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Another way to say it is that the doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation for several criteria that can be used to evaluate and prescribe liturgical practices in many contexts. These criteria can be phrased as simple questions: Does liturgy speak of God with reference to particular actions in history recorded in Scripture? Does corporate worship in a particular congregation rehearse the whole of the divine economy? Are its liturgical actions carried out as means for a personal relationship and encounter with God? Do these actions acknowledge the example and mediation of Jesus Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? Does the community itself model the kind of intimate fellowship or koinonia that is central both to divine life and the Christian life? One strength of these criteria is that they are not applicable only in rarified or culturally specific settings. These criteria have as much to say about corporate worship offered in a Central American barrio as in a wealthy, suburban congregation in North America or in a majestic European cathedral. They are as applicable to a worship service offered at a summer camp or in a mission congregation as in a denominational or ecumenical assembly or at a gathering of the North American Academy of Liturgy. While they are certainly formulated in a very culturally specific way, they are the kind of transcultural criteria that are useful for contextual ministry on any continent. Another virtue of these criteria is that they are theological criteria. These criteria emerge not only out of historical study and aesthetic preference but out of reflection on the mystery of the gospel that Christians proclaim. The Christian church is deeply divided into communities that rehearse different histories and embody divergent aesthetic preferences. Any lasting cease-fire in these worship wars is not likely to emerge from a resolution of the so-called culture wars which feed them, or from large-scale conversions of taste, or from carefully buttressed historical arguments about ancient liturgical precedents. Finally, such a cease-fire can only issue from the depth and mystery of the gospel which Christians proclaim. Christian worship is strongest when it is integrally and self-consciously related to the person and work of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. The study of Christian worship is most helpful to Christian communities when it demonstrates how this has happened in the past and how it might happen in the future in more profound ways. Another virtue of these themes is that they are pastoral. Though recent Trinitarian theology often feature soaring, rhapsodic passages on the beauty of Trinitarian life, and stirring summons to mirror this life in Christian community, such passages typically occur only after wringing indictments of how the doctrine of the Trinity has been disregarded by the vast majority of contemporary Christians. Perhaps Karl Rahner said it best: "despite their orthodox confession of the Trinity, Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere 'monotheists.'"68 Or consider this stinging indictment by William Placher: "In contemporary American society the dominant images of divinity and success and community are in some respects radically un-Christian. It cannot be taken for granted that Christians generally remember or ever understood the sort of God in whom we believe and the sort of people we are therefore called to be."69 Even a good deal of popular Christian piety is characterized by an interest in the historical Jesus and in a vague, abstract notion of an invisible creator god. Who knows how many people stay away from church, or avoid participation in Christian worship, because they have no idea how compelling and beautiful a Trinitarian vision of God really is. Beyond any other virtue these Trinitarian criteria have, the primary value that we find in the doctrine of the Trinity is the compelling picture it paints of the God Christians worship, the community that renders this worship, and the actions used to do so. Finally, this Trinitarian vision is a summons to worship the triune God of Jesus Christ. It invites artists, hymn writers, musicians, liturgists, and poets to create art works, music, and texts that convey more fully the wonder and mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It invites liturgists and pastors to plan and lead worship that portrays the privilege of Christian corporate worship, and to teach and nurture their congregations regarding what this privilege is all about. It invites worshipers to experience the grace of a self-giving God, and to join with all the faithful of every time and place who forever sing to the glory of God's name: Te Deum laudamus. ENDNOTES 1. The links between the doctrine of the Trinity and the theology and practice of worship have been the subject of a number of recent articles. See Philip Butin, "Constructive Iconoclasm: Trinitarian Concern in Reformed Worship," Studia Liturgica 19 (1989): 133-142; Daniel Meeter, "The Trinity and Liturgical Renewal," in The Trinity: An Essential Faith in Our Time, ed. Andrew Stirling (Nappanee, Ind.: Evangel Publishing House, 2002), 207-232; Bruce V. Rigdon, "Worship and the Trinity in the Reformed Tradition," in Theological Dialogue Between Orthodox and Reformed Churches, ed. Thomas F. Torrance (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1985-), 2:211-18; George W. Stroup, "The Worship of the Triune God," Reformed Liturgy and Music 17 (1983): 160-65; James B. Torrance, Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace (Carlisle, Great Britain: Paternoster Press, 1996); Christopher Cocksworth, "The Trinity Today: Opportunities and Challenges for Liturgical Study," Studia Liturgica 27 (1997): 61-78; Catherine Mowry LaCugna, "Making the Most of Trinity Sunday," Worship 60 (1986): 210-24, and "Trinity and Liturgy," in The New Dictionary of Sacramental Worship, ed. Peter E. Fink (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990), 1293-96; H. B. Meyer, "Eine trinitärische Theologie der Liturgie und der Sakramente," Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 113 (1991): 23-48; Frank C. Senn, "Trinity Sunday, Trinitarian Worship and the Trinity in the Church's Life and Mission," Lutheran Forum 28 (1994): 14-16; Bryan D. Spinks, "Trinitarian Theology and the Eucharistic Prayer," Studia Liturgica 26 (1996): 209-24; Geoffrey Wainwright, "Trinitarian Worship," The New Mercersburg Review 2 (1986): 3-11, and "Trinitarian Worship," in Speaking of the Christian God: The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of Feminism, ed. Alvin F. Kimel, Jr. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992); and Jonathan Wilson, "Toward a Trinitarian Rule of Worship," Crux 29 (1993): 35-39. 2. The Triune Identity: God According to the Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982), xii. A similar topical approach is followed by John Thompson in Modern Trinitarian Perspectives (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), and by Ted Peters in chapter 2 of God as Trinity: Relationality and Temporality in Divine Life (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993). These five themes or kinds of discourse are a useful way of keeping track of how the doctrine of the Trinity functions in a given theologian's work. Many theologians will focus on some but not all of these themes. This paper will, then, give preference to articulating broad themes, rather than identifying the social location and conceptual angularities of particular theologians, and will isolate themes at a "landscape" level of detail that tends to ride above several areas of persistent tension, such us important discussions about inclusive language. I do not intend to suggest that these are unimportant tasks. |
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