COMMUNION OF PERSONS
IN THE TRINITY: A MODEL FOR AFRICA’S COMMUNAL LIFE
ABSTRACT
Africa
has a problem. These problems over the years have proved to be perennial,
resisting variegated solutions. Time after time, the continent still finds
herself beset by wars, hunger, starvation, diseases of sort, political and
economic instability, violence, problem of leadership and general
underdevelopment. The African man since history has been on the struggle to
overcome this challenge and to meet up with other parts of the world in economy
and politics all to no avail. Both African and Western Philosophy couldn’t and
cannot save him. His problem still stares him in the face. This work argues
that only authentic faith, expressed in the communal life after the model of the
Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, can save the African man. This
work further argues that from this shared and revealed life, the African man
finds salvation for his soul.
The Disposition: Introducing the Paper
Africa from time immemorial is
beset with woeful stories that feed the despair of the continent. The continent
as a geographical entity has always been at the lower level of global economic
ladder. Stories of regrets: wars, both past and present, civil wars, hunger and
violence have continued to stagnate the continent as it implicates progress, no
thanks to the above named factors. Many moral and political ideologies and theories
have been proffered. Social theories; socialism, capitalism, communalism etc
have not succeeded in bringing light to Africa. Ethical theories of sorts have
been preferred in philosophy and in every human intellectual investigations,
yet, the African man has not found the right answers to tackle the perennial
problem of his society. He still finds himself in a volatile environment beset
with poverty and violence, hunger and economic despair. All these threatening
themes as death, fatality, the difficulty of living, abandonment by the gods,
the solitude of man staggering in dark, formed the basis of Greek pessimism.[1]
Parallel to these, one of the problems which tries to
confront the African society today is the tension that faces her communal life
for which we are known. This tension cannot be vastly discussed if we relegate
the harm such does to faith. Irrespective of the fact that the African
intelligence strives always to put a check against this tension, our write-up
clearly demonstrates that authentic faith which takes
after the model of the Trinity serves as panacea to the distortions in African Communal life. It envisages
that the Trinitarian life if employed and made practical by us can make this
seed to germinate appropriately, become a tree, bear fruits and become so
formidable that the birds of the air could build their nests on it..
This article
attempts answers to these questions: in what consists the Trinitarian
communion? What is the sense of African Community life? How best can we
appropriate this communion in the Trinity to the African society? These
questions and their corollaries shall we strive to answer as we progress.
Hence, based on these problems and for precision sake, our paper is divided
into three major parts: The Position which presents an orthodox interpretation
of the trinitarian communion; The Exposition which examines the community life
in the African Society; The Proposition which unravels how best a proper
appropriation; hence an application of the communion seen in the Trinity can be
made for a better appreciation of our African communal life.
PART ONE: THE POSITION
COMMUNION IN THE
TRINITY
1.1
The Trinitairan Lifestyle
It pleased God in
His supreme bountifulness to reveal Himself and to make known his will “that
men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in
the Holy Spirit...”[2] Surely,
the basis of our faith is that rooted in the belief in the Trinity. The
Christian God is the God of the Trinity, whereby there are three persons in one
God.[3]
This knowledge of God as a communion of three persons is that which we have got
from God’s revelation of himself in Jesus Christ (i.e the Incarnation). “The
specific character of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ consists of the
incredible message that God is a communion of persons.”[4]The
christian God is not a solitary monad but a self-creating community, indeed a
communion both in Himself and in His relations with mankind and with creation.[5]
Hence, the trinitarian lifestyle is that lived in the communion of the three
divine persons. God lives his own divine life in a tripersonal
inter-communication and need no complement, supplement of fulfillment from a
reality distinct from Himself.[6] The African theologian, Nyamiti, in line with
others stresses that God is primarily communicative; he is a communion of an
bounded union in perfect harmony and absolute oneness.[7] This perfect harmony and oneness is of an
interior reciprocal manner. “In every divine person as a subject,the other persons also
indwell; all mutually permeate one another, though in doing so they do not
cease to be distinct persons.”[8]
But, here, we ask ourselves: what is the content of this communion?
