God's Shining Forth

A Trinitarian Theology of Divine Light

Hay

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532605246
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

God's Shining Forth offers a theological presentation of divine light in which the leading motif is the doctrine of the Trinity. More precisely, this study is organized around a double trinitarian theme: God is light in himself, and from himself God is radiant in relation to human creatures. This double affirmation is expounded by considering its extensions in the work of God's grace, in ecclesiology, and in the nature of theological intelligence. The chosen conversation partners in this study are some of the leading pro-Nicene trinitarian theologians of the fourth century, plus John Calvin, Karl Barth, and a selection of contemporary authors. Andrew Hay argues that the scriptural statement "God is light" is best understood as a confession of the eternal, fully realized life of the triune God in its wholly gratuitous electing, reconciling, and illuminating human creatures in the darkness of sin and death.

1

In the Beginning

The Concept of Light in Scripture and Theology

He may most properly be termed light, but he is nothing like the light with which we are acquainted.1

As we reflect upon the declaration that “God is light,” we are seeking to answer the question: Who is God? Who is this One who is light in himself, and from himself shines forth his light to his human creatures? A trinitarian theology of divine light, we shall soon see, points to this radiant identity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And such a radiant identity is, further, to be regarded with respect to the divine distance—“he is nothing like the light with which we are acquainted”—and with regard to the divine approach—“He may most properly be termed light”—in God’s turning towards human creatures in the darkness of sin and death.

In speaking of the light of God, this first chapter seeks to give an initial grounding to a trinitarian theology of divine light by marking a conceptual boundary. This will be primarily accomplished in three ways: first, by a survey of several scriptural instances of the concept of light; second, by a brief examination of the dogmatic gloss upon these scriptural instances from Nicene trinitarian theology; and third, by an inquiry into the “contingent” misuse of the concept of light.

The Scriptural Foundation of the Concept of Light

The basis for a trinitarian theology of divine light is found in reading the prophets and apostles of Holy Scripture. That is, the guiding action for our study is straightforward: a “conversation in which One speaks [i.e., God through Scripture] and the other listens [i.e., the reader of Scripture].”2 Of course, listening to scriptural witness is necessary for our present exegetical context: tracing the biblical use of light as the “best figure or representation of the Divine Majesty.”3 Yet before giving a select reading or, indeed, listening to several scriptures, we must at once caution that each instance of the image of “light” or “glory” in the biblical canon is situated in a unique context and locus.4 It is not our aim here, therefore, to overlook such contexts; rather, again, we seek to listen to the scriptural witness of the light of God so as to provide the necessary boundary for the forthcoming theological movements of our study. We will initially retrieve several major themes about the concept of light by tracing three vital scriptural instances—namely, in the book of Genesis, the Synoptic Gospels, and various Johannine materials—before moving to examine how such scriptural occurrences might inform our way forward in this study.

“Light” in Genesis

We might first say that the standard text for any listening to the biblical occurrence of the image of light is often found in the narrative of the creation account in the book of Genesis.5 It is here that we find a clear instance of God and his creation, the creative speech of God, and the creation of light by divine speech. That is, we find at the head of the Pentateuch the astounding fact that even before making the heavenly luminaries (Gen 1:14–15), in the primal chaos of darkness God spoke and created light.6

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Gen 1:3–5)

We hear in this principal passage of how God has surrounded himself with light, the “ornament and glory of the whole visible creation.”7 By this first creative utterance of v. 3, we see that created light is not itself God but a “creature” and an “ornament” of God’s creative utterance.8 That is, this ornament of God’s creative power rests wholly on the fact that God, by the power of his Word, spoke light into existence and “saw that it was good” (v. 4). This means that God wills to uphold and preserve this light.9 The fact that God “saw” his work, that he continues to see it, keeps the world from plummeting into chaos (v. 2). This “seeing” is followed by an allusion to the existence of darkness; but just as it does not state that God created darkness, so it does not state that he saw that this darkness was good. This can be said of light only—that is, of the light that was set apart from darkness. In finding light worthy of this separation, God sees how the light is good, namely, that it is good as his symbol and ornament; that it is a bulwark against darkness and confusion; and that it forms God’s “basic principle of ‘separation.’”10

This initial divine utterance, therefore, unmistakably differentiates between that radiant identity of God as Creator over against any so-called “god of light”—or, indeed, between the light spoken of here and an admittedly close hermeneutical connection with the Son of God.11 Consequently, any commingling of light—this “firstborn commandment”12—with a divinization of light, or with the Word itself, is wholly unwarranted. “Light is not somehow an overflow of the essence of deity,” says von Rad, “but rather an object . . . of God’s creation.” Created by God, light therefore not only points to the radiant identity of God over creation, “the absolute distance between Creator and ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: In the Beginning
• Chapter 2: God’s Shining Forth
• Chapter 3: The Light of the Gospel
• Chapter 4: Pro Ecclesia
• Chapter 5: The Illumined Mind
• Conclusion
• Bibliography