There are some phrases that we run across in seminary that are funny. others are awkward. Others just leave us…well, confused (or at least that’s how I feel). And then there are others that are just so beautiful because one person might think it’s hilarious and another person may not be able to handle the term at all. Inter-penetration is one of those terms. Even though her blog is called “Groping for God,” Becca just cannot handle the term inter-penetration. And a couple weeks ago, I think I heard it each day of the week, and maybe twice(?) in Systematic Theology. Anyway, it just makes me laugh because I know how much Becca hates that word. Below are two statements where we ran across the word recently:
- “Each of the divine persons penetrates each of the others and allows itself to be penetrated by it. This phenomenon is the property of love, and it is natural in the process of communion. Thus, the divine three are locked from all eternity in an infinite encounter of love and life, each in the direction of each of the others.”
- “We have to understand the relationship of the two natures, as forming a unity in distinction and a distinction with unity. The union is upheld, these two natures interpenetrate one another.”
Do you have any words that just make you cringe?
