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Absolute Diff erence
- Fordham University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
This chapter questions easy assumptions regarding unity and diversity as unproblematic ethical or philosophical values in and of themselves. It then examines the evolution of the doctrine of the Trinity in the Christian tradition and the eventual emergence of the complex way unity and diversity are held together within it. Tracing the history of the struggle to reconcile unity and diversity within the classical tradition, it considers the work of Pseudo-Dionysius, who suggests that the way unity and diversity complement each other in creation has a higher analogue in the way the two opposites come together in God. The chapter also presents a picture of the intense relationality of trinitarian persons as it is affirmed in classical trinitarianism, precisely in its qualitative distinction from the limited possibilities of creaturely finitude. This picture suggests a possible limit to the theological venture of finding in trinitarian relationality a directly applicable and inhabitable model for creaturely relations of difference.