Matt Mings on 
Brian Niece on Authority and Power through a Trinitarian Lens
Many would argue there is a dichotomy of coercion and persuasion as means of authority. See here … and here … and here. The former would involve violence enacted upon one in relationship, the latter would involve non-violent enticing or invitation into relationship.
But this seems to be a false–or at the least, superficial–dichotomy. If we are examining life within the Triune God, displayed as God with us in the life of Christ, and continuing in the Church, then a fully trinitarian account of power and authority must not ignore the role of the Spirit as a relationship of perpetual disturber and innovator.
God the Holy Spirit is always opening up new possibilities. This even takes place through the power of suffering; a power that is able to change events. Non-violent actions are not synonymous with non-forceful actions. The Spirit is always disturbing our status quo. For newness to come, we must be stripped–sometimes forcefully (violently?)–of the old.
When the Triune God acts, when God directly participates with his creation to create and re-create newness, it is a violent act from the perspective of the created. God’s triunity is maintained when God’s authorship is displayed in opening up spaces within the divine dance for new participants. This is how God swallowed death into himself.
This does not give the Christian license to act violently. But it does mean that all Christ-followers must not squelch their roles as prophets in the biblical idiom. Prophets speak newness into existence, sometimes tearing down and destroying the old. Also, the church must continue to defend the defenseless, most often from the ‘nation-states.’
How can this be done without appearing forceful to the nation-state? Violence must be carefully defined. When God acts to create newness, God does not act violently from God’s perspective. It is God’s love that is in action, to create, redeem, sanctify: to reconcile.
This same love must be in us as we participate in the community of divine love that brings newness.
SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How do you see the Triune God informing coercion and persuasion?
——
Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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Category: Theology, Trinity, Triune God Comment »