The Trinity

[ViaCrucis]

I was drawing a biblical analogy that implies our very being that is comprised of Body, Mind/Spirit and Soul... and is made in the “Image” of God... is a solid way to strike an analogy of the Trinity.

I was not implying that we are God or Like God. Again, the objection is an implied objection to something that was never implied.

Trichotomism is largely a more modern idea, and isn't held by most Christians.

Scripture describes a number of aspects of the human person--the body, the soul, the spirit, the mind, the heart, the will, etc. So, if going by how Scripture describes humanity, there isn't just three aspects of humanity, there's a lot more.

Trichotomism attempts to assert a dogma that isn't biblical or historically Christian.

I think a more biblical, and more historically Christian understanding of humanity is that we have both a visible/material dimension as well as an invisible/immaterial dimension. There are aspects of our humanity which aren't visible--for example the mind, the will, the heart, etc. But these invisible aspects of our humanity are not other than our visible and material humanity, but part of them. That means we can never think of ourselves in a Platonic sense as a kind of "ghost in the shell", as though we are souls encased in bodies of flesh. We are, instead, ensouled bodies, nephesh chayah (Genesis 2:7), "living-breathing, creatures".

We are creatures of matter imbued with reason, consciousness, conscience, moral agency, emotion, breath.

Death, because of its disruption of the natural order, severs body and soul from one another. This isn't how things should be, and so we hope in Christ for the resurrection of the body.

The term that I think best reflects a biblical depiction of man is psychosomatic union. We are a union of body-and-soul, we are ensouled bodies, living-breathing creatures endowed and imbued with reason, agency, and conscience. That uniquely gives us the opportunity to be reflections of the Divine Image in which we were created, to bear and reflect God within His creation, as a people who imitate and emulate God--to love, to care, to be just. We are not, like other animals, creatures of pure instinct, we are moral animals, thinking animals. And perhaps most importantly, we are worshiping animals.

The Imago Dei isn't in some sum of our parts, but is in our created purpose, to bear and reflect God and His likeness in the world. The redemptive drama is that the Divine Image has been distorted, marred, polluted, and in some sense lost through sin and death, and so the long story of redemption is that God is healing and restoring the Divine Image to man through Jesus Christ. Our salvation is, in large part, the restoring of the Divine Image. Hence God's glorious purpose for us is that we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). Ultimately, in some way, this is the point of Theosis within the big picture of our salvation and the redemption of all things. The restoration of the Divine Image, the healing of our humanity, and ultimately the transfiguration of ourselves in Christ to be like Him, "for we shall be like Him, as we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). As the ancient fathers said (e.g.) "the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself." (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V, Preface)

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Grip Docility]

Trichotomism is largely a more modern idea, and isn't held by most Christians.

Scripture describes a number of aspects of the human person--the body, the soul, the spirit, the mind, the heart, the will, etc. So, if going by how Scripture describes humanity, there isn't just three aspects of humanity, there's a lot more.

Trichotomism attempts to assert a dogma that isn't biblical or historically Christian.

I think a more biblical, and more historically Christian understanding of humanity is that we have both a visible/material dimension as well as an invisible/immaterial dimension. There are aspects of our humanity which aren't visible--for example the mind, the will, the heart, etc. But these invisible aspects of our humanity are not other than our visible and material humanity, but part of them. That means we can never think of ourselves in a Platonic sense as a kind of "ghost in the shell", as though we are souls encased in bodies of flesh. We are, instead, ensouled bodies, nephesh chayah (Genesis 2:7), "living-breathing, creatures".

We are creatures of matter imbued with reason, consciousness, conscience, moral agency, emotion, breath.

Death, because of its disruption of the natural order, severs body and soul from one another. This isn't how things should be, and so we hope in Christ for the resurrection of the body.

The term that I think best reflects a biblical depiction of man is psychosomatic union. We are a union of body-and-soul, we are ensouled bodies, living-breathing creatures endowed and imbued with reason, agency, and conscience. That uniquely gives us the opportunity to be reflections of the Divine Image in which we were created, to bear and reflect God within His creation, as a people who imitate and emulate God--to love, to care, to be just. We are not, like other animals, creatures of pure instinct, we are moral animals, thinking animals. And perhaps most importantly, we are worshiping animals.

The Imago Dei isn't in some sum of our parts, but is in our created purpose, to bear and reflect God and His likeness in the world. The redemptive drama is that the Divine Image has been distorted, marred, polluted, and in some sense lost through sin and death, and so the long story of redemption is that God is healing and restoring the Divine Image to man through Jesus Christ. Our salvation is, in large part, the restoring of the Divine Image. Hence God's glorious purpose for us is that we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). Ultimately, in some way, this is the point of Theosis within the big picture of our salvation and the redemption of all things. The restoration of the Divine Image, the healing of our humanity, and ultimately the transfiguration of ourselves in Christ to be like Him, "for we shall be like Him, as we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). As the ancient fathers said (e.g.) "the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself." (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V, Preface)

-CryptoLutheran

I find it the only example that is biblically defensible.