Towards Right Relationship: Exploring Trinitarian Theology
As A Pathway to Communion
By
Gerald Frank Gabriel
A Thesis Submitted to
Atlantic School of Theology, Halifax, Nova Scotia
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Masters of Theological Studies
April, 2008, Halifax Nova Scotia
Copyright Gerald Frank Gabriel, 2008.
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Towards Right Relationship: Exploring Trinitarian Theology As A
Pathway to Communion
By Gerald Frank Gabriel
Abstract: The Trinitarian theology of Catherine LaCugna, expressed in her text God For Us, as well as her other writings, is utilized as a lens to explore the possibility of communion with God, each other and all creation. Ultimately the exploration offers a bridge between theology and spirituality with the objective of inspiring right Christian living. Towards this end, there is a focus on Michael Downey's work, Altogether Gift, a handbook on Trinitarian spirituality, originally conceived as a joint endeavor with LaCugna. Overall LaCugna's contribution is viewed as a significant in that she aids in revitalizing Trinitarian theology, shifting the focus from God in se to God pro nobis. Moreover LaCugna's theology is deemed to be efficacious and the right relationship of communion, between people, all of creation and God, to be normative and attainable.
April 15, 2008. Table of Contents
Section Page
Introduction 3 1.1 Augustine 9 1.2 Aquinas 11 1.3 The Cappadocians 13 1.4 Karl Rahner 15 1.5 Jurgen Moltmann 17 1.6 A Central Issue 18 Relationality 20 2.1 Self-Communication 21 2.2 Personhood 22 2.3 Relationships 23 2.4 Further Considerations 25 Community and Communion 27 3.1 Community 28 3.2 Communion 33 3.3 Towards the Mystery of Communion 36 Oikonomia and Theologia 38 4.1 Entering the Mystery of God 38 4.2 Knowing God 40 4.3 Unknowing God 41 4.3.1 The Correlation of Two Mysteries 43 4.4 Situating LaCugna 45 Pathway to Communion 49 5.1 Right Relationship 51 5.2 Fulfilling the Economy of Salvation 54 5.3 Embracing a Trinitarian Spirituality 58 5.4 Achieving Full Christian Living 59 5.5 Summarizing Thoughts 66 Some Objections 69 6.1 Bracken's View 72 6.1.1 Bracken's Review of LaCugna's Text 73 6.2 Bracken's The Triune Symbol 75 6.3 The Value of His Vision 77 6.4 Refocusing on LaCugna 78 Conclusion 80 7.1 The Substance of LaCugna's Contribution 81 7.2 The Issue of Efficacy Revisited 83 7.3 In Praise of Communion 85 Bibliography 88 3
Introduction
Trinitarian Doctrine expounds the nature of God. Classical theological teaching has focused most often on the intra-divine realm of the triune God. Consequently God's ad extra (outside of God's self) relationality has been understated. As Christians, we may understand that God calls us into relationship. But our perception of God, and how God relates to us, influences how we respond to God and live out our Christian faith. In this way, the quality of our intended human-divine interactions is informed.
This thesis proposes to examine recent developments in Trinitarian theology as a means of enhancing our relationship with God. Principally the objective is to examine the potentiality for communion with God. The primary focus will be the Trinitarian theology of Catherine LaCugna; she will serve as a lens for our exploration. LaCugna believes that communion with God is indeed possible and is convinced that this state-of- being constitutes right relationship with God. LaCugna's theology is comprehensively presented in her work, God For Us.' This text, along with her other writings, will be the basis for examining the question: Is LaCugna's theological vision efficacious in facilitating or fostering human-divine communion?
In pursuing this relationship of communion, a variety of other theologians' contributions, ancient and modern, will be considered. Special attention will be given to the recent text of Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality.2
Downey's work is consistent with LaCugna's theology - indeed this text was originally conceived as a collaborative effort. Downey's portrayal of Trinitarian spirituality resonates with LaCugna's vision of the Trinity and thus can be viewed as an extension of
1 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991). 2 Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (New York: Orbis, 2000). 4 her theological framework. We will also see how some criticisms of LaCugna nuance our understanding of divine-human communion.
At the outset, it is instructive to offer a background to our perspective of the
Trinity and the theological context that led to LaCugna's thinking. That is, LaCugna's theology needs to be viewed as an integral part of a larger process that sought to revitalize Trinitarian understanding. Such an effort had been going on for several decades3, striving to overcome the irrelevance of the Trinity for many Christians. In contrast to its former obscurity, the theological discourse surrounding the Trinity in the past thirty years has been both surprising and remarkable. Collectively there has been a quality of thought and significant effort devoted to a deeper understanding of the
Doctrine of the Trinity.
Thus, after generations of seeming neglect, the theology of the Trinity becomes a central focus. Much of the re-thinking concerns itself with the relational nature of God as revealed by the innate relationships of the three divine persons. One of the foundations of this revitalization of the Trinity is the explication of personhood in the context of Eastern understanding of divine communion within the Trinity: "[God's] being is identical with an act of communion". In this vein, Migliore describes the Trinity as "essentially a koinonia of persons in love".5 In addition the inspiration for much of the discourse entailed re-discovering early Christian conviction that "Jesus and the Spirit reveal the very being of ... a God who reaches out in a dynamism of love and relationship".6
Stanley Grenz, Rediscovering The Triune God: The Trinity in Contemporary Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). 4 John Zizioulas, Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and Church (Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1993), 44. Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 77. 6 Edward Hahnenberg, Ministries: A Relational Approach (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2003), 87. 5
Accordingly, this renewed theological exploration does not only devote attention to the relationship internal to the Trinity, but examines how that divine relationship is extended to humanity and the world.
There are a number of theologians who contribute to this sustained dialogue.
Gunton speculates about the eventual human outcome of encounter with God and concludes that "human beings are created to be with and for God...and one another in likeness to the triune communion". Tanner explicates that the triune God "expressing
.. .dynamic life outward.. .brings about a variety of different forms of connection or union with the non-divine". In her view human beings ultimately will be assumed into the
Trinity and the whole world will become a universal community.9 Jenson is unequivocal in his views about God's nature and the implications for human persons:
It is precisely because God is triune that we can be one in him: this
specific God and he alone can be both a personal center for [people]
and a system of relations in which they can be directly related to
each other.10
Similarly Torrance drawing on the insights of Barth11 maintains that God's inner nature "becomes the very ground of our participation in God...in the 'mutuality' of the intra divine communion". He maintains that communion is state of being into which
7 Colin Gunton, The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 210. 8 Kathryn Tanner, Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 35. 9 Ibid., 83. 10 Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology Vol. 2: The Words of God (New York: Oxford, 1999), 85. 11 Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh:Clark, 1975). Alan Torrance, Persons in Communion: An Essay on Trinitarian Description and Human Participation (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1996), 222. 6
1 ^ ...
"we are drawn by the Spirit". Migliore contends that "if God's being is in communion, then human life is intended by God to be life in communion".14 Hahnenberg goes so far as to suggest that many contemporary theologians submit that the Trinity signifies the relational nature of all reality.15 Inherent in such theological contributions is a commonality of themes such as: relationship, communion, and community. A detailed exploration of these themes will form the substance of chapter three of this thesis. At that time the thinking of other theologians such as Boff,16 McFague,17 and Johnson18 who offer a deep theology of God's relationality will also be explored.
As we can see, LaCugna's contribution comes at a time when many other theologians are shaping and inspiring a vibrant Trinitarian theology. Notwithstanding all the other significant contributors, LaCugna's enterprise is particularly poignant and passionate, evoking a wondrous sense of God's innate relationality, calling us into deep relationship. In order to position LaCugna's theology, the next few sections in the introduction address the following questions: What have been the predominant views of
God over time in our western and eastern schools of thought? What significant contributions have more contemporary theologians made to our Trinitarian thinking?
How do they contribute to or support the development of LaCugna's theological framework?
"Alan Torrance, Persons in Communion: An Essay on Trinitarian Description and Human Participation (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1996), 320. 14 Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 80. 15 Edward Hahnenberg, Ministries: A Relational Approach (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2003), 90. 16 Leonardo Boff, Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, trans. Phillip Berryman (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000). 17 Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987). Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992). 7
In examining ancient and medieval theologians, in the introduction, we see an emphasis on the internal nature of God. This focus grounds the Doctrine of the Trinity in the substantiation of the revelation of Scripture and the metaphysics of the intra-divine.
At the same time these theological treatises document the divinity of Jesus and the Spirit.
As we are aware, these persons are not intermediaries of God, but are indeed God- among-us, God-within-us underlining God's eternal orientation and intent to reach out to humanity.
Underpinning the entire thesis exploration is the knowledge of God's love for us.
It is the knowledge of this reality that encourages us, enables us to even consider coming closer to God, to contemplate the possibility of a deeper relationship with God. Such revelation of God's love for us comes to us from Scripture - as the Gospel of John speaks to us most frequently and most eloquently about God's love for us. It is also John's
Gospel that is revelatory of the Trinitarian nature of God and that intimates that God dwells within us, thereby substantiating God's outreach to us:
You must believe me when I say
That I am in the Father and the
Father is in me;
I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Paraclete
To be with you for ever...
but you know him,
because he is with you, he is in you...
On that day 8
you will know that I am in my Father
and you in me and I in you...
Anyone who loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him
and make a home in him.19
These verses from John are by no means unique within Scripture's revelation of
God's love for us and intimate association with us. Yet they do capture in conclusive fashion the perichoretic relationship within God and God within us. They are powerful, meaningful, hopeful words that speak about the essence of relationship of God and humanity. These words shed light on the Trinitarian nature of God, underwrite the innate relationality of God, and propose to us the possibility of on-going relationship with God.
These are words of love and hope that underlie our existence and inspire a way of living as Jesus taught us. These are words that point to and inspire us towards right relationship and deep communion with the Creator. They are at the heart of the Christian message; they are at the heart of this thesis.
In the next few sections we will examine theologians who have had a major influence in our understanding of God's nature. It is acknowledged that these are not addressed in chronological order. Primary attention is given to Augustine and Aquinas as their formulations ultimately direct and shape our Western view of the Trinity. While the writings on the Trinity in the late fourth century by the Cappadocians pre-date
Augustine's, their influence is not sustained. It is only in more recent times that the insights of these Greek theologians have been re-discovered.
19 John 14: 11, 16, 17, 20, 23 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 9
1.1 Augustine
Augustine's magnum opus De Trinitate is foundational to our Western understanding of the Trinitarian theology. Written over a period of fifteen to twenty years (399-419), it was a labor of love: "I have sought you and desired to see...your face...[to know] you
9f) more and more". Despite this enduring labor, Augustine at the end of his work acknowledges that "among all these things I have said about the supreme trinity...I dare 91 not claim any of them is worthy of this unimaginable mystery". (This notion of mystery will be examined in more depth in chapter four of this thesis.) It is apparent that
Augustine enters his examination of the nature of God with awe and reverence. His path of exploration is twofold: revelation and an introspective search of the human person.
For the purpose of this thesis, it is his teachings based on Scripture that will be the focus.
Augustine is unequivocal that the Trinitarian nature of God is revealed to us through Scriptures. In his substantiation he refers extensively to the Gospel of John and the writings of Paul. His primary theological focus is the unity of the Godhead and the equality of persons: "there is one substance and godhead of Father and Son and Holy 99 Spirit" and "we ascertain that all that the Father has is not only the Son's but also the 9"2
Holy Spirit's". Augustine also examines the co-eternalness of each person. He describes the generation of the Son from the Father and the procession of the Holy Spirit from them
St. Augustine, The Trinity, trans. Edmund Hill (Brooklyn: New City Press, 1991), 436. 21 Ibid., 434. 22 Ibid., 79. 23 Ibid., 100. 10 both as "timeless".24 He concludes that "[they] are absolutely equal.. .consubstantiaL.coeternal in the oneness of the three".25
Augustine explores in detail the relationship between the three divine persons. He concludes that each person is distinct in relationship to each other however the three operate inseparably. Where Scripture refers to the action of one, Augustine reminds us that the other two are implied. He writes "...just as Father and Son and Holy Spirit are inseparable so do they work inseparably". And he states "[actions] are attributable to them all on account of the indivisible operation of their one and the same substance".27
Augustine dismisses that the One who is sent is in any way less than the One who is the sender.
Thus Augustine substantiates and consolidates Trinitarian understanding as follows:
• The tri-unity of God is rooted in the primary principle of substance.
• Each Person is equally and fully God.
• There is a divine relationship among the Persons, as denoted by the
relational terms of Father, Son, and Spirit.
• The actions of the Trinity ad extra are entirely unified.
Augustine's definitive theology had the effect of countering certain heresies such as
Arianism which maintained that Christ was substantially less than God the Father, and the Spirit even less so, and Sabellianism which maintained that that three persons were modes of, or manifestations of, one God.
24 Ibid., 432. 25 Ibid., 73. 26 Ibid., 70. 27 Ibid., 84. 28 Ibid., 172. 11
In his final 'book' within his treatise on the Trinity, Augustine explores how the triune mystery of God dwells within us, and touches our humanity. The improbability of the Trinitarian in-dwelling awes Augustine and he considers our ability to love and concludes: "Man has no capacity to love...it is God the Holy Ghost proceeding from God who fires man to...love".29 Does this human ability to respond to God's love signify a human orientation toward divine-human inter-relationships? Is it fundamental to the potential experience of intimacy with the Divine? Does it point to a human potentiality to respond to God's desire for communion with us? These questions will be further considered in the third chapter of this thesis, entitled Community and Communion.
1.2 Aquinas
Aquinas, several hundred years later in his Summa Theologica, further develops the
Western understanding of the Trinity. The foundation of his metaphysical construct is that "God is the first principle of all things"30 and he concludes that procession can occur within God but not outside of and distinct from God, as this would be "irreconcilable with the idea of a first principle".31 He clarifies that "He who proceeds receives divine existence from another; not however as if He were other than from the divine nature".32
Aquinas examines the issue of relationships within the Trinity and explores the word 'person' to verify whether it is indeed appropriate and representative, relative to
God's nature. Ultimately he seeks to substantiate the inter-changeability of 'person' and
'essence'. Aquinas documents the relationship of paternity of the Father to the Son, and
29 Ibid., 420. 30 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Vol. 1, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947),148. 31 Ibid.,148. 32 Ibid.,149. 12 of filiation of the Son to the Father and of spiration of the Father and Son to the Holy
Spirit. He concludes that "in God essence is not really distinct from person... [and since] the essence is not multiplied...we speak of one essence of the three persons and three persons of the one essence".33 However, Aquinas asserts that indeed the persons are distinguishable from each other "by relations [rather than by origin]...as relation is distinctive and constitutive of the hypostasis". He confirms Augustine's determinations that there is "equality among the divine persons"35and that the persons are co-eternal with each other.36
Thus, within the Summa Theologica, completed about a year before he died
(1274) Aquinas provides a metaphysics of the intra-divine that substantiates:
• God is the first principle of all things.
