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.

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.