perichoresis
- noun
- /ˌpɛrɪˈkɔːrɪsɪs/
- Specialized
- In Christian theology, perichoresis refers to the mutual indwelling of the three Divine Persons, highlighting their unity.
- trinitarian perichoresis
Examples
-
The Trinity is a koinonia, a community bound together by love, realized through mutual penetration, perichoresis, which in no way compromises the identity or independence of the three persons.
Academic text (1991) -
Still, the Father is not remote from the suffering of the Son on the cross, since there is a perichoresis between the Father and the Son.
Academic text (1990) -
Theology gets even more complicated with the introduction of the trinitarian perichoresis, by which it is understood that the three Divine Persons are in one another.
Academic text (2013) -
In perichoresis, God as Trinity subsists in interpersonal unity through incarnating itself in all things that swim, creep, crawl, run, fly, and grow upon the earth.
Academic text (2000) -
It is a great phrase, and I take it to mean (at least approximately) the same reality I have been pointing to here with "perichoresis," and elsewhere with "subject-subject coinherence," and the "I-I relation."
Academic text (1990) -
If the Godhead is correctly called Love, then both the internal dynamism of the perichoresis and the external dynamism of the Incarnation are vindications of it.
Academic text (1990) -
Accordingly, the unity of God in three divine modes of subsistence, persons, in one and the same divine nature and in trinitarian perichoresis exceeds any created unity and thus any human comprehension beyond what revelation makes available, and even then only to a limited extent.
Academic text (2008) -
In fact, the fundamental basis of the trinitarian perichoresis is that there is one Divine Essence comprising three Divine Persons, or one God that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—a doctrine in the foreground of the Christian faith.
Academic text (2013) -
The concept of perichoresis emphasizes the deep connection between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit within the Trinity.
-
Theologians utilize the term perichoresis to explain how Christ's divine and human natures coexist in a complete harmony.
Synonyms
1
9.9
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in each other
The three persons of God live in and share life with each other
Surface Forms
Morphology
perichoresis = peri + choreo + sis
Although built from Greek elements (peri- + choreo- + -sis), the resulting theological meaning 'mutual indwelling' is specialized and not derivable by an average B1 learner from the parts.
Etymology
Perichoresis comes from Greek parts peri- 'around' and choreō 'to make room', so picture people moving around like a careful dance, each making space for the other. That's why perichoresis is used for a close, mutual 'living within' or union where persons 'make room' for one another.