a triune name

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THE NAME OFTHE HOLY TRINITYA Triune NameR. KENDALL SOULEN

Few issues are so central to biblical faith and yet so perplexing as thname of God. When the LORD accosted Moses at the burning busand sent him to deliver the Israelites from bondage, Moses had th

presence of mind to ask, "Who shall I say sent me?" (Exod 3:13, para

phrased). Some gods might have slain Moses on the spot, but the LORDevidently thought Moses asked a sensible question. Ever since, the peoplof God have treasured God's name as the incomparable token of God'fidelity and power.

Still, the notion of God's name evokes not only confidence and joy bualso curiosity and consternation. When Jacob begged the wrestling angeto declare his name, the angel rebuffed him, "Why do you ask my name?(Gen 32:29). Even God's reply to Moses at the bush is anything bustraightforward, consisting not in one answer but in three: "I am who

am," "I am," and "YHWH" (Exod 3:14-15). The world itself can scarcelycontain all the rumination that this answer has provoked among Christianand Jews.

Of course, it is only right that God's name be for us both indispensabland unsettling. For, according to the Scriptures, God's name brings bothGod's reliable identity and God's uncircumscribable mystery into oumidst. Please note: These two features of divine reality are not related ininverse proportion, like hot and cold or true and false. When God revealGod's identity, God's mystery is not diminished but intensified. Surely t

Swiss theologian Emil Brunner was right when he said that the truly



The Name of the Holy Trinity 245

mysterious God is not the nameless One, but the One who has a name andmakes it known.1

A TRINITARIAN APPROACH TO THE NA ME OF THE TRINITYIn this essay, I make a proposal about how Christians should understand

the name of the Trinity, perhaps the point where God's name is mosttroublesome for Christians today. I suggest that some of our contemporarydifficulties regarding the name of the Trinity can be resolved by approaching the topic in a more trinitarian fashion than is customarily the case. Atrinitarian approach to the name of the Trinity can help to reconcileotherwise conflicting viewpoints and can permit the genuine mystery of the name of God to shine forth more fully.

Today, Christian theologians widely agree that the doctrine of theTrinity is central to the church's life because it expresses the distinctivelyChristian understanding of God's identity and mystery. But the question of the name of the Trinity thrusts us into the middle of debates that quicklypoint up the limits of this consensus. Let me identify two troublesomeareas, one familiar and one not so familiar.

One lively and well-known debate concerns whether the Trinity has auniquely appropriate name at all. The primary occasion of this debate isthe concern of feminist Christian theology to distinguish between authen

tic Christian discourse and its patriarchal distortion. Many feminists arguethat the Trinity does not have a uniquely appropriate name and hold thatattempts to claim such a status for any name—and especially for "theFather and the Son and the Holy Spirit"—are misguided and damaging.Appealing to the apophatic and mystical traditions of Christian theology,they emphasize the necessity of naming God in many ways as the token of God's uncircumscribable mystery.2 Other theologians counter that it belongs to the very character of the biblical God to have a uniquelyappropriate name, and that this name is given to us in the context of the

evangelical history as "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Theypoint to this name above all others as the unique token of God's reliableidentity.3

A second question is less familiar and requires a bit more explanation.The question concerns the relation between the name of the Trinity and thename YHWH (also known as the Tetragrammaton), the most sacred name

Îmil Brunner, Dogmatics, vol. 1, The Christian Doctrine of God (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1950), 119.

2

See, for example, Gail Ramshaw, God beyond Gender: Feminist Christian God- Language (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995); Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1992); Ruth C. Duck,

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for God in Judaism and the most common name for God in Israel'Scriptures. The relation of these names raises the ancient problem of howthe church's trinitarian faith is related to Israel's faith in the One God. In

recent decades, the topic has acquired fresh urgency as many Christiancommunions have acknowledged the importance of expressing Christianfaith in ways that do not claim or imply the abrogation, obsolescence, onullity of God's covenant with the Jewish people, that is, in ways that arnot supersessionist.4

In the patristic period, the Tetragrammaton played little role in Christiatheology, largely because of linguistic obstacles. Medieval and Reformation theologians popularized the name in the form Jehovah and often useit to designate the one divine essence common to the three persons of th

Holy Trinity. In the modern period, however, Christian theologians havoften interpreted the Tetragrammaton in light of the progressive characteof the economy of salvation. According to this view, the Tetragrammatobelonged to the preparatory stage of God's self-revelation and was eventually rendered obsolete by God's fuller revelation to the church. Modernbiblical scholars have contributed to the impression that the Tetragrammaton is obsolete by transliterating the name as Yahweh, a hypotheticareconstruction of the divine name with no living basis in Jewish oChristian worship. Christians today, who are heirs of this history, must as

this question: How can Christians understand the name of the Trinity andin particular, its relation to the Tetragrammaton in a way that is faithful tthe church's gospel and yet in a way that also does not contribute to oimply a supersessionistic understanding of the church's relation to thJewish people?

