Terpsichore and the Trinity
by Philip Knights
The Greek term pericèrhsij , (perichoresis) or in Latin circumincessio is most commonly translated into English as mutual interpenetration or coinherence but occasionally as circumincession. It was developed by Maximus the Confessor and especially John of Damascus, both in the C7th and brought explicitly into Catholic teaching by Burgundio of Pisa in the C12th, although it is implicit earlier. It refers to how each of the members of the Trinity interpenetrate each other; each shares the life of the other, there is mutual indwelling. There is a community of being in which the distinct persons retain their distinctiveness but also each lives in the others. Within the Greek word you can see the root Choresis as in Terpsichore, the muse of dancing. Whilst it may be over fanciful to talk of the dance of the Trinity, there may be an element there of how we can see the unity of the One Godhead in the three necessary persons making up the single movement of God. This pericèrhsij (perichoresis) is a "proceeding around", the literal meaning of the Greek. The persons of the Trinity are a dynamic community living in each other.