Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Nature

Pneumatology of Nature

At this juncture in the constructive theology, the following question is asked yet again and addressed: Can the creature go out searching, through reason alone, to “find” the communication of God in natural onto-types, either through scientific discovery or by seeking God in experiences in nature? The central theme upon which we have been working suggests “no” in answer to that question.

We have argued that creatures, by reason alone, devoid of revelation, cannot search out God in their own abilities and in their own knowledge. This is the work of God’s revealing alone. As we explored in Chapter 1, a new conception of Natural Theology that is being proposed here turns the God-world relation right-side-up from a previously accepted anthropocentric quest. It is not man that seeks and finds God, but it is God who reaches out to reveal himself to humankind. As Jean-Luc Marion states, “The division determines the origin, and thus, the bearing of these religions: either they result from the effort and impetus of their adherents—that is to say from below—or they arise from above, from the divinity in person itself determining its manifestation to witness.” As Marion posits, any knowledge of the Divine must come about from the “divinity in person itself” initiating how, and in what manner, to witness disclosure to recipients. He explains, “perhaps no other term seems to designate so clearly the specific aim of a religion to having received communication of what God himself wanted to make known of his presence among men.” In many respects, this quote sums up what we have been trying to formulate all along, that is, to give a unified account of how God is communicating himself to humankind, in and through the Incarnate Son, and through the works of creation. It has been proposed that natural onto-types are the intentional communication embedded in nature corresponding to the exemplars God had in mind before the foundation of the world. As such, we must account for how they are grasped by the creatures they were designed to reach. According to Marion, this must be through divine revelation.

With this understanding in mind, we now turn to the Pneumatology of Nature, or the work of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. In describing the third person of the Trinity, McGrath offers the following understanding, “The Spirit of God, which the Old Testament recognized as being present in the whole of creation, is now experienced and understood afresh as the Holy Spirit of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” For our purposes here, we shall affirm what Scripture teaches regarding the Holy Spirit: that the Holy Spirit is God, should be worshipped, can be blasphemed, indwells the believer, and forms the third person of God’s triune essence. We take the Spirit to have a distinct identity as Chester affirms, “Is the Spirit more than an expression? The New Testament’s answer is that the Spirit does have a distinct identity.” Likewise, the Spirit acts in certain ways within the relational unity of the Trinity.

The New Testament teaches that in the economic workings of the Trinity, it is the Spirit who reveals, or as Chester says, “The Father reveals himself in the Son by the Spirit.” The revelatory power of the Holy Spirit is affirmed throughout Scripture. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of Truth.” This affirms the role of the Holy Spirit in revealing the truths of God, while disavowing a modalist approach to understanding the work of revelation by the Spirit, in that the Spirit does not operate “on his own.” Rather, the Spirit acts by revealing God’s truths to humankind. As, Chester indicates, “The Spirit reveals the things of Christ—those things which Christ himself receives from the Father.” What is being revealed by the Spirit are the plans and purposes of God according to God’s end for the world in Christ, as Marion claims, “Revelation assumes a plot.” In this case, the plot is God’s Original Ultimate End in loving union with the creature.

In putting forth a Pneumatology of Nature, we rely on the idea that the Spirit is actively revealing God’s excellencies embedded in nature to the human intellect. The human intellect was fashioned and fine-tuned by God to receive such information, and to delight in it. However, this cannot be the work of human reason alone, but a work of divine action in conjunction with the human heart and mind. Marion finds three major flaws in the idea of a human quest to find God through intellect alone. He says, “The epistemological interpretation of divine revelation . . . disqualifies the natural knowledge of God by pure human reason. This leads to a triple limitation: only certain people (the experts, the learned, the philosophers) would know God, only after a very long search, and not without the admixture of many errors.” The inconsistencies Marion points forth show the weaknesses inherent in such an argument; it is weak because it depends on the “always confused sensation that ascends from creatures toward God.” In this construct, the knowledge of God would be available to so few (the experts), its acquisition would be time consuming, and replete with errors based on limited human understanding. This leads one to wonder, why would God make knowledge of himself so difficult to obtain? Marion prefers, “the superiority of revelation over reason . . . it allows everyone to know God and know him with certainty.”

The idea of revelation superseding reason fully aligns with Edwards’ End in Creation, and is in fact what Edwards is trying to convey in his argument. Edwards does not see God reserving elite knowledge of himself only for those few learned. In fact, it is just the opposite. Edwards’ theology views God as fully intending to communicate the fullness of the excellencies of God to all creatures without reserve.