At first glance, the two questions concerning the name of God that have identified (namely, the one raised by feminist theology and the onraised by the church's relation to Israel) may seem to have little to do witone another. In fact, however, I believe that both questions point toward

common weakness in the Christian approach to the name of God. In bothdiscussions, Christian theologians have tended to frame the question oGod's name in binary rather than trinitarian terms. So, for examplefeminist theologians and their interlocutors usually discuss the name of thTrinity in terms of the following contrasts: apophatic speech versukataphatic speech, natural versus revealed knowledge of God, one propename versus many metaphorical names, and so on. In effect, these contrasts serve to pit God's reliable identity and God's inexhaustible mysteryagainst each other. Similarly, premodern theologians discussed the Tetra

grammaton and the Trinity in terms of the contrast between the one divinessence and the three divine persons, while more modern theologians havframed the discussion in terms of the contrast between the Old and New




I suggest that our thinking about the name of the Trinity can be moreadequate to the Scriptures—as well as more adequate to the identity andmystery of God—by being more genuinely trinitarian in character. The

name of the Holy Trinity, my thesis runs, is one name in three inflections.According to the Oxford English Dictionary (second edition), an inflectionis "the modification of the form of a word" that expresses "the differentgrammatical relations into which it may enter"; it is also defined as "amodulation of the voice; in speaking or singing: a change in the pitch ortone of the voice." Bending and blending these definitions, I suggest thatthe name of the Trinity exists in three modifications of form correspondingto the three persons of the Trinity. As we shall see, each inflection of thetriune name identifies all three persons of the Trinity. But each inflection

does so in a "modulation of the voice" that is characteristic of one personof the Holy Trinity and of the relations in which that person stands. Thus,I propose that there is one inflection of the name of the Trinity thatcorresponds to the first person, one that corresponds to the second person,and one that corresponds to the third person. For convenience's sake, I willcall these the theological, christological, and pneumatological inflectionsof the triune name.5 By the end of the essay, I hope to have shown that thename of the Trinity is a truly trinitarian name ip a more radical sense thanis ordinarily suspected: The triune name consists in the unity of three

inflections that are irreducibly distinct yet inseparably interrelated.

T H E THEOLOGICAL INFLECTION OF THE TRIUNE NAME

The name of the Holy Trinity is one name in three inflections. I beginwith the theological inflection, the one appropriate to the first person of theTrinity. As we shall see, it belongs to the logic of this inflection to beginwith the personal proper name of the One to whom Jesus prays, and toproceed from there to tell us who Jesus and the Spirit are.

At the heart of the theological inflection is the Tetragrammaton, thefour-lettered name that consists of the Hebrew consonants yod y he, wäw,and he. As I noted at the start of this essay, this is the final name that Godgave to Moses at the burning bush, the name that finally resolved Moses'question, that Moses took back to the Israelites, and that appears thousandsof times in the subsequent Scriptures.

5My labels for the three inflections adopt the "economic" vocabulary of the New

Testament rather than that of formal trinitarian doctrine. My aim is to identify clearly eachinflection with the appropriate person while not prejudging the content of àie inflectionsthemselves. In one sense, all three inflections are "theological," since all three concern



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Without a doubt, the Tetragrammaton is a mysterious name, in parbecause it is surrounded by a host of unanswered, perhaps unanswerablequestions. What are the historical origins of the name? How was i

originally pronounced? What is its etymological meaning? And so on. Buthese questions are not the genuine mystery of the name. At most, theypoint to the mystery, just as in the Gospels the empty tomb points to themystery of the resurrection. The genuine mystery of the Tetragrammatonis at once extremely simple and inexhaustibly deep: The Tetragrammatonis a proper name, a personal proper name, like Moses, Jeremiah, or MaryMagdalene. The Jewish theologian Michael Wyschogrod writes, "The Godof Israel has a proper name. There is no fact in Jewish theology moresignificant than this."6

A personal proper name is a humble thing. Unlike a metaphor, a clasterm, or a concept, a personal name ordinarily has little or no conventionameaning of its own. The role of a personal name is not to define odescribe, but to identify. If all you know about me is my name, you knowvery little indeed. This is the truth in the well-known expression, "What'sin a name?" Yet, the very humility of a personal name is the source of anunexpected strength. Because a personal name has little conventionameaning of its own, it acquires its sense wholly from the personal historyof its bearer. Over time, a personal proper name can become saturated withan intensity of connotation and resonance that exceeds any other form ofhuman speech. The songwriter asks, "How do you find a word that meanMaria?" The point is, we cannot. For those who know and love her, thename "Maria" conveys a fullness of meaning that cannot be circumscribedby any other word or description, no matter how apt. The personal propename is the linguistic token of the person in the fullness of his or heidentity. That is why personal proper names have such astonishing powerand dignity.

