GOD, TRINITY, AND CREATION

God as Masculine and Feminine

Copyright © 1997 by Kenneth Cauthen. All rights reserved.
THREE WAYS OF CONCEIVING THE DIVINE TRINITY:

1. GOD IS THE UNION OF EROS, POSSIBILITY, AND THE GOOD.
2. GOD IS THE UNION OF POWER, MEANING, AND PURPOSE.
3. GOD IS THE UNION OF CREATIVITY, WORD, SPIRIT.

THREE UNCREATED FACTORS ABSTRACTLY DISTINGUISHED: LATENT GOD

Before the beginning was Eros: blind hunger, primordial urge, formless power, undirected desire, aimless energy, voracious craving, unorganized activity: Boundless Creativity.
Before the beginning was Possibility: whatever can be or become individually and in compatible combinations, the formal potential for there being something real, the totality of all conceivable and potentially emergent actualizable individuals and societies: Unarticulated Word.
Before the beginning was The Good: ideal possibility, abstract potentiality for meaningful, purposeful, and enjoyable actualization: Lifeless Spirit.

THREE UNCREATED FACTORS CONCRETELY UNITED IN TWO ATEMPORAL, LOGICAL MOMENTS AND MOVEMENTS: ACTUAL GOD

In the beginning that never began Eros unites with Possibility. Activity takes form. Creativity articulates itself in organized patterns. Power assumes a Nature. Desire merges with Reason. Power expresses itself in Meaning: Word.
In the beginning that never began Possibility informed Eros seeks The Good. Powerful Word embraces purpose. Meaningful Desire adopts an Aim. Structured Power is directed toward a Goal. Power and Meaning unite as Purposeful Activity: Spirit.

CONSEQUENCE: CREATION

A space-time/matter-energy continuum emerges and evolves into the presently actual world.
A cosmic-historical process is generated that can be described as The Possible becoming actual by the drive of Eros toward The Good.

GOD, THE MIND OF THE WORLD
THE WORLD, THE BODY OF GOD

SOME SPECULATIVE THESES God is Unitarian: the Ground of Life or the Process of Life-itself.
God is Binatarian: the Union of the Feminine and the Masculine.
God is Trinitarian: the Union of Power, Meaning, and Purpose.
God is Life-itself.
Life embodies the Masculine and the Feminine.
Life in finite beings is the image of the Life of God.
The Feminine is correlated with the spatial principle symbolized by O (the circle).
The Masculine is correlated with the temporal principle symbolized by ==> (the arrow).
(Note: The Masculine and Feminine principles are not identified with male and female persons. I use them in an abstract, symbolic, speculative, and ideal sense. Each principle is present in both sexes. They are both essential to life and its ideal fulfillment and are equal in value and importance.)
God is the Union of Power, Meaning, and Purpose.
Power is the desire (Eros) for the Good.
Meaning is the uniting principle, giving structure to power.
Purpose is the self-transcending principle, giving direction to structured power.
Word is the articulation of Meaning.
Work is the actualization of Purpose.
Christ is the Word of God.
Spirit is the Work of God.
Deity (the Parent) is the Power of Life.
Christ (the Feminine principle) is the Meaning of Life. (Christ -- feminine -- is the divine principle incarnate in the human Jesus -- a man.)
Spirit (the Masculine principle) is the Purpose of Life.
Eros is the drive toward the fulfillment of potential (the Good) in life.
Life is the process in which potential becomes actual in organisms and in communities.
Eros has uniting and self-transcending aspects.
Uniting Eros seeks to organize diverse strands of organic potential into a harmony of wholeness.
Self-transcending Eros seeks to push life ahead, above, and beyond itself to create novel strands of organic potential.
Uniting Eros is Feminine (the spatial principle).
Self-transcending Eros is Masculine (the temporal principle).
Life is the process generated by the union of the Feminine and the Masculine.
Uniting Eros creates Community (spatial integration).
Self-transcending Eros creates History (temporal creation).
Cosmos-history (the unity of the Feminine and the Masculine) is a process of spatial integration (order) and temporal creation (freedom). Order preserves identity. Freedom creates novelty.
Agape is uniting Eros centered on Ideal Church and self-transcending Eros directed toward the Realm of God.
Centering Eros on Ideal Church transforms uniting Eros into a quest for Perfect Community that is all-inclusive..
Directing Eros toward the Realm of God transforms self-transcending Eros into the quest for Universal Fulfillment.
Agapaic-Eros creates the historical-communal quest for Universal Fulfillment within an all-inclusive Community.
Deity is the Power of Life.
Christ is the perfected Meaning of uniting Eros.
Spirit is the perfected Purpose of self-transcending Eros.
Church is Ideal Community created by the uniting power of Agapaic-Eros.
The Realm of God is History directed by the self-transcending power of Agapaic-Eros.
Uniting Agapaic-Eros engages in reconciling activities.
Self-transcending Agapaic-Eros engages in liberating activities.
Reconciliation without liberation requires suppression of conflict and leads to oppression.
Liberation without reconciliation generates new conflicts and leads to violence and chaos.

SYMBOLISM Feminine ---------------------------------------------Masculine
(Circle)O----------------------------------------- (Arrow)===>

Space-----------------------------------------------------Time
Meaning ----------------------------------------------Purpose
Uniting Eros ----------------------- Self-transcending Eros
Word --- ------------------------------------------------Work
Christ (LOGOS)---------------------------------------Spirit
(John 1:1) ---------------------------------------(Gen. 1: 1, 2b)
Community --------------------------------------------History
Perfect Community -------------------Universal Fulfillment
Ideal Church -----------------------------------Realm of God
Order -------------------------------------------------Freedom
Identity -------------------------------------------------Novelty
Spatial Integration ---------------------Temporal Creation
Reconciliation --------------------------------------Liberation

Kenneth Cauthen

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Natural Law and Moral Relativism
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Trinity: God, Christ, Spirit
God as Masculine and Feminine
Theodicy: the Problem of Evil
Theodicy: A Heterodox Alternative
The Many Faces of Evil
Christ and Christians
A Critique of Niebuhr's Christ and Culture
The Incompatibility of Christianity and Civilization
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