scholarly journals The Trinity in African Christian theology: An overview of contemporary approaches

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teddy C. Sakupapa
Keyword(s):  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
African Theology ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Concepts Of God ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Primary Literature ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

This contribution offers a survey of the modern African theological discourse on the Trinity as a distinctive Christian doctrine of God. It is a systematic narrative review of primary literature on the doctrine of the Trinity in modern African theology with a view to identify main trends, key concepts and major proponents. It is argued that the contemporary African Trinitarian Hermeneutics cannot be understood in isolation from African debates on translatability of concepts of God framed first in terms of the reinterpretation of the theological significance of pre-Christian African concepts of God and subsequently as an outcome of African Christological reflection. The article affirms an apophatic resistance to any tendency to take God for granted as recently advanced by Ernst Conradie and Teddy Sakupapa.

God

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Self In Relation ◽  
The Status ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Trinity

Kant’s critique of the limits of the knowable and the status of the self in relation to God ceded a marginal role lying outside scientific knowledge. The Christian doctrine of God as Trinity was both conserved and marginalized. Schleiermacher and Ritschl subjected the doctrine of God to major reinterpretation. Hegel’s account of the doctrine of the Trinity is part of a diachronic ontology and epistemology patterned by, but radically at variance with, the synchronic Kantian critique and an ambiguous achievement. The dialectical fragmentation of Hegel’s thought following his death in 1831 informed the nineteenth century, and flows through the twentieth into the twenty-first century. eResponses to Christian thought on God include Schelling, Marx, Feuerbach, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, historians of dogma and theologians from Harnack and Troeltsch to Barth and Andresen, an array of twentieth-century thinkers and theologians, besides second- and third-wave feminism and post-colonial critique.

Modern Trinitarian Perspectives

1991 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Charismatic Movement ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
British Council ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

The modern scene in Christian theology is characterized by a number of very diverse movements from feminism and liberation theology to radical views on christology and the charismatic movement. For many to speak or write about the Trinity is neither realistic nor helpful. In more recent writings, however, there has been renewed interest in the doctrine of the Trinity and in its application to the spheres of the church and also of social and political concerns. Further, a variety of groups as well as individuals have been turning their attention to this central Christian doctrine which is basically attempting to say what we believe about God: Barth, Moltmann, Jungel, the Torrances, on the Protestant side and the Roman Catholics, Von Balthasar, Rahner, and Congar, as well as the Orthodox Lossky, Zraoulas and Meyendorff. Groups likeC.E.C.the Conference of European Churches (The Reconciling Trinity), and the British Council of ChurchesB.C.C.(The Forgotten Trinity) and the Irish Theological Association (The Trinity and the Enlightenment)have all dealt in varied ways with this subject.

scholarly journals KEBANGKITAN STUDI TEOLOGI PATRISTIK: Doktrin Trinitas (Perikhoresis)

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Minggus Minarto Pranoto
Keyword(s):  
Christian Theology ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Christian Service ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

Teologi Patristik atau teologi bapa-bapa gereja muncul di masa-masa awal dalam sejarah perkembangan gereja. Namun demikian pemikiran teologi Patristik masih terus relevan berhadapan dengan persoalan-persoalan kehidupan sekarang ini. Teologi Patristik merupakan warisan berharga teologi Kristen yang tidak pernah membeku dan menjadi fosil di masa lalu, sebaliknya teologi Patristik mengalami kebangkitan dalam topik-topik kajiannya dan mempunyai daya dorong yang kuat untuk mendasari praksis transformasional pelayanan Kristen di masa sekarang ini. Kebangkitan studi teologi Patristik menunjukkan bahwa teologi Patristik memiliki ruang yang luas untuk diaplikasikan dalam berbagai isu kehidupan. Teologi Patristik setia terhadap kerygma rasul-rasul dan tujuannya agar kehidupan orang percaya memuliakan Allah dan berjuang melakukan praksis transformasional pelayanan Kristen. Doktrin Trinitas (perikhoresis), yang telah diformulasikan dalam teologi Patristik, merupakan salah satu doktrin yang begitu luas didiskusikan dan dikembangkan dalam wacana berteologi sekarang ini. Abstract: Patristic theology or theology of the Church Fathers emerged in the early days in the history of the development of the Church. However, the thought of Patristic theology continues to be relevant in dealing with the problems of life today. Patristic theology is a valuable legacy of Christian theology that has never been frozen and fossilized in the past, instead Patristic theology experienced a revival in its study topics and has a strong impetus to underpin the transformational praxis of Christian service in the present. The revival of the study of Patristic theology shows that Patristic theology has ample scope to be applied in various issues of life. Patristic theology is faithful to the apostolic faith and its purpose so that the lives of believers glorify God and strive to carry out transformational praxis of Christian service. The doctrine of the Trinity (perikhoresis), which has been formulated in Patristic theology, is one of the doctrines that is so widely discussed and developed in current theological discourse.

