TRINITY

Building on this, Christian theology has long considered desire as an entry into reflection on God and his creation. Take the Trinity. In its essence, the Trinity is an eternal relationship between three coequal, coloving, cosubmitted persons. Theologians have often spoken of this relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit as a condilectum, or “equal longing.” God is in and of himself a relationship of mutual love, service, and desire. The Christian life, then, is entering the Trinity’s hospitable desire. Former Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams believes that through faith in Christ, we are included in this love of the Father, Son, and Spirit. “The whole story of our incorporation into the fellowship of Christ’s body,” Williams writes, “tells us that God desires us as if we were God.”31 Williams isn’t suggesting humans are divine beings. Rather, through faith in Jesus, we’re incorporated into the Trinity’s desire and love. The Gift of Thorns: Jesus, the Flesh, and the War for Our Wants by A.J. Swoboda