• Relationality of Persons exists within God.
• These Persons are distinctive in their relationships (paternity, filiation, and
spiration) but not their origin.
• These Persons subsist as one within the Divine Essence of God.
• These three Persons are co-equal, co-eternal, and act inseparably.
In his final question concerning the procession of the divine persons Aquinas explores the issue of the mission of the divine persons. He attests that the ultimate mission is sanctification of the human person37 and notes that "the divine person of the
Son is the author of sanctification while the Holy Ghost... is the sign of sanctification".38
33 Ibid., 19. 34 Ibid., 205. 35 Ibid., 214. 36 Ibid., 216. 37 Ibid., 221. 38 Ibid., 224. 13
In his deliberations he enunciates that "the whole Trinity dwells in [us] by sanctifying grace".39 Once again, we are presented with the mystery of the triune God within us. This is a point of intersection for Augustine and Aquinas that leads us to ponder: Does the human possibility of sanctification presuppose a potential for relationship with God? Is sanctification a prerequisite to communion with God? Does the Trinity, dwelling within, model for us a desired relationship? As note previously, such questions are at the heart of this exploration and will be addressed within subsequent chapters of the thesis.
1.3 The Cappadocians
The Cappadocians (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus), bishops in the fourth century, develop a strong theology of the Trinity. Although their impact was predominant in the East, there is great value in their developed understanding of person
(hypostasis) and relationality within the Godhead. In this way they offer a contradistinction to Augustine and Aquinas, that is, to Western understanding where emphasis is on substance. Ultimately the Cappadocian perspective proves influential to
LaCugna's theological framework in that it affords a deep ontology of personhood.
The contribution of the Cappadocians was significant in that they were able to connect the concepts of 'person' and 'hypostasis' and to give primacy to the relationship among the persons of the Trinity. Basil writes that "we must confess both community of essence (ousia) and distinction of person (hypostasis)".40 Gregory of Nazianzus, in his
Third Theological Oration produces the idea of schesis (relationship) and makes the point
"that the nature of the Trinity is constituted... by the relationship of the three members of
Ibid., 222. Anthony Meredith, The Cappadocians (Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995), 107. 14 the Trinity".41 It is Gregory of Nazianzus that coins the formula "one nature (ousia) and three persons (hypostasis)".42
The Cappadocians also develop a theology surrounding our conforming to, and becoming more like God. Basil authors a book On the Holy Spirit underlining that it is through the Holy Spirit that Christians are moved to believe and thus grow with God.43
Gregory of Nazianzus in his Fifth Theological Oration develops the idea of theosis or deification referring to participating in God's "personal existence". Similarly Gregory of Nyssa expounds the concept of epektasis, "the eternal growth of the human person towards and into God".45 This theology of human-divine relationship is instrumental in developing the notion of communion (a concept that LaCugna and others eventually embrace) that will be revisited in subsequent chapters of the thesis.
In summary then, the Cappadocians assert the unity and equality of the hypostases.
The divine persons are understood to exist as differentiations within God's eternal being.
This Trinitarian ontology is rooted in the self-revelation of God in the economy, in the person of Christ and the activity of the Spirit. Unity for the Cappadocians is conceived in the inter-relatedness of the three persons: unity is in the relationality, not the substance.
This notion of relationality is not restricted only to the persons of God but extends to human persons via the process of deification or divinization.
41 Ibid., 108. 42 Ibid., 44. 43 Ibid., 27. 44 Ibid., 49. 45 Ibid., 12. 15
1.4 Karl Rahner
Rahner in the twentieth century, unlike ancient and medieval theologians, also examines God's ad extra (outside of God's self) involvement and provides a focus on
God's relationship with His people. In so doing he helps to initiate a revitalization of
Trinitarian theology; he desires to make this central doctrine more relevant to Christians.
Rahner is convinced that there is a dire need to bridge the dis-connect between the Trinity and our Christian lives. Rahner observes that "our awareness of this mystery...remains...isolated from all existential knowledge about ourselves".46 He exhorts that "there must be a connection between the Trinity and man...otherwise it would never have been revealed".47
Rahner's theology of God is rooted in soteriology. He is adamant that who God is, is revealed to us through our salvation in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is articulated in his grand axiom: the economic God is the immanent God (and vice versa). He is unequivocal that our understanding of God comes from our understanding of Jesus and the Holy Spirit: that God self-reveals and communicates God-self through the second and third persons of the Trinity.
Trinitarian self-communication is a central concept in his monograph on the Trinity.
Rahner suggests that "God [steps] freely outside of himself [and creates] man... a spiritual personal being...who possesses the [ability] for the reception of such self- communication". This notion that God wants to self-communicate to us, to reveal God- self to us points to the potential for relationship. Such an opportunity for relationship has a dual nature: it entails coming to know God and coming to know ourselves. Rahner
46 Karl Rahner, The Trinity, trans. Joseph Donceel (New York: Herder and Herder, 1970), 15. 47 Ibid., 21. 48 Ibid., 90. 16 offers that "man understands himself only when he has realized that he is the one to whom God communicates himself'.49 This existential 'truth' underlies a hope of ever- increasing intimacy between God and humanity. To accept that God self-communicates to us, and by so doing we come to comprehend our own-self, affords the potential of on going mutual knowledge, understanding, and love.
Rahner also examines the intra-nature of God and addresses the potential misunderstanding of the term 'person'. He states that "speaking of three persons in God entails almost inevitably the danger...of believing that there exist in God three distinct consciousnesses, spiritual vitalities, centres of activity".50 In his view this understanding of person inclines us towards a tri-theistic perspective of God. It is for this reason that
Rahner suggests the expression three "distinct manners of subsisting"51 be utilized in lieu of the word person.
Finally, Rahner asserts that "the Trinity is not a reality which for us can only be expressed as a doctrine. The Trinity itself is with us...because the reality of which [it speaks] is bestowed upon us".52 This assertion reminds us that the Trinity dwells within, causing us to ponder: how does this in-dwelling presence enable us to enter into and enhance our relationship with the Trinity? If God has gifted us with His triune presence, how are we to honor this gift and respond to His innate love and concern for us? Clearly,
Rahner, while addressing the immanent Trinity, sheds light on God's orientation towards relationship as expressed in the economic Trinity. Such an orientation within God, and within us, affords the basis of relationship.
49 Ibid., 46. 50 Ibid., 43. 51 Ibid., 115. 52 Ibid., 39. 17
1.5 Jurgen Moltmann
Even more than Rahner, Moltmann draws attention to God's ad extra (outside of
God's self) relations. He provides a primary focus on the inter-activity of the Trinity. In his text The Trinity and the Kingdom he acknowledges that his "thesis is actually trying to bring out...the 'outwardness' of the triune God". Moltmann takes up this concept of self-communication, offering that God's self-communicating love within the Trinity is open to 'the other' outside the Trinity.54 In his view "the creation of the world and the incarnation [are] part of his loving self-communication and a [way] for him to communicate himself'.55
Moltmann asserts that the Trinity possesses an innate openness. It is through the
Incarnation that "the Trinity throws itself open... [inviting the human race] as God's children...into the Trinitarian relations of the Son, the Father and the Spirit".56 In this sense God's nature and open love for humankind implicitly entails a reciprocal response.
It is noteworthy that Moltmann's Trinitarian vision is not limited to humanity alone, but encompasses all of creation. He expounds that "by virtue of the opening of the Trinity in the sending of the Spirit, it is a movement into which the whole of creation is gathered.. .all people and things then partake of the inner-trinitarian life of God".57
It should be made clear that this openness or orientation towards creation flows from God's inner reality. Moltmann envisions three concurrent actions within the Trinity whereby the Father sends forth the Son through the power of the Spirit, the Son comes
Jurgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God (New York: Harper and Row, 1981), 160. 54 Ibid, 114. 55 Ibid., 117. 56 Ibid., 121-122. 57 Ibid, 127. 18 forth in the power of the Spirit, and the Spirit, sent forth by the Father and the Son, brings creation into the fellowship of the Trinity. It is this latter action that in Moltmann's thinking is essential to a sustained openness: "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".
Moltmann presents a God that is relational in God's innate openness: a God that intends fellowship. This notion that the Trinity is 'open' suggests an invitational God, a welcoming God, a befriending God. Moltmann's theological image of God may not connote intimacy or the depths of communion, but the reality of a qualitative divine- human relationship is apparent. Moltmann's theological vision serves to help pave the way to an enhanced focus on God's intrinsic relationality.
1.6 A Central Issue
The foregoing sections were aimed at providing a backdrop to LaCugna's theological contribution. Clearly her understanding has been influenced by those who have gone before her. In the substantiation of the three persons within God, there is the fundamental acknowledgement of God's innate orientation towards relationship. At first, theologians devote their attention to internal relationships within the Trinity but gradually the focus broadens to include and accentuate God's external relationality. It is the
Cappadocians who expound an ontology of God's 'personal' nature that underlines God's orientation towards relationship. LaCugna reaches back to this fourth century Eastern theology to help construct her theological vision of a deeply relational Trinitarian God.
Ibid., 89-90. 19
LaCugna's intention is to offer a vision of the Trinity that contemporary
Christians will cherish and embrace. She aims to overcome the apparent irrelevance of the Trinity to how we live our Christian lives. Her enterprise offers step-by-step description of the evolution of Trinitarian understanding. She is faithful in acknowledging the significant contributions made by theologians both in the west and east.
There is a purpose in her approach; she underscores the growing disconnect between our understanding of God-in-salvation and God-in-Godself. It is her contention that our understanding of God's Trinitarian nature becomes unhinged from our encounter with God in the life of Jesus Christ and the actions of the Holy Spirit. In her view
Trinitarian theology distances itself from soteriology and as a consequence our
'knowledge' of God becomes mired in abstract and rather inaccessible theology. Thus despite its central position with our faith, the Doctrine of the Trinity becomes irrelevant to the everyday Christian.
LaCugna is not alone in her lament that the Trinity has lost much of its significance.
She notes Rahner's suggestion that if the triune nature of God was suddenly pronounced as a falsehood, many modern textbooks of theology would not have to be altered, as the
Trinity is hardly mentioned!59 LaCugna sees her mission as re-establishing the centrality of the Trinity to authentic Christian living. LaCugna believes that the key to achieving this end is to substantiate how God relates to us. Foundational to her theological framework is God's innate relationality, which is the subject of the next chapter.
Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 213. 20
Relationality
The issue of God's orientation towards us and for us is at the heart of LaCugna's enterprise. LaCugna is convinced that God's being is "inherently ecstatic.. .as a communion of persons" 60whose "movement is ever out-going, outwards towards intimacy and involvement".61 LaCugna has written and spoken extensively on this issue and maintains that "God's to-be is to be to-be-relationally... [and that] relationality is at the heart of what it means to be God".62 LaCugna grounds her contention of God's innate relationality in the ontology of person that she develops. She ardently maintains that the doctrine of the Trinity affirms that God is absolutely personal. Consequently in her view God's personal nature infuses God's relation with all of creation. Ultimately
God's relationality informs our own relationality. In this way relationality is the essence of the doctrine of the Trinity - it consists of a theology of human-divine relationship.
In exploring the relationality of God, we consider several dimensions: self- communication, personhood, and modes of relationship. Collectively these signify God's orientation towards a sustained encounter and intimacy with humankind. These attributes are constitutive of God's relational nature: they point to the reality that God reaches out to be in touch with and commune with all of creation.
Our intention in this chapter is to examine LaCugna's perspective on relationality and relate how it is complemented and supported by other contemporary theologians. It
60Catherine LaCugna, "The Trinitarian Mystery of God", in Systematic Theology: Roman Catholic Perspectives, ed. Francis Fiorenza and John Oalvin (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 179. 6'Catherine LaCugna, and Killian McDonnell, "Returning from the Far Country: Theses for a Contemporary Trinitarian Theology", Scottish Journal of Theology A\ (1988): 194. 62Catherine LaCugna, "The Relational God: Aquinas and Beyond", Theological Studies 46 (1985): 652, 663; Catherine LaCugna, "God In Communion with Us: The Trinity", in Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspectives, ed. Catherine LaCugna (San Francisco: Harper, 1993), 92, 94, 106; Catherine LaCugna, "The Practical Trinity", The Christian Century 109 (1992): 678-79; Catherine LaCugna, [Interview]"The Trinity: Why It takes Three Persons to Save One Soul", U.S. Catholic 58 (1993): 6-12. 21 is clear that the consensus holds that God is indeed highly relational. The centre and foundation for such relationality is the 'personal' nature of the triune God. This innate relationality leads to and finds expression in the range of divine-human relationships.
Being-in-relationship with God may be experienced in different ways: self- communication, union, in-dwelling, sharing life, communion. Such experiences would seem to reflect varying degrees or depths of intimacy with God, which is understandable given the human variation in commitment to relationship building with the divine.
Nevertheless, despite variability, such relationships confirm God's intrinsic relationality.
2.1 Self-Communication
LaCugna asserts that the notion that "God is self-communicating is the essential premise...[that] God by nature is self-expressive, God seeks to reveal and give Godself,
God seeks to be united with other persons".63 LaCugna's gaze is soteriological, toward
God's self-communication in the life of Christ and the actions of the Holy Spirit. For her there is only "one self-communication, one triune mystery...God freely, utterly and completely bestows God's very self in the encounter with human persons". The locus of this self-communication is the economy of salvation. We come to know God in God's self-communication through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus reveals God-self to us: He is the Word that communicates God to us.
Similarly Elizabeth Johnson embraces this notion of God's self-communication and affirms that God is as he was when he lived among us: since Jesus was compassionate, caring, merciful, healing, loving, actively reaching out to and entering
Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 230. Ibid., 231. 22 into relationships with others then this is God's way of being. Clearly God self-reveals through the person of Jesus Christ and communicates not only God's Trinitarian nature but God's 'personal' orientation towards relationship. Johnson's vision is that God is fundamentally relational and that "relation...[brings] to light...the mutuality of
Trinitarian persons".66 Accordingly Johnson maintains that relationality is at the heart of the Trinity.
