For most of my adult Christian life, I’ve been convinced that the cross and grace are at the core of the Christian faith. That hasn’t changed. What has is my appreciation for the Trinity as the foundational doctrine that binds all three branches of Christianity together. In my spiritual formation—largely in the evangelical Protestant tradition, the mystery and relational importance of the Trinity has been undervalued. Additionally, at 55, I’ve come to understand that relationships are at the heart of all reality and that all loving connections are ultimately tied to and flow out of the Triune nature of God. And so, I’ve been learning.

Recently, I found out that one of the classics on the Trinity was by a guy nick-named Gregory the Theologian, and you know I had to read that! It’s called On God and Christ by Gregory Nazianzus (329-389), who was one of the three Cappadocian early church fathers. In the translation I read—part of the Popular Patristic Series from St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Gregory promotes a “reverent willingness not to know” all the answers to our questions about God. In the introduction, the translators summarize Gregory’s main message about God: “The Divine is not to be limited or cheapened by human talk. It discloses itself in the mystery of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And in this mystery there lies the possibility of human redemption.” (23)

Here are my favorite quotes from the book and I hope there’s something here that blesses you:

• “It is not continual remembrance of God I seek to discourage, but continual discussion of theology.” (28)
• “But of God himself the knowledge we shall have in this life will be little, though soon after it will perhaps be more perfect, in the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.” (34)
• “To know God is hard, to describe him impossible…” (39)
• “Now theology is fuller, and so harder, than other philosophy. Every slightest objection bars, hinders, the course of argument, and checks its progress. It is like applying the reins suddenly to galloping horses, making them veer around with the surprise of the shock.” (53)
• “God pervades and fills the universe.” (42)
• “What is gained by effort is usually kept; what is lightly gained is quickly spurned because it can be gained anew.” (45)
• “Though every thinking being longs for God, the First Cause, it is powerless… to grasp him… It discovers God through the beauty and order of things seen, using sight as a guide to what transcends sight.” (47)
• “For Elijah… it was not the mighty wind or the fire or the earthquake but a light breeze which gave outline to the presence, but not the nature, of God.” (51)
• “They [the angels] hymn God’s majesty in everlasting contemplation of everlasting glory: not to make God glorious—God, whose fullness supplies all else with excellence, cannot be added to…” (63)
• “The opinions about deity that hold pride of place are three in number: atheism, polytheism, and monotheism.” (70)
• In thinking about Jesus as God’s only “begotten” son (e.g. John 3:16) or how the Nicene Creed points out that Jesus was “begotten, not made“: “God’s begetting ought to have the tribute of our silence.” (76)
• “’Father’ designates neither the substance nor the activity, but the relationship, the manner of being, which holds good between the Father and the Son…’the Only-Begotten Son’ who is in the bosom of the Father…” (84)
• “As a man [Jesus] was baptized, but he absolved sins as God; he needed no purifying rites himself—his purpose was to hallow water… he prays, yet he hears prayer. He weeps, yet he puts an end to weeping.” (87)
• “Christian people find long-winded controversy disagreeable and one Adversary enough for them.” (88) [I only wish this were true… in my experience, especially over the last year, I’ve seen just the opposite!]
• “Faith, in fact, is what gives fullness to our reasoning.” (89)
• In speaking of how Jesus, God the Son, functions as our advocate: “It is by what he suffered as a man that he persuades us, as Word and Encourager, to endure.” (105)
• “’Believing in’ is not the same thing as ‘believing a fact about.’” 121
• Regarding John 15:26, where Jesus says the Spirit “proceeds” from the Father: “What then, is ‘proceeding’? You explain the ingeneracy [self-existence] of the Father and I will give you a biological account of the Son’s begetting and the Spirit’s proceeding—and let us go mad the pair of us for prying into God’s secrets. What competence have we here? We cannot understand what lies under our feet, cannot count the sand of the sea, ‘the drops of rain or the days of this world’ much let enter the ‘depths of God’ and render a verbal account of a nature so mysterious, so much beyond words.” (122)
• He describes heresy as “an overthrowing of ‘the faith’ and an emptying of ‘the mystery.’” (135)
• On those who rely too heavily on what the Bible literally says and miss its meaning: “Why are you so dreadfully servile to the letter… following the syllables while you let the realities go?” (135)
• [The Holy Spirit] “initiates… in such a way that he both precedes baptism and is wanted after it.” (140)
• “To the best of my powers I will persuade all men to worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the single Godhead and power, because to him belong all glory, honor, and might for ever and ever, Amen.” (143)

BTW, the most joy-filled and accessible book I have found to date on the Trinity is Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves. It is only 130 pages and I highly recommend it.