The Tetragrammaton is the personal proper name of the God of IsraelThat is its special mystery. Other names for God in the Scriptures of Israeare not personal proper names but common nouns, appellations, andepithets.7 The Tetragrammaton alone is the linguistic token by which theGod of Israel is distinguished from all other gods, indeed, from everythingelse altogether. In Catherine Mowry LaCugna's words, it is God's "selfgiven name."8 Regardless of the name's etymology or historical originsthe sense of the Tetragrammaton in the Scriptures comes, not from anyconventional or generic meaning of the word, but solely from the incomparable uniqueness of God's personal identity. The psalmist shouts, "Whois like the LORD our God?" (Ps 113:5). That is the sense of the Tetragrammaton.




According to Maimonides, the Tetragrammaton belongs on God's sideof the distinction between eternity and time. It betokens God's whoness ina manner that transcends God's relation to what God has created.9 Yet, we

may say that there is also a singular relationship between the Tetragrammaton and the people Israel. For it is in Israel that God is revealed and isavailable, not merely as the unnamed origin of all things, but according toGod's eternal identity and character. Indeed, we perhaps do not go too farastray of the biblical witness if we say that God's covenant with Israel isthe outworking of God's desire to be known by name. For the sake of thisname, God fashions a people out of the barren womb of Sarah and out of the chaos of bondage so that, by works of steadfast love and faithfulness,God might be glorified by name not only in the heavens but also by men

and women on the earth. The biblical sense of the Tetragrammaton is thusfinally also eschatological in orientation. Under the pressure of God's greatpromise, "I will sanctify my great name" (Ezek 26:23), the Tetragrammaton points irresistibly forward to the consummation of God's universalrule, when there will be an end to the state in which "all day long my nameis despised" (Isa 52:5), and God's incomparable uniqueness will befittingly honored by Israel, the nations, and all creation.

The Tetragrammaton is thus the unique token of God's reliable identityand of God's uncircumscribable mystery. And Israel is the people uniquely

marked out for service of this name, a service that it provides in part bythe reserve that it practices in refusing to pronounce the name.Now, for all of that, the Christian relationship to the Tetragrammaton

has long been a conflicted one. On one hand, Christians can scarcely denythe name's importance for the Old Testament and for Judaism. On theother, Christian theologians and biblical scholars, especially in the modernperiod, have often disputed the idea that the Tetragrammaton continues tobe important for the New Testament and for Christian faith. Christiansreadily concede that the Tetragrammaton is an essential mark of who God

was but are much slower to concede that it remains relevant for who Godis and will be. Two arguments are often given, one historical and onetheological.

The historical argument begins with a well-known fact to which I havealready briefly alluded. Sometime after the exile, Jews gradually ceased topronounce the Tetragrammaton outside the Temple. For piety's sake, theyused reverential circumlocutions instead, such as adonai in Hebrew andAramaic or kyrios in Greek. Eventually, so the argument goes, knowledgeof the name was eclipsed by the circumlocutions themselves, so that by the

time of the New Testament the Tetragrammaton no longer served as God'spersonal name. The theological argument simply adds that this developt f l ti f th Ch i ti d t di f G d A



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Version of the Bible, "The use of any proper name for the one and onlGod, as though there were other gods from whom the true God had to bedistinguished, began to be discontinued in Judaism before the Christian

era and is inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church."1

But has the Tetragrammaton really ceased to serve as God's personaproper name in the New Testament? Or does such a view arise from anIsrael-forgetful hearing of the Scriptures? I would argue that, far frombeing moribund, the Tetragrammaton is alive and well in the New Testament. It has not been buried beneath periphrastic speech anymore than iis buried today among reverent Jews who intentionally refrain frompronouncing it. On the contrary, the Tetragrammaton directs the logic othe New Testament's identification of God the way that magnetic north

directs the needle of a compass. For those with ears to hear, the unspokenTetragrammaton speaks on every page.11

Let us begin by considering how the Gospels portray Jesus' ownidentification of God. We know, of course, that Jesus teaches his followerto pray, first and before all else, for God's name to be hallowed (Mat6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4). Still, we do not often consider fully what thiimplies about how Jesus identifies God.

