Musil, R., 225, 246
Mussner, F., 232
Nietzsche, E., 234
Nicholas of Cusa, 237
Nitzsch, C. I., 225, 236, 242
Noerus, 135
Oeing-Hanhoff, L., 241, 243, 252, 253
Oelmller, W., 248
Oetinger, F., 237
Olevian, C , 237
Origen, 24, 50, 226
Osthathios, G. M., 250
Otto, S., 244
Pannenberg, W., 235, 245, 252
Papadopoulou, A., 247
Parmenides, 230
Paul of Samosata, 132
Peacocke, A. R., 235, 236
Pestel, T., 252
Peterson, E., 130, 197, 239, 248, 249
Peukert, H., 247
Philareth of Moscow, 234
Philipp, W., 243
Philo of Alexandria, 25f., 131
Photius, 179
Pittenger, N., 236
Plato, 11, 230
Pliny the younger, 130
Pohlenz, M., 248
Praxeas, 135, 137
Popkes, W., 233
Quint, J., 236
Rad, G. von, 232, 235
Rahner, K., 144ff., 156, 160, 224,
225, 243, 250
Ratzinger, J., 250
Ribaillier, P., 246
Richard of St Victor, 173, 236, 246
Ricoeur, P., 238
Riedmatten, H. de, 240
Ritsehl, D., 239, 245

256
Ritter, J., 240
Rivera, E., 228
Rolt, C. E., 30, 32ff., 36, 227, 228
Romero, I. A., 250
Rosenstock-Huessy, E., 145
Rosenzweig, F., 29, 227
Rothe, R., 154f., 225, 244
Rublev, A., xvi, 169
Ruler, A. A. van, 238
Russell, L. M., 250
Sabellius, 129f., 134ff., 143
Salet, G., 246
Sartorius, E., 231, 236
Scheffczyk, L., 232
Schelling, F. W. J., 230, 237
Schelven, A. A. van, 249
Schendel, E., 235
Schindler, A., 239, 248
Schlatter, A., 232
Schleiermacher, F. D. E., xiv, 2f., 14,
62, 136, 144, 224, 231, 237, 239,
240
Schlier, H., 238
Schlink, E., 245
Schmaus, M., 235, 243
Schmid, H., 251
Schmidt, W. H., 235
Schmitt, C., 196, 247, 248, 249
Schnackenburg, R., 235
Schneider, R., 36, 228, 229
Scholem, G., 28, 227, 237
Schopenhauer, A., 36
Schulz, W., 224
Schwaiger, G., 250
Schweizer, E., 233, 238
Seiler, J., 224
Seneca, 193
Simon, J., 252
Sobrino, J., 224

Solle, D., 238, 248

Spinoza, B. de, 25f., 48

Index

of

Nantes

Stahl, F. J., 197

Stanihurstius, G., 226
Stead, C., 225, 240, 241
Steffen, B., 234
Stirner, M., 145
Storr, C. V. F., 227
Streeter, B. H., 227
Studdert Kennedy, G. A., 34f., 228
Stupperich, T., 239, 245
Tatian, 131
Tertullian, 16, 131, 135, 137ff., 177,
241
Tetz, M., 240
Thales, 11
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 50
Thomas, N. J., 247
Thsing, W., 232, 234, 235
Thyen, H., 250
Tillich, P., 228
Troeltsch, E., 231
Troeltsch, M., 231
Twesten, A. D. C., 236
Tyconius, 203
Unamuno, M. de, 3 6 - 4 2 , 228, 229
Velazquez, D., 37, 40
Vogelsang, E., 233
Wagner, G., 225, 239
Ware, K., 247
Weber, O., 232, 235, 236, 239, 242,
245, 256
Welker, M., xvi, 230
Whaley, J., 244
Whitehead, A. N., 249
Wiedenhofer, S., 248
Wiesel, E., 227
Wilckens, U., 234, 235
Wink, W., 232
Winkler, R., 236
Wirsching, J., 238
Wolf, E., 248
Woltmann, J., 225
Woollcombe, K., 226, 230