God is love- a Lenten series 2 Trinity
As a Christian, I confess God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as a triune God with no exact analogy in the physical world. I'm not sure there is an exact analogy in the non-physical or philosophical world either, but St. Augustine uses the great analogy of love. I provide a much longer quote eleven years ago from JND Kelley's book, Early Christian Doctrines, here for more context. In brief, the trinity can be described as the Lover (Father), the Loved (the Son) and the affection between them (the Spirit). Love is only actual when all 3 components are there. Catholic theologian Peter Kreeft notes the interdependence of a theology of a triune God and his essence as love,
This graphic spares me a thousand more words.
Everyone can agree that "God is love", it seems, but the Trinity is a tangled dogma for an esoteric elite, isn't it? No. If God is not a Trinity, God is not love. For love requires three things: a lover, a beloved, and a relationship between them. If God were only one person, he could be a lover, but not love itself. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father, and the Spirit is the love proceeding from both, from all eternity. If that were not so, then God would need us, would be incomplete without us, without someone to love. Then his creating us would not be wholly unselfish, but selfish, from his own need.His essay is worth our time to learn from.
This graphic spares me a thousand more words.
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