Rethinking the Mystery of God: In Relation to You and the World

[CHAPTER 5] Theologians have always talked about how the Father affects the Son, about the eternal generation of the Son by the Father, which makes the Son the Begotten. None has talked much about a reverse, hence mutual, dynamics (δυναμις: power) by which the Son would decisively make the Father the Unoriginate... The unorigination of the Father is what makes the begottenness of the Son possible. The begottenness of the Son is what makes the unorigination of the Father possible. This is the double movement, a mutual relationship. Indeed now more than ever do we need to appreciate the basic mutual dynamics balancing out intra-Trinitarian relationships. The Father is traditionally described as “principal cause” (causa principaliter) or “first among equals” (primus inter pares). But also all Three are “equals among the first”.... …The same principles stated above apply to the Spirit. We so much talk about the dynamics of the Father and the Son (remember that per filium “is” filioque) for the procession of the Holy Spirit. None has yet similarly talked about the dynamics of the Spirit that makes possible the Father as Unoriginate and the Son as Begotten. ... The question of being explores the dynamics of the relationship between the Trinity and Externality. This relationship is contingent since we cannot be on equal terms with God... In the prism then, while in principle each Person occupies a “necessary” point, Externality occupies a point of “contingency”. ... At this juncture we will carry traditional theology a step higher. We accept the movement (which traditional theology considers one-dimensional) from the Father as Unoriginate to the Son as Begotten and from the Father and/through the Son to the Holy Spirit as Procedent. However we have on the contrary successfully established that this movement is reciprocal and multi-dimensional. This clarifies what even traditional theology considers basic. This is the equality and communion in God called perichōrēsis (Greek), circumincessio (Latin) or egalitarian communalism (African). A similar reciprocal movement exists between Externality and each Person. Unorigination, begottenness and procession are all dynamic rather than static concepts. They express different modes of relationship between the Persons. Even if critical questioning succeeds in dissolving the differences between these three concepts, for speculative reasons the differentiation should be maintained. God the Father is unoriginate, without an external source of being outside God. He exists as Father in eternity. God the Son is begotten of the Father in eternity... The Son has no external source of being outside God, the same quality that makes the Father unoriginate. Thus, the Son is equally unoriginate. Neither the Father nor the Son could have begun existing “in time.” But in relation to the Father he is considered begotten. That he is the Begotten is not the heresy “there was when he was not.” Nor to say, “there was an eternity when he was not” since he was begotten in eternity. But that the inner logic of being begotten is equal to the Father’s unorigination but from different perspectives. For similar reasons, God the Holy Spirit is unoriginate but in relation to the Father and the Son he is considered Procedent. No Person preceded the others in existence. This relational difference is similar to that between shutting the eyes for a very long time and sleeping. Although these three relational terms (unoriginate, begotten, procedent) seem to dissolve into one, they are still separable. The Father’s unorigination (Unbegotten: agennetos) is what necessarily makes possible both the Son’s begottenness and the Spirit’s procession. In reciprocation, the begottenness of the Son necessarily makes possible the Father’s unorigination and the Spirit’s procession. Also the procession of the Spirit necessarily makes possible the Father’s unorigination and the Son’s begottenness. In other words, no Person is unoriginate, begotten or procedent in isolation from the others. The other two Persons make each Person possible. This is so decisive that one could say the Son begets the Father and the Spirit; the Spirit proceeds the Father and the Son; and the Father unoriginates the Son and Spirit. ... The Cappadocian theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus declares, “What titles which belong to God are not applied to the Spirit?”121 Let me then propose more rhetorical questions: Who can say the Holy Spirit did not sit at conference with the Father and the Son to discuss the modalities of the procession? [To disagree is to redefine egalitarian communalism in God]. Who would deny the Son was consulted by the Father and the Holy Spirit for a blueprint of begottenness? [Or what again is homoousios and circumincessio?] And who would not sound absurd by claiming that the unorigination of the Father was the Father’s exclusive decision, or the decision of the Son and the Spirit without the Father? [What then is perichōrēsis?]. ... The “triangle of necessitation,” as I would call it, where each Person is the condition for the possibility of the others, could be directly inferred from perichōrēsis (Greek), egalitarian communalism (African) and circumincessio (Latin). Gregory Thaumaturgus says that, “Without contradiction, that implies a communion and unity between them according to which there are neither three divinities nor (three) lordships; but, while they remain truly and certainly the three persons, the real unity of the three must be acknowledged."122 ... The Father could be considered begotten by the Son and proceeding from the Spirit without violating the principle of unorigination. The Son as proceeding from the Spirit and unoriginating from the Father without undermining his begottenness. The Spirit as unoriginating from the Father and begotten by the Son without contradicting his procession. This decisively ties up all three Persons. While each relational term (unoriginate, begotten, precedent) levels out with the rest, they are all separable. And I humbly maintain that the unoriginate quality of the Father is that vital principle setting him at equality with the Son’s begotteness and the Spirit’s procession. The Son must be begotten to be equal with the others. And the Spirit must proceed to be their equal.