2.2 Personhood
LaCugna, in keeping with Cappadocian insights, declares that God is profoundly relational, that is, God is 'personal'. As noted previously, primacy is given to the person
(hypostasis) of God not to the substance (ousia) of God in this Eastern theology.
Accordingly LaCugna maintains that to be a person is to be in relationship and that
"personhood [is] not an addition to being...[but rather] personhood or relation is 'how' being exists". Thus to speak of the three persons of God is to speak of God's innate personal relationality.
Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian, similarly appropriates a basic understanding of the nature of the Trinity from early Cappadocian thought: "This eternal perichoresis of love and life between Father, Son and Holy Spirit forms the original pattern of all love, life and communion in creation, made in the image of the Trinity".68
Clearly Boff views the three persons as purely relational, that is, quintessentially
'personal'. His ontology espouses that "the essential characteristic of each Person is to
Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 222. 66 Ibid., 228. 67 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 244. 68 Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, trans. Paul Burns (New York: Orbis, 1988), 84. 23 be for the others...with the others, and in the others".69 Thus the Father is fully oriented towards the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Son is fully oriented towards the Father and the
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is fully oriented to the Father and the Son.
2.3 Relationships
LaCugna maintains that God is de facto in relationship with the world. For
LaCugna "the sphere of God's being-in-relation is the economy of creation and redemption in which the totality of God's life is given".70 Therefore God's action in the economy reveals and bestows "the highest, most perfect realization of...communion: being-for-another and from another, or, love itself'.71 Ultimately this leads LaCugna to confidently declare that "the heart of theologia [mystery of God]...is therefore relationship.. .communion".
Boff focuses on the intimate inter-relationship among the three persons: "the existence of the one God is made up of the most complete communion...the
[relationship] of the three Persons expresses the infinite dynamism of communion".
Trinitarian community (characterized by communion) becomes for Boff the supreme example of how humanity is called to live. He asserts that "consideration of the communion of the three distinct beings of the Trinity produces a critical attitude
[for]...community". He sees the Trinitarian communion as a source of inspiration for how people can live together in community: "the sort of [community] that would emerge from...the trinitarian model would be one of fellowship, equality of
69 Ibid., 127. 70 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 246. 71 Ibid., 246. 72 Ibid., 246. 73 Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, trans. Paul Burns (New York: Orbis, 1988), 123. 74 Ibid., 148. 24 opportunity...generosity".75 Boff similarly addresses the human-divine relationship. He suggests that telos of human existence is sharing divine life; it is God's great gift to us.
As Boff writes, "life constitutes God's essence, life is communion given and received".
Sally McFague and Elizabeth Johnson are two theologians that provide a strong feminist perspective on the relationality of God. In her seminal work, Models of God,
McFague suggests that "Jesus of Nazareth is... a paradigm of God's relationship to the world... [and through] his own life and death [manifests] that the heart of the universe is unqualified love".77 McFague characterizes her work as "another way of imagining the
God-world relationship".78 She is not alone, as Johnson also wishes to offer new metaphors to diversify the discourse about God. Johnson's word for Trinitarian relationship is communion - the essence of inter-Personal relationality within God. In her mind, the inner nature of God is the epitome of relationship. Johnson maintains that there is an "incomprehensible depth of communion"79 out of which God relates to the world.
Her eschatological vision is for humanity to enter into this communion with God and with all others. In this way we are one with God's purpose, one with each other, one with the world. We are in full communion.
McFague has a similar vision, but with ecological overtones. She voices concern regarding the insensitivity exhibited by humanity towards the earth and all life forms. She is alarmed at the self-destructive power inherent in our nuclear arsenal. She places the responsibility for some of our misguided attitudes at the feet of humanity's view of our
75 Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, trans. Paul Burns (New York: Orbis, 1988), 151. 76 Leonardo Boff, Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, trans. Phillip Berryman (New York: Orbis, 2000), 48. 77 Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological Nuclear Age (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 55-56. 78 Ibid., 57. 79 Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 228. 25 role in the world, influenced by our religious meta-imaging of possessing dominion over all of creation. McFague implores that now is the time for a new sensitivity, and new metaphors of envisioning the divine-human-earth interface. She suggests, for example, that if we look at the world as God's body we might adopt a totally different attitude towards how we treat creation.80 She is taken with the beauty of God's creation and appeals for a heightened sense of collaboration and co-creational responsibility. Her ultimate prescription calls for "communion with God, and a communion with the earth, and a communion with God through the earth".81
2.4 Further considerations
As we have seen, LaCugna is not alone in affirming God's relationality. Yet the purpose of such a contention is varied. LaCugna's ultimate intent is to enhance spirituality and the manner in which the Christian faith is lived, Boff claims it as the basis for societal and economic change, McFague's objective is to give strength to her ecological argument, Johnson proposes a more feminist imaging of God that embraces the 'softer' characteristics of compassion, love and relationship. Despite this diversity there is a common advocacy for an enhanced human-divine relationship, even if the manner in which this is to be achieved may vary.
Such affirmation of God's innate relationality is reassuring and hope-filled. It sheds light on the human dilemma and offers the opportunity for enhanced human-divine relationship. The belief that God is fully relational (because God is quintessentially
80Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological Nuclear Age (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 61. 81 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as quoted in Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological Nuclear Age (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 61. 26 personal) opens our existence to enhanced possibilities. This heightened awareness or understanding of relationship is God-centric: initiated by God, directed towards God, and fulfilled by God.
Our acceptance of God's relationality is rooted in love. More specifically it is the knowledge of God's unconditional love for us that grounds our being. To know deeply that one is the beloved of God is the inspiration towards deep relationship. A deep experience of community and communion, integral to a full Christian life, is constitutive of enhanced human-divine relationship. It is our intent in the next chapter of this thesis to explore in more detail the essence of community and communion and their potential meaning for us. 27
Community and Communion
Community and communion entail relationship. These states of being-with-others and being-for-others constitute significant inter-personal and human-divine association.
Both are inspired by God, and a gift from God. Clearly there are interconnections between these modes of relating, but there are qualitative differences between the two.
Our objective now is to explore the nature of these two forms of relationship in order to deepen our understanding of humanity's call to live out the Christian vocation.
The reality is that as followers of Christ we are called to both community and communion. Such experiences of relationship are constitutive elements of our growth and development mutually with each other and God. As we have seen, LaCugna argues that as humans we are intrinsically personal, that is, relational. We are who we are because of our relationships with others; we become who we become because of these evolving relationships. Given this reality we need each other - we need the community of others.
In a Christian context that means that we are ecclesial people and we need each other, the support of the ecclesial community, to be sanctified and to be saved.
As noted above there is a dynamic and symbiotic interplay between these related yet different experiences of community and communion. This will be explored further within this chapter. However it is important to point out that for LaCugna, even though both are important, her focus is primarily koinonia, that is, communion.82 LaCugna understands the value and the essential need of community, but focuses on the deeper
82 Catherine LaCugna, "God In Communion with Us: The Trinity", in Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspectives, ed. Catherine LaCugna (San Francisco: Harper, 1993), 108; Catherine LaCugna, "The Practical Trinity", The Christian Century 109 (1992): 681-82; Catherine LaCugna, [Interview] "The Trinity: Why It takes Three Persons to Save One Soul", U.S. Catholic 58 (1993): 6; Catherine LaCugna, "The Trinitarian Mystery of God", in Systematic Theology: Roman Catholic Perspectives, ed. Francis Fiorenza and John Galvin (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 180 andl88. 28 relationship of communion. For LaCugna, it is communion that is the deeper reality. In fact she states that "true communion among persons is the deepest meaning of life".
Nevertheless LaCugna recognizes very well that both states of being-in-relationship are core to the Christian journey.
Thus to summarize, the experiences of community and communion are indicative of deep Christian relationship with God, with each other, with all creation. They mirror the reality of the life of the Trinity that models the Way for us. They are constitutive elements of our Christian journey, calling us to be open to the Spirit, to the needs of others, and to the support of others. In the following sections, we examine each of these in turn, setting out characteristics and parameters that hopefully inspire us to attain such relationships.
3.1 Community
To build community with and for others is an essential component of the Christian mission. We read in Acts how early Christians: "Each day, with one heart...regularly went to the Temple...shared their food gladly and generously".85 St. Paul is instrumental in establishing a number of Christian communities and implores members of the communities to act well toward each other:
So if in Christ there is anything that will move you, any
incentive in love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any warmth
or sympathy — I appeal to you make my joy complete by
83 Catherine LaCugna, "God In Communion with Us: The Trinity", in Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspectives, ed. Catherine LaCugna (San Francisco: Harper, 1993), 108. 84 A review of this idea is provided by John O'Donnell, "The Trinity as Divine Community: A Critical Reflection Upon Recent Theological Developments", Gregorianum 69 (1988): 5-34. 85 Acts 2:46-47 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 29
being of a single mind, one in heart and one in mind.
Being-in-community is a Christian ideal and imperative. We are called to share faith in community and to live out our faith communally: to genuinely care for each other. Jesus is the master community builder and as Christians we strive to imitate Jesus in our living and our loving. Authentic community is characterized by a genuine sense of belonging, mutual caring and sharing, compassion and openness. Community is built on love, modeled after Jesus, and engendered by the Spirit.
Community is founded on the collaborative engagement of skills and abilities for the common good. Community identifies and calls forth the gifts of its members. Being in community allows members to be affirmed and grow in awareness and appreciation of their giftedness. In this way personal growth can be perceived as a correlate of community growth. At the same time, fulfillment of the human person can enhance community where individual gifts are directed towards collective well-being.
Community, as noted above, is gift, enkindled by the fruits of the Spirit: peace, joy, love, faithfulness, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, and self-control.87
LaCugna submits that community is formed when the "[person] seeks to do what is right in reference to the other...[and that] the [true] communal way of life is
DO heterocentric". LaCugna offers general comments regarding a faith community as inspired by Jesus Christ. She sees "the goal of Christian community...is to provide a place in which everyone is accepted as an ineffable, unique, unrepeatable image of
God".89 It is Jesus that leads us into community, teaches us to accept and care for each
86 Ph 2:1-2 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 87 Gal 5: 22-23 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 88 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 257. 89 Ibid., 299. 30 other, shows us how to build community. Consequently LaCugna maintains that "the community of Jesus Christ is the one gathering place in which persons are.. .accepted and valued unconditionally... [and their ]roles in community...differ, as will their gifts and talents, their needs and demands".90
John Westerhoff, an Episcopal priest and professor of Religion and Education has a strong understanding of the essential importance of community to Christian life: to be a
Christian is to be in community. He believes that through the experience of a faith community we come to share our Christian story and give meaning to our lives. He advises that "without a story we could not live, we could not have community"9'and thus
"[as Christians] we journey together in community to actualize [the story] of God's good news about human life and history".92
Westerhoff roots his thinking in the passage from Scripture: "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst".93 Westerhoff believes that
Jesus is the ground upon which we build community. Thus we are called ultimately to become "a community of persons who abide in Christ's [love]".94 Westerhoff reminds us that the Bible is replete with stories of various communities of people trying to respond to
God's call. Christian communities today are no different.
For Leonardo Boff, communion informs community, and community is derivative of communion. Boff sees community as the greatest good: "community is the deepest and
90 Ibid., 299. 91 John Westerhoff, Living the Faith Community: The Church that Makes a Difference (Minneapolis: Winston, 1985), 28. 92 Ibid., 39. 93 Matthew 18:19-20 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 94 John Westerhoff, Living the Faith Community: The Church that Makes a Difference (Minneapolis: Winston, 1985), 46. 31 most foundational reality that exists".95 For him the inspiration and primary example for human community is the Trinity. Boff has a marked communitarian outlook and speaks from the perspective of someone engaged in advocacy for a more equitable society for the poor. His theology is imbued with a passionate communitarian focus:
[By] "community" we intend to emphasize the mutual, direct and total
relationships existing among persons; [where] each of the persons is
totally turned toward the others and holds nothing back. Each places
everything in common including his or her being and having.96
Boff is ardent about the benevolent change that community can foster. He is convinced that an authentic sense of community can be a beneficial force for human improvement. In his worldview, community is both the means for and the outcome of collaboration and mutual support. When Boff speaks of community, it is of a deep and abiding relationship. His vision of community for humanity, drawn from the Trinity, is universal:
The divine three...exist as distinct...joined by communion and love.
What really exists is a divine community.. .from all eternity, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit coexist ever together...they are equally eternal, infinite
and merciful; they make up eternal community...the three divine Persons
open to [the] outside and invite human beings and the entire universe to
share in their community and their life.97
McFague in her efforts to provide new models of God suggests that God can be imaged as 'Friend'. From her perspective, this model of God could inspire a different
95 Leonardo Boff, Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, trans. Phillip Berryman (New York: Orbis, 2000), 3-4. 96 Ibid., 54. 97 Ibid., 55, 63. 32 way of life and living. In this context she envisions a "new kind of community...of companionship... of care for others".98 If God is indeed the superlative Friend and we are made in the image and likeness of God, then as human beings we are called to a level of sharing, openness, and friendship with each other.
In McFague's mind this image of God could have significant meaning and impact for the Christian community. If a spirit of universal friendship (inspired by God) were to influence our worldview and outlook, our approach to living out Christ's message would change. We would be moved to throw open our doors "to the other.. .to the stranger one does not know...to the world...all [would] become companions...sharing...life with one another in an atmosphere of both justice and concern".99 Ultimately, in accordance with
McFague's vision this Christian community would become universal and grow in sensitivity for our collective ecological well-being.
Elizabeth Johnson also speaks upon the reality of community. She sees community in the context of a universal brother/sister-hood. She suggests that the
"image of God is the ultimate reference point for the values of a community".100 In this way Trinitarian community signifies our commonality, our connectedness, our shared story and "constitutes the web of [living] and when rightly ordered forms the matrix for the flourishing of...[life for] human beings".101 She espouses community as "an excellent model for human interaction... [but also] the ground for the.. .world".102
Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological Nuclear Age (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 177. "Ibid., 178. 100 Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 223. 101 Ibid., 122-123. 102 Ibid., 221. 33
Jean Vanier, the Canadian founder of L'Arche communities, has written extensively about the elements of community building within a Christian context. He asserts: "Jesus calls us to love each other and to build community and He manifests
Himself and His love through community".103 Clearly Vanier treasures community, seeing it as an essential 'truth' of the Christian message. He maintains that as humans we can not live full lives without a sense of community. Vanier believes that we are called by God to use our gifts to build community each in keeping with our abilities:
"Accordingly we need each other's gifts; we must encourage their growth and our fidelity to them".104 Ultimately community is a gift from God and is a reality within which we meet God.
