The Great Dance

"There are two things that I have known for as long as I can remember. The first is that there is an invisible river flowing [through life]...of glory and abounding fullness, of passion and goodness, beauty and joy.

The second is that this great dance is related to God. But for the life of me, I could never understand how this could be so. 'God' to me was an abstract, austere, omni-being somewhere up there in heaven, or worse, he was a legalist who cared only about his rules."

So begins C. Baxter Kruger's "The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited." If his quandry summed up here resonates with you, you would do well to get this book. Baxer goes on to talk about where his longing for union with this river of beauty and joy meets up with his understanding of God: in the wonder and power and glory of the Trinity.

Here are his three main conclusions:

1. There is the Trinity, and the great dance of life and glory and joy shared by the Father, Son and Spirit.

2. There is the incarnation as the act of the Father, Son, and Spirit reaching down, extending the circle, their great dance of life, to us.

3. There is our humanity, which is the theater inwhich the great dance is played out through the Spirit.

Kruger argues that a Western focus on forgiveness in place of adoption has caused us to miss the whole point of the God story throughout history. There is forgiveness, of course, but forgiveness is a means, not an ends. We are forgiven in order that we might be brought up into God's very life, the Great Dance of the Trinity that plays throughout history and is rushing to its' final, decisive end.

He argues that although the Trinity has mostly been the ground of nerdy theologians, it's actually the centerpiece that brings our faith to bear in the most practical of places: parenting and fishing and soccer practice and classes. This is a slim volume that's intended to bring the glorious dance of the Trinity to bear on the common person.

I'm still reading, but I give it thumbs up. Check out their web site for more info: perichoresis.org.