One of the major doctrines of the Christian faith is that of the Trinity. The doctrine states in the most simplest terms that God has been revealed to humankind in the relationships of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find an implicit statement that God is a trinity. As a matter of fact, the word "Trinity" does not even appear in the Scripture.
How did the doctrine of the Trinity become incorporated into Christian theology? Placing it into historical perspective, the doctrine of the Trinity came into vogue during the fourth century when the Church was embroiled in a controversy concerning the nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. While the Church of the first two centuries struggled with the humanity of Jesus, the Church of the fourth century struggled with His divine nature. The Church wanted to uphold the deity of Jesus while at the same time distinguishing Him from God the Creator. The word "Trinity (from Tri-unity)" was used to explain the relationship which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit had with each other without losing their distinct identities as individual persons. In other words, the Church wanted to affirm that all three were divine and shared the divine essence and nature, but that they were distinct from each other. To put it simply, the doctrine states that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. And, according to this doctrine, all three are God (in other words, divine) by nature.
This controversy was generated, in part, by one of the leaders of the Church (Arius) who believed that Jesus was created by God. According to Arius, Jesus was not part of the Godhead. Based on his understanding of the New Testament, he believed that Jesus was both inferior by nature and subsequently subservient to God the Father. In essence, Arian theology made Jesus an inferior god, which in a sense, established a form of polytheism (belief in many gods), a doctrine which the Church was trying to avoid, and which he also, ironically enough, was trying to avoid. The Arian doctrine strongly resembles the teachings of the modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses who believe that Jesus is subordinate to God, not only in role, but also in nature.
Another complication was that of the teaching of another leader (Sabellious). He taught that God was revealed to humankind in three different modes or forms. Sabellious taught that at one time in history God was revealed as Father, at another time as Son, and finally in this present-day era, as Holy Spirit. In essence, Sabellian doctrine, or as it came to be known "Sabellian Modalism," promoted the idea of a trinity of roles rather than a trinity of persons. This teaching is reflected in the teachings of the so-called "Oneness" Pentecostal (wrongly referred to as "Jesus only") movement, which deemphasizes the Trinity and upholds the notion of "God in three forms."
The Roman Emperor Constantine, who by this time had become at least, nominally speaking, a "Christian," felt that the Church's controversy presented a threat to the Empire. Consequently, he called the leaders of the Church and convoked a gathering (Council of Nicea) in 325 A.D. At this gathering, the Church adopted the doctrine of the Trinity as the official doctrine of the Church, in spite of the fact that some in the Church continued to subscribe to Arianism and to Sabellianism. The Church stated that since all three (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are divine, each could be called "God." Of course the doctrine of Jesus being divine was a threat to the authority of the Emperor, because it stated that "Jesus is Lord," even over the Emperor himself.
How do we explain the Trinity to people living in a situation of oppression and suffering? These categories mean very little, if anything to these people. To people who are the victims of colonization, second-class citizenship, and residency, facing inferior wages in the employment market, living in substandard conditions, and living in fear of deportation, it does not matter whether God is one, two, or three persons. What matters to them is the relevance or non-relevance of God-talk to the socio-economic and political conditions in which they are living in the Diaspora of the U.S.A. As one of my colleague theologian friends puts it, Latinx people in the U.S..A. are not concerned with theological abstractions and speculation, but rather with basic survival, or as he puts it, "getting the cheese off the trucks."
The systematic theological reflections of European or North American origin concerning the Trinity, have been traditionally been drawn from biblical (mostly New Testament), patristic, scholastic, and contemporary sources mediated by the philosophical and historical categories of each age. With the advent of political theology in Europe and liberation-oriented theologies in the Third
World within the last decades, contemporary trinitarian theologies address questions formerly regarded by theologians and non-theologians alike as the exclusive domain of the socio-political sciences (Johannes B. Metz, Faith in History: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology. New York: Seabury Press, 1988, pps.130-132).
This, of course, raises the question of whether or not the doctrines of the Church are a reflection of how in its belief and thinking, society should be arranged. Is the ancient doctrine of the Trinity one which at a certain period in history legitimized the gradual development of Christendom, i.e. a system where the Church governed society? Is the doctrine of the Trinity, as understood today, one which reflects the legitimization of a male-dominated society? With the advent of inclusive language in Scripture and also in Christian theology, one wonders if the theological stance of the contemporary Church would be reflective of a different social order.
Hispanic theologians seek to develop their own trinitarian structure. Subsequently, they must take into account what other contemporary and past trinitarian theologians have said. The Hispanic theologians cannot evade the toil and sweat of scholarly research and reflection. To pretend to replace required intensity and level of scholarship with ill-conceived and pseudo-spiritual or practical theologies would amount to an escapist, non-professional theological praxis that would disqualify the Hispanic theologian as a responsible practitioner of the profession (Roberto Goizueta, Inaugural Presidential Discourse, Third Annual Meeting of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, 3-5 June, 1990, Berkeley, California).