1.2 The Content of the Communion in the
Trinity
This question is pertinent because it
is through the discovery of the content that one can better appreciate the
communion and at same time appropriate clearly such a lifestyle in the modelling
of the Africa’s communal life as the theme of our article suggests. Schmaus and
many other seasoned theologians[9]
accredit that this inter-communication of this tri-personal God is love.
Indeed, Garrigou-Langrange captures this perfect life of love and union when he
advocates:
Indeed, the entire personality of the
Father is the relation to the Son, the entire personality of the Son is the
relation to the Father, and the entire personality of the Holy Spirit is the
relation to the Father and the Son.[10]
Guerry Emily in his own thesis on the
Happiness of the Divine Family exposes the content of this communion. He says
that before the world, was the Father and the Son, and they loved each other
with an eternal and infinite love in the unity of the Holy Spirit.[11]
For him, this divine life of love is a perfect beatitude without limit, and
these divine persons were happy with all the fullness of happiness. This
activity of love is seen in the sending character of His Son (cf. John 3:16),
and Christ’s prayer to His Father makes it clear that the Father loved him
before the creation of the world (John 17:24). Yet, this communion and union in
love manifests more in their glorification of one another (cf. John 12:28;
17:1; 17:5), joy at one another (John 15:11) and peace with one another (cf.
John 14:2). In essence, God is love (1 John 4:8.16). indeed in the sending of
Christ “into the world, God reveals Himself as the God whose being is
constituted by relationship.”[12]
Our stake then is the discovery of how this communion in love of the Trinity
can serve as a model for the African society. Yet, we need to know whether the
African society can really boast of
communal life; whether this communal life, if in existence is Trinity-inspired;
and whether the African society can imitate to an extent even in their
finitude, this trinitarian lifestyle. But, let us first discover what the
African Community looks like.
PART
TWO: THE EXPOSITION
AFRICA
AND HER COMMUNITY LIFE
2.1
The African Sense of Community
Africa,
no doubt is blessed by God with communal social setting that recognizes one
another in the society, observing close consanguinity up to the third and
fourth generations. This communal living finds expressions in cultural
structures like kingship, women wings, different rites and practices of
initiation, traditional dances, common land ownership and inheritance etc. Such
settings no doubt, dispose a typical African society towards collective
progress and mutual complementarity.
The
African society has always been seen as one marked with communalism. According
to African scholars such as Onwubiko O., this communalism in Africa is a system
that is both suprasensible and material in its terms of reference. It is both
god-made (that is, transcending the people who live in it now) and man-made (that
is, its inability to be understood independent of those presently living in
it). Hence, the authentic African is known and identified in, by, and through
the community. The community is the custodian of the individual and the
individual must go wherever the community goes. “The African idea of security
and its value depends on personal identification with and within the
community... the community offers the African the psychological and ultimate
security as it gives its members both physical and ideological identity.”[13]
Hence, the community remains while the individual comes and goes. This emphasis
on community life and communalism is a living principle which has its basic
ideology in community-identity, and has the aim of producing and presenting an
individual as a community-culture-bearer. Now, we quest more: what is the
structure of this community of the African society?
2.2
The Tri-partite Structure of the African Society
Amongst many structures of the African
society that scholars may have presented, ours follows a tripartite progression
which we consider as the major pillars in the structuring: The Family, The
Village and The Ethnic Group. We do not relegate in any way the possibility of
ancillary divisions in-between the tripartite structure already presented. The
family is on the first level, nuclear, and on the second level, extended. The
nuclear is the immediate members of a family comprising the man, the woman (or
women) and the children. The extended is the many number of different families
of the same grandfather or great grandfather. “Living together and the sense of
community of brothers and sisters are the basis of, and the expression of the
extended family system in Africa.”[14]
This is also seen in the Ujamaa philosophy of Julius Nyerere. Ujamaa, in the
Literal sense means togetherness or familyhood.
