Trinity and Society

by Leonardo Boff

Book by Boff, Leonardo

Genres: Theology

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Leonardo Boff, born as Genézio Darci Boff, in Concórdia, Santa Catarina, Brazil, on the December 14, 1938. He is the grandson of Italian immigrants from the region of Veneto who came to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in the final part of the nineteenth century. He received his primary and secondary education in Concórdia - Santa Catarina, Rio Negro - Paraná, and Agudos - São Paulo. He studied Philosophy in Curitiba - Paraná and Theology in Petrópolis - Rio de Janeiro. He joined the Order of the Franciscan Friars Minor in 1959 and received his doctorate in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Munich - Germany, in 1970.
For 22 years he was the professor of Systematic and Ecumenical Theology at the Franciscan Theological Institute in Petrópolis. He has served as a professor of Theology and Spirituality in various centers of higher learning and universities in Brazil and the rest of the world, in addition to being a visiting professor at the universities of Lisbon (Portugal), Salamanca (Spain), Harvard (United States), Basel (Switzerland), and Heidelberg (Germany).
He was present in the first reflections that sought to articulate indignance toward misery and marginalization with discourse, which later generated the Christian faith known as Liberation Theology. He has always been an ardent of the Human Rights cause, helping to formulate a new, Latin American perspective on Human Rights with, “Rights to Life and the ways to maintain them with dignity.”
He has received honorary doctorates, in Politics from the University of Turin (Italy) and in Theology for the University of Lund (Sweden). He has also been honored with various awards, within Brazil and the rest of the world, for his struggles on behalf of the weak, the oppressed and marginalized, and Human Rights.
From 1970 until 1985 he participated in the editorial council of Editora Vozes. During this time he participated in the coordination and publication of the collection, “Theology and Liberation” and the entire edition of the works of C. G. Jung. He was Editor-in-chief of “Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira” from 1970 to 1984, of “Revista de Cultura Vozes” from 1984 to 1992, and of “Revista Internacional Concilium” from 1970 to 1995.
In 1984, he was submitted to a process by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, former Holy Office, in the Vatican. This was due to his theses linked to liberation theology exposed in his book "Church: Charism and Power. In 1985 he was condemned to “obsequious silence” and was removed from his editorial functions and suspended from religious duties. Due to international pressure on the Vatican, the decision was repealed in 1986, allowing him to return to some of his previous activities.
In 1992, under renewed threats of a second punitive action by authorities in Rome, he renounced his activities as a priest and ‘promoted himself the state of laity.’ “I changed trenches to continue the same fight.” He continues as a liberation theologian, writer, professor, widely hear conference speaker in Brazil among other countries, also as an adviser of social movements of liberating popular matrix, as the Landless Movement and the Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs), between others.
In 1993 he was selected as professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and Ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
On December 8, 2001 he was honored with the alternative Nobel prize, “Right Livelihood Award” in Stockholm, Sweden.
He presently lives in Jardim Araras, an ecological wilderness area on the municipality of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. He shares his life and dreams with the defender/educator of Human Rights from a new ecological paradigm, Marcia Maria Monteiro de Miranda. He has also become the “father by affinity” of a daughter and five sons, sharing the joys and sorrows of responsible parenthood. He lives, accompanies and recreates the unfolding of life in the “grandkids” Marina, Eduardo and Maira.

Reviews

[Andrew Dass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book should drop the “and Society” from its title. While there were some theoretical framing and practical applications of Trinitarian thought onto society scattered throughout, it was not the focus of the text, let alone even half of it. The takeaway I got about how society is impacted by Trinitarian thought, however, is that the Trinity expresses the utmost manifestation of egalitarian communion. In this way, for society to reflect the Trinity, society must denounce patriarchal/hierarchical power structures (unchecked centralisation, selfish capitalism), fight against oppression and for marginalised people groups, and promote a fiercely liberated society where all people give themselves freely for the betterment of the other (particularly the poor). It sounds great, but given the title of the book, I wished the societal implications and how to implement these things would have been flushed out more, particularly within modern economic and political power structures.

With that said, it was good for what it is and that is a survey of the historical development and dogmatic understanding of the Trinity. Some things that left an impression on me is, first, the insistence of thinking of God always in “triadic” terms (e.g. “the Father created the world through the mediation of his Son and by the dynamism of his Spirit”). When speaking about the actions of “God”, one is invariably speaking about the actions of the “Trinity”. The perichoresis or love-communion of the Persons are so intertwined that one cannot say anything about one of the them without incorporating the other two.

Second, I appreciated Boff’s projection of the feminine into the nature of the Trinity. Years ago, I would have cringed at such a thought, but the way he framed the feminine as a reflection of Deity was palatable. He doesn’t argue that the Trinity is both masculine and feminine (i.e. the Father and Son are masculine while the Spirit is feminine), but rather, both aspects are rooted in and reflected from the Trinity’s character so that one can speak rightly about the maternal Father or the filial Daughter. Boff is a Catholic, so although I’m weary of his rhetoric suggesting that the Blessed Mary can be said to be the human form of the Holy Spirit(!), I still found his reasoning curiously rational concerning the Trinity’s femininity. In Hebrew, the word for “spirit” is feminine, and the Holy Spirit conjoins and indwells humanity in the form of the Church, which is the bride of Christ. Sounds pretty feminine to me.

Finally, I appreciated his analysis between the East and West distinctive on the Trinity and it helped me understand the (possible) danger of each perspective. In the East, the name “God” refers only to the Father, and the Son and Spirit are sourced in him, so the “priority” is the Person of the Father to underlie the unity of the other two (monarchical trinitarianism). In the West, the “priority” of the divine Nature is the underlying unity of the three Persons. The danger of the Eastern perspective is subordinationism and modalism in the West. The “modern” model prioritises the perichoresis and loving-communion of the Persons, so although there could be danger of tritheism, accentuating their intimacy and interpenetration focuses our attention onto their oneness rather than their particular distinctions and economies (although those still remain fully intact).

Anyways, it’s not exactly what I was expecting, and if one has already read texts on Trinitarianism from both Eastern and Western theologians, most of it isn’t particularly novel.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can the model of the Trinity be the image we imitate for a “social program”? Boff thinks so (and I tend to agree with him, to an extent)

“The Trinity cannot be understood outside this liberating context; it is not a theological curiosity with its own intrinsic interest; it is always a reality of communion which redeems us, sets us free, and gives us back our humanity enriched and full. So the Trinity is a saving mystery, revealed for our salvation” (33).

[Long_xuyen]

This book is very good for whose want to examine the theory and history of Trinity's development.

[ben adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, this book book is not nearly as good as Boff's small book on the Trinity, but it is still an excellent voice in arguing that the struggle for liberation from oppression is truly Trinitarian.

[Seth Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. First reading of this demands many returns.