3.2 Communion
It is clear that we are called to live and foster community, but we are also called into a deeper relationship. If community is rooted in a sense of belonging and a shared commonality of values and purpose, then communion is rooted in a sense of being unified or in-being-one. As Jesus spoke of it in his prayer in John 17:
May they all be one,
just as Father you are in me and I am in you,
I have given them the glory you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.
With me in them and you in me
may they be so perfected in unity.105
103 Jean Vanier, Be Not Afraid(Toronto: Griffin House, 1975), IX. 104 Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, Revised Edition (New York: Paulist Press, 1989), 50. 105 John 17: 21-23. (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 34
Communion connotes a state of being imbued with a deep sense of love.
Communion represents the divine-human relationship par excellence. Communion is inspired by Trinitarian perichoresis and is characterized by marked mutual ecstasy, inter- relatedness and personal coherence. There is such a concurrence of common characteristics that communion constitutes a state of oneness. This synonymy of being stems from a sharing of life.
LaCugna reverences and celebrates communion. Unequivocally she asserts communion as the norm of God's being and our being:
Being, existence is...the event of persons in communion. The entire
purpose of the [divine] economy...is the communion of all in all, all in
God, God in all.106
And again she says:
The living God is the God who is...alive in communion with the creature,
alive with desire for union with every creature...the Spirit leads all
creatures into an ever-deeper communion with each other and with God.
LaCugna offers her ontology of person as an entry point into communion. She draws upon a contemporary Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas to expound that:
A person is.. .an open and ecstatic reality referred to others for his or her
existence. The actualization of personhood takes place in self-
transcendence. . .toward.. .other persons. 108
106Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 249. 107 Ibid., 302, 304. ,08 Ibid., 260. 35
She continues in this theme, noting that:
The relationship of the human person to God - not to other human
persons - is decisive. [With God] ecclesial hypostasis - a new being-in-
relationship, a new capacity for self-transcendence - [is realized].
In LaCugna's mind, communion with God and communion with each other is normative. This orientation towards communion is inherent in God's nature and human nature. Communion is the common ecstatic end-state of human-divine and human- human relationships. It is the communion with God that is definitive, while our communion with each other is derivative from our communion with God. Through God's loving action, a new being-in-relationship is 'created' that is eternally oriented toward communion.
McFague offers the image of "God as Lover" as another way of 'modeling' God.
She suggests this image of God "powerfully expresses divine passion for the world as well as extraordinary intimacy between God and the world".110 In this vision "God as lover is interested... [in] making whole the entire beloved cosmos".111 Accordingly this image of God conveys "salvation [as] the reunification of the beloved world with its lover, God".112 God's love is evidenced and becomes concrete in the reality of the
Incarnation - God-with-us. It is through Jesus and the power of the Spirit that we come to know God as Lover and know that we are loved. This knowledge of love is invitatory:
"all creation and all human beings have the potential as the beloved of God to...respond
l09Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 263. 110 Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological Nuclear Age (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 127. 1,1 Ibid., 135. 112 Ibid., 135. 36 to their lover"."3 This is the ground of intimacy, the basis for communion between God and God's creation.
Johnson presents communion as the ultimate relationship between the Divine and creation. Communion is characterized as a state-of-being-united that is rooted in the reality of sharing life together. Johnson sees the Trinity as "pure relationality...[that] epitomizes the connectedness of all that exists...[and is the] symbolic picture of totally shared life... of the universe".114 Communion is constitutive of shared life that the Trinity signifies. Johnson draws from biology to advance a powerful metaphor: she envisions the "holy triune...as a triple [interwoven] helix... which includes human partners...[and achieves] the fullness of shalom for all creatures".115
3.3 Towards the Mystery of Communion
There is a commonality between community and communion: both are grounded in God's love; both are normative for Christian fulfillment; both are actualized through the power of the Spirit. Communion can inform community and community can foster communion. One is not necessarily a prerequisite of the other but the experience of both can be mutually enhancing. Despite this inter-connection, there is a qualitative distinction between the two. Communion implies a much deeper relationship. Consequently we may deem communion to be more desirable (if not essential) but we are left with the dilemma: how does one pursue and achieve communion?
113 Ibid., 136. Elizabeth Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 222. 1,5 Ibid., 221. 37
LaCugna is enamored with the Trinity, and she embraces the mystery a life of communion therein. As noted above, she is adamant that a relationship of communion is normative to Christian life, but this sentiment in no way is suggestive that communion is readily attainable. It is essential to recall that God is mystery and consequently our relationship with God is encompassed with mystery. LaCugna acknowledges that we come to know God in accordance with God's will and revelation. Yet we come to know that we do not know God. That is, God is ultimate mystery. The acceptance of this unknowing of God, as God is beyond all human knowing, allows us to enter into the mystery of God in a deep and abiding way. We are able to rest in the silence of this unknowing of God's mystery and know that God is near, that God is with us.
LaCugna builds her theological vision on the pillars of mystery: the mystery of
God's nature and the mystery of God's salvation. She maintains there is a direct correspondence and parallel between these two mysteries of theologia (the mystery of
God's eternal being or nature) and oikonomia (the mystery of God acting in salvation).
Not losing sight of one while gazing at the other is essential as the mystery of God and the mystery of divine-human relationships are correlated. This principle of interconnectivity is the focus of the next chapter. 38
Oikonomia and Theologia
The central premise of LaCugna's theological framework is that the mystery of
God in salvation (oikonomia) is directly correlated to the mystery of God's nature or being (theologia) and vice versa. This principle provides connectivity between two
'views' of God that affords a marked consistency and strength to her vision. Moreover,
LaCugna asserts that her vision avoids certain problematic understandings of God stemming from a focus on God in se (within God's self). LaCugna's primary purpose is to revitalize the theological understanding of the Trinity and to make it of central importance to Christian living. Accordingly LaCugna invites us to enter more deeply into the mystery of God's actions in salvation (oikonomia) and the mystery of God's eternal being and nature (theologia).
4.1 Entering the Mystery of God
Is understanding mystery important? Is an understanding of mystery essential to an understanding of God? LaCugna's theology is centered in and on mystery: the mystery of God, the mystery of creation, the mystery of salvation, the mystery of eternal life and so on. LaCugna insists that entering mystery, embracing mystery, experiencing mystery deeply is essential to our spiritual life journey. Mystery is a reality that enriches our lives.
Mystery elicits awe, wonder, contemplation; mystery has the ability to draw us ever deeper.
To illustrate her point, LaCugna offers that a human person is intrinsically mystery - the more one gets to know a person the more one comes to realize how much one does not know them.116 At the same time, the mystery of the person draws us in, in a
U6Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 324. 39 desire to get to know this person better. Therefore mystery affords the basis of a growing and deepening relationship. LaCugna draws a parallel with the mystery of God. She believes God is mystery because God is personal:
The real reason for asserting that God is incomprehensible mystery is that God is
personal, God is the origin of all personhood. A person divine or human is by
definition an ineffable mode of existence, an elusive presence, a unique
117
expression of nature.
Through the life of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit we come to know God and we enter into relationship with God. But this does not limit or diminish God's ineffableness or ultimate incomprehensibility:
God is no less mystery on account of God's radical immanence in Christ.
Indeed the God who is absolutely other, absolutely transcendent but also
absolutely near us - this God is absolutely mystery.118
The experience of mystery is intrinsic to our human existence; it is part of the human narrative. Entering into mystery is an initial step toward our personal story connecting with God's personal story. As an integral step to relationship building, "we contemplate the mystery of God... we encounter the manifold dimensions of the mystery of divine-human communion". Full acceptance of and engagement with the mystery of
God enables us to enter into an ever deeper relationship with God.120
m Ibid., 324. 118 Ibid., 324. 119 Ibid., 15. 120 For a discussion of LaCugna's theology of mystery see Mary Catherine Hilkert, "The Mystery of Persons in Communion: The Trinitarian Theology of Catherine Mowry LaCugna", Word& World18 (1998): 240-243 and Elizabeth Groppe "Catherine Mowry LaCugna's Contribution to Trinitarian Theology", Theological Studies 63 (2202): 758-59. 40
4.2 Knowing Cod
Although we acknowledge the ultimate mystery of God, this in no way suggests that
God is altogether unknowable. Clearly God is knowable, but there are limits to the capacity of human knowledge of God. LaCugna argues that our knowing God has its origin in the economy of salvation. Humankind comes to know God through the actions of Jesus in the power of the Spirit: "God as God is altogether present in the economy of salvation history...[but] God...exceeds...the human capacity to receive or explain this self-communication".121
In the development of her theological framework, LaCugna engages with
Rahner's theology. She maintains that the first half of his axiom (that the economic
Trinity is the immanent Trinity) confirms her assertion of the correspondence between oikonomia and theologia. She also suggests that it supports the notion that the starting point of our knowledge of God lies within the economy. However, she has serious reservations about the reverse of his axiom, that the immanent Trinity is the economic
Trinity. She is of the opinion that the reverse statement has the liability of misrepresenting our knowledge of God. She states: "a theology of the immanent Trinity does not refer to God [in se\...apart from relationship to us...[but as] God revealed in
Christ and the Spirit".122
LaCugna contends that our theology of God has dwelled all too long on the intra- divine nature of God, the immanent essence of God. She brands this as highly speculative and claims that this focus effectively severs God in se from God ad extra.
Such knowledge of God based on an intrapersonal view of God, has another deleterious
121 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 217. 122 Ibid., 227. 41 effect: it shines a light on God's relation with God-self but not on God's relation with humanity. LaCugna argues that this effectively takes humanity out of the equation and limits the perceived potential for relationship with God.
Accordingly, LaCugna advocates that our theological focus must be soteriological. It is in the economy of salvation that we encounter God and come to know God. Human knowledge of God is grounded in oikonomia, in the mystery of
God's salvific enterprise with humanity. LaCugna offers that there is "an epistemological distinction between oikonomia and theologia... and oikonomia is our means to theologia". LaCugna is unequivocal about our knowing God - it is based in God's self- communication to humanity. This self-communication is the essence of God's reaching out to humankind to reveal God-self in salvation, through the life, death and resurrection of the Person of Jesus Christ.
4.3 Unknowing God
LaCugna suggests that "theology is as much knowing as unknowing".125 This statement is grounded in apophasis, or in the pathway of via negativa. The insight that flows from this theological approach is: the more we know God, the more we know that we do not know God. Consequently "unknowing of God indicates we are closest to real knowledge of God".126 LaCugna invites us to fully accept this unknowing, to enter more
123Catherine LaCugna, "Reconceiving the Trinity as the Mystery of Salvation", Scottish Journal of Theology, 38 (1988): 17; Mary Catherine Hilkert, "The Mystery of Persons in Communion: The Trinitarian Theology of Catherine Mowry LaCugna", Word& World Vo\. XVIII No. 3 (1988): 240. 124Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 217. 125Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life. (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 333; this aspect of LaCugna's theology is also addressed in Mary Catherine Hilkert, "The Mystery of Persons in Communion: The Trinitarian Theology of Catherine Mowry LaCugna", Word& World Vol. XVIII No. 3 (1988): 243 and in Elizabeth Groppe, "Catherine Mowry LaCugna's Contribution to Trinitarian Theology", Theological Studies 63 (2002): 758-59. 126Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 332. 42 deeply into this unknowing, and to allow our knowing God to be enhanced by this holy unknowing.
Therefore, paradoxically, there is enlightenment in the unknowing of God. Such unknowing of God reminds us that God is beyond all concepts and images. LaCugna makes reference to Aquinas who exhorted: "we cannot know what God is, but only what
God is not".1 7 Aquinas was very much influenced by the apophatic theology of Pseudo-
Dionysius who concluded:
The most divine knowledge of God is one which knows through
unknowing in the unity beyond intellect. When the intellect stands away
from itself it is untied... to the more than resplendent rays and is, then and
there, illumined by the inscrutable depths of wisdom.
The unknowing of God is steeped in deep humility and acceptance of our creatureliness. Unknowing God implies a reverential attitude where "the more one nears
God, the more one must bow down and cover one's face".129 An encounter with God in unknowing is to experience God's supreme goodness, glory, and holiness. Unknowing leads to an absence of words and profound contemplation of God. LaCugna suggests that the via negativa "leads...into the [deep] presence of God [who]...in the union of love.. .surpasses all words".130
Unknowing God is a prayerful discipline that reminds us that God is above all definition. Unknowing God is an essential counterbalance to our knowing God. In our
127 Aquinas cited in Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 328. 128 Pseudo-Dionysius cited in Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 328. 129 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 328. 130 Ibid., 332. 43 unknowing of God we acknowledge our encounter with the ultimate mystery of God. In deep contemplation of God, we let go of all controlling images of God and rest in the holy gaze of God. Unknowing is of the heart rather than of the head. Unknowing begets deep relationship and intimacy. Knowing that we do not know, we embrace this unknowing of God, hoping for the time when we will meet face to face.
4.3.1 The Correlation of Two Mysteries
LaCugna places particular significance on the correlation between oikonomia and theologia. This is the central tenet of her theological framework. She asserts that such correlation can be a guiding principle to revitalizing the Doctrine of the Trinity. It has already been related that LaCugna sees oikonomia as the entry point into theologia.
Accordingly her primary theological focus is the economy of salvation; her gaze is clearly soteriological. Yet she ensures that her theology of God does not collapse into pure soteriology. LaCugna competently articulates a comprehensive ontology of person that elucidates the nature of God. LaCugna correlates God's self-revelation within salvation history with the intrinsic relationality of God. In this way she bridges oikonomia with theologia. For LaCugna this correlation between the mystery of the God of salvation and the mystery of God as God-self is pivotal:
On the basis of the economy, God is understood to be personal and self-
giving and to exist as the mystery of persons in communion. The doctrine
of the Trinity is... a theory of the essence of God revealed and bestowed in
the person of Christ and the permanent presence of the Spirit...
