From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordTrinity names the Christian confession of one God in three persons.
- In TraherneThe account of love distinguishes its fountain in the lover, its communication, and its presence in the beloved.
- In this editionThe three manners of love in II.40 are Traherne’s analogy.
- A place to beginOne love is considered as begetting, begotten, and proceeding.
Meaning
Trinity names the Christian confession of one God in three persons. Traherne explores how love may disclose unity without erasing distinction.
Use in the book
The account of love distinguishes its fountain in the lover, its communication, and its presence in the beloved. These are presented as one love subsisting in different manners. The analogy enables Traherne to contemplate Trinitarian unity through a relation already fundamental to the Centuries: giving and receiving need not divide or diminish what is communicated.
He also describes the world as a mirror of the Trinity, because its gifts show that God is love and allow that love to dwell knowingly within the soul. Communion embraces the Son’s generation, the Spirit’s procession, and the divine life as well as creation and redemption. These claims belong to devotional theology; the analogy should not be expanded into an independent definition of every distinction within God.
Places to read
In this edition
The three manners of love in II.40 are Traherne’s analogy. Do not replace Father, Son, and Spirit with merely psychological states, or imply that the analogy exhausts his doctrinal commitments.
Source note
Primary text: II.40, II.45, III.43, III.100. No 2026 editorial notes used.