The Divine Dance

What follows is an excerpt from a paper I wrote in my freshman theology class. The paper is titled "The Holy Trinity," in it I briefly discuss some of the different forms of the Trinity, how the doctrine of the Trinity was formed, some heresy, and some different views that might possibly be acceptable in our ever advancing egalitarian society. Please feel free to comment, criticize, agree, whatever; if you would like to read more then please let me know and I will post more of the paper on here.

THE DIVINE DANCE

The subject of how we view God is of great importance and should not be ignored however I find the subject of how the Trinity acts within itself of even greater importance and interest. This deals with how the Father relates to the Son, and how the Son relates to the Holy Spirit and then connects them all and switches everything around. The usual Western view of the Trinity is described in a psychological analogy which deals with differentiated personhood but inseparable activities; the Eastern view, which is accepted and advocated by many contemporary theologians, is the “social analogy that takes the human experience of life-in-relationship as the best clue to an understanding of the triune life of God.”[1] I enjoy the idea and theory of this social analogy because of its focus on the relationship of things, I believe God is all about relationships and therefore we can more accurately view the Trinity through a relational-type view. A way to view this relationship can be described by the use of the Greek word perichoresis, which is discussed and defined both in Migliore and Grudem. Perichoresis can be described as a “mutual indwelling” or “being-in-one-another.” [2] Very vivid imagery is used when describing perichoresis, often times it is referred to as the divine dance, it actually means “to dance around.” [3] This is a very intimate way of describing how the Trinity interacts and participates with and in itself. As a dance between human partners takes place they encircle each other and weave in and out between each other; in the divine dance the partners move in such an intimate way that they move in and through each other. We automatically know who the dancers are in the divine dance but it is not of the greatest importance of knowing the dancers as it is of knowing the actual patterns of dance itself. Just as an example, “the son ‘indwells’ the father, the father ‘contains’ the son, the spirit ‘fills’ the father.” [4] If we are to think of the Trinity as being a dance, then we are forced to ask the question of where do we, as humans, as the created, fit in. Are we the audience, only observing this dance? I must answer this with a no, we have such a troubled time understanding certain attributes and qualities of God that I feel he would not place us on the outside of this dance, this would deny the fact that God wants to have a relationship with us.

So if we are not on the outside then we must be participating in this dance. But to what extent are we participating? And at what limit can we no longer participate in this dance? I will do my best to accurately answer these questions however I feel that for each person there would be a different answer. There are two approaches I would like to take with answering this question. The first would be to view this through the Western view of the divine dance which is that of communion. This is a circle dance, where each person is of the nature of God, there is no centrality to this circle. The problem is obvious with this, if it is a circle then is there any possible way for others to enter into the circle. For some odd reason, growing up in the West, I am slowly finding out that I tend to view the Eastern way of thinking more than the Western way of thought. The eastern view states that “participants move outside the inner circle of dancers to make contact with them.” [5] After they have moved out they possess the ability to bring others back in with them. The best possible way that I can come up to picture this would be a fountain, which can also be compared with the spring analogy previously mentioned above. However, in the fountain sits a body of water, which slowly makes its way out of the fountain, into the air and then back into the body of water. This illustration obviously has flaws but should be sufficient in demonstrating the interconnectedness and participation that takes place within the Trinity and with us in the Trinity. I hope that I have been able to accurately explain my views in relation to the divine dance.

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[1] Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (2^nd ed.; Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 78.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Fiddes, Paul S. Fall 2006. Participating in the Trinity. Perspectives in Religious Studies. 33 (3):375-391.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.