When I graduated from seminary, my first pastoral assignment included chaplaincy service on the children's ward of a local hospital. There, on a weekly basis, I encountered the pain and sorrow of families struggling with seriously ill, sometimes dying, children. Often I sat with parents whose questions were poignant and painful: “Why?” “How could God allow this to happen to us?”

As a young minister, I soon realized that the usual theological answers were anemic. The mystery of evil, the reality of suffering, and for many, the absence of God, can be overwhelming.

Both religion and science begin with a kind of faith: the scientist's belief in an orderly universe is like religious trust. Einstein made this clear: “I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research. … The basis of all scientific work is the conviction that the world is an ordered and comprehensive entity, which is a religious sentiment.” This relates to the “intuition” Einstein credits with being a formative influence on his development of the relativity theories. So: science must assume order but cannot explain where it came from. If a scientist tries, he becomes a philosopher – or theologian!

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we shall see face to face.- 1 Corinthians 13:12
The doctrine of the Trinity is, of course, notoriously difficult. But it's also central to Christian faith. One theologian puts it this way: “Those who deny the Trinity may lose their souls, but those who try to explain it may lose their minds.”

According to the late Scottish Reformed theologian T.F. Torrance, the doctrine of the Trinity “is the innermost heart of the Christian faith, the central dogma of classical theology, the fundamental grammar of our knowledge of God.”

In a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, a wrestling match between a bishop and an atheist is held to determine the question of whether God exists. After a stirring match, the result is declared: God exists, by two falls to a submission. That's what logicians call a “solid, knock-down argument.” It's very funny because that's quite the wrong way to wrestle with religious questions.

Does God exist? Yes and No. Yes, there are compelling reasons to believe, but No, “God” does not “exist” in the same way we do. The greatest Western theologian, Augustine, asked: “What is God?” and answered, “More than we can say or think.” That “more” is the key: this Reality is so far above our life and thought that our knowledge comes through sign, symbol, parable, metaphor.

Think of it as a Christmas present from the Presbyterian Record to you – an opportunity to spend 2009 with two eminent Presbyterians, one a philosopher, the other a theologian, discussing some interesting questions like Who is God?