Interesting: for Hilary, the answer to "What is the meaning of life?" is found in the Trinity. Few modern Western Christians would answer in this way. It seems to me that we don't know what to do with the Trinity. Most Christians know they are supposed to believe in it, but aren't sure why it matters. Yes, it matters that Jesus is God, but much more central to salvation are what Jesus did on the cross and his invitation to have a personal relationship with Him. The doctrine of the Trinity is more of an academic construct that systematizes our theology, tying up some loose ends.
However, it appears to me that for Hilary (and Cyril and Irenaeus), the being of Christ was just as important for salvation as His actions. It is not only that the Son of God died and rose again; it is also that the Son of God united humanity and divinity in His person. The relationship of the believer with God is defined in Trinitarian terms as well. We share in the divine Father-Son relationship through our union with Christ. This union is made possible by the Son of God's becoming flesh.
Hilary brings in the Eucharist at this point:
If the Word has indeed become flesh, and we indeed receive the Word as flesh in the Lord's food, how are we not to believe that He dwells in us by His nature, He who, when He was born as man, has assumed the nature of our flesh that is bound inseparably with Himself, and has mingled the nature of His flesh to His eternal nature in the mystery of the flesh that was to be communicated to us? (285)This is quite a sentence, and I'm not sure I understand all of it. But I gather that we share in Christ's nature through partaking of His body and blood. Thereby we enter into the very life of God, participating in the divine Father-Son relationship.
Another thing I like about Hilary is that he thought a lot about the task of theology and approached it humbly. For example:
A firm faith rejects the captious and useless questions of philosophy, nor does truth become the victim of falsehood by yielding to the fallacies of human absurdities. It does not confine God within the terms of ordinary understanding...the power of eternal infinity surpasses the comprehension of the earthly mind. (14)
The best reader is he who looks for the meaning of the words in the words themselves rather than reads his meaning into them, who carries away more than he brought, and who does not insist that the words signify what he presupposed before reading them...let us concede to God the knowledge about Himself, and let us humbly submit to His words with reverent awe. For He is a competent witness for Himself who is not known except by Himself. (18)
Dan, I dig this summary of the selections we read from Hilary. I found the experience of reading through Hilary (two times over the last two years) very transformative, furthermore, for much the reason you describe. For him, the Trinity is not an academic subject. Actually, I'm not sure I recall him ever even using the word "Trinity". Instead, like Irenaeus, he uses the names of the three divine persons each of whom is fully the One God: "Father" "Son" and "Spirit".
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it is not the case -- indeed, I'm inclined strongly to think it is the case! -- that, for Hilary, salvation is NOT a matter of having guilt washed away, but is rather initiation into eternal communion and life. That is why the Trinity and the divinity of Christ are so important. If God is not the Trinity, than fellowship with God is not a matter of communion. Further, if Christ is not God, than the communion he effects is not communion with God, but, rather, is just communion with a dude. "This is eternal life: that they may KNOW you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17) The forgiveness of guilt is only one experience involved in this total communion of spiritual knowledge.
Great post!
ReplyDeleteJnorm888