To understand the first petition of the Lord's Prayer, we must notice thaJesus formulates it in the passive voice: "Hallowed be thy name." The

same is true of the third petition, "Thy will be done." Even the secondpetition avoids directly referring to the agent of the desired action, "Thykingdom come." Jesus' use of the passive is to be understood in thecontext of Jesus' very Jewish reverence for God's name. Jesus employwhat grammarians have called the "divine passive" to call reverentiallyupon God in a manner that avoids mentioning God directly.12 Here thepassive voice does not imply any ambiguity regarding who is being calledupon to act. Quite the contrary. In the context of Israel's piety for thename, Jesus' reverential use of the passive voice actually serves to identify—indirectly but unmistakably—the first petition's logical agent: theGod whose name is the Tetragrammaton.13 The first petition thus amountto a plea that YHWH now act to glorify YHWH's own name, in accordwith God's own ancient promise, "Then you shall know that I am theLORD!" (Exod 16:2; Jer 24:7; Ezek 36:11; and so on). Paraphrased, theancient promise means: "The day will come when I, the LORD, will display

10"To the Reader," in The New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelso1990).

n

I borrow the metaphor from Sean M. McDonough, YHWH at Patmos: Rev. 1:4 in I Hellenistic and Early Jewish Setting (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999), 116. McDonoughfine book demonstrates the vitality of the Tetragrammaton in the Second Temple Period an




the glory of who I am in the works that I will do, works of fidelity to Israeland mercy to the nations." When Jesus instructs his followers to pray,"Hallowed be thy name!" he is teaching them to say, "LORD, let this be so

now! Make your name great!"Once we have learned to hear Jesus' use of the passive voice, we candetect it running through Jesus' speech like a basso continuo, undergirdingevery aspect of his ministry and setting it all in relation to the God whosename is the Tetragrammaton. From the dozens of examples, consider onlya handful: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matt 5:4); "All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all whohumble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 18:14); "But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee" (Matt 26:32). Finally, consider what

is perhaps the most astonishing divine passive of all: "And Jesus came andsaid to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me'"(Matt 28:18). Even the exalted Christ continues to employ the idiom of reverential deference for the Ancient of Days!

Ignatius of Antioch once wrote, "Whoever has the word of Jesus for atrue possession can also hear his silence" (Ign. Eph. 15:2). The silence of Jesus is the room he opens for God's name to be glorified in him. Thecountless divine passives that trace the contours of Jesus' ministry—fromhis sending to his resurrection and ascension—are the audible tokens of

the great divine passive at the heart of Jesus' prayer, "Hallowed be thyname!"

"Like Jews, like Jesus, and like the writers of the NewTestament, Christians need to 'lift up 9

the unspokenTetragrammaton in a manner that allows it to speak in its

own distinctive voice."

So, the unspoken Tetragrammaton speaks. It speaks through periphrasticlanguage to identify by name the One to whom Jesus prays: Tetragrammaton, the Holy One of Israel. But now notice something extremelyimportant: The New Testament writers take these very forms of periphrastic speech that serve uniquely to identify the one to whom Jesus prays, andthey use them—they exploit their linguistic volatility—to identify Jesusand the Spirit. That is the theological inflection of the triune name. Theinflection begins with the personal proper name of the one to whom Jesusprays and it proceeds from there to tell us who Jesus and the Spirit are



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Romans: Jesus Christ, "designated Son of God in power according to thSpirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1:4). But otheclues are often hidden from us by translation. Consider the story in whic

Peter remonstrates Sapphira and Ananias for the deceit they perpetratePeter asks, "How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit oLord to the test?" (Acts 5:9). The Greek makes clear, by omitting thsecond definite article, that "Lord" is not just an honorific title for God bua veiled reference to God's personal proper name, the Tetragrammaton.Not coincidentally, Sapphira falls down dead on the spot.

Most of all, the New Testament writers exploit the volatility of periphrastic speech in order to convey the mind-boggling truth about JesusThey do so in an astonishing variety of creative and sophisticated ways

Sometimes they put familiar forms of periphrastic speech to startling newuses, as in Phil 2:5-11, which uses the conventional surrogate kyrios tmake the utterly unconventional point that "the name above every namenow resides in the humiliated and exalted Jesus.15 Sometimes they createntirely new but unmistakable forms of periphrastic speech. Perhaps thmost sophisticated instance occurs in the book of Revelation. As is welknown, John the Seer opens the letter by replacing the familiar Christiansalutation, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father," with thunconventional formula, "Grace and peace to you from him who is and

who was and is to come" (Rev 1:4). John's tour de force alludes to thTetragrammaton down to the details of its aberrant grammar and serves tremind Christian readers just who this "God the Father" is. Just as strikinghowever, John breaks apart the elements of this and other similar allusionto the Tetragrammaton over the course of the letter and uses the resultinelements to refer to Jesus Christ. John's allusions to the Tetragrammatothus set the terms for the book's extremely high christology, according twhich the coming of the Ancient of Days takes place in the advent o

Jesus. Jesus is quite literally the one who comes "in the name of thLord"!16

My point is this: The New Testament uses an astonishing array operiphrastic language both to identify the one to whom Jesus prays aYHWH, the God of Israel, and also to include Jesus and the Spirit in th