131 For a detailed discussion of the strengths of such a framework see Elizabeth Groppe, "Catherine Mowry LaCugna's Contribution to Trinitarian Theology", Theological Studies 63 (2002): 741-46. 44
The incomprehensible mystery of theologia...is unveiled in the [mystery]
of Jesus Christ and...the Holy Spirit. Oikonomia and theologia are
inseparable from each other because they are two ways in which the one
God exists.132
LaCugna's contention is that "God's being and God's being for us may not be separated from each other". This is underpinned by the reality that there is one God, one self-revelation of God, and one self-communication of God. LaCugna examines what transpires when the two mysteries of God are considered in isolation of each other. In one instance a theology that focuses solely on oikonomia fosters a skepticism about whether how God saves is essentially related to who God is.134 On the other hand a theology built entirely around theologia produces a metaphysical abstraction of divine nature separate from contact with humanity. LaCugna insists that an ontological distinction between
God in se (within God's self) and God pro nobis (oriented towards us and for us) is inconsistent with biblical revelation, with early Christian creeds and with Christian prayer and worship.136
LaCugna asserts that the correlation between the mystery of salvation and the mystery of God is not merely theoretical. Such correlation has practical implications for living the Christian life. She suggests that since "God's very life constitutes all of existence as well as the economy of salvation, then to be Christian means to participate in the life of God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit".137
132 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 334- 335. 133 Ibid., 229. 134 Ibid., 4. 135 Ibid., 4. 136 Ibid., 6. 137 Ibid., 16. 45
The unity of these two mysteries ultimately lies in the reality of the one life of
God. This is a life that God chooses to share with humanity and all creation. It is in communion that the two mysteries are enveloped into one. Our life is an integral part of
God's life, in communion with God for us and God in God-self:
The doctrine of the Trinity is not ultimately a teaching about "God" but a
teaching about God's life with us...It is the life of communion and
indwelling, God in us and we in God... There is one life of the triune God,
a life in which we graciously have been included as partners...The
'motive' of God's self-communication is union with the creature.
4.4 Situating LaCugna
It is instructive to consider LaCugna's enterprise in the context of other theologians. Her influence towards revitalizing Trinitarian theology is accumulative and builds on the contribution of others. Rahner's discussion of the self-communication of
God introduces the notion of God's desire to reach out to humanity - God self-revealing
God-self in the interest of relating to humanity. Moltmann develops the concept of the
'openness' of the Trinity, where Father, Son and Spirit are continually oriented towards humanity and all of creation. McFague offers a feminist perspective, imaging God as
Friend and Lover, accentuating the relationality of God. It was in this rich and fertile context of theological conversation that LaCugna's trinitarianism was shaped.
LaCugna is a product of her milieu and her time. As a student and subsequently a professor of a Catholic University her theological influences are for the most part
Ibid., 228. 46 mainstream Catholic theologians. As well, her formative years coincide with the implementation of the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, a time that encouraged fresh perspectives. As noted above the feminist voice in theology was becoming more prominent. Consequently LaCugna 'finds herself at a crossroads - an intersection of a re-awakening in the theology of the Trinity, a developed feminist perspective within theology, and a creative ferment generated by Vatican II. It is in this theological milieu that LaCugna formulates her thinking and voices her point of view. LaCugna engages in her enterprise for a specific purpose - she wants to enhance modern Christian praxis.
Accordingly she bridges theology with spirituality in the hopes of influencing how people live. Although rooted in her Catholic background, LaCugna engenders wider appeal and speaks to a diverse Christian audience.
LaCugna is an ardent feminist voice espousing communion as the essence of right relationship. Her views, while creative in synthesizing contemporary Western theology with Eastern Orthodox insights, are congruent with traditional Catholic teaching.
LaCugna envisions the Trinity as the archetype of communion calling humanity into deep relationship. For the human person, being-in-communion is multi-dimensional: communion with God, with others and all creation. Such a state of communion is accomplished in accord with Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit. LaCugna's theological contribution is constructive, and she is faithful to Christian doctrine. Her objective is not innovation but a recasting of Trinitarian orthodoxy in order to inspire
Christian orthopraxis.
LaCugna is intent on offering an accessible and engaging Trinitarian theology.
She is convinced that the Trinity has become largely irrelevant to most Christians ever 47 since the doctrine focused on the abstract intra-divine nature of God. She is determined to avoid this theological problematic and 'open' the Trinity to more people. LaCugna believes that a more soteriological approach is efficacious where the mystery of salvation is primary and linked with the mystery of God.
Her theological framework, based on the inseparability of oikonomia and theologia is comprehensive and well constructed. She substantiates this correlation by documenting the issues that arise when they are pursued in isolation of each other. She points to Christian creeds, prayer and worship that are respectful of the correlation of
God and God with us. She allots primacy to soteriology, viewing oikonomia as the access to the mystery of God.
An important aspect of her theology is the ontology of person and relationality of
God. Here she draws significantly on early Cappadocian thinking, combined with contemporary Greek Orthodox teaching.1 9 Her conceptual synthesis of personhood is well-constructed and lays the groundwork for God's innate desire of communion (i.e. shared life) with humanity and all of creation.
LaCugna explores our knowing and unknowing of God. Her theology reveals
Thomistic and Orthodox influences regarding the via negativa. She reminds us that God is beyond all human reckoning: when we come to believe that we know God, then what we believe is clearly not God. There is strength in this apophatic perspective. Such theology diminishes the tendency to apprehend God rather than to allow God to apprehend us.
For a detailed discussion of the Orthodox understanding of personhood see John Zizioulas, "Human Capacity and Human Incapacity: A Theological Exploration of Personhood", 28 Scottish Journal of neology (1975): 401-448. 48
Ultimately LaCugna does present a more engaging view of the Trinity. Her theology portrays God as a God of invitation. Her vision of God is innately relational - absolutely oriented towards us and for us. LaCugna is passionate that God desires to be in communion with humanity and the whole of creation. LaCugna sees communion as the eschatological climax, in keeping with Paul's letter to the Ephesians:
That he would bring everything together under Christ, as head,
everything in the heavens and everything on earth.
Eph 1:10 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 49
Pathway to Communion
It is a supposition of this thesis that humanity is indeed called to communion with
God. The basis of this premise is the Trinity, understood as an ecstatic loving communion of three persons in One. This ecstasis of love inherent in God flows out and over humanity, inviting us to partake of the divine life, together in communion.
Within this chapter it is intended that the pathway to communion be explored. A primary focus will be Michael Downey's Trinitarian spirituality. This work was originally conceived as a collaborative venture with Catherine LaCugna, but because of her untimely death, was produced solely by Downey. Downey's treatise can be considered as an extension of LaCugna's theological vision. LaCugna provides a theological framework for revitalizing our engagement with the Trinity; Downey enables us to enter more fully into the essence of the Trinity, that is, communion. LaCugna and
Downey, individually and together, espouse Trinitarian living and the attainment of right relationship, that is, communion with God, each other and all creation.
LaCugna is convinced of the practicality of the Trinity. Her primary purpose is to revitalize our theological understanding of the Trinity and thereby re-invigorate our
Christian lives. LaCugna is confident that:
Inasmuch as the doctrine of the Trinity is bound up with every dimension
of the economy where God and creature live together as one, it is
inherently practical. As such it is an underutilized source for articulating
what we understand to be the demands of the gospel, what constitutes
right relationship.m
14lCatherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 378-79. 50
What is the impact of this experience of God's life in our lives? Does this experience of God's life change how we live our lives? LaCugna argues that it has significant practical meaning emanating from our understanding of oikonomia and theologia. In her view "Christian orthopraxis [is influenced by]... what we believe to be true about God: that God is personal, that God is ecstatic and fecund love, that God's very nature is to exist toward and for another".142 LaCugna asserts that the implications of the nature of God for Christian living are substantive. God's nature, God's life, calls us to live as God lives. This is revealed to us through the way Jesus lived and loved in the power of the Spirit. LaCugna is unequivocal and emphasizes the 'demands' that
Trinitarian theology places on Christian living:
Orthopraxis requires that we exercise modes of relationship that serve the
truth of God's economy: words, actions, and attitudes that serve the reign
of God... where God's life rules... and where governance [is] for the sake
of communion. It entails a radical reordering of existence: our
attachments, our familial relationships, our worship, our fears and
anxieties, our way of relating to others.
Downey explores God's invitation for intimate divine-human relationship and examines the opportunity that humanity has for communion with the Creator, others, and all of creation. Downey adopts LaCugna's ontology of person. He sees the human person as fundamentally relational: "the chief characteristic of the human is to be open to relationship with others".144 Downey is convinced that the human person, made in the image and likeness of God, possesses an orientation 'inherited' from God. Ultimately the
142 Ibid., 383. 143 Ibid., 383-84. 144Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (New York: Orbis, 2000), 69. 51 quintessential nature of our being is that we are "named by God, and find our identity in being from God, toward God and for God... [that is, we are] theonomousr\145 This personal inclination grounds our being and defines our raison d'etre which is to live and love with God and for God, now and always. This being-towards-God orients our being towards others. The relationship inherent in God characterizes our relationship with God and with others. He suggests that "human beings are to cultivate, nurture, and sustain... relationships that are reflective of...the active, mutual, equal relations between the
Father, Son and Spirit".146
The ultimate fulfillment of being a human person, for Downey, is to be in right relationship with God, with others and with all of creation. This state of right relationship is communion. Downey acknowledges that there are different levels of communion and that different people enter into communion in different ways. This is a process that is life-long and ongoing where the "telos or end of human personhood...[is] fuller participation in the one and mutual Love [Communion]...within which is disclosed what it means to be human".147
5.1 Right Relationship
The concept of being in right relationship is multi-faceted, including the need to be right with ourselves, right with God, right with others and right with all of creation.
Being-in-right-relationship is grounded in our nature as human persons, God's nature and
God's providential plan. Downey maintains that Jesus Christ, revealed in the economy of salvation, is the icon of right relationship:
145 Ibid., 71. Downey defines theonomous as being of God and oriented toward God. 146 Ibid., 73. 147 Ibid., 77. 52
In the Incarnate Word and through the indwelling Spirit we see...in Jesus
Christ the paradigm of rightly ordered relationship with self, others, God
and the whole of creation.148
Jesus knew that He had come from the Father and was One with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus in the power of the Spirit is oriented towards the Father in love and faithfulness; in love and compassion Jesus is oriented toward humanity. Jesus, in concert with the Father and the Spirit, fosters communion with the downtrodden, outcasts, and sinners of the human family. In his humanity and divinity Jesus acknowledges His innate inter-relatedness with the Father and the Spirit, with all of humanity and with the whole of creation. He desires to fulfill the will of the Father and restore communion throughout the universe. Jesus teaches us what right relationship demands of us; He teaches us what it means to be fully human.
Being in right relationship is more than a state of mind - it is a state of being. (Yet coincident with right relationship is an understanding and awareness that instills one's being with a personal impetus toward right living.) Concretely, right relationship entails: deep knowledge and love of oneself; deep knowledge of God's love for oneself; deep love of God and intimacy with God; abiding awareness of God's presence in one's being and daily living; a deep appreciation and love for God's creation; and a deep knowledge of the inter-relatedness and communion between God, humanity and all of creation. This may seem like a substantive expectation, but right relationship is an end-state that is not attained without assiduous attention. LaCugna describes this state of being in right relationship as a Christian ideal:
148 Ibid., 57. 53
We were created for the purpose of glorifying God by living in right
relationship, by living as Jesus Christ did...by existing as persons in
communion with God and every other creature.
Right relationship is informed by a sense of communion that is at the heart of the
Trinity. Right relationship is a state of being that implicitly entails right action: living out of and living towards communion. Right relationship is centered in the deep acceptance of one's own personhood. As a person, intrinsically relational, our personhood is realized in relationship with others. Being in right relationship is rooted in the profound understanding that we are:
theonomous [being of God and being toward God] persons...being for
others, being in communion with others...for the purpose of glorifying
God...we are in right relationship to other persons when we see them...[as]
persons in their own right who share the same destiny of glory...in their
sacred inviolability as icons of God, images of the highest and most
perfect exemplification of what it means to be a person.
Right relationship is underpinned by a deep appreciation of one's creatureliness, that is, one's dependence on God. As creatures, we recognize that we are an integral part of God's creation, intrinsically connected to all of creation. Our purpose to give God glory is one shared with creation. In their own way, flowers, water, mountains, animals give glory to God. It is essential that we as God's creatures honor this reality in our mutual living with all of creation:
Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 342. Ibid., 347. 54
We are in right relationship to other creatures... when we
acknowledge...[their] own intrinsic reason (ratio) for existing...[their]
own purpose (telos)...Once we fathom that everything is created for the
glory of God.. .this changes how we relate to the totality of the universe.151
5.2 Fulfilling The Economy of Salvation
Jesus, the Son of God, through His life, death and resurrection is instrumental in consummating the salvation of humanity. Through Jesus we come to know the truth about God and the truth of the purpose of our existence. Jesus invites us into eternal life with the Father and the Spirit. In this participation "we are engaged in the gift and task of deification, sharing in the divine life".152 For Downey, divine life is a communion of love. In growing in the knowledge of God's love, we come to know that "God is for us in the grand economy of salvation: Father, Son and Spirit - toward us, for us, with us, in us, as Giver, Given and Gift/ing".153
The economy of salvation takes place in the world within which we live. As sons and daughters of God we are called to fulfill a role in the salvation of all the world. By conforming ourselves to Jesus Christ and embracing the power of the Spirit, we are able to enter into a covenant relationship with God. In this relationship we are given the strength and the guidance to do our part in the economy of salvation. The sphere of our activity as followers of Christ is not only ecclesial but encompasses the entire world and all of creation. We are called to bring salvation to all, for all and with all of God's creation. We achieve this in relationship with God and by fostering relationship with
151 Ibid., 347. 152 Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (New York: Orbis, 2000), 56. 153 Ibid., 56. 55 others and all of creation. This universal vision of mutual relationship informs our lives and our way of acting:
Every living thing is toward and for the other, existing to varying degrees in
communion with God, whose providential plan is not just for the salvation of the
human race but for the salvation of the whole world... [The] plan of God for
human beings and the whole world, mediated in and through the Incarnate Word
and in the specific... work of the Holy Spirit [is to bring] about the re-ordering of
all creation.154
The economy of salvation culminates in a communion of Love, where God is in all and all is in God. The Incarnation is a primary salvific event where "God enters human life, history, the world ... [and] makes it possible for us to enter the very life of
God".155 Through the person of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we are invited and engaged in God's grand project "through which the world is transformed
...into a communion in the one Love".156 Through our engagement with God's salvific plan, we become imbued with God's life and become more fully alive. This aliveness, a derivative of communion, is sharing in the life of the Divine. Downey maintains that "on
Mount Tabor [the disciples] are given a new vision, not only of Jesus Christ, but of what the human person is to be and become...what it means to be most fully human".157
Humanity, in collaborative communion with God, has an integral role to play within the economy of salvation. Jesus, transfigured, points toward the significant task with which humanity is charged:
154 Ibid., 76, 129. 155 Ibid., 79. 156 Ibid., 86. 157 Ibid., 100. 56
The light of Tabor...[leads us] to a fuller sense of responsibility...[for]
creating a world in which all may grow, seeing in each and every one, but
especially in the last, the littlest, and the least...an invitation to share in
the communion in one Love by which we as persons and communities are
deified.158
LaCugna asserts that God's economy of salvation is the entry point into the theology of God. It is the access into the knowledge of our Trinitarian God.
