Triniteit en etiek: Van ’n relasionele God tot ’n etiek van die Ander

• Main Author: Rian Venter
• Format: Article
• Language: Afrikaans
• Published: AOSIS 2012-10-01
• Series: In die Skriflig
• Subjects: Alterity; personhood; relationality; the Other; Trinity
• Online Access: https://indieskriflig.org.za/index.php/skriflig/article/view/52
• ISSN: 1018-6441; 2305-0853

Die artikel ondersoek die vraag of die nuwe waardering vir die leerstuk van die Triniteit enige beduidende etiese implikasies inhou. Meer spesifiek word gekyk of die identiteit van God in die Christelike geloofstradisie nuwe etiese sensitiwiteite kan open. Die sogenaamde Trinitariese Renaissance word kortliks gekarteer en die denke van die teoloë Zizioulas en Moltmann word beskryf om die keer na relasionaliteit te illustreer. Kritiek teen ’n sosiaal-georiënteerde Triniteitsleer word verreken, maar word nie as finaal en afdoende beskou nie. Twee denkers – Volf en Cunningham – val in die soeklig en hoe hulle teologie spesifiek vanuit die Trinitariese belydenis etiese vrae aanspreek en meer spesifiek die probleem van die Ander. Die artikel se gevolgtrekking is dat die Triniteitsleer vrugbare perspektiewe tot die publieke diskoers oor alteriteit kan open. Die Christelike verstaan van God kan ’n beduidende bydrae tot hierdie aktuele vraagstelling lewer. Die Ander word gesien as konstituerend vir eie identiteit; en terselfdertyd word identiteit juis verwesentlik deur ’n omhelsing en versorging van die Ander. Trinity and ethics: From a relational God to an ethic of the Other. The article addresses the question whether the new appreciation for the doctrine of the Trinity could generate significant ethical implications. More specifically it investigates whether the identity of God in the Christian tradition does open new ethical sensibilities. The so-called Trinitarian Renaissance is briefly mapped, and the views of the theologians Zizioulas and Moltmann are described for an illustration of the turn to relationality. Critical resistance to a socially oriented doctrine of the Trinity is taken into account, but it is not considered as final and persuasive. Two theologians – Volf and Cunningham – are studied and how their theology addresses from a Trinitarian perspective ethical issues and specifically the problem of the Other. The article concludes that the doctrine of the Trinity could make a contribution to the public discourse on alterity. The Christian understanding of God could open avenues for understanding a most urgent contemporary problem. The Other is viewed as constitutive for own identity; and at the same time identity is realised by the embrace and care of the Other.