So... here's my question:

"Does it really matter?"

Christ's peace - r

I believe God is whoever God wants to be - and to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven. If there are other faces of God which he has yet to reveal, he has his reasons for it and they will be revealed in time ... or not. Meanwhile, from a pragmatic, usable point of view, I think the Trinity does a fabulous job of explaining God and the role of the Holy in our life - creating, redeeming, sustaining, respectively.

I see the concept of trinity as metaphoriical for the three manifestations in the way that we hae experienced the Divine.

Shalom

Mate

Yes, Mate. For me the Trinity is any pair of opposites plus the transcendental power that unites and separates the two.

WOW!

This one really interests me.

Nicely said as well. Better than what I can do, which is why I won't bother trying to add to this.

Bolt

I couldn't agree more with you . Does that mean that we are not restricted to trinity? I personally support Modalism.

"The early church initially struggled with the question of whether Jesus was fully God (see Ebionism, Docetism, and Adoptionism) in the same sense as the Father.  Once the councils agreed that Jesus is fully God (as is the Holy Spirit), they struggled to reconcile this with monotheism".

This from Wikipedia.

My own position: I am a panentheist and I believe that everything (no exceptions) are manifestations of God. These include me, you, the computer I am typing on and the table which supports this limited scenario.

As part of the struggle with those concepts one has to tackle the question about the difference between you (the reader) and Jesus. !!! How are you diffferent from Jesus - or are you?

Shalom.

I find the trinitarian view limits to three dimensions what I see as the holographic nature of God. 

Multidimensional for sure, but infinitely so.

God has many faces. The Trinity is one such face, but it is only one among many images of The Divine that we have created to try to understand It and our relationship to It. The reality is bigger than any one of the images and trying to encapsulate the whole reality into a single image (eg. The Trinity) reduces our understanding of It.

Mendalla

I like the concept of the Trinity because it speaks to me of the importance of community...and relationship...and the mystery of the divine (i.e., it's not easy to picture God as having three "essences" (yeah , yeah...I know that I'll be taken to task for my wording here:). Instead it's something that we have to dive deeply into and spend a lot of time with...and then come away from it all accepting "Mystery" as part of our perceived reality. I think that so often God "speaks" to us through others, timing, events ... and this happens "in community"

Check out Diarmuid O'Murchu "Quantumn Theology". I read it A LONG time ago but I remember it speaking very deeply to me about the "relational" nature of everything ...right down to the quantumn level.

I still love using the blind men and the elephant story to explore this...

But...what do I know...nothing in the grand scheme of things...but still in awe of this world and grateful to be alive at this moment to experience it all...including this discussion.

peace

Pam

Yeah, it's funny how you mention "quantum"  Have you heard of the double slit experiment?

I find this quite facinating,,,

Bolt

Couldn't agree with you more ninjafaery!

The Trinity is only a way to describe the Nature of Jesus Christ.  It is by no means all encompassing.  It is a Christian thing, focused on Jesus Christ.  Outside of that, well, Christians don't seem much interested.

Did I read Ichthys correct? He said, "Most trinitarians accept that God is three persons, father, son, and holy ghost".

I would not say that most trinitarians feel that way. I would say they may say they do. It is a simple soundbite for something far more complex to them or it is what the faith believes and something they are "in essential agreement with".

For me, it is not "God is three persons" it is instead "God in three persons" or "God as three pesons"... The difference between is and in and as changes everything, for me.

I am a monothesist. I believe in one God. I believe in one Godhead. More than one form, more than one reality, more than one facet... Yes. Three persons all God. NO.

My favourite interpretation of the Trinity is the Taoist version, which also fits in with science-based spiritual philosophy:

The universal Yin and Yang—symbolic of all diametric opposites—and the transcendental power that unites and separates the two.

The transcendental power that separates wholes into opposites yet keeps them unfied appears to be THE creative principle of the universe. It seems very apt to call IT God the Holy Spirit. And the other two parts of the Holy Trinity would then be God the Creator and God the Created, united and separated by God the Holy Spirit, and all three united into one God.

Hm. Interesting. I was thinking about this concept, too. And believe it or not, but I'm trying to find an answer in the creation. I think the creation is the only way to understand God.