God's economy entails an invitation into partnership for humanity to share life with God, each other, and all of creation. This invitation is substantive, concrete, and ongoing; God desires to share Godself with humanity and the whole of creation until all is in God and God is in all. As LaCugna exhorts, "the economy is not an abstract idea...but the life of God and creature existing together as one".159
By entering fully into God's economy, that is by accepting wholeheartedly God's invitation, we come to experience God's life in our lives. This experience of God's life draws us into the nexus of theologia and oikonomia: God is active in our salvation and self-communicates Godself to us. LaCugna expounds that:
The unity of theologia and oikonomia...has direct practical import:
entering into the life of God means entering in the deepest way possible
into the economy, into the life of Jesus Christ, into the life of the Spirit,
into the life of others.160
Ibid., 101. Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 377. Ibid., 382. 57
LaCugna maintains that the doctrine of the Trinity effectively teaches us how to live. The doctrine of the Trinity, through its focus on the economy, points the way to human fulfillment. Trinitarian living is living in God's life and love, in communion with
God, others and all of creation. The doctrine of the Trinity informs our life's journey, gives us eschatological hope, and encourages us to fulfill our role in salvation.
LaCugna identifies a strong relationship between the doctrine of the Trinity and
God's economy. She advises that "the doctrine of the Trinity [transforms] how we think about God and about ourselves...[and] is unavoidably bound up...with the form of life appropriate to God's economy".161 LaCugna sees the Trinity as the basis of an informed way of Christian living - one that is consistent with God's life within human history as evidenced in the person of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. LaCugna expounds that the economy of God is unfolding, calling us forth into partnership. Our involvement warrants ongoing discernment of how best we can foster the reign of God here and now. Trinitarian life is living in communion with God and with others. Our ability to live in communion is actualized through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we are conformed to Christ. LaCugna sees this process of transformation as leading toward ultimate fulfillment of God's economy of salvation:
In the process of being transformed and deified by the Holy Spirit, we
come to resemble more closely Jesus himself...Conformity to Christ
means participating in the very life of God, the life of communion among
persons, divine and human, and among all creatures.162
Ibid., 381. Ibid., 346. 58
5.3 Embracing a Trinitarian Spirituality
LaCugna is confident that the doctrine of the Trinity is pivotal to our ability to fulfill our Christian vocation. God self-communicates to humanity, reveals Godself to us, and invites us to partake in God's divine life. This invitation is into a life of communion for all time. This call of God is profoundly connected to our purpose as human beings.
By responding to our vocation effectively, we become fully human, and achieve full partnership in communion with God, all others, and the whole of creation.
LaCugna advocates that we need to allow the Trinity to inform our spiritual, ecclesial, ethical, and sexual lives! LaCugna is ardent that the doctrine of the Trinity speaks deeply about God and speaks deeply about our humanness. Revitalization of the theology of the Trinity is aimed at ensuring that the message and meaning of the Trinity is more accessible and provides a spiritual motivation for our lives. The doctrine of the
Trinity provides light for our spiritual journey; it exposes the truth of our human existence:
[Trinitarian] life is...an encounter with a personal God who brings about
our union with God and communion with each other.. .Communion among
persons is a non-negotiable truth about our existence, the highest value
and ideal of the Christian life, because for God mutual love among
persons is supreme.
Spirituality is the 'inspiration' with which we live our Christian faith; it is a reflection of our openness to the Spirit. Moved by the Spirit, we are spiritually engaged
"walking in the ways of God, walking with God in the ever-new economy of
Ibid., 345, 399. 59 redemption". 164 Our spiritual journey is a process of deification where, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives are "[conformed] more perfectly to the very life of
God... [and we become] rooted in .. .the living God".165
Similarly Downey advocates that Christian spirituality must be informed with a revitalized Trinitarian theology. Such a Trinitarian spirituality is the foundation of enhanced relationship with God, with each other and all of creation. Fundamentally this informed spirituality is:
A way of perceiving and being by which we are conformed to the person
of Christ, brought into communion with God, other persons and every
living creature by the creative and bonding presence of the Holy Spirit.166
At the heart of this manner of being is a sense of gratitude, that all is gift. Such an attitude grounds our being, our living, our doing. It informs how we view ourselves and the manner in which we strive to fulfill ourselves. A Trinitarian spiritual perspective is centered in the overflowing ecstatic abundant gift of Love and the embrace of God's loving communion. Such spirituality augments our ability to taste and see God's divine life in our lives. A Trinity-informed spirituality leads us to experience deep communion in our lives - communion with God, with each other and all of creation.
5.4 Achieving Full Christian Living
LaCugna advocates the adoption of a Trinitarian way of life. She argues that the doctrine of the Trinity provides more than just a way of thinking or speaking about God - the Trinity is a model for our lives. The vision of the Trinity as a communion of love
164 Ibid, 408. ,65 Ibid, 409. 166 Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (New York: Orbis, 2000), 132. 60 calls us to a certain way of living directed towards the telos of our existence and ultimate destiny. LaCugna emphasizes that the doctrine of the Trinity is not only about God's life, but also our lives and how we are called to share God's life together with others and all of creation. LaCugna asserts that the doctrine of the Trinity is profoundly illustrative of
God's plan for humanity and creation:
The doctrine of the Trinity is a way of contemplating the mystery of God
and of ourselves, a heuristic framework for thinking correctly about God
and about ourselves in relation to God...It is also the framework for
reflecting on the nature of the human person, on the relationship between
humankind and all creatures of the earth, on the relationship between
ourselves and God.
LaCugna maintains that ecclesial life needs to witness to Trinitarian life.
Accordingly communion is to be an identifying Christian church characteristic. LaCugna is adamant that our collective Christian lives need to reflect God's life: "the church [is to be] the visible sign...of the divine-human communion and the communion of all creatures".168 Ecclesial life is to be distinctively community-oriented, directed to the other. This fosters a deep sense of belonging for the people of God. The visible message portrayed by such people is that they live as a caring compassionate community on earth, grounded in the communion of God's love. LaCugna envisions the Trinity as a concrete model for a Christian faith community:
The Trinity is not an abstract teaching about God apart from us, but a
teaching about God's life with us and our life with each other... [ecclesial
167 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 379-80. 168 Ibid., 401. 61
life] is not [about] an abstract church but...the actual gathering of
persons...on the way toward the full realization of God's life; communion
is an eschatological hope.169
LaCugna views sacramental life as an integral aspect of ecclesial life. The celebration of the sacraments opens us up to the power of the Holy Spirit and enables us to be deified - to conform our living and loving to that of Christ. Through the sacraments we share more deeply in God's life; God's life embellishes our life. We grow in and through God and fulfill our humanity. Sacraments make available "God's grace and presence...transforming us from death into life, from impersonal life into triune life...[and] empower us to live in right relationship with God, with ourselves, with others".170
LaCugna views praise as an intrinsic aspect of being a human being, a Christian person. In fact, she maintains our entire life should be an act of giving praise. Giving praise (doxology) is "the animating power of right relationship...[and] we are in right relationship when we give God glory".171 LaCugna asserts that praise flows from a
Trinitarian understanding of God. If God is loving communion reaching out in relationship to humanity, then our 'natural' and appropriate response is to give praise - to rejoice and thank God for being God-for-us. Praise giving often occurs in a communal setting and thus has the 'power' of actualizing right relationship; it makes us right with
God and with each other. Praise is Trinitarian in nature inasmuch as praise giving is an imitation of Jesus giving praise to the Father in the power of the Spirit. Praise is
169 Ibid., 403. 170 Ibid., 404. 171 Ibid., 346. 172 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 339; Catherine LaCugna, "Making the Most of Trinity Sunday", Worship 60 (1986): 224. 62 grounded in the reality of the communion within the Trinity and the realization of communion with others and all creation. This desire and need to give praise to God is proclaimed in the words of the psalmist:
Acclaim God, all the earth.
Sing psalms to the glory of his name
glorify him with your praises.173
Similarly LaCugna advocates that our sexuality be viewed in a Trinitarian perspective. She suggests that "sexuality broadly defined is the capacity for relationship, for ecstasis...an icon of who God is". Accordingly sexuality is an essential part of our personhood. It informs our ability to relate to others, and imbues our desire for communion with others. Sexuality is a life-force that "enables persons to live from and for others... iconic of divine life... [in keeping with] the very nature of the triune God".175
Sexuality is a gift of God and reflects God's life in us.
In the mode of the Trinity, our sexuality needs to be celebrated as part of the wonder of who we are. Our sexuality reminds us of the mystery of God, the mystery of our human existence and the mystery of universal communion. LaCugna states that
"sexuality can be a sacred means of becoming divinized by the Spirit of God...a vital path of holiness".176 In this way Trinitarian theology calls us to view sexuality as a critical component of God's economy; that is, it was essential that God make us male and female. This speaks to the reality that men and women need each other. To grow spiritually, fulfilling God's divine plan, men and women are called to mutually support
173 Psalm 66: 1-2 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 174 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 407. 175 Ibid, 407. 176 Ibid., 407. 63 each other in the search for communion with God. God desires men and women to fully utilize their sexuality as gift to fulfill humanity's potential and the potential of all creation. Human sexuality is ultimately 'fulfilled' in communion with God, in communion with others, and in communion with all of creation.
Downey identifies guidelines for full Christian living. He believes that with such endeavours individuals come to realize the fullness of life:
Disciplines of the Christian spiritual life have as their purpose God's
greater glory, which is realized all the more as we are brought in, and
through...fuller communion with the living God, who is Love, named
Father, Son, Spirit.177
For example, Downey portrays prayer with Trinitarian hues, seeing prayer as the
"movement of the human heart toward ever fuller participation in the life of God".178 He maintains that "the deepest...prayer is a communion in the Spirit...to build the Body of
Christ in the church and the world".179 Downey does not advocate one method of prayer over another. Rather he presents prayer generically as a means of communicating with
God, providing the foundation of mutual knowledge, understanding, and intimate relationship. Downey reminds us that prayer is a response to God's love - God is the initiator and the teacher of prayer. Prayer is gift and the appropriate posture for prayer is quiet, patient anticipation. Over time prayer offers the assured opportunity for enhancing one's relationship with God. Downey directs that prayer to be Trinitarian needs to focus on the nature of God: a fecund, ecstatic, abundant communion of love.
Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (New York: Orbis, 2000), 137. Ibid., 123. 64
Downey emphasizes that one's relationship with God is supported and encouraged by Christian community. It is through communal prayer, worship and sacramental celebration that we come closer to our Trinitarian God: by sharing in the mission of Christ and Spirit in a community of discipleship one grows in fuller communion in the one Love.180 Downey cautions that the authentic Christian journey is not individualistic, "concerned with the solitary journey with introspection or with self-
i Of perfection". Accordingly he advocates that it is not efficacious to journey alone - we need companions and companions need us. It is imperative for us to reach out to others and allow others to reach out to us. Being in community enables one to be part of the
Body of Christ. In being with others and serving others we become conformed to Christ.
We are called to do the will of God and to help fulfill the Reign of God here and now. Living a fully Christian life warrants prudent discernment of how best we can serve
God, how we can best utilize our God-given gifts and talents. Downey sees these actions as essential to an authentic Christian living. By fulfilling God's will for us, we deepen our relationship with God. Discernment demands a proper disposition:
In our revitalized Trinitarian perspective, obedience (which in its
etymology means "to listen to" or "to hear") requires attentiveness to the
Word and to the Spirit active and present in a multiplicity of voices and
events and in the lives of all those who live in communion as Christ's
Body in the Spirit.182
Downey maintains that there is no one way to serve God. Each of us is a unique expression of God's love and there is no one quite like us. Therefore the manner in 180 Ibid., 104. 181 Ibid., 104. 182 Ibid., 110. 65 which we serve God and enter into relationship with God have their own personal characteristic. Our task is to come to know our own giftedness - a task realized with the help of others. At the same time we need to come to a realization and acceptance of where God wants us to be. Being one with God's wishes for our being is instrumental in experiencing communion:
Vocation...is a way of presencing Christ and the Spirit, rendering present
the mystery of the three in one Love in a particular and irreplicable
manner...Different people participate in different ways in the communion
in one Love, thereby rendering the mystery concrete in a rich range of life
forms. ,83
Ultimately, in our chosen way of life (i.e. vocation), we are called to respond to
God's love and to give God glory. Trinitarian spirituality, in focusing on God's ecstatic love for us and all creation, invites us to reciprocate God's love fully and authentically.
As Downey asserts, "it is precisely...in our own ecstasis, our own ecstatic out-pouring life in love, in response to God's loving ecstasis through Christ in the Spirit...that God is glorified". Discernment and vocation, in the context of a Trinitarian spirituality, is ordered to communion with God and to fostering a reciprocal communion with others.
Scripture reveals to us the God-man Jesus who, through His life, death and resurrection reveals to us the Trinitarian nature of God. Scripture is the Word of God, revealing to us God's nature and God's desire for relationship. An essential aspect of developing a way of life inspired by the Trinity is engaging with Scripture. By doing so, we enter into the story of God's covenant with humanity and into God's own story. The
Ibid., 108. Ibid., 107. 66 more we engage with the Biblical narrative, the more the story becomes part of our own story. Scripture is a gift from God that reveals the gift of all gifts: God's unfailing love for humanity and all creation.
