1. Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction
Chapter 10
The Doctrine of the Trinity
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

2. The Origins of the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity
The apparent illogicality of the doctrine
Limits of human language
Si comprehendis non est Deus (Augustine)
Charles Gore
The Trinity as a statement about Jesus Christ
Link to the development of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ
The Trinity as a statement about the Christian God
Transcendence and incarnation
A personal God
Irenaeus: the economy of salvation
Islamic critiques of the doctrine of the Trinity
Monotheism or worship of three gods?
Jesus as a prophet, or God incarnate
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

3. The Biblical Foundations of the Doctrine of the Trinity
Specific verses
Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit”
2 Corinthians 3:13 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you”
Trinitarian structure or pattern in the New Testament
Trinitarian structure in the Old Testament
Wisdom
The Word of God
The Spirit of God
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

4. The Historical Development of the Doctrine
The emergence of the trinitarian vocabulary (Tertullian)
Trinitas (Trinity)
Persona (person)
Substantia (substance)
The emergence of trinitarian concepts
Perichoresis (“mutual interpenetration”)
Appropriation
Rationalist critiques of trinitarianism: the eclipse of the Trinity,
Radical Reformation, 16th century
Rationalism and English Deism
The problem of visualization: analogies of the Trinity
Gregory of Nyssa: water, chain, rainbow
“Economic” and “essential” approaches to the Trinity
Karl Rahner, The Trinity (1970)
Essential or immanent Trinity: God’s inner life and essential nature
Economic Trinity: God in history; economy of salvation
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

5. Two Trinitarian Heresies
Modalism: chronological and functional
General features:
The aspect of the one God revealed as creator and lawgiver is the Father
The aspect of the one God revealed as savior is the Son
The aspect of the one God revealed as the one who sanctifies and gives eternal life is the Spirit
Chronological modalism
Sabellianism
Functional modalism
Tritheism
Gregory of Nyssa
Eleventh Council of Toledo (675)
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

6. The Filioque Controversy
The Nicene creed: proceeding from the Father and the Son
Eastern (Greek) church: the Spirit proceeds from the Father
The Father as the sole origin and source of divinity
Son and Spirit having distinct (yet complementary) roles
Western (Latin) church: the Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son
Augustine, On the Trinity
Son and Spirit distinguished from one another, but mutually related to one another
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

7. The Trinity: Six Classic and Contemporary Approaches
The Cappadocian fathers
“one substance (ousia) in three persons (hypostaseis)”
Priority of the Father as the source of the Trinity
Augustine of Hippo ( )
Rejection of subordinationism
The Spirit as the love that unites the Father and the Son
Psychological analogies
Traces of the Trinity in creation - in the human mind
Karl Barth ( )
Doctrine of the Trinity as an exegesis of revelation
“The Doctrine of the Word of God”
Jesus recognized as the self-revelation of God, through the work of the Spirit
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

8. Karl Rahner (1904-84) John Macquarrie (1919-2007)
“The ‘economic’ Trinity is the ‘immanent’ Trinity”
Salvation history as the starting-point
John Macquarrie ( )
Foundation in existentalism
The Father as “primordial Being”
The Son as “expressive Being”
The Holy Spirit as “unitive Being”
Robert Jenson (b.1930)
“Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” as God’s proper name
Consistent with the biblical witness
Distinction from Hellenism
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

9. Some Discussions of the Trinity in Recent Theology
F.D.E. Schleiermacher on the dogmatic location of the Trinity
At the end of The Christian Faith
Jürgen Moltmann on the social Trinity
“The Trinity is our social program”
Eberhard Jüngel on the Trinity and metaphysics
Trinitarian “theology of the cross”: differentiation between Father and Son
Recover distinctive Christian vision of God, free from secular metaphysics
Catherine Mowry LaCugna on the Trinity and salvation
“Theology is inseparable from soteriology, and vice versa”
Sarah Coakley on feminism and the Trinity
The Trinity and notions of power
The role of the Spirit in Christian prayer and prophecy
Church’s historical resistance to priority of the Spirit: rationalism over relationality
Wiley-Blackwell 2010

10. The Trinitarian Renaissance: Some Examples
A trinitarian theology of mission
Lesslie Newbigin ( )
A trinitarian theology of worship
Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology (1984)
James Torrance ( )
A trinitarian theology of atonement
Colin Gunton, Actuality of Atonement (1989)
A trinitarian ecclesiology
Miroslav Volf, After our Likeness: The Church in the Image of the Trinity (1998)
Wiley-Blackwell 2010