Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way IS Christianity—Because it is unequivocally Trinitarian

There can no longer be any serious doubt: Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way is rooted in Christianity—because it is explicitly Trinitarian. This is not a matter of vague allusion or symbolic affinity; it is a direct identification made by Gurdjieff himself. The foundation of his teaching—the so-called Law of Three or Sacred-Triamazikamno—is unequivocally connected to the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity. And the implications are both clear and inescapable.

The Holy Trinity is uniquely and definitively Christian. No other religious or philosophical system—whether Islamic Sufism, Buddhist non-theism, or Hindu metaphysics—recognizes this triune formulation of the divine. Islam explicitly rejects the Trinity. Buddhism rejects the personal God altogether. Thus, the moment Gurdjieff equates his cosmological law with the Trinitarian doctrine, he situates the entire Fourth Way squarely within a Christian metaphysical framework. Period.

For example, in Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson (Penguin, Arkana, pp. 751-752), Gurdjieff introduces the Sacred-Triamazikamno as follows:

“And in regard to the second primordial fundamental cosmic law, and, namely, the Sacred-Triamazikamno, common-cosmic objective science also formulates with the words:

“‘A new arising from the previously arisen through the “Harnel-miatznel,” the process of which is actualized thus: the higher blends with the lower in order to actualize the middle and thus becomes either higher for the preceding lower, or lower for the succeeding higher;..."

He identifies the three forces:

"...and as I already told you, this Sacred-Triamazikamno consists of three independent forces, which are called:

the first, ‘Surp-Otheos’;

the second, ‘Surp-Skiros’;

the third, ‘Surp-Athanatos’;

which three holy forces of the sacred Triamazikamno the said science calls as follows:

the first, the Affirming-force’ or the ‘Pushing-force’ or simply the ‘Force-plus’;

the second, the ‘Denying-force’ or the ‘Resisting-force’ or simply the ‘Force-minus’;

and the third, the ‘Reconciling-force’ or the ‘Equilibrating-force’ or the ‘Neutralizing-force...'"

And then, strikingly, he names these forces using explicitly Christian language—long before any institutional Christianity could be historically said to exist:

“At this place of my explanations concerning chiefly the fundamental laws of ‘World-creation’ and ‘World-maintenance,’ it is interesting to notice by the way, that the three-brained beings of this planet which has taken your fancy, already began, at that period when the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer were not yet crystallized in their common presences, to be aware of these three holy forces of the Sacred-Triamazikamno and then named them:

the first, ‘God-the-Father’;

the second ‘God-the-Son’; and

the third, ‘God-the-Holy-Ghost’;..."

This is not metaphor or allegory. This is not comparative mythology. This is ontological identity. Gurdjieff is affirming that the metaphysical law that governs all creation and all phenomena is none other than the Christian Holy Trinity. To remove all doubt, Gurdjieff includes a series of prayers in which the three forces of the Sacred-Triamazikamno are invoked in explicitly Trinitarian formulae:

"...and in various cases expressed the hidden meaning of them and also their longing to have a beneficent effect from them for their own individuality, by the following prayers:

‘Sources of Divine

Rejoicings, revolts and sufferings,

Direct your actions upon us.’

…

or Holy-Affirming,

Holy-Denying,

Holy-Reconciling,

Transubstantiate in me

For my Being.’

…

or ‘Holy God,

Holy Firm,

Holy Immortal,

Have mercy on us.’

This is Christian liturgical language—Trisagion-like, sacramental, and deeply devotional. The Fourth Way, then, is not merely compatible with Christian theology—it is Christian theology, clothed in a new cosmological vocabulary.

Further, in Views from the Real World (Penguin, Arkana, p. 195-196), Gurdjieff again ties his Law of Three to the Trinitarian God::

“At the beginning of every religion we find an affirmation of the existence of God the Word and the Word-God.

One teaching says that when the world was still nothing, there were emanations, there was God the Word. God the Word is the world. God said: "Let it be so," and sent the Father and the Son. He is always sending the Father and the Son. And once He sent the Holy Ghost..."

And he continues by affirming that the whole universe is structured on this divine triadic principle:

"...Everything in the world obeys the Law of Three, everything existing came into being in accordance with this law. Combinations of positive and negative principles can produce new results, different from the first and the second, only if a third force comes in.

If I affirm, she denies and we argue. But nothing new is created until something else is added to the discussion. Then something new arises.

Take the Ray of Creation. At the top is the Absolute, God the Word, divided into three: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.

The Absolute creates in accordance with the same law. Only in this case all the three forces necessary to produce a new manifestation are in the Absolute Himself. He sends them forth from Himself, emanates them.

Sometimes the three forces change their places.

The three forces or principles, issuing from the Absolute, have created the whole multitude of suns, one of which is our sun. Everything has emanations. The interaction of emanations produces new combinations. This refers to man, to the earth and to the microbe. Each of the suns also emanates, and ema- nations of the suns, by means of combinations of positive and negative matter, give rise to new formations. The result of one of these combinations is our earth, and the newest combination is our moon.

After the act of creation, existence and emanations go on. Emanations penetrate everywhere according to their possibilities. Thus emanations also reach man.”

This vision is nothing less than a cosmic Christian metaphysics. The Trinity is not an abstract dogma for Gurdjieff—it is the dynamic structure of creation, the engine of all becoming, and the key to individual spiritual transformation.

To deny that the Fourth Way is Christian is to ignore Gurdjieff’s own words. His identification of the Law of Three with the Holy Trinity is categorical and profound. Therefore, the Fourth Way cannot be Sufism, which explicitly repudiates the Trinity. Nor can it be Buddhism or Hinduism, which reject personal, Trinitarian monotheism altogether. Gurdjieff’s teaching is not a syncretic mishmash of world religions - it is not metamodernism. It is a recovery—perhaps even a restoration—of esoteric Christianity.

The conclusion is inescapable: Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way is Christianity—because it is Trinitarian to its core.