The Trinity

2020 ◽  
pp. 464-483
Author(s):  
Rik Van Nieuwenhove ◽  
William Crozier
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter considers mystical theology as a resource for theology of the Trinity today. It consists of two parts. The first part draws mainly on the Trinitarian theology of St Bonaventure to demonstrate that participation in the life of the Trinity is essential to begin to engage in theology of the Trinity: vision implies participation. The second part provides an example of how the writings of mystical theological authors, such as Hadewijch or Ruusbroec, can assist us in solving systematic theological problems. More particularly, we argue that Ruusbroec’s notion of regyratio (i.e. the Holy Spirit as the principle of the return of the divine Person into their shared unity) can circumvent the problem of ‘Trinitarian inversion’ (which refers to the problematic tension between accounts of the immanent processions, on the one hand, and the sequence of historical missions of the Son and Holy Spirit in the economic Trinity, on the other).

scholarly journals RELEVANSI TRINITAS BAGI HIDUP MANUSIA MENURUT KARL RAHNER

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
Herman Punda Panda
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity

Karl Rahner made a major contribution to the trinitarian theology in this post-modern era. He has attempted to reconcile the classical doctrine of the Trinity with contemporary thought. Rahner spoke about the topic of the oneness and triadity of God. Regarding the oneness of God, Rahner did not speak about the one ousia / divine essence, but rather the unity or perichoresis of the three divine persons. What is called God here, is not the essence of divinity but the Father who is the source of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Rahner emphasizes the identification and relationship between the immanent Trinity and the economic Trinity which according to him is the important point in the theology of the Trinity. Consequently, the only starting point for developing a theology of the Trinity is the history of our experience with God, in which God reveals Himself in two ways, namely through the Word and the Spirit. This article presents Karl Rahner's thoughts on the Trinity and its relevance to human life. First of all, the author describes about the place of Trinitarian theology in the general framework of Rahner's anthropological theology. Next, it discussed his thoughts on the Trinity itself and at the end, the relevance of the Trinity to human life. This relevance becomes evident in Rahner's thought about the communication of God to man in the form of His Word and Spirit.

Trinity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Howard-Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity is central to Christian theology. The part of the doctrine that concerns us here may be stated in these words: although the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are different persons, each is the same God as the other; they are not three Gods, but exactly one God. These words arguably imply a contradiction. For example, if the Father is not the same person as the Son, then the Father is not identical with the Son; thus, if each is a God, there are at least two Gods, which contradicts the claim that there is exactly one God. Analytic theologians have responded to this line of argument and others related to it. Each response aims to model a consistent doctrine of the Trinity, one that provides the resources to reject such arguments while retaining Trinitarian orthodoxy. We can classify these attempts by distinguishing those according to which there is no numerical sameness without identity from those according to which there is numerical sameness without identity. Attempts in the first group tend to raise worries about consistency with orthodoxy. Attempts in the second group tend to raise worries about intelligibility.

The Doctrine of Appropriation as an Interpretative Framework for Karl Barth's Pneumatology of the Church Dogmatics

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-290
Author(s):  
Adam McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Interpretative Framework

Although Karl Barth is widely recognised as the initiator of the renewal of trinitarian theology in the twentieth century, his theology of the Church Dogmatics has been strongly criticised for its inadequate account of the work of the Holy Spirit. This author argues that the putative weakness of Barth's pneumatology should be reconsidered in light of his doctrine of appropriation. Barth employs the doctrine of appropriation as a hermeneutical procedure, within his doctrine of the Trinity, for bringing to speech the persons of the Trinity in their inseparable distinctiveness. It is argued that the doctrine of appropriation provides a sound interpretative framework for his pneumatology of the Church Dogmatics.

