Moltmann's Trinity: Christology, Pneumatology, and the Spirit

Introduction

…Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This invocation, accompanying the sign of the cross, marks the beginning and end of every Roman Catholic prayer. It has become synonymous with Catholicism — a celebration of the crucifix as representative of the Blessed Trinity. While every good Catholic takes this Triumvirate for granted, it is left to theological scholars like Jürgen Moltmann to dissect and analyze the salient features of the Trinity. Is the Trinity a Pneumatological or Christological entity? Is it a combination of the two? Where is God in the scheme of Moltmann's thesis? The theoditic question challenged the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of God in his relationship with man. Is this question revisited in relation to Jesus Christ as the carrier of the Holy Spirit during his life on earth? Moltmann presents a clear interpretation of the relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Blessed Trinity in the chapter "Trinitarian Experience of the Spirit" from his book The Spirit of Life (Moltmann, 1992).

Moltmann's thesis is to crystallize two schools of thought. First, Christology: God the Father is at the head; the Holy Spirit flows from God to the Son. The Father loves the world through the Son, and he can only do this through the Spirit. Christology marks the life of Christ on Earth from a historical and faith perspective. Second, Pneumatology: God the Father sends the Son to save mankind. The Son breathes the Spirit into the disciples. The Spirit rises from Christ at the time of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit becomes the origin of evangelicalism, marking the beginning of the spread of Christianity — eschatology (Vos, 1912). That Moltmann attempts to establish the role of Christ, the Spirit, and the Trinity from the New Testament — where no explicit reference to the Trinity is made — is testament to his theological and philosophical abilities.

In essence, Pneumatology follows Christology, or one might consider the two as parts of an eternal wheel with God as the hub. Moltmann describes how Christology draws from Pneumatology, and vice versa. The synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are examples of Pneumatological Christology. John, considered the writer of one of the four Gospels, is not synoptic. John's work marks an effective transition between the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament — namely the epistles of Paul, Peter, and some of the other apostles. John, in his Gospel, and Paul, in his epistles (mostly to Timothy), portend the coming of the Holy Spirit emanating from the Son, Jesus Christ.

In order to understand how Moltmann espouses the role of the Spirit in Trinitarianism, it is necessary to gain an idea of how Trinitarianism is perceived. The doctrine of Trinitarianism is the orthodox Christian belief that, despite God's singular essence, God also exists as three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. The scriptural origins for Trinitarian thinking can be found in verses such as: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost…" (Matthew 28:19). And, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." (1 Peter 1:2)

These passages neither describe a three-in-one God, nor do they necessarily espouse a belief in one. They do, however, set the stage for the development of Christian Trinitarianism. It was not, in fact, until the 4th century that theologians began to officially describe God as three persons (hypostases) with one being (ousia).

Trinitarianism is not the direct teaching of Scripture. It is a theological construct developed from Scripture to explain the Biblical doctrine of God. There are Scriptures that seem to teach Trinitarian dogma, yet in reality no single verse does so. There are verses, or combinations of several verses, that might support Trinitarian dogma, as seen above. The doctrine of the Trinity is therefore an implicit teaching, formulated from the inferences and exegesis of Biblical data. It is viewed as the only viable explanation of all the Biblical data concerning God's identity.

Christology

There is another school of thought that espouses a single God (with Christ and the Spirit) — Oneness theology. The problem facing both Trinitarians and Oneness believers is how to reconcile three seemingly contradictory teachings of Scripture: there is only one God; the New Testament makes a distinction between the Father, Son, and Spirit; and the appellations "Father," "Son," and "Spirit" are all used in reference to God. The question that both Oneness theology and Trinitarianism seek to answer is how to understand God as being one, and yet account for the Scriptural distinctions.

In the chapter under study, Jürgen Moltmann would argue that Trinitarianism is alive and well, and that it can be read in every line — or between the lines — of every verse and nuance of the New Testament. The author presents several facets of the Trinity. In the first part, he shows how the synoptics presented the Spirit in Christology. The second part shows how the first evangelists, entrusted with the furtherance of Christianity, pursued Pneumatology. The receivers of the Spirit, in turn, are examples of eschatology. The third part seeks answers to the fundamental questions of what part God plays in the Trinity and the Spirit. In the fourth section, Moltmann introduces eschatological pneumatology.