The
conglomeration of these extended families and patrilineages while declaring
themselves the descendants of a common remote ancestor forms the village. After
the village are some other groupings, but the most important of them progresses
tot he Ethnic group. It is a territorial delimitation including the sum total
of the varied
clans (number of villages acclaiming to have descended from a common mythical
or very remote ancestor) as a people living in the same geagrophical
territorial unit.the ethnic group is then in a way segmented but in such a way
as to make the sections indissolubly linked one to the other. They posses a cultural
homogeneity seen in the linguistic, economic, political and religious
organizations.
PART
THREE: THE PROPOSITION
TRINITARIAN
FAITH AND THE AFRICAN LIFE
3.1 The Need for a Revealed Life
As
Paul says, the revealed life of the Trinity was not one devised by human
wisdom, more or less persuasive in its appeal (1Cor 2:1-5) but the transmission of the very word and power of
God. By living the communal life of the trinity, the model of the life of an
African man in the society is no longer a question of speculating or even of
understanding more or less profoundly, according to the varying capacities of
each intelligence but of adhering and of submitting, “We demolish human
calculations, yes, every fortified height that rears itself against the
knowledge of God, we bring every thought into captivity under obedience to
Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5). Therefore the
communal life of Christians in Africa should be essentially union with the
Trinity. Cesclaus explains that this model of communality thus:
This
conception is rich in meaning; it contains the qualities of nobility,
integrity, and glory, of perfection and completion; it is opposed to ugliness which is
a characteristic of vice; finally, it implies excellence[15]
This
life supposes a conversion which is first of all faith in the message and in
the redemptive work of the saviou and the deliverance from error. This
underlies the necessity of revealed and shared life of the trinity over human
ideologies.
3.2 Modelling after the
Trinity
Just as Onwubiko has lamented that “the betrayal
of the African sense of community life by the new generation impede a healthy
cultural exchange”[16],
we advocate that this healthy cultural exchange can be reclaimed if we take the
Trinity as our model in our communal life. Hence, as we have said earlier and
as some authors agree that the Trinity is a fellowship or communion of divine
love, we reiterate that “the persons of the Holy Trinity are not separate,
autonomous selves or individuals...” and that their “relationship is marked by
equality of personhood, interdependence (not independence), cooperation (not
competition), unity of purpose, and mutual self-giving and receiving.”[17]
The life of the Trinity is a life devoid of hatred, rancour, ethnicity,
division, and covetousness. A life characterized by fellow feeling, sharing and
mutual complementarily, a life marked by division of work geared towards a
common end. The absence of this Trinitarian life accounts for the dysfunctional
African communal life. the Trinitarian life is the revealed and shares life of
the trinity bereft of defunct or failed human ideologies. According to
Harrison, this provides a model for the ideal human community in which people
are united by mutual love, they work together in harmonious consensus , and the
equality and dignity of each person is respected.[18]
Harping further on this, Kallistos explains what it mean to follow the model of
the trinity in practical terms:
Each
social grouping-family…nation, has as its vocation to be transformed by grace
into a living icon of The Holy Trinity, to effect a reconciling harmony between
diversity and unity, human freedom and mutual solidarity after the pattern of
the Trinity. Our belief in a Trinitarian God, in a God of social
inter-relationship and shared love commits us to opposing all forms of
exploitation, injustice and discrimination.[19]
In followership of these
divine qualities extracted from the Trinity, a basic question become more
glaring to us: why should we take the Trinity as models? This God whose image
we are is love; a communion (fellowship), hence he lives in relationship. The
man He has created (and more specifically, the African) is called to live in
relationship as an image of a God who lives in relationship. In essence, man is
made to be in relationship; both vertically with God (cf. Deut. 6:4; Mtt.12:30;
John13:34) and horizontally with the neighbour(cf. Mtt. 12:31.). God has not
made the African to be in solitude; he is a relational being. It is because the
African is created in the image of God that we are able to penetrate certain
mysteries in God; one of which is the mystery of God who lives in love. “The
equality, interdependence, cooperation, sharing and mutual self-giving and
receiving among the persons of the Trinity provide a model for human
relationship, whether marriage and family, or community, clan, tribe or
nation.”[20]
It is because the African man
is created in God’s image, that we are called to embody a new community in
which their is a fair sharing of the resources of the earth, and where
authoritarianism, domination, and power consciousness are replaced by mutual
honour and respect. The communion in the Trinity ought to lead us to an
understanding in which dialogue and consensus replaces war and disagreements,
and in turn form the basic constituents of living together both as Africans and
as Christians. Just as in the Trinity, “there is difference without division,
self-giving without self-loss, and eternal life in ceaseless harmony and peace”[21],
so also the African should learn to be different without dividing, to give
without having lost oneself and to live in happiness with fellows.
