What is Harmony? (Part 2)

Last Updated on March 11, 2023 by GMC

Finitude Undergirds Relativity

In a tonal song, all of the tones relate to a single key. Relativity of tones lies at the heart of tonal music. Finitude undergirds relativity, as form and limit give rise to systems of interrelatedness. Listeners perceive the congruence of interrelated elements as harmony. 

The Trinity Transcends Relativity

The Trinity, however, infinitely transcends form, limit, and systems of relations. Systems revolve around a single principle which organizes disparate elements into a coherent whole. The elements interrelate as parts of a whole. But the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not parts; each Person is God indivisibly. The Trinity has no “home key.” Persons, by virtue of their absolute diversity, cannot be systematized. Nothing “holds them together” as parts. Persons are “wholes” for lack of a better term. “Part” and “whole” fall short conceptually because they are relative and give rise to one another.

Absolute identity (monad) and absolute diversity (triad) are primordial. Neither has priority over the other: the Trinity is an indivisible circumincession of Persons (“wholes”) without parts. The Three One transcends interdependence, interrelations, and relativity, all of which belong to the spatiotemporal domain of parts outside parts.

Since harmony is such a beloved concept, however, we may perhaps say that Trinitarian Love is an ineffable harmony beyond harmony.