The Pneumatology of Nature is that aspect of the Trinitarian Theology of Nature proposing that while humanity by its own ability and reason cannot “acquire” the knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit reveals natural onto-types and their corresponding antitypes to the mind and heart in the same way that truths in Scripture and the knowledge of Christ are revealed. This is one and the same action. Thus, the Spirit divinely reveals the truths intended by the Creator God working in and through the creation in Christ moment-by-moment. Although natural types are embedded in the creation, they will remain unknown to the creature without the work of the Holy Spirit. Without revelation by the Holy Spirit, individuals are left with the scientific ontology alone, i.e., with physical descriptions of systems and mechanisms, but without a complete understanding of the dynamic underlying reality.

If we continue along these lines, it follows that God’s ideas for the creation, the eternal exemplars, being willed and communicated into existence by, in, through, and for Christ, are being revealed to human hearts and minds by the action of the Holy Spirit. In this way, out of his vast love, the Holy Spirit of God communicates knowledge of himself to the creature, as Marion goes on to say, “First and above all, God reveals only Himself, and the economy of salvation. The goal of Revelation is not to grant us the knowledge of something else, or even a growth in our knowing, or a mere extension of our scientia, because God has a design that is otherwise radical; He Himself wanted to communicate Himself to us.” The Holy Spirit in divine revelation generously gives this knowledge to all humankind. Once given, this then lends to human free will whether to accept this knowledge in faith and delight, or not. However, it is always God’s intent that the knowledge of himself is received and that the creatures respond in faith. Marion frames this as God’s design of communication toward communion, “The clearly non-epistemological intention of revelation aims to manifest God in person . . . to make himself re-cognized, to communicate himself, to enable men to enter into a communication that puts them in communion with him.” It is this communion with God that is the very raison d’être, the fulfillment of God’s end in creating.

In Edwards’ typology, there are two distinct kinds of revelations he recorded in his journals and in his small treatise Shadows of Divine Things. First, God reveals spiritual messages through direct experiences in nature. Second, the revelation of the knowledge and glory of God can be communicated in the structures, forces, and mechanisms in the creation, through the onto-types and the antitypes embedded therein.

The first sort of revelation of spiritual knowledge of God in nature is derived from merely being in the creation. This may refer to the numinous feeling one experiences in the creation, for example on a starry night, or while watching a stunning summer sunset, or taking in the beauty at the edge of the sea. This transcendent feeling of the divine has been reported in all cultures in all times of human history. In Edwards’ view, and here expanded in the construct of the Pneumatology of Nature, this is taken to be the divine action of the Holy Spirit revealing the knowledge and glory of God that is present in nature just by being out in it, experiencing it.

In this case, the individual needs no prior knowledge of God, of Jesus of Nazareth, or the Bible. The individual is “tuned” to receiving this kind of revelation, feeling it deeply, and has the capacity to respond emotionally and spiritually within the experience. This harkens to what is meant in Romans 1:20 when the Apostle declares, “so that men are without excuse.” All human beings have the capacity for the divine because the divine makes them capable of receiving this revelation. It is then with the hope that once an individual receives this numinous experience, it will ready them to receive God’s call. In this way, perhaps direct experience of the revelation of God in nature is one step in the process that leads an individual to seek for God. Additionally, one who is already a believer in Christ is readied to receive revelation of God by direct experiences in nature, and can ascribe such an experience to the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives, and their spirituality is enriched, and deepened.

The second distinct kind of revelation Edwards recorded in his journals was through scientific findings and mechanisms. Edward jotted in notebooks numerous onto-types and antitypes from scientific findings that were revealed to Edwards. He stakes the claim that it is not by human intellect that such understanding came to him, but rather were divinely given gifts to the heart and the mind, rooted and grounded in Scripture. For Edwards, this was a work of the Holy Spirit, and one of a complex nature. The revelation of natural onto-types and their antitypes in the anatomy, physiology, botany, and cosmology of scientific findings, were not of the kind one imagines in previous forms of Natural Theology. This is one where the Holy Spirit quickens to the intellect spiritual truths conveyed through the scientific findings, and also quickens to the heart the scriptural truths they represent. In this way, it is a kind of double revelation: the Spirit reveals how the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture are one unified revelation. This kind of revelation requires, in Edwards’ view, a regenerate heart. The individual must first have a saving knowledge of God in Christ for such a knowledge to be received and appropriated to its divine source.

