Daily Archives: May 7, 2010

Monastic Theologies of the Trinity

I’m feverishly working away in my spare hours on a presentation for Ka’zoo. I’ll regrettably not be able to attend, but a comrade has graciously agreed to read the piece in my place. I’m writing on Ælfric’s supplemental homily XIa which I argue is a composition designed to summarize the core of the Christian message by explicating the Trinity using a life of Christ constructed through the liturgical year. Ælfric doesn’t go speculative (much), but rather chooses to go liturgical. It’s quite an interesting text and I’ve used it when I’ve taught both preaching and the Church Year.

It’s in light of this context that I was greatly amused to read the following from Br. Stephen:

And, if you were checking in today for religious insight, here’s an explanation of the Trinity given to me on last night’s walk at recreation, which perfectly encapsulates the healthy disinterest that monks generally have in systematic theology:

You have an old man with a beard, a young man with a beard, a dove, and a triangle that connects them. The Athanasian Creed explains the diagram. Go beyond that and you’ll probably get yourself into trouble.

He therefore that will be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity.