Dr Paul Allen

In pondering the Trinity and gender relationships, we are reminded – as important and unique as this doctrine is to Christianity – how remarkable it is that the Trinity per se is never mentioned in the Bible. Evidently, neither Biblical authors, nor Jesus, felt the need to define it as such; yet, the concept of the Trinity is articulated clearly enough in the Bible that it is identified, if also unnamed, in our creeds. Of course, the Trinity is a holy mystery that not even millennia of Christian scholarship can explain satisfactorily. Artists throughout the ages have attempted to render the Trinity in various ways, and their visual interpretations are worth considering as well; as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In this post we explore the potential parallels between the inner relational dynamics of the Trinity and gender relationships through an examination of credal doctrine, relevant Biblical texts, and a representation of the Trinity in a medieval French manus...