📘 Lexicon Entry: Trinitarian Participation

Human participation in trinitarian life through Christ and Spirit, where believers are drawn into divine communion while maintaining their created distinctiveness.

A theological concept describing human participation in trinitarian life through Christ and Spirit, where believers are drawn into the mutual love and communion of Father, Son, and Spirit while maintaining their created distinctiveness. This concept provides theological foundation for understanding salvation as communion rather than merely legal transaction, challenging both individualistic spirituality that isolates persons from relationship and collectivist approaches that absorb persons into undifferentiated unity. Trinitarian Participation supports Interindependence by demonstrating how authentic personhood emerges through relationship rather than isolation, and directly addresses Practical Atheism by connecting belief with participation in divine life rather than merely intellectual assent.

Theological Alternative

Trinity, participation, communion, theosis, divine life, relational anthropology, salvation

Geevarghese-Uffman, Craig. “Trinitarian Participation.” *Political Theology Lexicon*. https://www.commonlifepolitics.com/p/lexicon. Accessed [date].

Human beings created for participation in divine life

Trinitarian communion provides the pattern for human relationship

Divine persons exist in perfect mutual indwelling without loss of distinction

Human salvation involves participation in trinitarian communion

Relationship with God and others constitutes rather than diminishes authentic personhood

Divine-human relationship distorted into either individualistic spirituality or collectivist absorption

Human relationships reduced to either isolation or absorption

Trinity misunderstood as hierarchical rather than mutual relationship

Participation replaced by either autonomous action or passive reception

Personhood defined through individualism rather than communion

Participation in divine life that enhances rather than diminishes human distinctiveness

Trinitarian pattern of mutual indwelling as model for human relationships

Salvation understood as communion rather than legal transaction

Personhood constituted through relationship rather than existing prior to it

Eastern Orthodox emphasis on theosis (deification) through divine grace

Cappadocian trinitarian theology emphasizing communion without confusion

Western emphasis on adoption and union with Christ

Contemporary participatory soteriology challenging transactional models

"Partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4)

Pauline “in Christ” language throughout epistles

"I in them and you in me" (John 17:23)

Spirit’s indwelling as participation in divine life (Romans 8:9-11)

Recovery of contemplative practices enabling participation in divine life

Ecclesiological models based on trinitarian communion rather than hierarchy

Therapeutic approaches grounded in relational rather than individualistic anthropology

Interfaith dialogue maintaining distinctive identity within relationship

Trinitarian theology scholarship examining social and ethical implications

Comparative studies between Eastern theosis and Western adoption traditions

Anthropological research on relational versus individualistic models of personhood

Psychological studies on participation and identity formation

T. F. Torrance

Related Primary Concepts: Interindependence through participatory communion

Key Alternatives: Being With, Relational Receptivity

Theological Mutations Addressed: Practical Atheism, Tribal Epistemology

Historical Context: Eastern Orthodox theosis, Cappadocian trinitarian theology, contemporary participatory soteriology

May 23, 2025

*This entry is part of the Political Theology Lexicon, accessible exclusively to subscribers. View the complete lexicon to explore related concepts and the full theoretical framework.*