14Carl Judson Davis points out that New Testament writers often use kyrios in a mannthat is grammatically explicable only if the word functions as a proper name. According the grammatical rule known as the Canon of Apollonius, two nouns in regimen should bot

have the definite article or both lack it. An exception occurs, however, when the seconnoun is a proper name, in which case the second article may be omitted. See Carl JudsoDavis, The Name and Way of the Lord: Old Testament Themes, New Testament Chris




identity of this one God.11 That is the theological inflection of the triune

name. The theological inflection serves to articulate the highest conceivable christology and pneumatology. What is more, it does so in a manner

that does not obliterate the distinctions among the persons. On the contrary, the theological inflection expresses the distinctiveness of the personsin terms of the giving, the receiving, and the Spirit of the sacred name.Jesus humbly differentiates himself from the one who bears the name aborigine ("Hallowed be thy name") and precisely so enacts his identity asone suited to receive it and thus to be included in the name's glorification(compare Philippians 2 and John 17). In passing, it is worth emphasizingthat the theological inflection of the triune name requires Christians tocultivate the capacity to hear between the lines. For this reason, Christians

should give up the misguided custom of calling God "Yahweh." The termis a scholarly conjecture that is offensive to reverent Jews and antitheticalto the texture of the New Testament's own witness. Like Jews, like Jesus,and like the writers of the New Testament, Christians need to "lift up" theunspoken Tetragrammaton in a manner that allows it to speak in its owndistinctive voice.

THE CHRISTOLOGICAL INFLECTION OF THE TRIUNE NAME

The christological inflection of the triune name is the familiar formula"the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." The christological inflectionidentifies all three persons of the Trinity, but from a perspective thataccords centrality to the second person, Jesus Christ. A token of this is thesimple but impressive fact that, according to Matthew, the risen Lordhimself utters this name when commissioning the disciples (Matt 28:19).

As I noted earlier, contemporary discussion of the name of the Trinityis often divided between those who regard "the Father and the Son and theHoly Spirit" as one among many possible metaphors for God, and those

who argue that it is the Trinity's proper name. In my view, both positionssuffer from an insufficiently trinitarian understanding of the name of theTrinity. My suggestion is that "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"is one inflection of the name of the Trinity, an inflection that is bothirreducibly distinct in itself and inseparably related to two other, equallybasic inflections. Feminist theologians undervalue the irreducible distinctiveness of the baptismal formula and fail to recognize the fact that it hasno equivalent substitute. Yet, their opponents overlook the baptismalformula's inseparable relatedness, its essential connection to different but

equally basic inflections of the triune name. Let us examine both aspectsof the christological inflection.



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The christological inflection of the triune name is irreducibly distinct iitself, incapable of equivalent substitution by any other form of expression. How so? Let me briefly mention two points.

First, "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" is irreducibly distincby virtue of the simple but inescapable fact of its canonical settingappearing in the context of the risen Lord's command to his disciples tbaptize in this name (Matt 28:16-20). Furthermore, and as befits a formulintended for liturgical use, the phrase identifies the persons of the Trinityin a simple, fixed, and pronounceable form. In this respect, the christological inflection differs markedly from the theological inflection that w

just considered. As we saw, the theological inflection is fecund, generativeThe unspoken Tetragrammaton speaks through a variety of reverentia

circumlocutions. In contrast, the baptismal inflection gathers togethemany forms of Jesus' speech—my Father, our Father, Son of Man, Son oGod, Spirit of the Father, and so on—and stabilizes them in a singlecoordinated phrase. These factors make the christological inflectiouniquely suited to serve as a simple but tangible expression of the visiblunity of the ecumenical church.18

Second, the christological inflection of the triune name is irreducibldistinct because it expresses the distinction and mutuality of the first twpersons of the Trinity in terms of relationship of origin, and because it doe

so in language that, according to the Gospels' witness, is characteristic oJesus' own self-designation and address to God. The terms "Father" an"Son" make the point that God and Christ are distinguishable identities bvirtue of their essential relatedness one to another. Each is identified iterms of the other. In this case, to be is to be related.

Taken together, these two points amply justify the important place thathe ecumenical church has accorded the baptismal name in its liturgicapractice and dogmatic traditions. Yet, I wish now to direct attention to thother side of the equation, to the proposition that the christologica

inflection of the triune name is not only irreducibly distinct but alsinseparably related to two other equally basic inflections of the triunname. In particular, I wish to explore the proposition that the christologicainflection serves as a name that identifies the three persons of the Trinionly by virtue of its inseparable connection to the theological inflectionwhich identifies the same three persons in a different idiom centered on thholy Tetragrammaton.

Let me begin with an obvious point. "Father," "son," and "spirit" are acommon nouns that can be predicated of many subjects. The christologica

inflection, however, particularizes these common nouns by the use of thdefinite article. It speaks not (as Christians often but misleadingly say) o"Father Son and Holy Spirit " but of "the Father and the Son and the Ho




restricting their application from the many to the one. As a result, thephrase "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" comes in practice to¡Function like a personal proper name, as indeed the baptismal liturgy itself

suggests, "I baptize you in the name o/the Father and the Son and the HolySpirit."19

"Whatever may be the case with other fathers or fatherhood in general, this Father is implacably opposed to every

diminution of women for the sake of male privilege."