A little while in the Son of God: Austin Farrer on the trinitarian nature of prayer

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-424
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

AbstractThis article explores Austin Farrer's contribution to trinitarian theology, arguing that he grounds understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity in the life of prayer. While Farrer nowhere offers a systematic presentation of the believer's experience of the Trinity, an investigation of his writings, particularly his sermons and devotional works, reveals that it is precisely in prayer that he thinks the force of the doctrine is revealed to the believer. Beginning with Farrer's ‘empirical principle’, the idea that to know anything one must exercise one's relation to it, the article attempts to show how the act of praying constitutes a living out of the doctrine of the Trinity. Living in the Son entails an adoption of an attitude of sonship towards the Father, which Farrer describes most succinctly as an ‘active openness of heart’. This filial attitude, which Christ expressed humanly throughout his life, is adopted by believers through the Holy Spirit who, according to Farrer, is not an object of direct experience. In this, his trinitarian understanding of prayer differs from Sarah Coakley's, whose reflection on this topic serves as a point of comparison at various places throughout the article. Through Coakley's work, the trinitarian nature of prayer has become a theme in contemporary theology. Thus, this article is aimed at more than simply illuminating a somewhat neglected aspect of Farrer's thought; it is also an attempt to contribute to an ongoing, constructive conversation about the Trinity in the life of faith.

Christology—a Jewish view

1971 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-200
Author(s):  
Steven Katz
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

In this paper I would like to discuss what the Old Testament has to say about the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. I take it as agreed that this task is both important and necessary for a real understanding of the New Testament, which by itself, is neither complete, meaningful nor self-authenticating. I do not make any claims to completeness on this crucial topic, but wish only to suggest what I feel are some important points for consideration. I want to discuss the three persons of the Trinity separately, beginning with the Father, then proceeding to the Holy Spirit and then to the Son. My remarks about the Father will be brief. I only wish to make the point that the Old Testament as well as the new Testament is fully aware of God's Fatherhood and alive to the reality that God loves mankind. It is clear that Israel has a special place as indicated by such passages as Exod. 4.22 where God addresses Israel saying: ‘Israel is my first born son.’ Yet at the same time it is basic to an understanding of Old Testament thought that God is the Father of the other nations of the world, though they are not the ‘first born’. This is a cardinal position of Old Testament theology and is based on the belief, given expression in Genesis, that all belongs to and was created by God.

Martin Luther and the Holy Spirit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lois Malcolm
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Theology ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity

Although often neglected in historical and theological studies of Martin Luther’s work, an understanding of the Holy Spirit undergirds his signal contributions to the history of theology and is essential to any case for his ongoing relevance to contemporary theology and practice. Drawing on biblical exegesis, Luther would reinvigorate the doctrine of the Holy Spirit he inherited from the Western theological tradition and from the Ancient Church. Nonetheless, he wrote in a variety of literary genres and in response to a range of issues. To address this linguistic and historical complexity, this article examines the role the concept of the Holy Spirit plays in his theology by providing readings of texts that have been influential on later appropriations of his work. In doing so, it focuses on two intertwined themes in his theology. First, it examines his understanding of the Holy Spirit in relation to justification—that is, the righteousness of God we receive as a gift by faith—looking at his early biblical theology and two especially influential texts, “The Freedom of a Christian” (1520) and his “Lectures on Galatians” (1535). Second, it discusses his portrayal of the Holy Spirit as sanctifier—that is, as the one who creates holiness or sanctification in us—in his most well-known catechisms, in the “Confession of 1528,” and in his “Lectures on Genesis” (1535) and “Sermons on John” (1537). Throughout, attention will also be given to his understanding of the Trinity, Word and sacraments, faith, hope, and love, and the themes of promise and gift. The article concludes with a sketch of historical work and a discussion of the influence of Luther’s pneumatology on later theology and current areas of research.

383 and After

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Radde-Gallwitz
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Economic Theology ◽  
The One

This chapter shows how developments outlined in previous chapters informed Gregory’s later works, focusing especially on On the Deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit and the Catechetical Oration. In particular, it demonstrates connections between To Ablabius and On the Deity, as well as links between Epistle 3 and the anti-Apollinarian works on the one hand and the Catechetical Oration on the other. It shows how the economic theology developed there reflects Gregory’s sense of liturgical time and examines the Catechetical Oration’s two Trinitarian sections. One of these treats the doctrine under the topic of the baptismal mystery, while the other detaches it from this context, offering an analogy for the Trinitarian unity meant to persuade Greek and Jewish interlocutors, but in fact treating them as stand-ins for Christian heresies. Thus the chapter claims that Gregory’s notion of Trinitarian orthodoxy is strongest when framed as an account of baptism.

