I deliberately have avoided formulating in this way, because I want to avoid using the term 'person'. Why ? Well, because 1) the above is good as is, and 2) I want to look at what is meant by the term person. What is a person anyways ? I dont know ? We dont know. Not very clearly anyway. Generally when we think of the term person, we think of Tom, Dick and Harry. Its a little bit more complicated in the theological scene.

Apparently in the contemporary theological & philosophical scene, there seem to be two tendencies in the way 'person' is being used:

Analytic Philosophy:
person = tends towards using the terms as though it means 'individual'. There is a sense of individuality associated with the term.(This is supposed to be erroneous.) The underlying connotations is that one person is independant from another person.

Systematic Theology:
person = here tends towards being understood as 'relation'. (I am not a solitary being. I exist by virtue of the fact that I relate to others. I exist in relation to others. I derive my existence from others.)

I dont know. I have some leads in terms of thinking about this, but for right now, dont know and understand this well. I'm sure that both ways of understanding the term 'person' have merit.

Please see 'Persons in the "Social" Doctrine fo the Trinity: Gregory of Nyssa and Current Analytic Discussion. By Sarah Coakley, Harvard University.
http://www.bostontheological.org/colloquium/btscoak.htm
(Very difficult article.)

by A. Raj Rao

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