Traces of the Trinity

Signs of God in Creation and Human Experience

Peter J. Leithart

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2015 by Peter J. Leithart

Published by Brazos Press

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.brazospress.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-58743-367-2

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Quotations from John 17 are from the 1977 edition.

To Elliot Paige Leithart

While Traces of the Trinity was going through the editorial process, my son Sheffield and his wife, Laura, opened their home to their first child, a daughter, Elliot Paige. I complete the book with the prayer that the Spirit of Jesus will forever make his home in Elliot, as he already has, and that she will find a permanent dwelling place in Jesus her Lord. May the Spirit enlarge her, so she will be capacious for her parents, for her future siblings and spouse and children, and for many, many friends. Elliot and I have not yet met, but I trust that the Spirit is already preparing a place in her heart for me, as he has made room in my heart for her.

Contents

Preface

1. Outside In, Inside Out

2. Like Father, Like Son

3. I Am His, He Is Mine

4. Presence of the Past

5. Word in Word in World

6. Chords

7. Making Room

8. The Supple Imagination

9. I in Thee, Thou in Me

Postscript

Preface

Godly speculation can have an edifying function.

—John Frame

This is a book of theological speculation. The particular form of speculation has a long pedigree in Christian theology, present in seminal form already in Augustine and the Cappadocians and developed through the centuries under the heading of vestigia Trinitatis, which might be translated as “traces of the Trinity.” The aim is to discover and lay bare echoes, vestiges, traces, clues to trinitarian life within the creation.1 This tradition has fallen on hard times in some circles of late, for reasons I explore briefly in the postscript. I think that unfortunate, and hope that this essay will contribute to a revival of this neglected area of theological speculation.

My goal is, more specifically, to point to the traces of what theologians call “perichoresis” in creation and in human experience. Perichoresis means “mutual indwelling,” or “reciprocal penetration,” and describes the exhaustive mutual indwelling of the persons of the Trinity, the mystery of the Father’s being in the Son that is eternally simultaneous with ...