Province News

"Beloved Partners in the Dance" A column by Fr. Ken Overberg, SJ
Tuesday, June 03, 2003

Ken Overberg, SJ
Fr. Kenneth Overberg, SJ, a professor of theology at Xavier University, writes this column for Cincinnati's Catholic Telegraph. A collection of his essays, focusing on the consistent ethic of life, titled 'Creating a Culture of Life' has recently been published by Thomas More Publishing.

Our celebration of Trinity Sunday directs our attention to the very heart of Christianity, the mystery of God. We stand in awe before this holy and incomprehensible God, even as we join believers through the ages in attempting to speak intelligently about the triune God we name Father, Son, and Spirit.

In her God for Us Catherine Mowry LaCugna creates from many earlier theologians a striking and profound interpretation, demonstrating her conviction that the “doctrine of the Trinity is ultimately a practical doctrine with radical consequences for Christian life” (p. 1). For LaCugna, trinitarian theology is not just an abstract treatment of God's inner life, but is properly focused on God's life with humanity, especially as revealed in the events of salvation--through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, LaCugna incorporates much of Karl Rahner's emphasis on salvation history as God's self-communication. God is overflowing life and love.

She also returns to the fourth century saints, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa (called the Cappadocians). A key concept in their thought about how the Trinity is both one and three is perichoresis, a term conveying dynamic and creative energy, eternal movement, mutuality and interrelatedness. The image of dance wonderfully expresses this concept. LaCugna locates this divine dance not just in God's inner life, but in the mystery of the one communion of all persons, both divine and human. Borrowing themes of intimacy and communion from John's Gospel and Ephesians, she affirms that humanity has been made a partner in the divine dance “not through [humanity's] own merit but through God's election from all eternity. . . . The one perichoresis, the one mystery of communion includes God and humanity as beloved partners in the dance” (p. 274). As a result, the equality, mutuality, and reciprocity expressed in Jesus' life and ministry give insight not only into human relations but also into our God.

These and numerous other carefully nuanced insights lead LaCugna to present a conclusion that speaks to our understanding of God and to our relationship with God. “The God who does not need nor care for the creature, or who is immune to our suffering, does not exist. The God too hidden for us to know, or too powerful to evoke anything but fear, does not exist. The God who watches us from a distance as an uninvolved, impartial observer, does not exist. The God conceived as a self-enclosed, exclusively self-related triad of persons does not exist. The God who keeps a ledger of our sins and failings, the divine policeman, does not exist. These are all false gods, fantasies of the imagination that has allowed itself to become detached from the rule of God's life disclosed in Jesus Christ. What we believe about God must match what is revealed of God in Scripture: God watches over the widow and the poor, God makes the rains fall on just and unjust alike, God welcomes the stranger and embraces the enemy” (p. 397).

(Catherine LaCugna died in 1997 at the age of 44. For an excellent study of her thought, see “Catherine Mowry LaCugna’s Contribution to Trinitarian Theology” by Elizabeth T. Groppe in the December 2002 issue of Theological Studies.)