Dear People Whom God Loves,
“Bottom up” means gaining knowledge through experience. This brings to mind the saying of St. Thomas Aquinas: “There is nothing in our mind that was not first in our senses. In other words we gain knowledge by reflecting on what we have experienced.”
“Top down” means drawing conclusions from the principles that we have in our minds. Theology is often thought of as being top down. Naively we might think that God told the church what to believe and the church tells us. For example: God told the church that there are three divine persons in one divine nature. That is: there are three persons…each of whom is God, but there is one God.
How did this doctrine of the Trinity come about? To be clear, I believe in the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. It points to something very revealing about God and, at the same time, hides much about God. We can never really describe God, but we can have helpful insights.
The early Christians were Jews and deeply influenced by their Jewish faith. Central to that faith was the belief that there is only one God…period…end of discussion.
After Jesus died, his followers had a mysterious experience. They experienced Jesus’ presence. This presence was not the same as the presence that his followers—who knew him in the flesh—had. They did not recognize him at first. We might put it this way. He was alive, but not alive in the same way that he was alive when he walked the earth. This presence was real and at the same time mysterious.
More next time.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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