Seeking Silence: An Interview With Kevin M. Johnson

Rosman: It now seems to me that throughout this interview I’ve inarticulately assumed that Silence is somehow related to the Trinity. But is it? If it is, then how is it related? Are practices of silence a way to clear away the clutter that separates us from God (negative function), or is Silence somehow “of God” (positive function), or is it somehow both/and, or is it neither/nor?

Johnson: For Christians, Silence in fact does assume the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity attempts to articulate the engagement with and understanding of God that arose from scripture, prayer, and the living of the Christian life broadly speaking. I am not sure there is one way to discuss the relationship between the Trinity and Silence and I fear that every time I begin speaking on the Trinity that I will just fall into some heretical explanation that my fellow theologian friends will point out to me and claim I am being trite, simplistic, reductionistic, modalistic, etc, etc. But I can’t help but notice the Trinity as a broad outline of the entire prayer life. The Father is the Transcendent source. The Father represents Silence and is beyond words. This ineffable source then begets a Word that points back to the Source and not to Itself. The Word is Iconic, kenotic or self-emptying, and in being self-emptying, the Word allows for agapic love to be born and it is this Spirit of Love that motivates action and intentions in the world.

Now we must remember that what I just described is too linear a description for “the living God” but that basic sketch seems to be a helpful way for me personally to think about the Trinitarian God assumed in Silence.

As for your question about the negative function and positive function of silent practices, I alluded to that a little in my last answer in discussing penthos/compunction. Silence has a negative component of stripping us back in order to clarify which God we seek. Do we seek the God in our minds . . . our ideas of God. . . or do we seek God? Silence initially raises the issue of idolatry. But silence is also “of God” and has a very profound positive function. Silence becomes the path all the way. As John of the Cross says, “The Father spoke one Word, which was His Son, and this Word He always speaks in eternal Silence, and in Silence must It be heard by the soul.”

For those baptized in Christ, it is this kenotic path we have put on. It is this Silence that actually speaks and incarnates and makes real. And this is the path we are to walk.