The great dance - implications of the Trinity for Christian life

In his book "The Great Dance", Baxter Kruger places the doctrine of the Trinity as central in everyday human activity and relationships. Fittingly, the book is written in uncomplicated language with common life examples. It is impossible to read 'The Great Dance' and not marvel afresh at the Trinity, and perhaps also at the relative silence of the church on this topic. How can the Trinity who causes, sustains, redeems and delights in all creation be scarcely mentioned in church outside the context of recited creeds? While individual members of the Trinity may receive focus in different ways throughout the course of collective worship, the relationships within the Trinity and our part in the 'great dance' is seldom mentioned. Perhaps the church has lost the balance proposed by the Athanasian creed stating 'that in all things, as aforesaid: the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped'. Kruger's work seeks to redress this imbalance. Torrance suggests that the Trinity is the 'grammar' of worship and faith in the church. Do our expressions of worship reflect God or the Trinity? If the Trinity is the deepest truth about God, our songs, stories, liturgy and should reflect celebration and adoration of the persons of the Trinity, and the heart of God that would draw us into something so beautiful, joyous and full of life. Torrance states that worship provides the mysterious and wonderful means by which we participate in Jesus' relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit, and through which we are drawn into the life of God.

If humanity is created in the image of the triune God to participate in the life of the Trinity, this should find expression in daily life. A trinitarian lifestyle is other-centred, characterized by sharing, self-giving, love, and fellowship. In John 13:35 Jesus instructs his disciples to love each other as he has loved them, and people would recognize them as his followers. Churches generally work hard at building community amongst members. However, self-centred Western culture and the corresponding busy life-styles pose significant challenges for achieving authentic community where people 'do life' together rather than parallel to each other, with only Sunday morning and maybe home group as the primary points of life intersection. A relational reconstruction of church community that embodies the Trinity will reveal God to a world that is naturally drawn to the purpose for which it has been created. There is a challenge to churches to genuinely seek to be other-centred - in terms of relationships both within and external to the church community.

Kruger's vibrant perspective on the relationships in and between creation and the Trinity points to God not solely found in church and 'sacred pursuits'. God is reflected in, and is the source of, the joy humanity finds in children, music, the outdoors, relating together. We have the capacity to experience joy 'because of the reality of the union between us and the Trinity' . This speaks strongly into the often dualist expression of Western Christianity divided by Sunday and Monday, by the sacred, spiritual domain, and that which is relegated to the unrelated secular world. Implicit in Kruger's perspective is permission to delight in the pursuits for which humanity was created.

Kruger, along with other protagonists of social doctrine of the Trinity, presents good news for women. The argument that men and women are equal in being but not in function is linked to the perceived eternal subordination of Jesus to the Father. According to Moltman, where hierarchy and function replace communion and relationship as the core of the Trinity, scope is given to spiritually legitimate the domination of others. Kruger argues strongly against this view. If the church is the embodiment of the Trinity, then its structure needs to reflect the inner relations of the Trinity.