Social Science, Philosophy and Theology in Dialogue by Pierpaolo Donati Antonio Malo Giulio Maspero

Author:Pierpaolo Donati, Antonio Malo, Giulio Maspero [Pierpaolo Donati, Antonio Malo, Giulio Maspero]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367670894
Google: ZeG2zQEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2020-12-18T03:46:41+00:00

4 Trinitarian ontology and interdisciplinary research

Giulio Maspero

Introduction: what we are discussing

Defining Trinitarian ontology is no easy undertaking. Just as details, reflections, and colours are multiplied by an increase of light, so it is that the closer an approach to the real is to the truth, the less possible it is to classify and define it in a univocal way. There are, thus, many different “Trinitarian ontologies”, both on the level of substance and on that of denomination, at least after the seminal book Thesen zu einer trinitarischen Ontologie by Klaus Hemmerle, which is composed in the form of a theological letter addressed to Hans Urs von Balthasar.1 A lovely description by Piero Coda, taken from an article entitled, precisely, “What is Trinitarian ontology”, may serve as an introduction to this venture:

The tendency that often prevails in the approach to reality in which we find ourselves thrown, immersed, and involved (something philosophy is committed to explaining and illustrating), is to ask ourselves: what is this or that reality, and, ultimately, what is reality as a whole and at its roots? This is very important because the temptation, which is continual but is now especially all-pervasive and pressing, is to reduce this question to another: what is the use of this or that reality, and how does it function? However, if we look closer, before and at the origin of the question of what “is it”, there is another that lies beneath it because it is mostly hidden and unexpressed but which, in truth, is actually the decisive one. This question touches on the where, indeed, the from where do I view, interpret and live reality. Much, if not all, depends on the place where I am and where I put myself, together with others, in order to view reality and to live it. The place actually determines the perspective, that is, how I view a reality and, consequently, how this reality can manifest itself and be given to me.2

In Piero Coda’s proposal, Trinitarian ontology is essentially a view on reality that springs from the Trinitarian perspective disclosed to man in the paschal event of the death and resurrection of Christ. In this sense, it began in the hearts and in the minds of the disciples and, before that, in Mary, who, like the dawn that shines and heralds the light of day, ushered in a view of reality that is made possible by the Son of God and, therefore, by the Trinitarian light in history.

From my personal perspective, the description proposed by Piero Coda appears particularly poignant because the adjective Trinitarian characterizes the consideration of being as being, that is, ontology, through a concrete relation. The question about the what cannot be abstracted from the one about the from where, that is, from the perspective and, therefore, from the relation through which one has access to being itself. Thus, Mary’s view of reality is a view inhabited by a relation and transforms the world precisely because of this relation. Everything is

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