In my view, this particularization is the key for deciding whether the useof the baptismal formula necessarily underwrites patriarchal ideas andsocial relations. Feminist Christians are correct that Christians shouldwant to distinguish between authentic evangelical discourse and its patriarchal distortion, and that at times in the past they have failed to do so. Butto speak of "the Father" is to pick out a particular identity within a givencontext, so that the key question properly turns not on the generic meaning

of the word "father" but, rather, on the relationship of this particular Father to patriarchy. When Jesus in prayer calls out, "Father!" the sense of the word is supplied by the character of the One who sent him and raisedhim from the dead. This is why Jesus can say, "If you have seen me, youhave seen the Father." But is it possible to find even a single instance inthe entire New Testament where Jesus appeals to the authority of thisFather to underwrite male privilege? Is not the opposite much more thecase? Whatever may be the case with other fathers or fatherhood ingeneral, this Father is implacably opposed to every diminution of women

for the sake of male privilege.20

However, we must go on and consider a further peculiarity of thedefinite article. The power of the definite article to particularize a commonnoun is dependent on context, apart from which its reference remainsambiguous. If my wife says to me, "Please go get the mail," I understandshe means the mail in our mailbox, not our neighbors'. But if I overheardthe same request on a crowded street, I would have no idea how to fulfillthe request. In the case of common nouns that designate persons, such as"mother" or "prophet," the framework of identification usually terminates

19Similarly "Christ" in the New Testament appears frequently as a title or common noun



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in a personal proper name, such as Hannah, Elijah, or Mohammed. In ananalogous way, even "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" dependfor its identifying power ultimately on a more complete framework o

identification that terminates finally in a personal proper name. But whais the personal proper name that backs up "the Father and the Son and theHoly Spirit," by virtue of which this saying is enabled to serve as a namein the context, for example, of the baptismal liturgy? Is it, as Christians arno doubt inclined to suggest, the name Jesus Christ? But the Marcionitealso worshiped "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" and backedup their worship with the name of Jesus Christ. The church, neverthelessdeemed their worship heretical. Moreover, the name Jesus Christ belongto the second person of the Trinity by virtue of God's works in time, while

the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit belongs to Godirrespective of those works. Hence, there must be some other personaproper name that backs up the baptismal name of the Trinity. This nameit seems to me, can only be the holy Tetragrammaton.

Consider the texture of the New Testament witness. When we lookcarefully, we discover time and again that the terms "Father," "Son,"Spirit," or any combination of these appear regularly intertwined andside-by-side with language that orbits around the Tetragrammaton. "OuFather in heaven, hallowed be thy name" is not a redundant expression, a

though "Father" were now the name of God tout court. Rather, the phraspoints to two distinct but mutually interpreting poles of Jesus' identification of God.

21 Again, in Philippians 2 we see a dramatic double movemenin which Christ receives "the name above every name," that he mighreceive the acclamation of all creation "to the glory of God the Father.The logic of Philippians 2 is mirrored in a strikingly precise way throughout the Gospel of John, where the Son's mission from and unity with thFather is interpreted at the climax of the Gospel in terms of the Son'revelation of the Father's name (John 17), a name that Raymond Brown

identifies with Jesus' "I am" statements, which in turn allude unmistakablyto the unspoken Tetragrammaton.22 Finally, Dale Allison suggests thaeven the baptismal formula of Matt 28:19 includes an allusion to thTetragrammaton, inasmuch as "the name o/the Father and the Son and thHoly Spirit" refers not epexegetically to "the Father and the Son and thHoly Spirit" but allusively and reverentially to the unspoken Tetragrammaton, that is, the name that belongs to the Father, and that the Fathegives to the Son, and whose praise is evoked by the Holy Spirit.23

2Adelheid Ruck-Schröder makes this point in Der Name Gottes und der Name Jesu




My claim, then, is that "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"stands in inseparable relation with another, equally basic inflection of thetriune name, an inflection centered in the giving, the receiving, and the

glorification of the holy Tetragrammaton. The two inflections identify thesame triune reality, but in different ways. The theological inflection,centered in the first person, identifies Jesus with respect to YHWH (as theone who receives the name). The christological inflection, centered in theSon, identifies YHWH with respect to Jesus (as the Father of the Son).24

The crucial point is that it is the two inflections together, in their differenceand mutual relation, that identify the One to whom Jesus prays and, byextension, Jesus himself and the Spirit by whom he lives and which heshares.

