The Divine Dance by Richard Rohr
The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation by Richard Rohr is one of those books you come back to time and again. Like most of Rohr’s books, it challenges the reader to stretch and grow in faith and maturity. In The Divine Dance, Rohr takes on the topic of the Trinity, drawing on theologians (Augustine, Aquinas, Rahner), mystics (Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart), philosophers (Aristotle, Boethius, Duns Scotus) scientists (Kuhn, Oppenheimer), and poets (Hopkins, Eliot, Roethke) to help make his point that the idea of the Trinity “could well end up being the answer to the foundational problem of Western religion.”
I think Rohr may be on to something. If we can begin to understand and experience the profound communion formed by the Trinity–and see relationship as the binding and foundational force of the universe–then perhaps we can begin healing the wounds of the world instead of perpetuating them.
Here are a few passages that struck me as I was reading:
Christians are, in their practical life, ‘almost monotheists.’ We must admit that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious literature could well remained virtually unchanged.
— Karl Rahner as quoted by Richard Rohr in The Divine Dance, page 26
The doctrine of Trinity says that it’s finally participatory knowledge that matters, not rational calculating, which is but one limited form of knowing. God–and the human person by an irreducibly important extension–must never be objectified. In fact, God refuses to be an object of our thinking. As John of the Cross so frequently insisted, God refuses to be known but can only be loved.
— The Divine Dance, page 54
The very nature of God, therefore, is to seek out the deepest possible communion and friendship with every last creature on this earth.
— Catherine LaCugna as quoted by Richard Rohr in The Divine Dance, page 194
Aside from a few cringe-worthy puns (“Metaphors Be With You!”), The Divine Dance is a transformational book, and I recommend it highly.
The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation by Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell
First edition New Kensington (PA): Whitaker House, October 2016
Print length: 224 pages