By imitating the community in
God, the African hope for a time of peace, justice and freedom among the varied
cultures in our land, the varied ethnicity, with the emphasis on community,
equality, freedom and harmony among the people, will surely be met. Hence, this
christian profession of the Trinity brings to book certain ideologies of the
present-day African society –totalitarianism, individualism, etc. It dismantles
all sorts of social inequality –elitism, racism, genderism, classism, tribalism,
authoritarianism, etc. The
doctrine of the Trinity affirms that God is one but in three persons, each
being distinct but inseparably united with others. This distinctness and
inseparability suggest that in them is both unity (in their oneness), and
diversity (in their threeness). This simply has implications for the African
Society. The African society is composed of many parts of diverse ethnicity,
cultures, beliefs and nationalities. Yet, all African Christians are by virtue
of their baptism united under a single head, Jesus Christ, and disposed for
service through the numerous gifts plentifully given by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.
12:4-31).
In the face of these
multi-ethnicity and culturality, variations in culture ought to be encouraged
as against rigid conformism to particular dictates; for variety is the spice of
life. This demonstrates an understanding of the unity and diversity of the
Trinity. Any atttempt to impose a particular culture or practice on a people
reduces the trinitarian principle of unity in diversity to bland conformity.Thomas F. Tumblin after writing his thesis on the application of the
Trinity cannot but deem it wise to summarize his points in these words. “To
summarize the language of this essay, God calls us to model perichoretic community
by which God’s Spirit can transform via the grace promised in Jesus Christ.”[22]Perichoeris
implies the mutual penetration of the Trinitarian family. The African Society
is then called to style herself in a
mutual understanding, toleration, love, peace with one another, appreciation of
one another, joy at one another.
3.3 A Socio-Cultural
Application
Justice And Human Right: When
as Christians we fight for justice and human rights, for a compassionate and
caring society, we are acting specifically in the name of the Trinity. Faith in
the Trinitarian God, in the God of personal relationship and shard love commits
us to struggle against poverty, exploitation, disease and all forms of
oppression. It also commits us to fight for human emancipation and for the
greater ennoblement of the human race and against tyranny and unbridled
oppression, public embezzlement of fund, civil wars and unrest, election
hijacking and rigging etc.
Obedience to Civil Law: Africans
are culturally respectful. This respect for elders are also translated to
respect for civil authorities and constitution which frowns at all forms of
criminality capable of bridging the peace of a society.[23]
So following the example of Christ who, although he is fully God and entirely
equal to the Father renounces himself and does only what the Father willsthe
African society should fan a total obedience to the laws of the land. This does
not undermine their human dignity and equality since Christ’s obedience did not
compromise his divine dignity.[24]
Unity and Common Purpose: This
calls for collective action in the communal life of Africa’s communal life
after the model of the trinity. Just as the three persons,. Although they
played specific roles in the work of salvation, yet all are geared towards the
salvation of man. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit joined together in
inseparable love. Here St. Gregory of Nyssa paints a clearer picture of this
unity of act and purpose in the trinity that the three persons work together
such that none is unaware of the activity of the other.[25]Hence,
a collaborative effort of all the members of the society, with common interest,
to create a peaceful, progressive and egalitarian society that recognizes and
respects the right and dignity of each individual should be emphasised.