The interrelatedness of the two inflections has suggestive implicationsfor how Christians should understand Israel's place in the economy of salvation. The Tetragrammaton enters the New Testament as a name thatis already saturated, drenched with connotation; at the heart of thisconnotation, so to speak, is YHWH's covenant with Israel. Hence, it is allbut impossible to invoke the Tetragrammaton without also invoking thiscovenant and this people, whether implicitly or explicitly. To identifyJesus with respect to this name is also inevitably to identify him withrespect to this people and its promised future. Consider this example: A

striking feature of Paul's letters is that he often ascribes Septuagintpassages containing the Tetragrammaton to Christ (see, among others,Rom 14:11; 1 Cor 1:31; 10:26). Nevertheless, David B. Capes observesthat when Paul comes to discuss the relationship of Jews and gentiles, hefrequently ascribes the relevant Septuagint passages to God (Rom 9:27,29; 15:9, ll).25 If the first practice indicates Paul's conviction that theScriptures' promises about the LORD are now coming to pass in Christ(compare Rom 10:13), the second practice indicates that this coming-to-pass still transpires within the context of God's still unfolding covenant

with Israel (compare Rom 15:9, 11). It is the two practices together thatconstitute "the heart of the matter."Conversely, when Christians read the Scriptures in a way that permits

the theological inflection of the triune name to drop out of considerationor awareness, the identity of the divine persons is illuminated in aone-sided way. I have already touched on the most extreme example of this, namely, the Marcionites who worshiped the Father and the Son andthe Holy Spirit, but refused to worship YHWH, the God of Israel. Morecommonly, however, Christians read the New Testament as though God's

identity as YHWH were merely a passing stage of God's self-revelation on



258 Theology Today

the way to God's self-revelation as "Father." Consider this example"Everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testamennew, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian a

opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. 'Father' is the Christian name of God."26

In 1933, Gerhard Kittel argued along such lines when he wrote thaJesus' use of abba "far surpasses any possibilities of intimacy assumed iJudaism" and introduces "something which is wholly new"

21 Kittelclaim was partly taken up by Joachim Jeremías, and subsequently manbiblical scholars and theologians have sought to make Jesus' experience oGod as abba the basis of his unique self-understanding, messianic vocation, and divine sonship.28 Yet, when Christians read the New Testamen

through this lens, the result is a systematic distortion of the biblicawitness, in which what is perceived to be "distinctively Christian" is lifteup at the cost of what is "merely Jewish" in Christianity.

To summarize, "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" is nomerely one among many possible metaphors for God, but neither is it thproper name of Trinity. Rather, it is the second of three inflections of thtriune name, one that is indispensable in its own right yet one that must bheld in balance with two other, equally indispensable inflections of thtriune name. The theological and christological inflections interpret eac

other mutually, with respect not only to who God was but to who God iand will be. The illumination that arises from the conjunction of the twinflections in and through the medium of the evangelical history is not passing stage of the Christian witness but belongs permanently to the hearof the gospel's witness to God.

T HE PNEUMATOLOGICAL INFLECTION OF THE TRIUNE NAME

I call the third and final inflection of the triune name the pneumatological inflection, the inflection most naturally appropriated to the third perso

of the Trinity. The pneumatological inflection also provides a way iwhich to designate all three persons of the Trinity, but it does so in "modulation of the voice" that is characteristic of the Holy Spirit.

In the biblical narratives, the Holy Spirit astonishes us by the uncannway in which it unites constancy and variety. The Holy Spirit comealways from the living God bearing the gift of new life, yet it does so ian endless variety of ways. It manifests its presence and power now as dove descending, now as the sound of wind roaring, now as tongues of fidancing, now as the gift of speech in ecstasy. So too the pneumatologica

inflection of the triune name unites constancy and variety in the church'




naming of the Trinity. It has no fixed vocabulary of its own, but it unfoldsthe glory of the triune life through the general forms of speech andpossibilities of speech present in the discourse of all peoples, tribes, and

nations.On one hand, the pneumatological inflection has a constant theme: themystery of God's eternal identity as manifested in God's covenant withIsrael and irrevocably confirmed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It isimportant to stress that the pneumatological inflection does not ignore orbypass the two inflections already discussed but pours forth from them astheir great expositor and interpreter. In addition, the pneumatologicalinflection has a constant goal: to draw us ever more deeply into the divinelife and to make us ever more suitable vessels of the glory of God's name.

Yet, on the other hand, the pneumatological inflection traces an unpredictable variety of paths from source to goal. The pneumatological inflectionis not only the great expositor and interpreter, but also the great improviser.

"The specific task [of the pneumatological inflection of the triune name] is to express the inexhaustible fullness of the

mystery of the oneGod, a fullness for which no single fixed form of expression is the uniquely adequate token."

The pneumatological inflection has roots that go deep into the Scripturesof Israel. Already the prophets of Israel sought to exposit or interpretGod's unique identity by enlisting generic forms of speech. Consider oneof Israel's most common refrains: "The LORD is God!" Here "LORD," of

course, stands for the Tetragrammaton, the personal name of the One whoaccosted Moses at the bush. But the word for God, "Elohim," stems froma generic term for the divine that was common in the ancient Near East.It is a class term that could be and was applied to a variety of gods andgoddesses, not to Israel's god alone. Thus, when the prophets declared,"The LORD is God!" they staked a claim and took a risk. They staked theclaim that the generic term "Elohim" receives its true and proper sensefrom the name, character, and promises of Israel's God, and Israel's Godalone. But they also took the risk that the generic term was a suitablevessel for bringing the LORD'S unique identity to the nations.

