If you are interested in some new ideas on religious pluralism and the
Trinity, please check out my website at http://www.religiouspluralism.ca. It previews my
book, which has not been published yet and is still a “work-in-progress.” Your
constructive criticism would be very much appreciated.

My thesis is that an abstract version of the Trinity could be Christianity’s answer to the world need for a framework of pluralistic theology.

In a constructive worldview: east, west, and far-east religions present a
threefold understanding of One God manifest primarily in Muslim and Hebrew
intuition of the Deity Absolute, Christian and Krishnan Hindu conception
of the Universe Absolute Supreme Being; and Shaivite Hindu, Buddhist,
Taoist apprehension of the Destroyer (meaning also Consummator), Unconditioned
Absolute, or Spirit of All That Is and is not. Together with their
variations and combinations in other major religions, these religious ideas
reflect and express our collective understanding of God, in an expanded concept
of the Holy Trinity.

The Trinity Absolute is portrayed in the logic of world religions, as follows:

1. Muslims and Jews may be said to worship only the first person of the
Trinity, i.e. the existential Deity Absolute Creator, known as Allah or
Yhwh, Abba or Father (as Jesus called him), Brahma, and other names; represented
by Gabriel (Executive Archangel), Muhammad and Moses (mighty messenger
prophets), and others.

2. Christians and Krishnan Hindus may be said to worship the first person
through a second person, i.e. the experiential Universe or “Universal”
Absolute Supreme Being (Allsoul or Supersoul), called Son/Christ or
Vishnu/Krishna; represented by Michael (Supreme Archangel), Jesus (teacher and
savior of souls), and others. The Allsoul is that gestalt of personal human
consciousness, which we expect will be the “body of Christ” (Mahdi,
Messiah, Kalki or Maitreya) in the second coming – personified in history by
Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Buddha (9th incarnation of Vishnu), and others.

3. Shaivite Hindus, Buddhists, and Confucian-Taoists seem to venerate the synthesis
of the first and second persons in a third person or appearance, ie. the
Destiny Consummator of ultimate reality – unqualified Nirvana consciousness –
associative Tao of All That Is – the absonite* Unconditioned Absolute Spirit
“Synthesis of Source and Synthesis,”** who/which is logically expected to be
Allah/Abba/Brahma glorified in and by union with the Supreme Being –
represented in religions by Gabriel, Michael, and other Archangels, Mahadevas,
Spiritpersons, etc., who may be included within the mysterious Holy Ghost.

Other strains of religion seem to be psychological variations on the third
person, or possibly combinations and permutations of the members of the Trinity
– all just different personality perspectives on the Same God. Taken
together, the world’s major religions give us at least two insights into the
first person of this thrice-personal One God, two perceptions of the second
person, and at least three glimpses of the third.

* The ever-mysterious Holy Ghost or Unconditioned Spirit is neither absolutely
infinite, nor absolutely finite, but absonite; meaning neither
existential nor experiential, but their ultimate consummation; neither fully
ideal nor totally real, but a middle path and grand synthesis of the
superconscious and the conscious, in consciousness of the unconscious.

** This conception is so strong because somewhat as the Absonite Spirit is a
synthesis of the spirit of the Absolute and the spirit of the Supreme, so
it would seem that the evolving Supreme Being may himself also be a
synthesis or “gestalt” of humanity with itself, in an Almighty Universe
Allperson or Supersoul. Thus ultimately, the Absonite is their Unconditioned
Absolute Coordinate Identity – the Spirit Synthesis of Source and Synthesis
– the metaphysical Destiny Consummator of All That Is.

After the Hindu and Buddhist conceptions, perhaps the most subtle expression
and comprehensive symbol of the 3rd person of the Trinity is the Tao;
involving the harmonization of “yin and yang” (great opposing ideas identified
in positive and negative, or otherwise contrasting terms). In the Taoist icon
of yin and yang, the s-shaped line separating the black and white spaces may be
interpreted as the Unconditioned “Middle Path” between condition and
conditioned opposites, while the circle that encompasses them both suggests
their synthesis in the Spirit of the “Great Way” or Tao of All That Is.

If the small black and white circles or “eyes” are taken to represent a nucleus
of truth in both yin and yang, then the metaphysics of this symbolism fits
nicely with the paradoxical mystery of the Christian Holy Ghost; who is neither
the spirit of the one nor the spirit of the other, but the Glorified Spirit
proceeding from both, taken altogether – as one entity – personally distinct
from his co-equal, co-eternal and fully coordinate co-sponsors, who
differentiate from him, as well as mingle and meld in him.

For more details, please see: http://www.religiouspluralism.ca

Samuel Stuart Maynes