Pittenger, Norman. The Divine Triunity. Philadelphia: The United Church Press, 1977.

Abstract

Is the doctrine of the Trinity - God as three in one and one in three - a mathematical absurdity? What practical meaning does it have? Is it relevant to Christian life as people must live it today? Drawing on a lifetime of study of Christian theology, Norman Pittenger provides a useful way of getting at the three-fold experience of God. By using "triunity" instead of "trinity," he emphasizes oneness and threeness and points toward a rich complexity and fullness in the divine nature, a God who is both personal and social. In The Holy Spirit, the author used his knowledge of Process Thought to add to the Christian understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. Now for the first time, he reconsiders the traditional Christian view of God as triune from the perspective of Process Theology. Dr. Pittenger begins by stating the traditional doctrine of the Divine Triunity, a doctrine that grew out of the living experience of men and women who believed they were responding to God's activity in the world. He then shows that one God in three modes of existing and acting can make sense to contemporary believers. Pittenger urges that the doctrine has its value in safeguarding both the mystery of Godhead and the indubitable variety of human understanding consequent upon human experience. Dr. Pittenger writes in chapter 1: "Certainly for many today the traditional teaching about God as triune seems absurd. And it is absurd if we assume it to be about "celestial mathematics" or if we presumptuously claim that it provides a neat and completely plain "description" of what God is. But...if it is indeed an attempt to express conceptually, but by no means completely and neatly, the deepest meaning of Christian experience, it may have much to say to us. Furthermore, if it also makes possible a more profound understanding of God's ways with his world and with humankind, it may very well turn out to be a summary statement of "the Catholic faith" which - ...is this: "that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.""