We find several other authors formulating a theology of nature involving the Holy Spirit that is different from the one proposed here. Let’s take a look at two alternative views on the role of Holy Spirit in the natural world. First, in his essay, “We Are All God’s Vocabulary,” Christoph Schwöbel offers that indeed there is a Trinitarian structure in the creation. He says, “When we understand the Spirit as the perfecting cause of God’s work, the work of the Holy Spirit becomes the goal of the work of the Father as the originating cause and of the Son as the creative cause of everything there is.” We can see from this passage that indeed all three persons of the Trinity are present in the work of God, which he frames in terms of causes. Schwöbel views the father as the “originating cause” and the Son he construes as the “creative cause.” It will be interesting to see in future work how Schwöbel formulates these in greater detail in terms of the specific workings of the natural order. In his construct, however, he expounds upon his understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit as “the perfecting cause of God’s work.” He locates the Spirit’s action to eschatological time bringing the promise of future glory while helping us in our “futile suffering before God.” He then extends the Spirit’s role as the communicator between Father and Son, and as “the interplay between order and freedom that the Spirit introduces between the Creator and the creation.”

In another account, Denis Alexander in his essay, “Creation, Providence and Evolution” likewise offers a Trinitarian account of the creation. He says, “Trinitarian creation entails an active “holding in existence’ of the complete created order.” He frames the law-like behavior of matter and energy in terms of God’s faithfulness in Pannenberg style as we have noted above. Then, he views a Christological creation where it is Jesus who “brought everything into being in the first place.” Again, these are excellent ideas that are indicative of fruitful further expansion and exploration. Like Schwöbel, Alexander formulates his construct of Holy Spirit’s role in creation where he offers two views. First, relying on Moltmann’s position, he construes the Spirit as the “creative power and the presence of God in His creation.” In his view, the whole of creation is a fabric woven together intricately by the Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives reality its form. Second, in a related construal, he frames the creation as “Spirit energized.” In each of these ideas, it is the Spirit that holds things together in the creation. Here he connects this view with Colossians 1:16–17 in that “in Him all things hold together.” While this verse typically is taken as the work of Christ, as Alexander himself notes, it will be of interest to see if further work comes forth sorting this out in terms of the Spirit’s role in the natural world and its mechanisms.

These views offer a slightly different perspective on the role of the Holy Spirit compared to the Pneumatology of Nature presented here which represents a theology, where not only is creation made to speak, but it is the Holy Spirit’s role in revealing this knowledge in an act of divine revelation to the creature. In this contemporary view, the language of nature as revealed by the divine action work of the Holy Spirit moves beyond previous views where knowledge of God was found through human effort to discern God. Rather, this view invites a living gospel of nature. This gospel message is centered on Christ where nature itself is God’s intra-Trinitarian conversation to humankind in act-result. This, as we shall see later, has great benefits for the church toward a new spirituality for the contemporary age. Thus, the work of God through knowledge revealed in nature is a specific work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individuals. In this way, God’s acting is a dynamic revelation to the creature in and through an understanding of, and experience in, the natural world.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit when a person stands in awe before a stunning waterfall in Iceland, at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or at the microscope viewing living cells. Experiences such as these in nature just seem to draw us in and open the heart to a deeper sensibility of beauty and awe. This shared human “sensibility” may be construed as receiving God’s Self-revealing knowledge; a sensation that the human being was designed and fine-tuned to experience. For many people, nature provides a “touchstone” for a peaceful spirituality, a deep connection to that spiritual essence inside each of human being. Denis Alexander goes on to say, “The whole creation is a fabric woven by the Spirit and is therefore a reality to which the Spirit gives form.” It is by the work of the Holy Spirit drawing and wooing humanity into deeper connection, alerting hearts and minds to conviction and instruction, that humanity is swept up into the call of God. This shared human experience, the feeling of the numinous or transcendent in nature, can be accrued to the scriptural economy of the Holy Spirit’s action. In this way, the theology in a Pneumatology of Nature encompasses this work of God revealing knowledge of the God-Self through nature, a work unique to the third Person of the Trinity.

This raises the question of how this third aspect of the Trinitarian Theology of Nature, the Pneumatology of Nature as such, might affect a new ecclesiology and communication of the gospel? Such an exploration into a creative ministry involving nature seems to hold something greatly needed for the contemporary church. Traditional ecclesiology and liturgy, while offering the beauty of tradition, has in recent years turned many people away from the church. Many view the church (both Protestant and Catholic faith traditions) as antiquated, out of touch with the needs of young people and the challenges facing contemporary families and communities. With a growing emphasis on health, longevity, exercise, care for natural resources, sustainability, ecological justice, and so on, today’s contemporary Church is looking for connection, and even spiritual connection here. This is evidenced by growing organizations such as The Center for Spirituality and Nature which fosters sacred experiences in natural environments.

