Systematic issues in trinitarian theology

Abstract

About half a century ago, when the two arguably greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Karl Barth and Karl Rahner, first wrote on the Trinity, it was de rigueur to bemoan the marginalization of the Trinity from theology and spirituality and the dearth of works on the subject. Today writing on the Trinity has become something of a cottage industry, and the trinitarian mystery is unquestionably enthroned at the heart of Christian theology. But one of the drawbacks of the recent proliferation of trinitarian treatises is that with the rise of an enormous plethora of issues and views concerning the Trinity there is the danger of missing the forest for the trees. To obviate this pitfall, the following reflections are offered, not as a bibliographical survey but as a theological map to help readers identify the main issues, tenets, and directions in contemporary trinitarian theology. Writing in 1993, Ted Peters identified twelve issues in contemporary trinitarian theology and various responses to them. Since then other issues and answers have emerged. In a recent work Gerald O'Collins has also identified twelve issues in contemporary trinitarian theology, though his list is slightly different from that of Peters. I will divide my own list into three categories: methodology, doctrine, and practice.