Life-Giving: The
Trinity came to give life to the world (Jn 10:10) and the Trinity gave
themselves personally in the Son to win sovereign freedom for man. This
singular model challenges the African man to give up his time, and energy and
even life for the good of the other. This model on the one hand helps to eschew
all forms of selfishness, embezzlement and covetousness, and, on the other
hand, condemns all forms of action, policies, laws that endanger or annihilate
human life such as the legalization of abortion, using human beings for
biological experiment, indiscriminate use of contraceptives, pills, directly
willed sterilizations etc[26].
Transfigured Leadership: Many
scholars, like B.E.B Nwoke are of the view that the problem of Africa is leadership.
In the world history, Africa has recorded a crème of notorious and corrupt
leaders that dot the continent and has stagnated her as it implicates progress.[27]
In recounting history, we call to mind dictators and oppressive African rulers
like Charles McArthur Ghankay Tailor of Liberia, who committed untold crimes
against humanity, and wasted many innocent lives in his crave for power; Paul
Biya who has been the president of Cameroon since 6th November 1982
who wields his sweeping powers like a tyrant and hardly appears in public;
Robert Mugabe, the tyrant of Zimbabwe since 1980; General Sani Abacha of
Nigeria who, though ruled for five years, managed to commit a lifetime of
crimes and declared his government to be above the law and is known as the most
brutal dictator of the West African powerhouse responsible for five billion
dollars in stolen funds; Sekou Toure of Guinea who ruled from 1958-1984 and
declared Guinea a one party state. Others include Macias Nguema of Guinea, Siad
Barre of Somalia, Omar Al-bashir, Hissene Habre of Chad, General Idi Amin Dada
of Uganda who can be regarded as the most brutal of all times.[28]The
woeful stories that accompany these infamous African leaders no doubt accounts,
to a reasonable extent for the sorry predicament of the continent, politically
and economically. Here, Harrison reminds us
that Like God the Father, the leader is called to provide a strong
foundation enabling other persons to use their gifts in mutual service and
collaboration.[29]
Love in Action: This
is the zenith and summary of all the distinguishing models of the Trinity. Love
put in action is what Africa needs in her communal living to make progress and
transform the society. The Holy Spirit “activated” the disciples on the
Pentecost day, enabling them to share the love of God, through the gospel to
all nation. By virtue of our baptism, we have received the Holy Spirit and have
put on Christ (Gal 3:27-28). We are therefore charged to make this love evident
in the African Society.
THE REPOSITION: Concluding
the Paper
No nation, no continent can claim to be
trouble-free. Africa, thus as a continent is not an exception. Problems have been issues in the historical
events of the world. In this regard, man continues to make effort to solve the
problems that existence presents, and the ones he is unable to solve, he learns
to adapt to; yet without loosing hope of the possibility of solution. To give
an instance, in the health world, there have been confrontations by various
diseases and infections, according to epochs and generations; still man has
continued to proffer solutions to these issues, thanks to his intelligence.
Where does this intelligence come from? Our era apparently presents or proffers
solutions to problems as if man has become all in all. We today tend to neglect
the vertical dimension for the solutions to our problems, and of course, the
result of which is the over-emphasis on the horizontal dimension. When we
experience certain political tension and wars between nations, the tendency has
always been to employ every human intelligence either to calm the situation or
to win. The recent global politico-economic turmoils accentuate this fact.
There is the need to remember the vertical line of our human existence; God is
there. This belief in the thereness of God, thought honestly, spoken truthfully
and lived sincerely opens up a clear aperture of authentic faith.
The world with all its human
inteliigence and intervention has continued to fail; authentic faith and his
intervention cannot fail us. When God is seen as a tri-personal communion of
love, it challenges and undermines the radical individualism of the Western
Culture and urges the distorted k-legged communitarian life of the African to
qeue up for the better. The faith in the Trinity does not fail. Living a life
rooted from the Trinity calms the storm and opens man up towards the
eschatological destiny. Values such as mutual respect and honour, unity of
purpose and peace among the diverse cultures and religions are sure to
accompany these. Hence, applying the communion in the Trinity seen in their
love of one another, peace with one another, joy at one another, and
glorification of one another, in the African communitarian life seen in their
sense of community and society structure certainly assures us of a divine life
here on earth which opens us up for the life hereafter. St.