Giving this growing trend, one possibility might be for the church to seek the benefit of exploring the natural world into a fresh, unique spirituality. As proposed earlier, a gospel of nature holds great possibility for drawing believers into a deeper, more holistic spirituality. Many new movements within the growing church are seeking ways to move “church” outside of the traditional notions and practices within the walls of church buildings. Holding services at times other than Sunday morning, and in venues other than traditional church buildings are becoming popularized. A Trinitarian Theology of Nature might fit well in serving such a growing desire among young people, families, and communities. New ecclesial praxes such as holding worship services outside in public parks, or other places in nature, with an emphasis on spirituality and the environment holds great potential for drawing congregations into a communion with God speaking to them in this way. As birds fly overhead and breezes blow through the trees, the peace of God descends and the voice of God is heard in a new way. Holding services in such venues also invites those who, for a variety of reasons, simply will not walk into a traditional stone church with wooden pews.

Likewise, a theology of preaching can be greatly enhanced by incorporation of truths from biology into sermons just as Edwards did with great effect in communicating the gospel. Pastors now have far greater ease of access to simplified versions of biological mechanisms through on-line sources which can be seamlessly incorporated as analogies in sermon illustrations. As we have seen, Edwards was able to draw spiritual truths from nature and parallel such truths with passages of scripture. While this homiletic strategy was greatly successful for Edwards in his ministry in Northampton, it was particularly effective in communicating God’s love to the Native American tribes in his missionary range. These were indigenous people whose lives held a sacred tie to the environment for their very survival. A connection to the environment for survival may not be the prevalent driving motivation for today’s Church, but there is a connection nonetheless. We live in an educated society where science and scientific facts are given on the evening news. Reports of nuclear energy, DNA fingerprinting, sustainability, cloning and so on are household words, even if not fully understood in all of the scientific and biological complexities. People are keenly interested in the elements of the natural world and speak the language of science in their everyday lives. Preaching using Edwards’ homiletic technique of incorporating spiritual truths in nature, and the onto-types they prefigure, may offer a unique way of communicating the gospel message, one that people are ready and eager to receive.

Bible studies on environmental stewardship, eco-justice, creation care, and receiving onto-types in nature are other ways of bringing forth the relation of the triune God acting to draw believers in. A plethora of Bible study materials are readily available for use by clergy as well as lay Bible study leaders. Contemporary spirituality using walks in nature, poetry, scripture, and the arts with an emphasis on the natural world offer communication of the gospel in a new and fresh creative modality of ministry. The church has a great opportunity. A Pneumatology of Nature, relying on the Holy Spirit’s work in the Church through the elements of nature, harbors potential to meet the needs of a growing, contemporary church whose interests are uniquely positioned with the environment.

. Marion, Givenness and Revelation, 1.

. McGrath, Understanding the Trinity, 122.

. Matthew 29:19; cf. Romans 14:7–18; 1 Corinthians 12: 4–6; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; 3:3; 13:14; Galatians 4:4–6; Ephesians 2:18; 3:14–17; Colossians 1:3–8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14, Titus 3: 4–7.

. Chester, Delighting in the Trinity, 58.

. Chester, Delighting in the Trinity, 32.

. John 16:13; cf. John 14:7.

. Chester, Delighting in the Trinity, 32–33.

. Marion, Givenness and Revelation, 41.

. Marion, Givenness and Revelation, 15.

. As the words of Christ state in Matthew 11:25, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike” (NLT).

. As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:7–16, “Now, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” These mysteries include the revelation of God in the Incarnation of the Son, and the revelation of the natural types communicated into the structures of the natural world. The Apostle affirms that “these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit” (v. 16). And, likewise, it is the revelation of these things that “God has prepared for those who love him.”

. Marion, Givenness and Revelation, 27.

. Jesus, in John 6:44, teaches “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.”

. Schwöbel, “We Are All God’s Vocabulary,” 64–65.

. Schwöbel, “We Are All God’s Vocabulary,” 66.

. Alexander, “Creation, Providence and Evolution,” 267.

. McKnight, “Five Streams of the Emerging Church.”

. This is a unique organization in Arlington, VA, USA that offers spirituality in the context of the natural world. It’s director, Rev. Sarah Anders, is an ordained United Church of Christ minister. http://www.centerforspiritualityinnature.org/church-of-the-wild

. In my pastoral ministry I have incorporated each of these practices in my church as well as teaching biology students in my classroom. It seems that people are naturally and intuitively drawn into an openness to God’s Spirit in a fresh and dynamic way through having access to the truths of nature as God’s communication.

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