Here is another taste of Father Frank's Rants 302

FATHER FRANK’S RANTS

Rant Number 302 7 May 2008

Triune Mystery

‘Say: If God has a son, then I am the first to serve him’ Quran 43, 81

Discussing the Trinity with Saudi Prince Khalid bin Talal on Al Mustaqillah Pan-Arab TV last week was terrific. Saudi Royals have rather a bad press these days, but anyone who asks me a splendid question like that on air gets brownie points. I do wish Christians were similarly inquisitive. (Fat chance…) More, I wish theology was above all what people passionately inquired about when it came to voting in an election. ‘Do you believe in the apocatastasis? Are you a Sabellian or an Apollinarian? Not a crypto- Aryan, by any chance? What? Won’t vote for you in that case. Go away.’ Perverse? Silly? Surreal? Who cares. The priest nails his colours to the mast. Enough of gassing about the economy. God comes first. It’s theology, stupid! Or at least it ought to be.

‘Three persons in one substance.’ The ancient Western formulation of the doctrine. In language fraught with confusions. ‘Person’ to modern ears suggests a distinct, separate consciousness. ‘Three persons’ would then equal three consciousnesses or three beings. Equivalent to tritheism, three gods, a monstrous heresy. If so, Prince Khalid would be right to brand me a polytheist. But the original meaning of ‘person’ in Latin is different. ‘Persona’ is the mask an actor wears on stage, to play different roles. Behind the mask is one person. A legal entity also is a ‘persona’ or party to a contract. In neither usage a distinct self-consciousness is implied. North African theologian Tertullian thus taught God was one Being or Substance, but three personae or key roles in the exercise of his sovereignty. Neat.

Guess good Tertullian carries little cred with Saudi princes, so I instead gave Amir Khalid a Sufi fountainhead, theosophist Ibn Arabi. (The Wahabis really loathe I.A. but that’s another problem.) Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three names for one God, Ibn Arabi said, just as Lord, Compassionate and Merciful, three titles the Qur’an regularly bestows on God, are three terms for the one Allah. My impudence must have stunned the Amir. The programme was coming to and end, anyway. It was a blow below the belt, I confess it. But on TV, like in war and in love, all is permitted.

Yes, it was naughty of me, because the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is a bit more than just three different names. There are three significant distinctions within the one divine reality, it says. But the Godhead’s unity is crucial. St Augustine’s favourite analogy wonderfully illustrates it. The Saint looked inside himself and, lo and behold, discovered a trinity within. In introspection, he detected in his mind an intellect, a will and the spiritual connection between them. Augustine thus saw himself as a creature both one and triune. It makes sense. Not three Augustines but one only. Not three gods but…geddit?

Mind you, it is only an analogy. Theologically, the Trinity, like the Incarnation, is a mystery. A truth of faith, not comprehensible by reason alone. Augustine himself, they say, once tried to explain it in a sermon but was getting nowhere, so he went for a walk on the beach. There he saw a little lad picking up water from the sea in a bucket. The Saint noticed the boy kept at it, again and again. ‘What are you doing, boy?’ ‘I am trying to pour the entire ocean’s water into my bucket’, came the answer. Augustine smiled. ‘But my child, that is impossible. Your bucket is too small and the sea too big.’ ‘And you, Augustine, with your finite mind will never grasp the infinite nature of God’ the boy - actually an angel - retorted. Makes a point, doesn’t it?

I used to think it is not profitable to discuss the Blessed Trinity with Muslims. It is too technical and arcane a subject. A matter for scholars, not laymen. Besides, Islam will never buy it, for sundry reasons. Debating it tends to degenerate into acrimony, tit-for-tat, score-pointing and ill will. It draws fundamentalists of both sides. So I resisted the temptation to badger Prince Khalid about Tawhid, the Muslim doctrine of absolute divine unity. (The Arab poet Adonis considers it a source of totalitarianism and personality cult in Arab societies.) Instead, I praised his uncle, King Abdullah, for recent bold initiatives towards religious dialogue. I suggested if the Amir wished to engage in further Trinitarian exchange he should invite me to Saudi Arabia. Cheeky, eh? Hope it works.

In Qatar I relished watching religious programmes on various Arab channels. Even Sheikh Al-Qaradawi, a kind of Islamic Pope often truculently hostile to his Abrahamic relations, was enjoyable. Thing is, theology matters to Muslims. Should matter to Christians, too. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York would never dream of preaching the hereafter – they are supposed to believe in the next life but clearly they don’t give a damn. However, in Doha I attended a huge conference on the Second Coming. People there argued about the Last Judgment with the sort of zest and intensity the Church used to show – once. Anglican clergy keep mum about eternal felicity – even at funerals it goes unmentioned.

Cardinal Newman wrote that it would have been a good thing if people had been a little more fanatical, even more intolerant, in matters of faith. Wouldn’t go as far as that. I’d settle for speaking out more about eternal truths. Like the Incarnation, the Trinity and the immortality of the soul. They matter because God matters. We matter to God and He to us. Maybe Islam’s example could teach us to be less coy in affirming them, as we ought.

The Trinity…the Trinity. Tremendous doctrine. I doubt I have done it justice. I tremble to think of Alain de Lille. A medieval theologian who tried to write about it. In the end, he realised the subject was far too lofty. Ashamed, in penance he embarked on a vow of lifelong silence. Aarrgh! No, please, Lord, not that!

Revd Frank Julian Gelli