THEOLOGICALLY SPEAKING

It’s a Trinitarian theology that attempts to plumb the depths of the world. A world made up of threes. A tri-dimensional reality. Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. Tangerine, rubber tubing and plasticine! You try to work out how they are tied together, intrigued by their threesome relationship. You remember in all the fairy tales you’d been told in childhood there were always the Righteous, the Wicked and the Innocent; or the Brave, the Coward and the Holy Fool. But tangerine and plasticine? Would you call tubing stupid? Yes, you’ve learned two are not enough to make a good story. Would rubber do the trick? Two make a flat surface, whereas we need a world of cubic solidity. It’s a lifetime’s discipline to keep thinking in threes. And yet to locate the genealogy for rubber tubing, plasticine and tangerine seems too big a challenge, until it suddenly dawns on you that it’s a matter of wisdom and imagination ― whatever filial intimacy you’d like them to show, we’d certainly be able to make it possible, even if not all tangerines are sweet and juicy. Father, Son and the Holy Ghost ― whence the triangulation of them, you and me. (Which one is sweet?) Or, if you prefer, we can make theology feminine: Mother, Daughter and the Sacred Beira. Surely this will make Heaven kinder. And make it last! For far too long we’ve referred to the Most High as a “He”, not knowing we are now all gods and should learn to be wary of the masculine. O such burden of responsibility! To be given a share in the Godhead, and inhabit an existence within the Lebenswelt, the you, and the me! Tangerine, rubber tubing and plasticine! That’s the command we’ll follow, in the humble Trinitarian spirit, to map out and re-enchant our world of threes.