The Triune God
Sunday, August 27, 2023
5:55 PM
Summary of 
Placher, William. Narratives of a Vulnerable God: Christ, Theology, and Scripture. Louisville, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994.
The starting point for Placher's understanding of the Triune God is to challenge the traditional starting point of describing a God as Pantocrator--God Almighty--but rather to begin with the revelation of God in Jesus Christ who comes to humanity as a vulnerable God.  He writes, "It is not that Christians know God first, and then have to add something about the Trinity, but that Christians come to know God precisely as triune: the Logos incarnate in Jesus, the one whom Jesus called Father, and the Holy Spirit" (p. 55). He intentionally begins with the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, suggesting that the Creed also focuses more on Jesus Christ.  He suggests that we would not be considering God, much less the Trinity were it not for God's own self-revelation in Jesus Christ.  
Additionally, Placher writes that understanding the doctrine of the Trinity as a way of discussing God's vulnerability directs us to think more specifically about the ethical implications, "If we Christian understand the doctrine of the Trinity aright, we well realize that it implies that God is not about power and self-sufficiency and the assertion of authority, but about mutuality and equality and love." (p. 55).  
Robert Wilken, Professor of Christian History at the University of Virginia, wrote "The doctrine of the Trinity reaches to the deepest recesses of the soul and helps us know the majesty of God's presence and the mystery of his love.  Love is the most authentic mark of the Christian life, and love among humans, or within God, requires community with others and a sharing of the deepest kind" (from "The Resurrection of Jesus and the Doctrine of the Trinity," Word and World, volume 2, issue 1, Winter 1982, p. 28).  
He summarizes theology by Catholic Theologian Karl Rahner that we have two ways of thinking of the Trinity--the Immanent Trinity and the Economic (don't think finances) Trinity.  The Immanent Trinity is the description of God as three-in-one God within God's own nature.  It is an attempt to describe God as though God held up a mirror and we could peer over and look.  The Economic Trinity is "what gets described in the biblical accounts of God's self-revelation--Jesus the Christ, the Father to whom he prayed, and the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts and in the world" (p. 56).  "If the triune way in which God know God does not disclose the triune way in which God really is, then God has not revealed God's own self, and a hidden God remains unknown behind the revealed God" (p. 57).  
Placher engages the feminist critique of the language used to describe the Trinity--Father and Son are both inherently masculine.  The dilemma is real, Father-Son define a relationship between the members of the Trinity.  The most familiar alternative, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, lack this emphasis on the relatedness (community) found within the Trinity.  He speaks appreciatively of the way that Elizabeth Johnson catalogued alternative language for the Trinity in She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse, she demonstrates that while the hypostases (persons) of the Trinity are generally referred to as masculine, there is biblical imagery that speaks of each hypostasis with feminine imagery (NOTE:  Jesus was a man; Christ is not necessarily masculine).  Moreover, she operates from the assumption  that the members of the Trinity each transcend sex and gender.  
"Elizabeth Johnson cites a number of possibilities: primordial Being/expressive Being/unitive Being (John Macquarrie); God's absoluteness/God's humanness/present presence (Gordon Kaufman); love as creative source/self-expressive act/responsive movement (Norman Pittenger); divine being/diving Logos/divine Love (Langdon Gilkey).  These possibilities may seem a bit cumbersome, but they have at least the advantage of not dividing up the work of the Trinity, with one job per person, as does the all-too-common 'Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.'" p. 61, 
"In any event, Christians will be most faithful to the biblical narratives if 'Father' functions, when used, primarily as a symbol of love rather than power" p. 61
"What is important, in regard to the Holy Spirit, is to preserve personhood.  However problematic 'she' or 'he' may be, 'it' is just wrong" (p. 63).  