Articles and BooksSeveral of the articles in the “All Community Study” materials have brief study guides to go with them and were designed for you to study them on your own, with your Cluster or another group that you choose. St Catherine Exchanging her Heart with Christ GIOVANNI di Paolo (b. ca.
1403, c.
1475, Tempera and gold on wood, 29 x 23 cm |
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To share additional articles and books,
please use the options under “Share Your Experience.”
“The Triune God of Christian Faith”
by Mary Ann Fatula
We encourage you to form a study/reflection group.
Mary Ann Fatula’s book: The Triune
God of Christian Faith. Copies of the book are available in the Siena
Center Bookstore and can be checked out at the
They are also available by clicking HERE (at Amazon.com).
For more information about Mary Ann Fatula, Click HERE (Speaker Series site).
If you would like to be a part of an e-mail study group,
please e-mail Ann Pratt at apratt@racinedominicans.org
Fatula, Mary Ann. The Triune God of Christian Faith. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990.
Divided by chapters, the following materials are selected quotes from Fatula’s work, an engaging introduction to the Triune God. These might be discussion starters or read silently or aloud for meditation. At the end are a few questions for further reflection.
1.
The
Triune God and Human meaning
“What possible relevance can faith in a triune
God have for our real life and for the urgent problems of our world, for crime
and poverty, for unjust economic and political structures, for marginalization
and oppression and the threat of nuclear war?
Just as long as there is a God, what
possible difference can it make to us and to the world whether this God is
triune or not?” [17]
“We have language about a triune God in our
liturgy and prayer, but often very little experience of the transforming power
of the sacraments of initiation and of the Christian life in community which
originally gave rise to these words.” [20]
“We call God tri-personal because God is
supremely I, infinitely You, not It.” [22]
“But the God who is triune communion of love does
not need us in order to have someone
to love. And for this reason, we are, each of us, really, unconditionally and freely loved.” [24]
“The God who is life and goodness and be-ing itself infinitely surpasses and transcends all that it
means to exist in the limited mode of being male or female.” [28]
“I find the suggestion of Patricia Wilson-Kastner helpful. ‘Inclusiveness in language about God does
not mean that each word or phrase about the trinitarian
God must be sex-neutral or have male and female (or exclusively female) terms
side by side.’ Rather, inclusiveness means a fidelity to our baptismal heritage
in naming God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and a simultaneous openness to
other images from our tradition.” [31]
2.
The
Paschal Event of Jesus and the Triune God of our History
“How did our faith in the Trinity begin; how did
we Christians come to experience a God who is triune?” [33]
“But the unutterable truth which no one could
guess is that the reign of God is present because Jesus himself is present.
Jesus not only brings the kingdom of God; Jesus is the kingdom of God in person.” [37]
“In breaking the bread, Jesus breaks his own
body, and in pouring out the wine, pours out his own blood for the sin of the
world.” [41]
“Jesus’ unreserved self-giving on the cross to
his Abba and to us in this way has made intimately and irrevocably present in
our human history the very reality at the heart of the triune God, and has
unleashed upon the entire created cosmos the power of its radiance.” [51]
1.
Speaking
the Experience: Attempts at Articulation
[an historical overview of Trinitarian Theology]
“In the presence of mysteries like birth and
love and death, words fail us and often bring us instead to a silent communion
with one another before the very mystery we have tried to articulate. We
experience this radical inadequacy of human words even more when we try to
speak of the triune God who infinitely exceeds all that we could think or
imagine, and with whom we enter into communion through love rather than through
language.” [53]
“There is no union in the cosmos that can be
anything but a hint and taste of the unspeakable oneness of the three divine
persons…And wherever we also see great diversity of personality among us, we
see a pale shadow of the fullness of personhood in its diversity and
incommunicable distinction within the triune God. Our human race itself,
created distinctly and indivisible as woman and man reflects our Trinitarian
origin in a God who is irreducible distinction at the heart of absolute unity.”
[80-81]
2.
Knowing
the Triune God
“In the arms of this our brother stretched out
upon the cross we find not only understanding and forgiveness, but also the
power of the resurrection to free and transform us from within, making us an
absolutely new creation.” [91]
“In the Holy Spirit we receive the very person
of infinite love between Father and Son. The Spirit is their embrace, their
kiss, their joy and delight lavished upon the world.” [93-94]
“The Holy Spirit is the very light of love and
peace itself permeating our lives even in their darkness and pain.” [96]
3.
The
Challenge of Trinitarian Faith Today: Implications for a World Transformed
“What does our faith in the Trinity have to do
with the human suffering which confronts us on a world-wide scale?...1) Our
Christian faith in the triune God answers the ultimate human question of who
and why we are, for it interprets our
meaning as a thirst finally not for possession of things, but for
interrelationship with persons. 2) Our Trinitarian faith in this way confronts
us with a value system that contradicts a self-centered way of existing in the
world and focuses our gaze on the inestimable worth of communion with every
human person, especially the most needy among us. 3) Most important of all, the
triune God is healing for our brokenness
and for the wounds deep within us that prevent us from loving and living in
mutual respect and care for one another. The Trinity is in fact the very power
for our breakthrough from a self-centered existence to a life of mutuality and
self-giving.” [100-101]
“To be the church of Jesus is no longer to
divide ourselves into a privileged gender or group or class.” [111]
“Through us, the whole cosmos in this way
becomes a living doxology to and icon of the triune God.” [117]
Questions for further reflection
How do I actively model the Trinity to others in
my life?
