Traces of the Trinity

One leading features of human experience is memory. And this, in turn, can generate a rather paradoxical psychology.

Say a middle-aged man has a fond childhood memory. Not only does the adult remember where he was and what he was doing as a boy, but he also remembers what he was thinking and feeling at the time.

This creates a nested, dual consciousness. He is now conscious of what he was then conscious of.

This also raises some vexed questions of personal identity. In one sense he’s the same person. These are his memories, and not the memories of somebody else he is telepathically accessing.

Yet he’s obviously different in some respects from his boyish counterpart. And not just physically.

Although I’m using the example of memory, we could, in principle, extend this in the other direction. Suppose the 10-year-old boy can foresee his 50-year-old counterpart. In that event, the younger self could be aware of what his older self was aware of. Mutual awareness.

In some respects this is analogous to the Trinity. Of course, no creaturely comparison is going to be identical with God. But there are various ways in which the world represents God. Concrete illustrations of the divine nature.