For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist;

and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist
(1 Cor 8:5-6)
Athanasian Creed -
“The catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity;
neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of
the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the
Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one.”
Ian Ramsey's thoughts on the Creed -
set of logical rules
NOT superscientific discoveries
built from the focus of our total commitment

How to read this then?

First language
Not objective – existential
Community's experience + insight into the mystery of God.
“Existential – ontological”

Complex symbol required for fuller experience -

completely transcendent and sovereign?
Pantheism, universally immanent?
Eternal unity of god?
Many gods and many lords?

Positives and downsides

Unity Trinity
Substance or essence persons
 Substance is Being Shadowy meaning
appropriation Generation, procession

Locus classicus – a passage considered to be the best known or most authoritative on

a particular subject.
God as Being – God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and reveals to him his
name: I AM WHO I AM. Exodus 3:14
Disclaimer – difficulties in translation and interpretation
– Yahweh may be a cultic shout or exclamation
– but still became associated with the Hebrew verb hyh or
hwh – 'to be'
Even if accepted, how did they visualise the relation btwn Yahweh and Being?
Don't know, but must be simpler and straightforward than the later theologians.

Hyh more dynamic than 'to be', includes 'to become'.

Any adequate notion of being includes becoming
I AM WHAT I AM---> ongoing process rather than static

We can't know for sure, but the line gains significance when read in tandem with the
New Testament, Fourth Gospel – 'Before Abraham was, I am'.
Shows the intimate relationship btwn Christ and Father via Being.
God as Being – God as Trinity
Shows the connecting line from philosophical theology's conception of God as holy
Being to the Christian Triune God.
Experience of a dynamic and Stable Being, must conduce to a doctrine similar to that
of the Trinity – examples are other religions
Holy Being - 3 persons – not three stages or phases
Father Son Spirit
Primordial Expressive Unitive
 Ultimate act or energy of Mediates itself to us Maintain strengthen and
letting-be restore the uniy of being
Logos
co-eternal

Risk and Man