Deepened Monotheism. Philosophical Reasoning on the Trinity in Western Early Medieval and Classic Arabic Theology

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-264
Author(s):  
Katrin König
Keyword(s):  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Syrian Orthodox ◽  
Anselm Of Canterbury ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Rational Arguments

SummaryChristian theologians can explain the Trinitarian faith today in dialogue with Islamic thinkers as “deepened monotheism”. Therefore it is important to widen the systematic-theological discourse in an ecumenical and transcultural perspective and to retrieve resources from Western and non-Western traditions of Trinitarian thought (I).In this paper I will first work out historically that the Trinitarian creed of Nicea and Constantinople was originally an ecumenical but non-Western creed (II). Afterwards, I investigate the philosophical-theological reflection on the Trinity by Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) in the context of early interreligious encounters in the Latin West. Based on biblical, augustinian and Greek sources, he developed an approach to understand the mystery of the Trinity by rational arguments as “deepened monotheism” (III). Then I will proceed to explore the philosophical-theological dialogues on the Trinity from the Arabic philosopher and Syrian-orthodox theologian Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī (893–974). Much earlier he developed rational arguments for the Triunity of God with reference to Aristotle. Thereby he answers to anti-trinitarian arguments from Islamic thinkers like al-Kindī and al-Warrāq. He intends that the Trinitarian faith of Christian minorities can thereby be understood and tolerated by Islamic thinkers as rationally founded “deepened monotheism” (IV).In the end I will evaluate what these classics from the Western and non-western traditions of Trinitarian thought contribute to explicate the doctrine of the Trinity today in a pluralistic religious context as “deepened monotheism” (V).

Could there Be More than One Almighty?

1993 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. Bartel
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity

If proof is required that yesterday's scandal can become today's fashion, we need look no further than recent discussions of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Just a generation ago, Trinitarians typically insisted that the members of the Godhead are not distinct persons in any literal sense. But during the past few years, more and more philosophically sophisticated Christians have unblushingly maintained that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not just different persons, but different individuals – that the Trinity consists of three divine beings.

Phenomenology of Interior Life and the Trinity

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-88
Author(s):  
Robert Farrugia
Keyword(s):  
Conscious Experience ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Self ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The World ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Michel Henry ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Static Nature

Michel Henry radicalises phenomenology by putting forward the idea of a double manifestation: the “Truth of Life” and “truth of the world.” For Henry, the world turns out to be empty of Life. To find its essence, the self must dive completely inward, away from the exterior movements of intentionality. Hence, Life, or God, for Henry, lies in non‑intentional, immanent self-experience, which is felt and yet remains invisible, in an absolutist sense, as an a priori condition of all conscious experience. In Christian theology, the doctrine of the Trinity illuminates the distinction between the immanent Trinity (God’s self‑relation) and the economic workings of the Trinity (God‑world relation). However, the mystery of God’s inmost being and the economy of salvation are here understood as inseparable. In light of this, the paper aims to: 1) elucidate the significance of Henry’s engagement with the phenomenological tradition and his proposal of a phenomenology of Life which advocates an immanent auto‑affection, radically separate from the ek‑static nature of intentionality, and 2) confront the division between Life and world in Henry’s Christian phenomenology and its discordancy with the doctrine of the Trinity, as the latter attests to the harmonious unity that subsists between inner life and the world.

The Nature of God and the Trinity

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Kyle C. Strobel
Keyword(s):  
Unique Feature ◽  
Divine Attributes ◽  
Human Speech ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Trinity

Commonly recognized as fundamental to his thought as a whole, Edwards’s doctrine of the Trinity has, nonetheless, been the subject of much discord in the secondary literature. After initially mapping the various perspectives (or ‘instincts’) on the issue, this chapter turns to the notion of personalism to explain the inner logic of Edwards’s account. This unique feature of Edwards’s doctrine explains how he can utilize traditional theological machinery in his doctrine of God (i.e. psychological imagery, simplicity, actus purus, filioque, and divine blessedness), to establish his idiosyncratic development of perichoresis and the divine attributes. What this reading of Edwards’s doctrine helps establish is how he articulates human speech about God, and various rules for how that speech functions (e.g. talk about God is to talk about person(s); God’s self-giving is funded by, rather than diminished by, God’s perfection).

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.

scholarly journals African theology and African Christology: Difficulty and complexity in contemporary definitions and methodological frameworks

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Magezi ◽  
Jacob T. Igba
Keyword(s):  
Reference Point ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
African Continent ◽  
African Theology ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Methodological Approaches

There is an ongoing challenge in defining African theology because of two important reasons: (1) the quest for a definitive African theology is a fairly recent pursuit and (2) the vastness and diversity of the African continent. Given this, this article presents the complexity of defining African theology and its methodological approaches through a background sketch of the development of African theology. Regardless of many definitions of African theology and its purposes, the article acknowledges African Christian theology as theology that should be derived from the interplay between Scripture, Christian tradition and African cosmology. In deriving theology from the aforementioned aspects, African theology should also seek to develop contextual African theologies with global relevance. In this way, African theology can claim its space in the universal church. Although we are conscious of the values and challenges associated with the task of doing African theology, we argue for its necessity. We further argue that if the centrality of Scripture is maintained in the African theological endeavour, it will cause African theologies to have some shared reference point with other Christian theologies and hence engaging globally, while contributing unique African perspectives to global theological discourse.

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