Perichoresis in Trinitarian Theology and Christology
Perichoresis, a concept central to Trinitarian theology and Christology, describes the mutual indwelling and interpenetration of the divine persons of the Trinity and, by extension, the two natures of Christ. While the term "perichoresis" itself developed later, the underlying idea has roots in early Christian thought concerning the unity and distinctness within the Godhead [7]. Augustine, for instance, extensively discussed the Trinity, emphasizing the co-equality and co-eternity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and exploring how they relate without confusion or division [3, 5, 6]. He sought to guard against sophistries that misused reason to assail the faith of the Trinity [6].
In Trinitarian theology, perichoresis explains how the three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—can be distinct yet fully united, each dwelling in the others without losing their personal identity. This mutual indwelling ensures that the divine essence is shared completely among them, preventing any subordinationism or division within the Godhead [7]. The Athanasian Creed, for example, articulates this unity and distinction, stating that "we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons; nor dividing the Substance" [4]. This creed further clarifies that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet there are not three Gods but one God, illustrating the perichoretic relationship where each person fully possesses the divine nature [4].
The concept of perichoresis also extends to Christology, describing the intimate union of the divine and human natures in the person of Jesus Christ. This is often referred to as the "communicatio idiomatum" or communication of properties, where the properties of each nature are attributed to the one person of Christ without confusion, change, division, or separation [1]. The Lutheran theology, as noted by Dorner, pushed this attempt to preserve the unity of Christ's person to its utmost extreme, seeking to understand how attributes could be transferred without a change in substance [1]. This Christological application of perichoresis helps to explain how Christ can be both "Perfect God, and perfect Man" [4], with each nature retaining its integrity while being inseparably united in one person.
The historical development of this concept saw theologians grappling with how to articulate the complex relationships within the Godhead and in Christ. Early Church Fathers like Tertullian, while not using the term "perichoresis," laid groundwork by discussing the distinctness of persons within the divine unity [9, 10]. Augustine's extensive work On the Holy Trinity further explored these relationships, seeking to understand how the simple essence of God could manifest as a Trinity [8]. The idea of a "man taken into the adorable Trinity" through the glorification of the Son, as expressed by Gess, highlights the profound implications of Christ's ascension for understanding the perichoretic union, suggesting that humanity is, in a sense, received into the Trinitarian life through Christ [2]. This perspective underscores the dynamic and relational aspect of the divine being, where the persons of the Trinity are not isolated but are in constant, mutual interpenetration.
Sources
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 85: § 9 . Modern Forms of the Doctrine. Dorner, in the first edition of his work on the “Person of Christ,” says that the Lutheran theology carried the attempt to preserve the unity of Christ’s person, on the Church assumption that He possessed two distinct natures, to the utmost extreme. If that attempt be a failure, nothing more remains. He holds it to be a failure not only because it involves the impossible assumption of a transfer of attributes without a change of substance, but also because it is one-sided. It refuses to admit of the com”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 85: Since his ascension, as Gess expresses it, a man has been taken into the adorable Trinity. “As the glorified Son remains man, a man is thus received into the trinitarian life of the Deity from and by the glorification of the Son.” 361 361 The Scripture Doctrine of the Person of Christ. Freely translated from the German of W. F. Gess, with many additions, by J. A. Reubelt, D. D., Professor in Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1870, p. 414. This work is admirably translated, and presents the clearest outline o”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 10.--OF THE ATTAINMENT OF CHEERFULNESS IN THE DUTY OF CATECHISING, AND OF VARIOUS CAUSES PRODUCING WEARINESS IN THE CATECHUMEN, (part 1): 14. At this point you perhaps desiderate some example of the kind of discourse intended, so that I may show you by an actual instance how the things which I have recommended are to be done. This indeed I shall do, so far as by God's help I shall be able. But before proceeding to that, it is my duty, in consistency with what I have promised, to speak of the acquisition of the cheerfulness (to which I have a”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 7: Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius — CONFESSION OF OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH, COMMONLY CALLED THE CREED OF (part 2): that will be saved: must thus think of the Trinity. II. Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation: that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds: and Man, of the Substance of His Mother, born in the world; Perfect God, and perfect Man: of a rea”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 8.--OF THE METHOD TO BE PURSUED IN CATECHISING THOSE WHO HAVE HAD A LIBERAL EDUCATION. (part 2): and of skillfully applied diligence on the part of these expounders;(3) and, in the case of the canonical Scriptures, commending above all the most salutary modesty (of language) displayed alongside their wonderful loftiness (of subject); while, in those other productions you notice, in accordance with the 291 characteristic faculty of each several writer, a style of a more sonorous and, as it were more rounded eloquence adapted to minds that are”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 1.--THIS WORK IS WRITTEN AGAINST THOSE WHO SOPHISTICALLY ASSAIL THE FAITH OF THE TRINITY, THROUGH MISUSE OF REASON. THEY WHO DISPUTE CONCERNING GOD ERR FROM A THREEFOLD CAUSE. HOLY SCRIPTURE, RE (part 1): 1. THE following dissertation concerning the Trinity, as the reader ought to be informed, has been written in order to guard against the sophistries of those who disdain to begin with faith, and are deceived by a crude and perverse love of reason. Now one class of such men endeavor to transfer to things incorporeal and spiritual the ideas t”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 6: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius, Julius Africanus, Methodius, Arnobius — ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE TREATISE.: 15. If, from the fact that there are three hypostases, they say that they are divided, there are three whether they like it or no, or else let them get rid of the divine Trinity altogether.[3] AND AGAIN: For on this account after the Unity there is also the most divine Trinity.[4]”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 6.--HOW THERE IS A TRINITY IN THE VERY SIMPLICITY OF GOD. WHETHER AND HOW THE TRINITY THAT IS GOD IS MANIFESTED FROM THE TRINITIES WHICH HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE IN MEN. (part 4): itself.”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 3: Tertullian — ELUCIDATIONS. (part 1): I (Soul and Spirit, cap. xv. and notes 1 and 2, p. 463.) Dr. Holmes, in the learned note which follows, affords me a valuable addition to my scanty remarks on this subject in former volumes. See (Vol. I. pp. 387,532,) references to the great work of Professor Delitzsch, in notes on Irenaeus. In Vol. II. p. 102, I have also mentioned M. Heard's work, on the Tripartite Nature of Man. With reference to the disagreement of the learned on this great matter, let me ask is it not less real than apparent? The dichotomy to which Tertullian objected, and t”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 4: Tertullian IV, Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen — [TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. THELWALL.] (part 3): but of Christian traditions,[4] wishing even the prae-cision of them who advised the retention of circumcision.[5] And would that the same fate might befall those, too, who obtruncate the pure and true integrity of the flesh; amputating not the extremest superficies, but the inmost image of modesty itself, while they promise pardon to adulterers and fornicators, in the teeth of the primary discipline of the Christian Name; a discipline to which heathendom itself bears such emphatic wit”