i] The Triunity of God 5 1 



independent of these attributes, being mediated by pure 

 mutuality, of which love is the expression. In this 

 sense the Godhead is three Persons. On the other hand 

 we must be most careful not to entangle our thought in 

 false conceptions which endanger the essential mono- 

 theism that underlies both Christian and metaphysical 

 belief in God. "If the term 'person' in Trinitarian 

 doctrine is more than 'aspect,' it is certainly less than 

 'individual.' After all, it is a fundamental truth that 

 the world is upheld by God, not by a constituent, or 

 part of God. There are spheres in which division of 

 labour is unmeaning 1 ." "Person, in Trinitarian usage, 

 is a mode of being which serves as a ground or basis 

 (a real ground or basis) of special function, but just 

 stops short of separate individuality, since it implies 

 distinction without division 2 ." Moreover God is Three 

 Persons eternally, and not merely in relation to the 

 Cosmos as Sabellius taught. He could not be Father 

 unless He was self-distinguished into an Other. He 

 could not be the Son unless He was similarly self-distin- 

 guished. Further He would be Chaos, not Order, if there 

 were not a divine Principle of Thought in Him which 

 made Him rational in His mutual and eternal Activity. 

 For in the Eternal God, Thought and Being are one. 



This eternal Principle of Thought, or Logos, medi- 

 ates His activities. The Logos is thus in a sense 

 derivative, but yet a definite and distinct Hypostasis. 

 The Logos is Begotten of God, and so is His Son; 

 eternally His Other. The Logos is the expression of 

 God's recognition of Otherness in Himself, without 

 which Activity and Love would be impossible: He is 

 the reality of God's self-division into I and Thou. And 

 without this reality of self -differentiation, God could not 

 be self-conscious. 



1 Mackintosh, The Person of Jesus Christ, p. 485. 

 1 Sanday, quoted by Mackintosh, op. cit. p. 524. 



