CRAIG WONG, AUGUST 9th, 2020
[11 MIN READ]
In Part I, I introduced the notion of “perichoresis” as a way to understand the Trinity as a dance among three distinct yet co-equal persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We can thank the Cappadocian brothers, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Naizanzus, and other patristic theologians of those early centuries who did the heavy lifting of bringing understanding to the deep mysteries of the Triune God.
The Eastern Orthodox tradition, in particular, has carried the ball regarding the richness of trinitarian theology, for instance, the great 7th century theologian, John of Damascus who explored the inter-woven nature of the three-in-one God, a relationship of deep and abiding intimacy. The language of perichoreo, or an orchestrated dance in the round, is found in their writings. Such imagery captures the essence of what has been termed, “social trinitarianism” which understands God as a community (I love this), and explains why we, as those created in Godʼs image, are also designed to live in communion with one another. But more than the trinity being a mere “model” for us, we are drawn into the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
For me, this perichereo surfaces in breathtaking form when one looks at the latter chapters (14-16) of the book of John, where Jesus teaches about the ministry of the Holy Spirit to his fear-filled disciples: “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you...Abide in Me, as I abide in you...As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Fatherʼs commandments and abide in his love....When the Spirit of truth comes, He will glorify Me, because he will take what is mine, and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine. For this reason I said he will take what is Mine and declare it to you. If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” Iʼve shamelessly compressed the text, but the picture I am trying to paint here is one of Holy collaboration between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and one into which we are being lovingly invited into. I begin with this to punctuate our need to imbibe our intergenerational efforts with a theological imagination. Youʼll recall that I described the interactions among Boomers, Millennials, Gen Zʼers, and Gen Xʼers as being like an awkward dance. We need to be encouraged that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are committed to helping us learn how to dance better. I want this to be the foundation as I engage some of the inquiries that came up from our last conversation:
I grew up in a Chinese American immigrant church and the first-generation / second-generation divide was deep. It wasnʼt until I grew up and experienced white American evangelicalism directly (through private Christian school) that I realized how much Chinese first-gen values (as well as American evangelical values) were tied up in what I learned at church. I wonder all the time: What would have happened if my peers had had the opportunity to experience Jesus free of and separate from their parentsʼ ideas that they were rebelling against?
If only any of us could be “free and separate from” anything, right? Thereʼs lots to unpack here, but each of us will be spending a lifetime realizing who we really are, or more importantly, who weʼve been called to be, apart from our checkered pasts. “Checkered” sounds negative, but itʼs important to note that when something is “checkered” it means that our pasts comprise not only bad things, but also good things. This is true of White American evangelicalism, Chinese immigrant culture, and all our parentʼs strange, syncretist ideologies. I wish I could say Iʼm passing on a faith to my kids that was free from cultural and theological baggage, but this would be to live in pure and utter delusion. So hereʼs the perichoretic hope. Regardless of what we need deliverance from (and we all need deliverance), we are invited into something big and transformative.
How do we work with intergenerational tensions around differences in Christian ideologies in the Church. The image of “being Christian” has continually evolved. “Collective theological interrogation of American Christianity” Ooh, how do we do this well?
I know this wonʼt sound that compelling to many of you (and really compelling to some others of you), but learning Church history really matters. I say this because tensions around Christian “ideologies” (or, insistently, theologies, missiologies, ecclesiologies, the list goes on) has been part of the landscape since the day Jesus came on the scene. Itʼs helpful to remember this. Every generation in every time and place has had to wrestle with what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be the Church. This will be true until the day that Jesus returns. Now even hearing me speak of the the 2nd coming of Christ might trigger “White Evangelicalism!” to some, but this is one of the core tenets of orthodox Christianity. This is why, over the centuries, the Church has from time to time had to come together and labor over the creation of various creeds and confessions because of the need to remember who they are, what they believe, and what it means to be a Christian in the midst of competing messages and sub-gospel (idolatrous) narratives. This has usually involved the need to scrutinize and question (“interrogate”) their own ecclesial contexts (think about Luther and the Catholic Church). What holds most all historic creeds and confessions together, however, is a fundamental Trinitarian orthodoxy. Part of interrogating our own ecclesial context “well” is to be purposeful in grounding the conversation in orthodoxy, rather than secular ideology (whether conservative or progressive), and then come at it with theological and relational humility. Not everyone will be able to do this well.
I am wondering about what the non-millennials/Gen-z are wanting to accomplish when they are asking to learn from the younger generations. Even with all that knowledge, what is the goal? How are young people a part of that conversation? What are both groups (older and younger) wanting to learn from each other? What are the things that they donʼt understand?
The question of motive is critical, isnʼt it? I agree. What is their agenda? How are they going to use the information they get from us? Such concern is profoundly reasonable in this age of data-mining where weʼve discovered that, for the Googles and Facebookʼs of the world, we are actually not the consumer, but rather, the product. This question gets to the heart of trust, which essentially can make or break the inter-generational possibility. I actually want to call attention to the fact that there are older folks that are even asking to learn about the younger generations at all, i.e. that their interest in young people can go beyond the need for baby-sitting! So I canʼt speak for all old people, but I can speak from the circles Iʼve had privilege to gather with: They want to learn from the younger generation because they love Jesus, they love the Church, and they know that the health and future of the Church depends on young and old working on this together. Once again, this involves much humility, both relationally and ecclesially, for example, the humility to acknowledge that thereʼs ways weʼve done “church” that have not met emerging generations well.
Regarding the things we donʼt understand (of each other), there are plenteous things: how we see the world, what “church” means, what we assume of each other (“Theyʼre not interested in what we think”), our relationship with technology (which frankly doesnʼt seem all that different generationally), what relationships look like, our greatest fears and anxieties, the list goes on.
As we are willing to “step onto the dance floor” so-to-speak, and engage with one another with humble curiosity, there is the possibility for trust. And trust is critical in our attempts to come together and truly make progress in being the kind of Church that truly glorifies Christ in our world. We can together boldly participate in the Triune community of which, and for which, we were made. A community of deep and abiding love, trust, mutuality and interdependence. Howʼs that for a compelling alternative to Eurocentric racial capitalism?
