All theology is constructed–whether the theologian realizes it or not–s/he is writing a constructed theology. In other words, the context of the theologian echoes in her or his theological constructs. For example, James Cone’s theology of black liberation focuses on the liberation of oppressed black persons in the US. In A Theology of Black Liberation, Cone writes that “the Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Creator and the Redeemer at work in the forces of human liberation in our society today. In America, the Holy Spirit is the black persons making decisions about their togetherness, which means making preparation for an encounter with whites” (64). Cone grounds his theology in the black experience in the US, which has an atrocious history of slavery, rape of black women, lynching, and incarceration. Yet, Cone finds eschatological hope in the God of Liberation in the Scriptures and in the Spirituals.
Since all theology is constructed this means that no theology is universal, all is particular. Thus, like Cone, I wanted to write my own theology and so I start with the Trinity:
Eternal, yet ever immanent, God dwells as Trinity– God the Source, Jesus the Word and the Sustaining Spirit. For eternity, or how our hearts hyperbolize infinitude, God in relation with God’s self was and is in community. God in community has radical implications. If God made humanity in God’s likeness, as the opening poem of Genesis declares, then we too are communal internally and externally. We have voices, intuitions, and a conscience all within our single being: we are a multitude. Externally, we need other people to be ourselves. Humans have traditions that we lean on including family, religious communities, etc. that we inherit with our birth. This same co-dependent existence revealed in the Trinity continues in human relations.
This Triune Diversity encompasses perichoresis as well, in which God is unified in God’s diverse members. Hence, the Trinity shows us that Love holds everything together even when its parts differ. For social and political praxis, perichoresis gives the ideal for polyculture farming methods, multiculturalism, and generalist studies and so on.
The multiplicity of God opens us to understand God in a fuller way. The present dilemma, as theologian Elizabeth Johnson writes “dead metaphors make strong idols.” The rich metaphor of the Trinity, in Christian history, has been reduced to “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” It must be reworked for new generations to find faith and hope in the Plural and Multiplicities of the Divine.
black flag theology 