Explaining the Trinity : A Philosopher's View

Last week was the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. With that in mind, I've been reflecting on a way to explain the Trinity in a manner that gets around the accusations of polytheism.This is how I explain the Trinity as a Roman Catholic Christian (from a logic of paradox). 

Let’s take a man named John. John is essentially one person. However, there are three aspects to John’s identity (to his ‘person): he is a father, a son, and a husband. These three aspects are like three different ‘persons’ or selves to the single man, John. These three aspects are both distinct and intimately related: as a father, John is compassionate, loving, and giving. As a son, he is caring and respectful. As a husband, he is a lover and sensual. With this analogy in mind, let us think about God as a Trinity. God is a Father, as He is revealed within Judaism and Islam: He is just, caring, and wise. But He has also incarnated Himself, as Yahweh or the ‘I Am’, into time and space in the event of the incarnation in order to save us from ourselves – this is God as a ‘Son’: compassionate, merciful, and loving. But why the word ‘Son’ to describe Jesus? If we take that word literally, it would seem like we are saying that Jesus is a distinct ‘God’ from Yahweh. The Catholic Church has many fantastic answers to this. But here is mine. Since God is everywhere all at once, but he also entered time and space through the Incarnation event, ‘Jesus’ is the Spirit of God which flowed ‘from eternity into time’, into our world – hence why Jesus is called the ‘begotten’ Son of God. Think of ‘’begotten Son’ as ‘the spirit of God which flows from God into time and space – One God who simultaneously occupied eternity and temporality (through the physical body of Jesus). This is not a biological sonship; but rather, ‘a flowing’ or ‘emerging’, where God, while still existing in eternity, also ‘flows’ into temporal time and space through the incarnation event. The moment that the Most Holy Virgin Mary said, ‘Yes’ to God, Yahweh, while remaining in eternity, also ‘flowed’ from eternity into Her womb – it is this ‘flowing’ of God into the world which we call the Divine Person of Jesus. Jesus is a ‘Son of God’ in the sense that Jesus is the Spirit of God that flows from Himself into time, while still existing in eternity – hence the paradox. God as ‘Son’ is therefore more a metaphor for how God flowed ‘from Himself’ into time and space while still remaining in eternity. What about the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the gaze of love that emerges between God as a Father and God as a Son – in other words, the Holy Spirit is the Love of God that emerges from His compassion, mercy, infinite love, and justice. Like John, God is one; but there are different ‘aspects’ to this Oneness of God – what we therefore call the Trinity. In the New Testament, Jesus affirms: “Before Abraham was, I Am”. This denotes that He (Jesus) is the same single Person as Yahweh in the Old Testament – they are not two distinct ‘gods’, but One, single God. ‘Jesus’ is that Part (Aspect) of God’s Personhood that Has come to save us, Who left eternity to enter temporal space, and to sacrifice Himself, His own beating Heart, for us all (while still existing in eternity at the same tine). In the crucifixion of Jesus, we see The I Am sacrificing Himself, His own beating Heart, for us on the cross – a bleeding, literal beating Heart that we receive each time during the Eucharist (Holy Communion) in the Catholic Faith. While I am not a theologian, and perhaps should stick to Philosophy, this is my simple understanding of God as a Trinity.

I hope this helps you,