The Spirit

2019 ◽  
pp. 293-308
Author(s):  
Wolf Krötke
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The One ◽  
Bear Witness ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

This chapter presents Barth’s understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It demonstrates the way in which Barth’s pneumatology is anchored in his doctrine of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit is understood as the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the One whose essence is love. But Barth can also speak of the Holy Spirit in such a way that it seems as if the Holy Spirit is identical to the work of the risen Jesus Christ and his ‘prophetic’ work. The reception of the pneumatology of Karl Barth thus confronts the task of relating these dimensions of Barth’s understanding of the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit’s distinct work is preserved. For Barth, this work consists in enabling human beings to respond in faith, with their human possibilities and their freedom, to God’s reconciliation in Jesus Christ. In this faith, the Holy Spirit incorporates human beings into the community of Jesus Christ—the community participates in the reconciling work of God in order to bear witness to God’s work to human beings, all of whom have been elected to ‘partnership’ with God. Barth also understood the ‘solidarity’ of the community with, and the advocacy of the community for, the non-believing world to be a nota ecclesiae (mark of the church). Further, to live from the Holy Spirit, according to Barth, is only possible in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Trinity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter van Inwagen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
De Doctrina Christiana ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a central and essential element of Christian theology. The part of the doctrine that is of special concern in the present entry may be stated in these words: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each God; they are distinct from one another; and yet (in the words of the Athanasian Creed), ‘they are not three Gods, but there is one God’. This is not to be explained by saying that ‘the Father’, ‘the Son’ and ‘the Holy Spirit’ are three names that are applied to the one God in various circumstances; nor is it to be explained by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are parts or aspects of God (like the leaves of a shamrock or the faces of a cube). In the words of St Augustine: Thus there are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and each is God and at the same time all are one God; and each of them is a full substance, and at the same time all are one substance. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. But the Father is the Father uniquely; the Son is the Son uniquely; and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit uniquely. (De doctrina christiana I, 5, 5) The doctrine of the Trinity seems on the face of it to be logically incoherent. It seems to imply that identity is not transitive – for the Father is identical with God, the Son is identical with God, and the Father is not identical with the Son. There have been two recent attempts by philosophers to defend the logical coherency of the doctrine. Richard Swinburne has suggested that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be thought of as numerically distinct Gods, and he has argued that, properly understood, this suggestion is consistent with historical orthodoxy. Peter Geach and various others have suggested that a coherent statement of the doctrine is possible on the assumption that identity is ‘always relative to a sortal term’. Swinburne’s formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity is certainly free from logical incoherency, but it is debatable whether it is consistent with historical orthodoxy. As to ‘relative identity’ formulations of the doctrine, not all philosophers would agree that the idea that identity is always relative to a sortal term is even intelligible.

scholarly journals A critical analysis on African Traditional Religion and the Trinity

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jele S. Manganyi ◽  
Johan Buitendag
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
African Culture ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
African Traditional Religion ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Supreme Being

To what extent do the resources of African Traditional Religion (ATR) contribute towards Christian theological discourse and benefit the African church? ATR is accommodated in the African Initiated Churches (AICs). The members of these churches aim to be Christian without losing their African identity. ATR is a religion that was practised throughout Africa before the arrival of the Western missionaries. The core premise of ATR is the maintenance of African culture and its main feature is loyalty to the ancestors and the accompanying rituals that express this loyalty. This study addresses the appropriateness of ATR’s resources in terms of their contribution to the doctrine of the Trinity. When the early church worshipped God the Father and God the Son (Jesus) in the presence of the Holy Spirit, a tension developed. The questions of monotheism versus polytheism and the nature and position of Jesus within the Trinity were put forward and addressed. The doctrine of the Trinity is uniquely Christian and includes the belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who alone mediates between God and men. There is, on the other hand, an understanding that Africans worship one Supreme Being and venerate ancestors as intermediaries to the one Supreme Being, without clear roles being ascribed to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This article enquires whether the process of Africanisation and contextualisation consciously or unconsciously downgraded Jesus Christ as Mediator who came to reveal who God is and to reconcile humankind to him.

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