Pinkham, Wesley M. and Gruenberg, Jeremiah, Relational Christianity: A Remarkable Vision of God, Wipf & Stock, Eugene, Oregon, 2022
God created Man to have a personal communion with Him, a dual, bidirectional interaction between the Mind of God and the mind of Man. The Creator God is triune, comprised of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a tripartite communion based in Love. God created mankind with spirit, soul and body, and love was to guide mankind’s interrelationships as well as with the Creator. But the relationship was lost in sin, so that Man lost an indwelling communion with the Spirit of God, manifesting thereby a spiritual death. By the grace and love of God through His sinless Son, Jesus Christ, Jesus became a sin sacrifice for all mankind for all time. By his resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit victory over spiritual death was provided to those who repented and accepted the Truth of the Gospel in faith. The Spirit of God was sent to believers through the resurrected Son who lives at the right hand of the Father. What then is the nature of the restored relationship between the triune God and believers? Doctors Pinkham and Gruenberg eloquently address this question in their book, Relational Christianity: A Remarkable Vision of God.
As Love defines the triunity of God, so also is the relationship intended between God and believers and between believers in the church. The authors characterize this relationship as holistic, consisting of an interpersonal Oneness between the triune God and believers. It is a relational Oneness that gives believers identity as Sons of God and the Father as abba. It is a “kenotic” relationship exhibited by the life and ministry of Jesus who emptied himself, revealing the Trinitarian priority of Oneness over individualism. Likewise, believers should emulate Jesus’ Oneness with the Father and the Holy Spirit, having the Spirit as an indwelling sent as Jesus promised at Pentecost. Believers are to live a servanthood lifestyle in the name of Jesus Christ. As Jesus fully depended upon the Father during his life and ministry on Earth, so also are believers to depend upon the indwelling Holy Spirit as their Counselor and Helper, a relationship for all members of the church.
The authors decried the reality that much teaching in the church today is binitarian rather than trinitarian. The Holy Spirit is neglected though fundamental to Christian orthodoxy. Drs. Pinkham and Gruenberg successfully explain how the “kenotic” relationship should be nurtured in the church, so that God’s Holy Spirit indwells believers and governs their lives as was the life of Jesus Christ during his ministry on Earth.
Thanks to advances in the technology of the neurosciences we are beginning to understand the reality and mechanism of the personal interaction between the Mind of God and the mind of Man. It is a causal interaction between the immaterial Mind of God and mind of Man through the material synaptic networks of the human brain. God does commune with Man in our time in fulfillment of His plan since the creation of Adam, a communion lost at the Fall but restored by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all mankind.
I heartily recommend this book. It is a must read for Christian believers so that the relationship with our triune Creator and Lord is fulfilled.