Am I open to the total self-gift of Love from
God? From all those who are my neighbor?
How do I understand the saving power of Jesus?
Is the gendering of God difficult for me?
From what brokenness do I need healing?
From what brokenness does my
family/community/world need healing?
In what ways do I struggle with the mystery of
the Trinity?
How might I be healing to others?
“God in Communion With Us”
by Catherine Mowry LaCugna
LaCugna, Catherine Mowry. “’God in Communion With Us,” in Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective. San Francisco: Harper, 1993
Divided by sections, the following materials are selected
quotes from Mowry LaCugna’s
work. These might be used as discussion
starters or read silently or aloud for meditation. At the end are a few questions for further
reflection.
1.
Introduction
“The icon (Rublev’s)
expresses the fundamental insight of the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, that
God is not far from us but lives among us in a communion of persons.” (84)
“The Trinity is the specifically Christian way
of speaking of God, and therefore it frames the discussion of the common ground
of Christian theism and feminist concerns.”
(85)
1.
The
Doctrine of the Trinity: The Preeminently Personal God
“In other words, the radical move of the Cappadocians was to assert that divinity or Godhood
originates with personhood (someone toward another), not with substance
(something in and of itself). Love for
and relationship with another is primary over autonomy, ecstasies over stasis,
fecundity over self-sufficiency. Thus
personhood, being-in-relationship-to-another, was secured as the ultimate
originating principle of all reality.”
(86-87)
“If God were not personal, God would not exist
at all.” (87)
“God by nature is outgoing love and
self-donation.” (87)
“The divine unity was no longer located in the
Father-God who was prior to or greater than everyone and everything else. Instead, the divine unity and divine life
were located in the communion among equals through unique persons, not in the
primacy of one, person over another.”
(87-88)
“The Trinity was thought of as a self-sufficient
divine community. Christianity found
itself in the strange position of having a Trinitarian doctrine of God on the
books, but in practice its theology had become Unitarian.” (90)
2.
Metaphysics
and Politics
“Jesus Christ remains the sole criterion of
human personhood, and God’s Holy Spirit remains in the sole means by which authentic
personhood is achieved. Thus every
Trinitarian theology is ineluctably both Christological and pneumatological.” (92)
“The revitalized doctrine of the Trinity, purged
of its subordinationist elements and proceeding from
the principle that the supreme ontological predicate is personhood, not
being-in-itself, understands the destiny of the human person to be that of
being in authentic communion with God, with other persons, and with all God’s
creatures.” (92)
“When the doctrine of the Trinity was “defeated”
by the return to a concern for God’s inner life rather than with God’s life
with us in salvation history, it was easy to bypass the radical philosophical
and theological proposal contained in trinitarian
doctrine and instead embrace the idea of a God-monarch who rules over the world
that is subordinate to God’s will. “
(93)
“In effect the Cappadocians
challenged the Christian imagination to renounce biological, cultural, and
commonsense notions of fatherhood, including the patriarchal idea of the
self-sufficient father.” (93-94)
3.
Complementarity
and the Trinity
“Since personhood and communion are the central
themes of the Christian doctrine of God, it becomes apparent that the doctrine
of the Trinity is intimately tied to theological anthropology.” (94)
“God has created both men and women with the
full capacity to be intimate with God.”
(94)
“Despite some of the remarks of Pope John Paul
II in Mulieris Dignitatem
on the mutuality of women and men, still the pope argues from a
complementarity model.” (96)
“Redemption means bringing to fruition and
completion God’s providential plan, revealed in Christ, that male and female,
Jew and Gentile, free and slave shall dwell together as one in the new
household of God.” (98)
“In the risen Christ, and through baptism, we no
longer are identified or determined by these factors (race, sex, and standing)
but are new persons, newly constituted.”
(98)
“It violates the best of Christian convictions
to suggest today that some members of the Christian community are subordinate
because God has eternally willed that some members (women) are intrinsically
“lesser”. (99)
4.