Over two millennia of Christian tradition, the pneumatological inflection has enlisted a staggering variety of words and forms of speech to



Theology Today

substance in the west; hypostasis and ousia in the east. These familiaexamples of the pneumatological inflection are important, not becausthey exhaust the possibilities of pneumatological speech, but because they

offer us paradigmatic examples of how such speech operates. They havthe power to teach us again and again the amount of care and discernmenthat is needed to practice rightly the kind of expository improvisation thathe pneumatological inflection requires. As any jazz musician knowsfaithful improvisation is the greatest of all musical skills, a skill that, fomost, requires years of apprenticeship in the school of the masters. Abovall, the pneumatological inflection is not simply a license that says anything goes. The same prophets that dared to say, "The LORD is God!refused to say, "The LORD is Baal," even though "Baal" was also a generi

or class term meaning "master." The prophets discerned that Elohimpossessed possibilities that Baal could not, probably because the sense othe latter term had come to be determined too completely by the identityof a competing deity.

Yet, by the nature of the case, the pneumatological inflection of thtriune name demands to be exercised afresh in every time and place. Ththeologian Abhishiktananda, writing as a Christian in Hindu contextspeaks of the persons of the Holy Trinity as Sat, Cit, and Ananda, whictranslates roughly as "source and ground of all being," "the divine self

consciousness," and "expression of love within the Godhead, which bringbeing and consciousness into the bliss of love."29 We find other exampleof the pneumatological inflection in the writings of contemporary feministheologians. The Roman Catholic feminist Elizabeth A. Johnson, in hebook She Who Is, speaks of Unoriginate Mother, her Beloved Child, anSpirit of Mutual Love.30 While the church should test the adequacy othese and other proposals, I believe that they must not be ruled out ocourt. If my thesis is correct, proposals such as these are not merely

permitted but are required by the trinitarian logic of the triune name. Fothe pneumatological inflection of the triune name cannot be fixed in single form of speech nor in any fixed set of already existing names. Itspecific task is to express the inexhaustible fullness of the mystery of thone God, a fullness for which no single fixed form of expression is thuniquely adequate token. This is the kernel of truth in the apophatic andmystical traditions of Christian thought that affirm that the deity of God inameless and that, therefore, God must be praised with many names. Thistatement summarizes a crucial aspect of the pneumatological inflection

even though it does not provide a sufficient account of the name of thTrinity as a whole.




"THESE THREE ARE ONE"

The name of the Trinity is one name in three inflections, a polyphonicunity of three modulations of voice. Like the persons of the Holy Trinity,

the three inflections are interrelated but not interchangeable.The theological inflection identifies all three persons of the Holy Trinity

in the light of the personal proper name of the One to whom Jesus prays,the name that the Holy One is pleased to give to Jesus and to glorify bythe Spirit of holiness. When we call upon the name of the Trinity in theidiom of the unspoken Tetragrammaton, we are drawn closer to Jesus inhis solidarity with Israel's hope for the hallowing of the sacred name.

The christological inflection identifies all three persons of the Trinity inthe light of Jesus the Son, the person who from his conception in the womb

to his resurrection from the tomb reveals the uniquely well-pleasingcounterpart to the Father's own eternal life. When we call upon the nameof the Trinity in the idiom of the baptismal name, we are drawn closer tothe mystery of mutual love at the heart of the triune life and deeper intoour own baptismal vocation as adopted sons and daughters of God theFather and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.

The pneumatological inflection identifies all three persons of the Trinityin the light of the endless artistry of the Holy Spirit, the great expositor of the divine life in eternity and in time. When we call upon the name of the

Trinity in the idiom of the pneumatological inflection, we are drawn moredeeply into the evangelical possibilties of our cultural context and arebidden so to use them that every people, tribe, and nation may testify that"in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power" (Acts 2:11).

Each inflection of the triune name constitutes an indispensable—but notindependent—aspect of the divine name revealed to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. None can be replaced by another without loss; none can beignored without peril. For each draws us in a distinctive way into the

endless mystery of the reliable identity of the Holy Trinity.

ABSTRACT

Christian thinking about the name of the Trinity can be more adequate tothe Scriptures and to the identity and mystery of the Trinity by becomingmore genuinely trinitarian in character. The name of the Trinity is bestunderstood as one name in three inflections. Each inflection designates allthree persons of the Trinity, but in an idiom that isespecially characteristic of one person. Thus, the divine name consists in the unity of three inflectionsh lik h f h i i i d ibl di i i bl



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