 | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. (December 2019) |
Perichoresis (from Greek: περιχώρησις perikhōrēsis, "rotation")[1] is the relationship of the three persons of the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to one another. The term was first used in Christian theology by the Church Fathers. The noun first appears in the writings of Maximus Confessor (d. 662) but the related verb perichoreo is found earlier in Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 389/90).[2] Gregory used it to describe the relationship between the divine and human natures of Christ as did John of Damascus (d. 749), who also extended it to the "interpenetration" of the three persons of the Trinity, and it became a technical term for the latter.[3][4] It has been given recent currency by such contemporary writers as Jürgen Moltmann, Miroslav Volf, John Zizioulas, Richard Rohr, and others.
Modern authors extend the original usage as an analogy to cover other interpersonal relationships. The term "co(-)inherence" is sometimes used as a synonym.[5]
"Circumincession" is a Latin-derived term for the same concept.[3]
- ^ "Liddell & Scott". perseus.uchicago.edu.
- ^ Prestige, G.L. God in Patristic Thought SPCK (1964) p. 291
- ^ a b Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Circumincession". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Ott, Ludwig. Manual de Teología Dogmática Barcelona: Herder (1969) p. 131
- ^ Prestige, G.L. God in Patristic Thought SPCK (1964) pp. 290ff;
& Bettenson, Henry. The Early Christian Fathers OUP (1976) p. 286;
& Brown, Colin Karl Barth and the Christian Message London:Tyndale (1967) p. 74;
& Catholic Culture.org Dictionary