Paul reminds us that we are that “noblesse oblige”- we who are citizens of
heaven must do honor to the nationality that was conferred on us by baptism and
consequently lead a Trinitarian life.[30]In
all then, since our life is regulated by our
nationality, which is heaven, then our ways of life consists in living
as citizens of the city of the living God (Heb: 12:22)
ENDNOTES
[1]Festugiere
A. J., L’Ideal Religieux des Greces et L’Evangile, Paris, 1932, pp.163-164
[2] Vatican Council II, Dei
Verbum, Dogmatic Constituion on Divine Revelation, 1965, no.2.
[3] The Catechim of the Catholic
Church, no.233
[4] Nwachukwu, O., Unpublished
Lecture Notes on Inculturation, no.6)
[5] Greshake, An den Drei-einen
Gott glauben, Freiburg, 21999, translated by Nwachukwu O., p. 16
[6] Schmaus, M. Dogma 2 –God and
Creationn, U.S.A: Sheed and Ward, 1969, p.85.
[7] Nyamiti, C., African
Tradition and the Christian God, Kenya: Gaba Pub., 1978, p.64.
[8]Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1998, p. 209.
[9] In this list, we notice,
according to our research such Church Medieval thinkers as Augustine in his
Confessions and the De Trinitate, and Aquinas in his Summa Contra Gentiles;
such contemporary Church thinkers as karl Rahner in his Theological
Investigation, vol.4 and vol. 16,; Egbulefu J., in The Church in the Service of
spreading and amplifying the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory of God, a
Paper delivered at the Pilgrimage Centre in Elele on 8th April, 2010; etc.
[10] Garrigou-Langrange, R., The
Trinity and God the Creator, Binghamton and New York: Vail-Ballou Press, 1952,
p. 332.
[11] Guerry, E., God the Father,
translated by A.H.C. Downes, New York: Sheed and Ward, Inc.; 1947, p.43.
[12]Martin M., Davis, The Holy
Trinity and Human Relationships, Friday, uploaded on July 19, 2013 via
Martinmdavis@blogspot.com
[13] Onwubiko, O. A, African
thought, Religion and Culture, Enugu: Snaap Press, 1991, p.14
[14] Onwubiko, Op. Cit., p.15.
[15] Ceslaus S.O., op.cit, p. 99
[16] Ibid, p. 19
[17] Martin M. Davis, Op. Cit.
[18] Harrison N., The Holy
Trinity, A Model for Human Community in St. Nina, 2012
[19] Kallistos, The Human Person
as an Icon of the Trinity, Sobornost, 1986, pp.17-18
[20]Ibid
[21] Migliore, D. L., Faith Seeking
Understanding: an Introduction to Christian Theology, 2nd Edition, Grand
Rapids, MI, Eerdmans Pub., 2004, p.87
[22]Tumblin, T, F., The Trinity Applied: Creating Space For
Changed Lives,p. 73, downloaded online from arl-jrl.org
[23] Harrison, op.cit, p.44
[24] Ibid
[25] Ad Ablabium; F. Muller,
(ed.) Gregorii Nysseni Opera Dogmatica Minora, Paris, Leiden Bill, 1950., pp.
47-47
[26] Paul VI, Humanae Vitae,
1989. here, the pontiff condemns all forms of actions that militate against
life. this comes in form of contraceptives that destroy openness of sexual acts
to procreation. These practices as condemned by the pope account for unbridled
moral decadence prevalent in modern day society and Africa is not excluded from
this predicament.
[27] Nwoke B.E.B, The Problem of
Infrastructure Decay in Nigeria, Whelan Research Academy, 2013(unpublished
conference paper)
[28] http||www.answersafrica.com,
accessed 11|12|2013
[29] Harrison, op.cit. p.55.
[30] Ceslaus S.O., The Trinity
and Our Moral Life According to St. Paul, translated by Sr. Marie Aquinas,
Newman Press, Westminister, 1963, p. 6.
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