Perichoresis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A theological concept describing the mutual indwelling of the three persons of the Holy Trinity
2. a term referring to the coexistence and interpenetration of divine beings
3. the idea of a harmonious and dynamic relationship among distinct entities in unity

Etymology: Early Christian theologians needed a way to describe how the three persons of the Trinity could be distinct yet wholly present in one another, and they reached for a Greek word meaning "going round." The Greek "perikhōrēsis" combines "perí," meaning "around," with "khōréō," meaning "go forward" or "travel," so its literal sense is rotation or circulation. The image was one of movement passing continually between the members of the Godhead rather than any of them standing apart. The term was later applied to the union of Christ's divine and human natures, where it expressed that the two natures interpenetrate without merging. In English, the word has kept its theological flavour and is used mainly in discussions of the Trinity, though it has been borrowed by writers who want a precise term for mutual indwelling. Its core meaning, a relationship in which each thing contains and moves through the others, has stayed remarkably close to the original spatial image of going round.