Key to understanding Moltmann’s ecclesiology is to grasp his concept of the social trinity.  The ecclesiology that he proposes, and that I take up in my book, is a “relational ecclesiology,” and he gets there by beginning with a concept of the godhead that is fundamentally relational.

For Moltmann, God is relationship — primarily the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit.

Moltmann rejects traditional Western trinitarian theories—those held both by the Catholic Church and most Protestants—as “modalism” or “monarchial monotheism” and instead adopts the Eastern conception of God as a perichoresis, or an enduring and mutually interpenetrating fellowship of divine love between three persons.

Above is an excerpt from Tony Jones’ blog post series about Jürgen Moltmann’s ecclesiology.

As stated above, Moltmann shares his vision of the Trinity, perichoresis, with the Eastern Orthodox tradition, and it is perhaps the mains reason I would ever consider “converting” to Orthodoxy.

The word is derived from the Greek “peri-choresis” which translates as, “peri” meaning around, “choresis” meaning to dance (the same root as choreography). The relationship between the Persons of the Trinity was described by early Christians, as an eternal Holy Dance of each Person in the Trinity around and within the Others (Source: wiki).

An eternal, relational dance: part giving, part taking, part submitting, part leading. A beautiful image of life indeed.

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Painting above by Andrea Allegrone

Tags:DancingEastern OrthodoxyJrgen MoltmannPerichoresisrelationalitytony jonesTrinity