through symbols & art
Trinity is the word Christians use to try to describe a difficult idea about God. It's to do with understanding something of the one God in three ways. The 'Father' image of God is to do with Him being over us or in charge. The 'Son' image of God is Jesus - a human being like us, yet perfect like God.
The Holy Spirit image of God is to do with God being 'in us', those parts of our nature which are 'God-like'. It's this understanding of God which is so important at Pentecost.
'Trinity' is a hard idea to put into words. When we find it hard to say what we want to, we use other ways of describing what we want to say. One way is to use 'symbols' or pictures to express what we want to say.
Symbols
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There are a number of Christian symbols which attempt to express the Holy Trinity. Find out more... |
Christians have used symbols in their daily lives and worship since the time of Jesus. Think of some of the Christian symbols which are commonly used. If you don't know any, talk about it with some other people. If you are able to you might visit a church and see the symbols used there. Here are some web sites with examples of Christian symbols...
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Salvation Army symbols
Buckfast Abbey (Choose the section on the Abbey Church) The Symbol of the Cross of Nails (Coventry Cathedral) St Michael's Porch (Coventry Cathedral) Symbols in Christian Art and Architecture (US dictionary of symbols) |
| Many of the Christians who lived in Rome in the early years of the Church were persecuted and put into prison or killed. Because it was so dangerous to admit you were a Christian openly, they made use of symbols. They carved these on the walls of the catacombs or burial-places where they met secretly. These symbols were visible signs that there were Christians and of what they believed. |  |
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You can visit the Christian Catacombs of Rome web site and discover more about the symbols the early Christians used. | ||
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Symbols are still important for Christians today. As an example visit the web site of the The Orthodox Church in America to find out how they use Christian Symbols. |
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One thing you might like to do is create your own 'symbol' for Pentecost.
Read again the description of events in Acts 2: 2 - 4, to remind you of what happened. Another thing you could do is produce your own design using some of the images on this page. To do this you will need to save them to disc, and then use them in a drawing package. [If you haven't done this before it's a good thing to learn how to do.]
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Art
In life - as in the Bible - there are many examples of the difficulty we have when we try to put into words what we feel or see, especially when we feel very strongly about it. This is especially so when people try to describe an experience of God.
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Look at the Bible Gateway. Here you can search the Bible by 'key' words. One thing you could do is search for Acts 2: 2 - 4, and compare the description of the story in different translations of the Bible. | ||
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Another thing to do is to use the 'Search word(s):' facility to find other references in the Bible to 'flame' and 'wind'. Write them down and compare the occasions when they were used. What were the writers trying to 'say' when they used these words? |
| Sometimes what we experience is best expressed without words. It can be easier for people to express difficult ideas in the form of pictures, for example. For hundreds of years artists have used their own style of painting to show their thoughts about and experiences of God in all His forms. |  |
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Visit the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., web site and look at The
Baptism of Christ by Juan de Flandes. Here, at Jesus' baptism the Holy
Spirit is shown as a dove. |
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Visit the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., web site again and look at Retabla of the Trinity, by E. Boyd. You can see that there really are many different ways for an artist to express their thoughts. |
