The Fourth Person of the Trinity

A lot of groups have one, though they usually deny it mostly because it isn't a formal belief.  That matters, but the folk-belief of what the people in the pews matters also. It is a legitimate discussion what the various weights of such things are.  It is easy enough to argue against the extremes. "Sure some of the Jews here essentially worship Bar Kochba, but they are still good Jews, really. When you look at it kindly.  And squint.  Squint hard." Without necessarily having a person or an object to focus on, we can still see lots of Catholics who believe non-Catholic stuff, sometimes taught to them by nuns when they were young, or Baptists that believe in divining rods, or Pentecostals whose core believes accord more with New Thought than Christianity, or Unitarians/Episcopalians/UCC/Lutherans these days who think that Jesus was a 60s liberal, really. You just have to look. It does not always coalesce into a single focus, but it does.  And when it does, it seems to last forever.

Educated Catholics express such frustration that Protestants accuse them of worshiping the Holy Mother. We don't. Let me explain this to you one more time, in very precise language. In terms of official position, they are absolutely right. People who know ethnic Catholics from the last few generations will say in response, "Sure, but this is not theoretical. I've seen it."  And if you grew up in a town with lots of Catholics, you have. So which is the "real" Catholic belief? That really depends on what rules you are setting up for asking that question.

Most of my sons went to technically independent Christian schools that had strong Baptist foundations for some or all of their education. I still recall visiting the sanctuary of one of them early in my older sons' first year there, after hours in the autumn, when it was darkening outside and I was killing time waiting for one of them to finish with soccer or something. There was an open Bible on a stand in the front of the church, illuminated by an overhead spotlight.  All else was in shadow - the altar, the stained glass, the side decorations.  I thought "It would be hard to convince a visitor from Mars that these people don't worship this book, whatever else they say."  And if you have been in such schools and such churches, it would be hard to even make a decent defense to the Martian. With both the Catholics and the Baptists, I think the lack of robust expression of the Holy Spirit is part of it, however careful and accurate their official theology is.  Not all of us are capable of such abstraction, and all of us are limited. While Pentecostals elevate the Holy Spirit more than others, it is mostly just feelings and effervescence.  Which are very good things, pointing to the reality.  Yet those are often (usually?) taken for destinations rather than way-stations.  Humans is humans.  Sumus quod sumus.

Even Catholics used to tell jokes about their grandmothers from the old country praying to Mary, telling the voice of Jesus in the sanctuary "Shut up, I'm talking to your mother." I don't think that happens much anymore, but as I am only in touch with mostly assimilated Catholics of later generations, I may be missing something.

By the way, do people level this accusation against the Orthodox?  In Europe the antagonism was between Rome and NW Europe.  No one cared what the Greeks or Russians thought, let alone Syrians or Copts, who were regarded as as legendary as gryphons. And would the accusation be fair?  they do venerate Mary.  Let me know what you know.

All this I knew decades ago, but I am now late in my seventh decade.  What are the new nominations for fourth Persons? I mentioned 60s liberalism as a vague new theology, but it doesn't have an embodiment that is still central. Gandhi and MLK are merely incantations at this point. No one worships them, merely disdains their critics. I have read many Jews who assert that the Buddha has much to teach that is consonant with Jewish thought, but I don't think he rises much above that.

Is there anyone out there I am missing? I am not so much looking for someone who is widely popular as some one or some thing that has lasted, even among a minority of Christian believers. I suppose there is always Braco.