Q & R: Secret Message of Jesus, perichoresis, cross

Q:

I have enjoyed the Secret Message of Jesus book, which to be honest surprised me. Some of these issues related to Jesus, church, and kingdom have been rattling around in my head for a while, and you have helped stir them and feed them.
I had two questions about sources. 1. You said that early church fathers used the metaphor of dance to understand the relationship of the trinity. I cannot find that in my sources. 2. You said that the early church chose the cross because they saw Jesus’ way as a way of suffering and not of power. Do you have any source material for that?
Thanks for the very helpful, thought-provoking book.

R:
Thanks for your note.
This wikipedia entry references Gregory of Nazianzus and John of Damascus as the key church fathers writing on perichoresis, from which the idea of circle dance is derived.
I encountered the term and the concept of “the new [or social] Trinitarianism” largely through Stan Grenz and Baxter Kruger.
On the second question – I would begin with the Christological hymns of Colossians 1 and Philippians 2, along with the weakness of God theme in 1 Corinthians. Once you start noticing this theme in the New Testament, it suddenly appears everywhere, but many of us were trained to focus almost exclusively on other themes (notably atonement theories) that rendered this theme nearly invisible for us. For contemporary reflection on the cross as the image of God’s weakness and suffering, I would go first to Moltmann’s book, The Crucified God. This will be a major theme of my upcoming book as well.