A Seriously Funny Post on the Trinity
So maybe this post should have been titled "A Serious & Funny Post of the Trinity" because it is mainly serious with a funny video on the trinity at the end. If you're not interested in the serious part then just skip to the end and watch the video from Lutheran Satire; its really funny!
One of the books I recently finished reading was The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers. The book was a very good book that highlighted the relationship between true creativity and the trinity. Sayers is concerned with presenting the reader with a Trinitarian understanding of creativity. Or to put it another way, the way we understand the Trinity is through understanding creativity.
The more I read of the book the more I see Sayers' concern over our tendency to separate things in theory that cannot be separated in actuality. Sayers shows how this is the case with the Trinity by displaying how this is also the case in nature and in the creative process.
Here are the two examples she gives, one from nature and one from creative writing:
The example from nature that Sayers gives is the example of sight. When we are theoretically speaking of sight we can break it down in to three different categories. 1) There is the object seen, 2) there is the activity of vision, & 3) there is the mental attention which correlates the other two. Now, we can see this separation in theory, however, if you were to try and break down each part separately you would see that you cannot speak about one without assuming and relying on the other two.
The other example that she gives is creative writing. Sayers states that the creative writing process consists in a trinity as well. 1) The idea of the book, 2) the activity of writing the book, & 3) the creative power which comes back to the writer through the activity and makes the writer a reader of his own book.
Similarly to the trinity of sight, we are able to talk about each part of the trinity apart from each other in theory. However, if you are to approach a creative writer who is aware of each of these categories and ask him to explain and distinguish them to you with examples, it will be impossible for the writer to do so without also referring to each and every part of the creative energy.
This is a somewhat complicated matter but I think Sayers makes some pretty great points in here book; I recommend it!
Also, if you haven't see this very funny video about Trinitarian heresies you'll enjoy it, I promise!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw
Food for thought!
Michael