Hispanic theologians retrieve and reformulate into their own theological milieu all that they see as true and methodologically sound; these theologians allow First World theological systems to stand critically before their belief systems. They have also become aware that their theology must be an even sharper critique of bourgeois and non-committed theologies that arise from a fatigued, post-modern North-hemispherical Western society (Metz, op. cit., pps. 88-99).
Hispanic theologians know that their own methodology has to offer many elements, forgotten, or utterly unknown, for the most part, to First World Western colleagues. Although some of these elements are common to all theological latitudes, they all are more intensely lived and reflected upon the Hispanic domain. This applies to Hispanic trinitarian theology (Sixto Garcia, "A Hispanic Approach to Trinitarian Theology: The Dynamics of Celebration, Reflection and Praxis." Roberto S. Goizueta, ed. We Are A People. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, p. 110).
A question that comes into play is whether or not Hispanic American theology should be a trinitarian theology in the classical sense of the word? Should Hispanic American theology reflect the contents of the historic creeds and formulations of the Church? This writer (yours truly) believes that since Hispanic American and Latin American Theology are anti-colonial theologies which are not based on a Western biblical hermeneutic, that Hispanic Americans theologians should develop their own conception of the nature and work of God and the doctrine of the Trinity, not based on the notion of a supposed Western cultural and theological superiority, but rather within a framework of relationships of people engaged in the struggle for liberation from domination and dependency. The notion of God should reflect the just society that Liberation Theology, on the basis of its understanding of the Gospel message, seeks to create.
The construction of a Hispanic-American trinitarian system, begins, like any other Hispanic theological project, with the popular religious faith of the community. That community, in turn, reflects a faith which utilizes its situation of domination and oppression as the starting point for biblical interpretation and theological reflection (Garcia in Goizueta, op.cit., p.118).
This theologian (yours truly), though Protestant, believes that if one is to be intellectually honest, that he/she must acknowledge that both the experiences and traditions of the Church gave way to the Scriptures, i.e, that the Scriptures came as a result of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the traditions of the Church, in that order. To subscribe to the "Sola Scriptura" paradigm is to deny the Spirit's role in the formation of the Church, and to invalidate or minimize the tradition, would be tantamount to believing and affirming that the Scriptures developed in a historical vacuum. Biblical theology, itself, points to revelation coming to us through mediation and the filtering of human experience.
In Roman Catholic theology, the role of Marianism is the hermeneutical key to the trinitarian experience of the Holy Spirit. Theologians from different Christian traditions agree that the biblical role of Mary as disciple, as hearer of the Word, and as the receptor of the Holy Spirit, can offer common points of ecumenical discussion and theologizing (Bertrand Buby, Mary:The Faithful Disciple. Mahwah, New Jersey, Paulist Press, 1985, p. 67).
This particular discussion underscores the role of Mary in the Hispanic perception of the unity and trinity in God. It is superfluous to be reminded of the traditionally seminal role that Mary has played throughout the centuries in Hispanic prayer and liturgy. This reality springs from an old tradition that associates Mary with the salvific activity of Jesus, and through Jesus with the Father and the Spirit. This Hispanic tradition can claim a foundational New Testament background, especially though not exclusively in the Gospel according to Luke (Garcia in Goizueta, op. cit., pps. 121-122).
In Hispanic Protestant theology, what we find is a conception of the Trinity which is based on an assemblage of Scripture passages. Very little, if any attention is given to the cultural and social contexts from which those particular Scriptures emerged. Even less attention is paid to the literary form of those books in which those passages appear. The tendency in Protestant theology is to quote verbatim, and at the same time, disregard how the context colors the content of Scripture.
The future of the theology of the Trinity in the Hispanic churches will depend on the attitude of the Church. If the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches overemphasize the role of the tradition, then their trinitarian theology will be based on the decisions that the Church took at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. merely for the sake of antiquity in thinking that this position is "preserving the faith which was once delivered to the saints." On the other hand, if the Protestant churches continue to rely on the "Sola Scriptura" model in order to define the Trinity, then they will just end up recycling and regurgitating the mechanical and robotic citation of Scripture which do not lead to a well thought-out theology.
The future of Hispanic American "god-talk" will always depend on how the Church, as the custodian of theology, interacts with its immediate environment, and how what is taking place in that environment leads the Church in developing its self-understanding of God's revelation in Christ. The trinitarian theology of the Church must reflect the Church's engagement in the struggle for justice and liberation in the world. It cannot be Nicean for the sake of being Nicean. Its trinitarian theology must reflect a God who has heard the cry of the people and descended to help them and deliver them from bondage.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dr. Juan A. Carmona
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