Scripture enables us to enter into the mystery: we become immersed in the communion that is God and the communion that is the plan of God. The Word of God is
God's self-communication with humanity. We honor God speaking to us, by devoting ourselves to His Word. God's Word is invitatory - by His Word we come to know God and the communion of God. We respond to God's invitation by reverencing His Word and embracing His communion.
Thus Scripture is a critical foundation for authentic Christian living. The profound contemplation of God's Word opens us to God's gaze. Via Scripture, our person engages with the Persons of the Trinity - our being connects with the Original
Communion of Being. Scripture makes present God to us, God for us, God with us; the mystery of God's nature becomes alive to us and in us. Scripture is a pathway to knowing God, to loving God, to being one with God. Scripture reveals the glorious
Communion of God and enables us to be-in-communion with God, each other and all the world.
5.5 Summarizing Thoughts
LaCugna and Downey are complementary in their reverence for the Trinity and their advocacy of Trinitarian-inspired living. Similarly they both embrace communion as the state of right relationship - it is the communion within the Trinity that offers the model for right Christian living. Collectively they set out a pathway that leads towards the attainment of this deep relationship with God, each other and all creation. 67
LaCugna's focus is the economy of salvation. This is where God is revealed to us and we enter into the mystery of God's communion. If building a relationship with God is like climbing a mountain, then communion is reaching the summit. Clearly this height of relationship is not to be secured without sustained effort, if not struggle. Nevertheless
LaCugna invites us to become engaged and assume the challenge. She wants us to live the full Christian life, as active ecclesial members, in full support of each other.
Communion for LaCugna is the culmination of our being, of our lives - this experience of deep relationship is to be the focal point of our existence. LaCugna's life vision is predicated on her ontology of personhood. "To-be" for us is "to-be-in- communion". Moreover, LaCugna sees sexuality as a consummate part of our person, as gift to explore and enhance our experience of communion. She asserts that our sexuality needs to be viewed in Trinitarian terms, as part of God's mysterious plan that all will be one. Sexuality is God's genius to bring us together, to help build community, to aid one another along the journey.
Our life fulfillment lies in communion. Achieving this human telos demands adopting the right attitude. LaCugna identifies doxology, the act of giving praise to God, as the epitome of right attitudinal living. Furthermore doxology is not only right action but actualizes right relationship. Doxology is rooted in giving God thanks and praise for all the many blessings received. Doxology is acknowledgement of God's plenitude - that human existence is altogether gift, which is the core of Downey's spiritual vision.
Downey offers deep insight into Trinitarian spirituality that leads to communion with God. He offers a cohesive perspective that all is gift, that intimacy with God is found in embracing and living God's gift par excellence, God's Communion of Love. 68
His text is poignant, encouraging us that God is a God of relationship, and that God reaches out to humanity in a loving, lasting embrace. Downey asserts that the Trinitarian nature of God invites humanity into communion - the pinnacle of God's covenant, God's purpose, and plan for all creation. In short, the fulfillment of the human project is eternal loving relationship with God.
Downey offers the hope that indeed communion is open to all, but that each individual experiences communion in a unique personal way. Christ is integral to our human pathway to communion with God. The challenge is to adhere to Christian values and discipline, thereby conforming ourselves to Christ. Trinitarian spirituality is rooted in the hopeful, prayerful, patient aspiration towards deep relationship with God. A spirituality informed by the Trinity provides an efficacious disposition towards communion. It is a spirituality that is grounded in the belief that communion-with-God is a gift above all gifts, bestowed by Christ in the power of the Spirit. 69
Some Objections
LaCugna's passion and conviction about the central importance of the Trinity for
Christian living is admirable. However the question can be asked: does her impassioned rhetoric translate into a readily lived reality? Certainly LaCugna makes a strong case for the practicality of the Trinity - the potential for the Trinity to inspire a deep Christian life. However it is debatable whether such a goal is attainable by the 'average' Christian.
The issue is one of efficacy - is there a reasonable opportunity for her Trinitarian theology to foster inspired Christian living, to achieve the relationship of communion?
One may be inclined to view with a degree of skepticism LaCugna's contention that her revitalized theology would inspire renewed Christian living. First, there is the challenge or hurdle of convincing people of the relevance of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity has been 'out of mind' for the average Christian so long that initially a certain reluctance toward active engagement with the doctrine can be anticipated. Secondly, the doctrine of the Trinity is associated with a given abstractness not easily grasped; similarly the nature of the Trinity is in the realm of mystery, with a theological lexicon beyond lay
Christian understanding. Thirdly, LaCugna's vision is engulfed in matters of lofty relationships - human-divine communion - and may appear idealistic, bearing no resemblance to the realities of modern life. Finally, humanity's general attitude towards creation is characterized by a sense of superiority, undermining the concept of communion with all of creation. It is true that there is a growing human sensitivity to creation, but it can be suggested that this is reflective of only a certain segment of the population. 70
Notwithstanding the above, there is a strength to LaCugna's vision. LaCugna has constructed her theology prudently, demonstrating the unity between oikonomia and theologia, developing a rich ontology of personhood and offering a deep apophatic understanding of the 'knowing' and 'unknowing' of God. She defines a broad array of the redeeming possibilities that a revitalized theology of the Trinity could and should have for our lives of faith. Clearly there is a convincing breadth and depth to LaCugna's theological enterprise. As well, there is definite credibility to her defined objective - to make accessible the mystery of God's Trinitarian nature - since her assessment of the irrelevance of the doctrine of the Trinity for Christians is unfortunately accurate.
An endeavor of spiritual enhancement, influencing the manner in which
Christians choose to live their lives, extends beyond the normal parameters of theological contemplation. This pragmatic purpose of LaCugna's theology is rooted in her lived experience of striving to live an authentic Christian life. There is a certain degree of realism in LaCugna's perspective:
Anyone who contemplates the mystery of God revealed in Christ and the
mystery of the creature poised in the encounter with God, confronts the
mystery of existence in all its ambiguity: the inseparability of love and
suffering; the unanticipated obstacles to achieving genuine communion
with others; the inscrutability of personal decisions and actions; the
difficulties and fruits of intimacy with God; the subtle and destructive
power of sin; the profound need for divine forgiveness and mercy; the 71
longings that go unmet; the doubts over whether God exists or can be
found anywhere. So much of life painfully awaits completion.
LaCugna's theological enterprise, culminating in God For Us, has generated considerable discussion particularly amongst the Catholic community in North
America.186 Such 'popularity' is admirable in that it draws attention to the theology of the Trinity and its implications for Christian living. Nevertheless, popular debate is not necessarily equivalent to efficacy. What is more substantive is the adoption of her theological insights for the development of effective catechesis. The spiritual handbook by Michael Downey represents an efficacious application of LaCugna's Trinitarian theology.187
Originally intended as a joint endeavour (LaCugna's serious illness and untimely death prevented the collaboration), Downey's monograph advocates a spirituality that is grounded in her theology. Within this proposed Trinitarian spirituality there is a consistency with LaCugna's theological premise: God's innate relationality and the meaning it has for our life. Downey outlines a pathway to communion utilizing
LaCugna's theological insights; the spirituality as offered is constructive and advantageous, underlining the effective utility of LaCugna's theology.
Efficacy cannot always be attributable to a sole individual. LaCugna's efficacious contribution is the result of cumulative impact and appropriate timing. LaCugna's pivotal text came at a time when there was already a re-awakening of interest in the doctrine of the Trinity. The efforts of major theologians such as Rahner, Moltmann, and
Barth, as well as those with a feminist perspective like McFague, paved the way for
185 Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 410. 186 Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (New York: Orbis, 2000), 12. '87 Michael Downey, Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian Spirituality (New York: Orbis, 2000). 72
LaCugna. In other words the efficacy of her work may have been indirectly augmented by the efforts of other theologians. This in no way detracts from the merits of her theological enterprise; it merely sets a context that recognizes the significant contribution of other theologians.
Similarly efficacy can evolve over time. LaCugna directed her theological enterprise toward a pragmatic problem: the irrelevance of the doctrine of Trinity to contemporary Christians. LaCugna's thought-provoking thesis proved to be a worthwhile contribution in the midst of renewed discussion about the Trinity in Western theology.
Her work fostered the work of others in the area of Trinitarian theology. Her theology was also efficacious in fostering Downey's handbook on Trinitarian spirituality and authentic Christian living. This occurred some nine years after her seminal text was completed. I suggest, therefore that the efficacy of her theological contribution continues to unfold. In my view the full impact of her work has yet to be realized: her Trinitarian vision and advocacy for deep Christian living may bear fruit for years to come.
6.1 Bracken's View
Joseph Bracken wrote a review in 1992 of LaCugna's text God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life.1 8 While Bracken acknowledges that LaCugna's enterprise was reasonably successful, it is apparent that he does not fully concur with her theological point of view. In the interest of fulfilling the purposes of my thesis, it is my intention to use Bracken as a counterpoint to LaCugna. First, I will share the essence of his book
Joseph Bracken, "Review of God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life by Catherine LaCugna", Theological Studies 53 (1992): 558-560. 73 review; secondly, I will offer an overview of Bracken's own philosophical/theological thinking. This will be achieved by examining his book, The Triune Symbol.
6.1.1 Bracken's Review of LaCugna's Text
Bracken's review acknowledges that LaCugna has "succeeded in presenting an understanding of the Trinity which is readily intelligible to most Christians".190 Bracken is also accepting of LaCugna's contention that "the doctrine of the Trinity must be better integrated with soteriology, the rest of systematic theology...the prayer life of the
Church".191 His review generally indicates that LaCugna provides a constructive
"assessment of classical models for the doctrine of the Trinity...[and] is carefully researched and clearly written".192
Notwithstanding the above remarks, Bracken ultimately objects to the model that
LaCugna proposes. Bracken characterizes LaCugna's theological enterprise as a "new model for the God-world relationship".193 Although he agrees that the central issue of the irrelevance of the Trinity to most Christians is significant, Bracken concludes that the model falls short of solving the problem.
Bracken, in his review, also criticizes LaCugna's views regarding Rahner's
Trinitarian theology. He remarks that "I have serious misgivings with her proposal to drop the immanent and economic Trinities".195 Bracken is concerned that without such a distinction "the reality of God will... be absorbed into the reality of human history... [as it
189 Joseph Bracken, The Triune Symbol (Lanham: University Press of America, 1985). 190 Joseph Bracken, "Review of Godfor Us: The Trinity and Christian Life by Catherine LaCugna", Theological Studies 53 (1992): 559. 191 Ibid., 559. 192 Ibid., 560. 193 Ibid., 558. 194 Ibid., 558. 195 Ibid., 560. 74 is essential] to maintain the fundamental difference between the divine and the human levels of existence".196
In my view, these latter remarks of Bracken warrant comment. Although
LaCugna takes issue with the second half of Rahner's axiom, she in fact adopts much of
Rahner's theology. As noted previously LaCugna accepts the first part of Rahner's axiom: the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity. It is the reverse that is problematic for her i.e. the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity. (LaCugna asserts that this reverse statement implies that it is possible to offer statements about the nature of God, by examining the intra-divine realm of God.) Thus it is not entirely accurate to suggest that LaCugna wants to drop the economic and immanent Trinities. However it is true that
LaCugna gives preference to her own principle: the correlation of the mystery of oikonomia and the mystery of theologia.
Bracken also underlines that he has "reservations about LaCugna's designating the Father as the person/principle from whom all other entities...emerge".197 In his mind this theological approach "raises questions about the necessary transcendence of God vis a-vis the world process".198 It is here that we hear the bias of Bracken's own thinking.
As we will see, Bracken's central 'truth' is community, not person, and his lens is that of process philosophy, not speculative theology.
6.2 Bracken's The Triune Symbol
Bracken's book illustrates his philosophical perspective, revealing what underpins his comments within the review noted above. The objective in exploring Bracken's
196 Ibid., 560. 197 Ibid., 560. 198 Ibid., 560. 75 thoughts is to provide a contradistinction to LaCugna's vision. Clearly there are marked contrasts between LaCugna for whom the ontology of person is central and Bracken who sees community as the higher ontology.
Essentially Bracken maintains that "to be a person is to belong to a community"199 as in his mind "the ideas of person and community...are one complex idea.200 Community for Bracken is a central reality, both within the human context as well as the broader realm of creation. Bracken's frame of reference is process philosophy, where realities are in flux, that is, in a process of evolving. Given this philosophical framework, Bracken submits that "process not substance is the first category of being or existence". For LaCugna, in contrast, there is always a 'giveness' to God that is always already proceeding into the process of relating. God's being and substance are not separate realities in/for God.
Bracken advises that the purpose of his book is "to set forth a processive and communitarian understanding of contemporary Christian belief'.202 He focuses on the
Trinity as a central Christian belief and on the quintessential importance of community.
Bracken, like LaCugna, is interested in engaging Christians about the Trinity. However his world-view is dramatically different. Bracken applies process philosophy to expound the social aspect of all reality.
The intention here is not an in-depth review of Bracken's framework but rather to focus on his thoughts about community. Bracken perceives community as a separate reality that changes in accordance with on-going "interpretation", that is, dialogue among
199 Joseph Bracken, The Triune Symbol (Lanham: University Press of America, 1985), 17. 200 Ibid., 15. 201 Ibid., 16. 76 its constituent members. Through this lens, community is a highly social process that engages members in making meaning of their existence. Bracken elevates the importance of community, seeing it as the highest social reality. "I believe that reality... is processive and that community is the highest form of process, since it...constitutes the life of God".203
In keeping with the above, Bracken sees church as quintessentially community:
"through...continuous exchange...as to the real meaning of the Gospel message,
Christians keep alive the truth.. .as members of a given congregation".204 Through such a process church members come to understand who they are and why they are in the context of their membership in their congregational community. In this way the Christian milieu is essentially and critically communal; Christians co-exist in community and derive meaning about their lives communally. "Members are...interpreting to one another...the truth of their being as a [Christian] community, what it means to each of them to be a member of... [a Christian] community".205
Bracken articulates a world-view based on this processive concept of community.