In Christology, the Spirit flows from God the Father to the Son. Historically, Moltmann avers, the Spirit coming upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist marked the beginning of Christ's ministry. Incidentally, it also marked the decline of John the Baptist's influence. After the Spirit descends on Jesus, "the phraseology about the 'descent' of the Spirit on Jesus, and it 'resting' on him suggests that the Spirit should be interpreted as God's Shekinah." (Moltmann, 1992, p. 61) Shekinah means "the Divine Presence of God." The Spirit "indwelling" in Jesus Christ now manifests itself in his ministry. The various miracles, the healings, and the driving out of demons are illustrations of the Christological aspects. Before Jesus' ministry begins, Moltmann reminds the reader, Satan tempts Jesus. The Spirit — which is present in Jesus at the Baptism — is really inactive until after the temptation. Here the fact that Jesus is the Messiah is established; even Satan acknowledges it.

Moltmann raises a very pertinent question: in Christology, one finds Christ in action, but is the true identity of the Spirit really in evidence as an independent entity? The concept of Shekinah demonstrates that the Spirit is alive and active. By this it is meant that the Spirit is integral to Christ — almost a part of him. The Spirit "accompanies" Christ in his trials and tribulations. The Spirit suffers when Christ suffers. Through the endowment of Shekinah, Moltmann declares that the "Spirit of God" becomes the "Spirit of Man."

What happens, then, during the extremis that Jesus suffers at the Garden of Gethsemane before his imprisonment and subsequent death? Perhaps for the first time since his birth, Jesus shows human weakness, crying out "Abba, dear Father!" (Moltmann, 1992, p. 63). The Spirit is still there. The Spirit abides with Jesus through his passion and death. A skeptic might question the role of the Spirit in Christ from a theoditic perspective: was all this part of the Grand Design? If it was, the roles of Christ and the Spirit are premeditated. Analogously, David Hume proposed the Theodice Problem to counter the apparent contradiction between God's omnipotence and Man's free will. Simply stated, if God was all-powerful, then everything that occurred was based on a pre-determined design, which was contrary to the concept of Man having been given free will. This tension gave way to the theoditic concerns that were part of the Age of Enlightenment and Pragmatism. Even John Milton's epic Paradise Lost allows the first couple — Adam and Eve — free will, which becomes their eventual downfall.

Moltmann points out that it is really the Spirit interceding on behalf of Jesus when he cries out in despair. The fact that his pleas are not answered illustrates the "will of God." One might disagree with Moltmann's premise that being nearly forsaken by God during his trial and tortured walk to Golgotha — the place of skulls, where the crucifixion was about to take place — is a sign of the Spirit's awakening to the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies. It is more tenable to argue that the entities of the Trinity are so intertwined that isolating each from the other is a stretch at best.

Conclusion

The "Trinitarian Experience of the Spirit" can in some cases seem sacrilegious: Moltmann seems to fight very hard to restore the place of the Spirit in the scheme of the Trinity. It is easy for the reader or student to be trapped into believing that his arguments weaken Christology in favor of Pneumatology. The reality of his writing and theology is to help identify how united the three entities of the Trinity are as one whole — that God's power flows through the Spirit into Christ, and that God's power flows through Christ into the Spirit and to all of us. The Trinity abides and is eternal.

Moltmann's book, and this particular chapter, has been an eye-opening experience. It encapsulates Christian theology into a single whole (Macchia, 1994). It identifies the Christian doctrine in the God-Spirit-Son relationship, followed by the God-Son-Spirit hierarchy. In Christology, the works of Christ began when he was imbued with the Spirit, and the power of the Spirit was made visible during the transfiguration. Learning about Christology reveals how the divinity of Christ and the struggle of a human with inherent frailties served a grand purpose. The miracles of healing and feeding and the casting out of demons may seem merely visual, but they bring home to Christians the message of love flowing through Christ's hands as he receives the bounties of the Holy Spirit through God. The most visual sign of Christianity — the Cross — is made real through the recognition of the Spirit's role in the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.

The Pneumatological significance arises from the awakening of the Spirit after the death of Christ. This Spirit is part of all Christians. The variation of John's Gospel from the synoptics is important when viewed from the perspective of the Trinity. It is not merely a relating of the story of Christ's life as was done by Matthew, Mark, and Luke; it signifies far more. It tells of the transition from Christology to Pneumatology. Pneumatology becomes all the more meaningful when it is established as the forerunner of eschatology — the very essence of Christian hope.

Moltmann's efforts have truly helped bind Christology and Pneumatology into a single theology. It is easy to forget the influence of God the Creator when considering the details of the individual entities. It is really God that helps cement the Trinity. The Trinity is made whole and eternal through the power of God. Moltmann shows how the Trinity is established with the recognition that each entity serves the other, and is tied together in such a manner that no philosopher, theologian, scientist, or anthropologist might break it.