On the Christian Trinity
I have a kind of a short take on the Christian Trinity that I wanted to share with you. The idea of the Trinity is that God - or Godhead - exists as three divine persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not every church takes the Trinity as part of their doctrine, but most do, and it is an undeniably important aspect of Christian theology.
One thing that strikes me about this Trinity is that at least two out of the three parts - the Father and Son - take on a clear masculine aspect. Some people argue that the Father and Son, being aspects of God, and not imbued with concepts of gender at all, but that it is only our language and human understanding that puts these divine aspects into terms of masculine or feminine. All well and good, but it is still true that these two persons are referenced in strong and unequivocally masculine terms. If they were truly genderless, why are these persons never referred to as Mother and Daughter, or even Parent and Child?
There is a lot of debate about the appropriate gender for the Holy Spirit. It is traditionally considered masculine, and the Greek words that are used in the New Testament to refer to the Holy Spirit are either masculine or neuter. In modern times, some people have started to interpret the Holy Spirit as having a female aspect, and of course, many people will fall back to the position that all three divine persons of the Trinity are genderless. In the absolute best case, only the third, and most obscure, person of the Trinity is considered feminine.
Okay, so there is some wiggle room for people who want to argue against all three persons of the Trinity being masculine. But there is no denying that all three persons of the Trinity are divine. They are of Heaven, and not of the Earth.
We can gain insight by contrasting the Christian Trinity with another trinity that can be found in the eastern tradition of Daoism. This trinity is composed, quite differently, of Earth, Humanity, and Heaven. Humanity is revered as the “marriage of Heaven and Earth.” Energy comes up from the Earth, enters the human, and can rise from there up to Heaven. Energy comes down from Heaven, enters the human, and can descend from there down into the Earth. Both of these sources of energy flow within the human being, and we cultivate these energies to grow and heal ourselves, physically, emotionally, and mentally. In gender terms, Heaven is masculine, Earth is feminine, and humanity is composed of equal parts of both.
So there is a sharp contrast here. What is divine in Christianity is in Heaven, and as humans, we look up to Heaven for our divine source. In Daoism, both Heaven and Earth are divine sources. In Christianity, energy only flows in the upward direction, and we disregard the Earth and our fleshly bodies in favor of the spirit of Heaven. In Daoism, energy flows in a balanced way in both directions.
Lots of Christian thought - including much of the material in the Pauline letters - treat the fleshly body as a blemish. Christians are taught to deny the body, and give preference to the afterlife in heaven over a temporary stay here on Earth. From a Daoist point of view, it would be an absurdity to deny the existence of the body, and extremely imbalanced to focus only the upwards flow of energy to Heaven, and ignore the downwards flow of energy to Earth.
Christians are taught to do good, and bear with pain and persecution, so that they will have a better life in Heaven. Daoists do these things to delight in, and participate in, the joy and beauty of Earth, Humanity, and Heaven.