For Bracken, community is constitutive of existence and the principal truth. Life is centred in community; it is community, and life within community that affords meaning to life. Bracken's vision entails "communities of interpretation in various stages of development.. .everywhere in modern life.. .all part of a single world-wide Community of
Interpretation of which God or the Spirit... is the chief Interpreter".206
Ibid., 20. Ibid., 147. Ibid., 147. Ibid., 145. 77
The pinnacle of Bracken's world-view is the Trinity: "the three persons are...the ultimate Community of Interpretation".207 Bracken envisions human communities as an integrated network across the globe forming part of the divine community. In accordance with this vision "human beings through...interaction with one another are indirectly sharing in the never-ending dialogue between the Father, the Son and the Spirit".
6.3 The Value of His Vision
Bracken's metaphysical framework affords a striking communitarian view of human existence. With the perspective of process philosophy, he underscores the communal nature of existence. Human persons are first and foremost members of communities, and through membership in such communities, are constantly re-interpreting life-meaning.
Bracken views the Trinity as a community-in-process engaging human communities in dialogue with Father, Son and Spirit. Together, the Trinity and humanity re-interpret the meaning of all creation.
There is a particular strength to Bracken's vision; it addresses the modern problem of excessive individuality. Modern culture celebrates individual effort and achievement, and strict interpersonal competition is normative. Religion is not free of the issue of self-centeredness: salvation becomes individualized, devoid of the need of the community. The modern view of existence is individual-centered not community centered. The common good has been usurped by individual well-being. Bracken's communitarian thinking serves to overcome this modern dis-orientation.
On the other hand, Bracken's vision adds another layer of complexity to our existence and Christian lives. The assertion that community is a higher ontological
207 Ibid., 145. 78 reality seems to superimpose an added element to the human person. Such metaphysics would detract from the innate goodness of the human person, implying that the human person is good, but a community of persons is a higher good. Furthermore it would seem to call for a reformulation of the statement that the human person is made in the image of
God. Presumably the norms of process theology would maintain that the person-in- community is made in the image of God-in-community. Does this require a re- interpretation of the notion that each person is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Is a person only a dwelling place of the Spirit in community with others? Similarly Bracken's ontology would seem to impact our understanding of the humanity of Christ: was Christ only human insofar as He was a person-in-community? Consequently, Bracken's process philosophy perspective, even though it fosters a worthwhile communitarian world-view, seems to place significant qualifications on what is means to be human and what it means for Christ to be human.
6.4 Re-focusing on LaCugna
As noted previously, the purpose of examining Bracken was to offer a counterpoint to LaCugna. LaCugna is successful in making the Trinity more accessible.
LaCugna achieves this by offering an intelligible ontology of the person that is comprehensible to contemporary Christians. LaCugna is 'personal' and passionate in her writing and thus is, I believe, readable and engaging. In contrast, I submit that Bracken's thoughts are opaque, immersed in process philosophy, and not always easy to understand.
LaCugna's theology has appeal to the modern Christian in that it underscores the relationality of God. Contemporary society is plagued with anonymity and a sense of aloneness. Her theology of a relational God who self-communicates and desires 79 communion with all of humanity and the whole of creation resonates with the plight of the modern person. Her vision is poignant, relevant, meaningful; it speaks to the heart, touches the soul, affords a hopeful image of God and of existence. She addresses a substantive problem: the contemporary irrelevance of the doctrine of the Trinity. In tackling this issue LaCugna gives new meaning and vitality to living as a Christian. 80
Conclusion
It is the aim of this thesis to explore revitalized Trinitarian theology as a means towards right relationship with God, others and all creation. Catherine LaCugna, in her theology, asserts that communion is normative within divine-human relationship. Her assertion is grounded in the innate relationality of God revealed in the economy of salvation.
LaCugna does not stand alone in her assertion. Her voice is one of many that cherish the Trinity and want this doctrine of the Christian faith to reclaim its meaning and centrality. LaCugna is ardent in her endeavour to revitalize Trinitarian theology, asserting that the Trinity can inspire a deep Christian living.
Despite her death at an early age, I submit that Catherine LaCugna's contribution to Trinitarian theology has been noteworthy and I do believe her work has a definite sustainability. Her thoughts resonate with our era, offering an image of God that in my view is appealing to Christians in the twenty-first century. It is not that LaCugna sets out to 'popularize' the Trinity - it is more that she aims to personalize it.
It is true that for all too long the Doctrine of the Trinity has been lost to most
Christians because of its obscurity in dense theology and focus on God's internal nature.
Accordingly, Catherine LaCugna does serve the church well in providing a more engaging understanding of the Trinity and its meaning for our lives. As noted, a colleague and would-be collaborator, Michael Downey, complements and augments her theological enterprise. He enables LaCugna to advance Trinitarian living posthumously. 81
7.1 The Substance of LaCugna's Contribution
By way of summation, it is instructive to recall a number of significant aspects of
LaCugna's contribution. LaCugna writes with passion - she is enamored with the Trinity and is adamant about its central importance to Christian living. She writes in accordance with what she believes deeply, and the strength of her conviction is evident in her writing. Equally there is clarity to her articulation, a consequence of research and the intention to offer an intelligible thesis. This is in keeping with her desire to make the theology of the Trinity more accessible.
LaCugna's ontology of person is at the heart of her theology. Unlike Moltmann and Rahner, Lacugna embraces the notion of person within the Trinity. LaCugna maintains that God is relational because God is personal. This ontology applies equally to the human person, for to be a person entails being in relation with others. Thus in accordance with God's nature and our human nature we are oriented toward relationship.
LaCugna believes that the pinnacle of relationship is communion, a deep abiding of one with another. The model of communion is the Trinity; Trinitarian communion offers the epitome of divine-human relationship. Within the context of the economy of salvation, God self-communicates God's desire to be one with humanity. This oneness of communion is grounded in our unity with Christ. The process of unification with Christ is empowered by the Spirit and entails our being deified or becoming more like Christ. It is through communion with Christ that we enter into Trinitarian communion, and are in communion also with the Father, and the Holy Spirit. For LaCugna (and Downey) communion constitutes the right relationship which Christ exemplifies. 82
Right relationship with God leads us into right relationship with others and creation. Through our being in communion with Christ or being one with Christ, we come to be in communion with others. Our communion with others is actualized through
Christ and the power of the Spirit. Inter-human communion does not come about through our direct interpersonal efforts, but rather through the communion of Christ with all others. Therefore Christ is the central person of inter-human communion: communion with Christ leads us to communion with one another. Similarly, communion with creation comes about through communion with Christ in the power of the Spirit. Just as creation comes to be through Christ, our communion with creation comes to be through Christ.
Communion for LaCugna is the essence of our eschatological hope. As the author of Ephesians writes, all things in heaven and earth will be one under the head of Christ.209
LaCugna envisions this oneness as universal communion; all of creation, including humanity, shall be one in God. Such a vision of the end times is consistent with her theology of God's innate relationality, and is fortuitous in offering contemporary
Christians a hope-filled vision at a time when perhaps our hopefulness is lacking.
LaCugna maintains that the correlation of oikonomia with theologia is of vital importance. It is through the unity of these two mysteries that we hold on to the truth about the Triune God. God reveals Godself in the economy of salvation pro nobis, not in the internality of God in se. LaCugna insists that source of the irrelevance of the
Trinity for modern Christians lies in the abstract theology of the intra-divine nature of
God. To avoid this long-standing problematic she suggests that our contemplation of theologia must be integrally linked to contemplation of oikonomia. As noted, she gives primacy to oikonomia, for our understanding of theologia is solely grounded in our
209 Eph 1:10 (New Jerusalem Bible Standard Edition). 83 understanding of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy
Spirit. That is to say, that we come to know God through the life and love of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Spirit.
LaCugna's adopted task is to bridge theology with spirituality - to influence how people live out their Christian vocation.210 Downey becomes a partner in this mission; his spirituality is endowed with LaCugna's vision. He too believes that a revitalized
Trinitarian theology can evoke renewed Christian living. Their asynchronous collaboration is fruitful and allows LaCugna's influence to be extended. There is strong congruity to their joint proclamation of God's innate relationality and their advocacy of communion and right relationship. Although separate in time, their voices combine to portray an engaging common vision of God and the telos of human existence.
It is not so much that LaCugna is innovative - it is perhaps more that she is faithful. The genius of her enterprise lies in synthesis: the ability to honor and draw from those who have come before her. In so doing, Catherine LaCugna creates a 'new' mosaic of God's image and concurrently sheds light on our lives and the potential for deep relationship with God. In an era where spirituality is in vogue, her approach may have added currency. LaCugna directs her efforts outside the normal parameters of theology into this realm of contemporary culture. Consequently her voice may have more resonance, relative to modern spiritual needs and interests.
7.2 The Issue of Efficacy Revisited
An assessment of the efficacy of LaCugna's theological enterprise has been offered within the context of this thesis. The conclusions were that her theological vision
210 This is highlighted in Elizabeth Groppe, "Catherine Mowry LaCugna's Contribution To Trinitarian Theology", Theological Studies 63 (2002): 755-57. 84 is practical, engaging, and ultimately fulfills desired objectives. Her theological contribution is efficacious for it:
• assists in revitalizing the theology of the Trinity;
• enhances the accessibility and relevancy of the Trinity;
• develops a sound ontology of personhood;
• offers an engaging image of a relational God;
• posits a deep divine-human communion;
• elucidates the concept of right relationship;
• safeguards the correlation between oikonomia and theologia;
• advocates renewed Christian living modeled on the Trinity;
• inspires a deep Trinitarian spirituality;
• extends an eschatological vision filled with hope.
LaCugna sought to influence modern Christian living with her theological vision. She intended to co-author a text on Trinitarian spirituality, informed by her theology. Due to her early death, Michael Downey produced this book on his own. Downey attributes this endeavour in large measure to LaCugna - its inspiration and formulation lies in
LaCugna's vision of Trinitarian communion. The text highlights the practicality of the
Trinity, and espouses a spiritual pathway to a lived communion. Downey's monograph is a concrete extension of LaCugna's theology, thereby accentuating its efficacy. Clearly
LaCugna's theology has the potency to foster metanoia, leading towards right relationship.
LaCugna, as an ardent Catholic theologian, strove to enhance how fellow
Christians might live their faith. Effectively, her reach was beyond Catholic boundaries. 85
LaCugna offered a vibrant theology that espouses communion as normative between
God, humanity, and all creation. LaCugna held out Universal Communion as the ultimate hope, where all will be in God and God will be in all. Her vision is efficacious and addresses a need for a deep personal spirituality.
7.3 In Praise of Communion
All things considered, the notion that we are called into relationship with God is indeed awe-inspiring. If one is inclined to accept the prospects of divine-human relationship as proposed by revitalized Trinitarian theology, it has the potential of being life altering. A doctrine of the Trinity that espouses a fully personal, relational God can become once again a central tenet of our faith and our Christian lives. Such a vision is fundamentally in keeping with the simple affirmation, as proclaimed in John's epistle, that God is love.
To know that one is unconditionally loved, that one is the beloved of God, is to know and experience a critical Christian truth. If this knowledge is a firm unwavering conviction then one is on the way towards an abiding relationship with God. The metaphor of 'journey' is commonly utilized in speaking about spiritual development. It can also apply to the process of relationship building. Coming to a deep realization of
God's love for us is an initial step in the journey of becoming close to God, of having a redeeming, affirming, liberating relationship with God.
Thus a sense of communion with God finds as its origin a deep knowledge of
God's love. It is this personal knowledge that moves us towards a deeper relationship and intimacy with God. As noted above, it is akin to a journey and LaCugna and Downey advise that the journey demands certain Christian discipline, ecclesial support, and 86 sacramental vigor. But the experience of an ever-enriching relationship with God engenders perseverance along the way.
This journey of relationship building with God is Spirit-led. Through our
Baptism, and other sacramental events, in our lives the Spirit comes to dwell within us.
As Jesus tells us, the Spirit is a counselor, an advocate on our behalf. The Spirit helps us come to 'know' God and grow in our relationship with God. The Spirit can gift us with song and strength for the journey. Through Jesus, with the power of the Spirit, we enter
Trinitarian communion.
The prospect of communion with God is invigorating. It is an ideal of relationship that inspires. LaCugna's theology frames the aspiration; Downey's spirituality offers a pathway towards it. However one might ask - dare one have hope for full communion with God? We might fear it is not possible since only 'saints' are perceived to achieve elevated states of union and intimacy. Nevertheless Downey reassures us that communion constitutes a range of experiences. Accordingly this is encouraging, as the prospect of communion, even at a rudimentary level, is personally fulfilling and gratifying.
The belief in the possibility of communion with God is filled with joy. Such joy provides light for our journey, illuminating the telos of our existence. To believe in such a relationship with God gives our lives new meaning, gives us new life. To be in communion with God is to share in God's life. Sharing in God's Trinitarian life places us in right relationship with ourselves, each other, and all creation.
The vision of communion holds the eschatological hope that the perichoretic love relationship of the Trinity will embrace all of God's creation, in the fullness of time. All 87 will be one in communion with God. That is God's will and the fulfillment of God's economy of salvation. God invites us into a love relationship with God that is communion. Revitalized Trinitarian theology confirms this vision, and calls us to conform our lives to Christ to enter a deep relationship with God for ever. Eternal communion with God and all creation is the hope-filled eschaton of our Christian faith.
Communion is an entry into mystery, for God is the ultimate mystery. Similarly human existence is mystery and is encompassed in God's mystery. Thus mystery is part of the human experience and is to be embraced not shunned. Mystery enriches our lives by calling us forth, leading us deeper into relationship. Knowing and not knowing is constitutive of the experience of mystery. We must be comfortable with both as the evolution of our relationship with God demands it. Moreover, in the presence of God's mystery, we become moved to holy silence. Our unknowing of God is ensconced in the absence of words, thoughts, images - a deep reverential response to the Divine mystery.
The gift of communion with God and all creation is a cause for celebration. Such a celebratory disposition, rooted in Trinitarian Communion, hopefully is pervasive, filling our entire lives. Would God cherish such a human reaction? I believe so. John records
Jesus' first miracle at a wedding feast - He ensures that the celebration was not disrupted by a shortage of wine. Scripture is also replete with images of a heavenly banquet of
'wonderful food' proffered by God's abundance. Communion is a state of ultimate divine-human fulfillment, part of our journey towards salvation where we will feast on the fullness of God's life. Having attained such lasting relationship with the Creator and all creation, we are moved to rejoice, praise God and celebrate together. 88
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