Trinity
and God-Language
“Christian feminism is concerned not only to
restore the equality of men and women in social patterns, but also to overturn
the idolatry of worshiping a male God. “
(101)
“We cannot name God in the same way that we name
created realities; according to the rule of analogy, we predicate God’s
similarity to us only by affirming God’s greater dissimilarity.” (103)
“Since God’s mystery cannot be fully captured in
any single metaphor, we are licensed to use an array of images and metaphors,
feminine as well as masculine.” (103)
“This suggests that the problem goes much deeper
than language. While continuing to explore the various options just outlined,
we must change the pattern of relationships in the Christian community as well
as depatriarchalize the concept of God.” (106)
“The Christian community is supposed to be an
icon of God’s triune life.” (106)
“The distortion of God’s image is communal as
well as personal; just as the person “puts on Christ” and so becomes a new
person in baptism, so the church is to acquire a new identity in which “Christ
is all, and in all” (Col 3:10) (106)
“Commitment to inclusive language must be
matched by commitment to inclusive community and vice versa.” (107)
Questions for Further Reflection:
Does LaCugna’s
understanding of the Trinity challenge your understanding of the Trinity?
What do you think that the doctrine of God tells
us about the nature of God? The nature
of human beings?
What is so important about putting the focus on
person rather than substance in understanding the Trinity?
Do you believe that God would not exist if God
were not personal?
What elements currently exist in the Church that
challenges our ability to live in authentic communion with God?
“Except God” from Beads and Strands
by Mercy Amba Oduyoye
Oduyoye, Mercy Amba. “Except God” [Chapter 2]. In Beads and Strands: Reflections of an African Woman on Christianity in Africa. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2004.
Mercy Amba Oduyoye is a theologian from the Akanse region in Ghana, Africa, near the city of Kumasi. She has been teacher, speaker, and writer. She has long been involved in the World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, and, more recently, in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. She currently lives in the city of Accra in southern Ghana.
In the Beginning
In this article, Oduyoye reads the Genesis creation story and asks what it tells us about our relationship with God, one another, and our world. The following paragraph near the end of the chapter provides a summary of the article, and, written as singular statements, gives us an opportunity for reflection. This reflection activity may be done alone or with others.
First read Genesis 1-3. The NRSV version may be
found HERE.
Then read each statement aloud and reflect on
its meaning in your life.
In Africa, as elsewhere, a literal reading of
the creation narratives has stifled the theological content and buried the
chance for real reflection.
A re-reading of Genesis 1-3 from the perspective
of the liberated children of Israel conveys other messages.
The narrative, far from sanctioning what is, is
a judgment on the world as we run it.
It exposes the sin in patriarchy as well as
matriarchy.
Hierarchy that undermines community and ignores
individuals’ ability to contribute is condemned.
The story exposes our refusal to observe limits
set by the God who frees from chaos and who is the only lawgiver.
We would gladly put limits on others if that
made us feel fulfilled, and yet to have dominion over the earth involves being
disciplined.
The narrative shows our unbelief in our verbal
acknowledgement that God knows what we need.
It calls us back to God in our original
shameless nakedness, vulnerability and mutuality.
It calls for mutual respect, respect for the
toughness and tenderness that is latent or patent in both women and men.
Above all, the narrative talks of the love of
God for a recalcitrant world.
Questions For Further Discussion:
What are the traditional readings of Genesis,
and what is my reading of Genesis? Which one do I live out of?
Who is the God of Genesis?
Do I submit all that am to God?
How do I willingly participate in Patriarchy?
Matriarchy?
How do I make the love of God real to my world?
Draw a picture of God.
How do I name the triune God? How does God name
me?
“Reshaping What We Think About”
by Michael Morwood
Morwood, Micael. “Reshaping What We Think It’s All About.” Corpus Reports (September/October 2003).
Introduction
Michael Morwood asks us to reflect on our concept/image of God and how God is present to us. Is our childhood image of God still with us or has it grown? He asks us to look at the concept/image of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the gospels, in the writings of Paul and in our Sacramental theology. He helps us see how our understanding of God shapes the way we pray and worship, the way we work and play (socialize); it shapes our Church, the way we think about our bodies and ourselves and that of others. Read Morwood to see if you think you will ever be satisfied with your relationship with God.
Even though, Morwood
does not talk about the Triune God, in this article, can you read the mystery
of the Trinity into what he says?
Can you reflect on the Trinitarian life as you
ponder the Scriptural and Sacramental references?
“The New Cosmology”
by Bea Dorsey
“The New Cosmology.” Talk given by Bea Dorsey, SSSF
Introduction
Bea Dorsey teaches Religious Formation at Alverno College in Milwaukee. Her talk was inspired by Brian Swimme’s book, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. From his book she gathers new descriptions for the triune God, such as “all nourishing abyss”, an “infinity of pure generative power”, and, an “unseen ocean of potentiality”. She helps us to jiggle and juggle our imagination as we walk with God in our work and prayer. We hope that she will be able to give a talk to the Racine Dominicans this fall.
“Creemos” [“We Believe”]
from the 8th Day Center for Justice
(click to follow link)
To read the “Creemos” Document, Click HERE.
The Creemos (We
Believe) document was authored by the 8th
We
invite you to read this document in light of
Our
Racine Dominican mission statement: Committed to Truth, Compelled to Justice
Our
internal and external directional statement
Your
understanding of the triune God:
Does
this statement challenge you?
Does it
resonate with you?
Does it
inspire you?
Does it
move you to action?