The Dynamism of the Trinity in Bonaventure and Eckhart

The master paradigm of exitus and reditus, the procession out and return to God, is perhaps natural to the religious mind as it reflects upon the nature of the universe. In Western thought the evolution of this dynamic paradigm was shaped by the way in which Neoplatonic thinkers, both pagan and Christian, sought to express how the First Principle overflows into the universe while at the same time drawing all things back to Itself. What was unique to Christian theologians was how they brought this dynamic process into God’s very self as a way for expressing the Church’s faith in God as Trinity. From this perspective, the extra-divine dynamism of creation is rooted in the intra-divine flow of life found in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.