Trinitarian Doctrine Research Articles

Тринитарные аналогии в «Кассициакских диалогах»: философско-богословский анализ

The article deals with the problem devoted to the analysis of the provisions of the Italian professor of the Pontifical Institute of Patristic Studies "Augustinianum" Nello Cipriani, described in his work entitled "Christian sources of the doctrine of the Trinity in the first dialogues of Blessed Augustine". The author makes an attempt of theological and philosophical analysis of the degree the ancient philosophical tradition represented by Neoplatonism influenced the Christianized thinking of Aurelius Augustine. In this regard, a part of Blessed Augustine's earlier writings is of particular value. These works are named after St. Augustine's place of residence in Cassisiac, and therefore called the "Cassiciacum Dialogues", the corpus of which includes three of his work: "On Order", "On the Blessed Life" and “Against the Academicians”. Also in this paper, the principled position of Nello Cipriani on the rejection of any influence of ancient philosophy on Augustine's understanding of the Christian Trinitarian doctrine is shown. This kind of position is the antithetical position of the French scientist Olivier Du Roy. Solving this problem, Cipriani tries to prove inaccuracy in the interpretation of Blessed Augustine’s texts, artificially created and used by du Roy to support the provisions he put forward about the prevailing influence of the pagan world on Augustine's personality. In addition, the failure of du Roy's thesis does not stand up to criticism regarding Augustine's use of Trinitarian analogies in the "Cassiciacum Dialogues" and the use of Christian sources of knowledge in them. Thus, the idea of the Italian professor Nello Cipriani considered in the article takes on the features of a true, historical fact.

"In The Spirit"

The Ecumenical and Reformed Creeds and Confessions hold a continuity of Trinitarian doctrine as formulated since the Nicene creed (325 AD). Yet the role of the spirit seems to be undermined in such formulations. The historical context of the Nicene creed emphasized on the homoousios of the Son. Thus, the filioque in the Nicene later formulation. In this article, the author addresses the lacuna of the role of the Spirit in the traditional Trinitarian formulations. Based on John Calvin’s understanding of an autotheos Trinity, and his timeless view of eternity, the significance of the Spirit should have an equally prominent role. The renewed position should leave no ontological subordinationism either of the Son or the Spirit—a correction to the Eastern and the Western church formulations. In addition, the reformulation read in autothean interpretation shows how the inherent hypostasis submission fits with God’s mission in the history of salvation.

Augustine’s Enchiridion: An Anti-Pelagian Interpretation of the Creed

At first glance, Augustine did not combine his soteriology and his Trinitarian doctrine in his anti-Pelagian oeuvre. Therefore, this article pursues the more hidden and implicit connections between these topics. The starting point of this endeavour is an analysis of the Enchiridion, a catechetical work in which Augustine interpreted the Roman—later so-called Apostle’s—Creed. Simultaneously, Augustine directed his attention in the Enchiridion to questions and arguments which originate from the Pelagian controversy such as original sin, grace, baptism, remission of sin(s) and the theory of predestination. Thus, this article ponders the question of how Augustine reflected his Trinitarian doctrine within this anti-Pelagian soteriology. While Augustine seldom referred to his Trinitarian doctrine explicitly in the Enchiridion (and his anti-Pelagian oeuvre), he presented in these works a conception of how the triune God operates as creator and saviour. This anti-Pelagian concept of God seizes several aspects which also appear in Augustine’s De trinitate. Moreover, by emphasising the unity of God’s operation as creator and saviour against the Pelagians, Augustine argued in favour of a specific Trinitarian doctrine: opera trinitatis ad extra inseparabilia. Thus, this article finally tries to analyse how Augustine amalgamated his anti-Pelagian Christocentric soteriology with his Trinitarian doctrine.

Historical development of trinitarian doctrine in Roman Catholicism

The Trinity both as a Christian concept and doctrine is a complex whole or better still a “mystery.” Even the great bishop of Hippo, St Augustine at the end of his monumental opus, De Trinitate, prayed God the Trinity to pardon him if he had written anything that was untrue about the Trinity. The Catholic Church, to say the least, is a trinitarian church in the sense that the belief in the Trinity is one of the cornerstones of its constitution and belief system. The church baptises and receives people with the Trinitarian formula. It begins and ends prayers in ‘the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. Catholic Theological discourse accepts as given, the existence of Three Persons in One God, and only afterwards, proceeds to investigate and elaborate upon the ‘how’ of the Trinity. This article takes a historical excursus into the historical evolution of Catholic trinitarian thought. It will argue that while there is a diversity of theological opinions on the subject, there remains in the final analysis, a unanimity in the belief that the Christian understanding and experience of God are unreservedly and indisputably trinitarian.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article draws insights from a wide range of related areas of theological disciplines like patristics, church history, systematic theology and ecumenism. As a study that cuts across theological and historical boundaries, its content and conclusion are couched within the context of multiple theological and ecclesiastical disciplines. By means of an interdisciplinary perspective as applied to a complex subject such as the Trinity herein, a broader perspective is obtained about this core Christian belief and notion of God who is One in substance and Three in persons. This is most notably by locating trinitarian discourse within the liturgical and theological traditions of the Western and Eastern churches.

The Grammar of Salvation: The Function of Trinitarian Theology in the Works of Karen Kilby and Robert Jenson

This study investigates the purpose of trinitarian theology in relation to theological knowledge, examining whether the doctrine of the Trinity is designed to serve an apophatic or cataphatic purpose. Through a comparative analysis of Karen Kilby and Robert Jenson, I argue that trinitarianism serves a hermeneutical and incorporative function in theology, encompassing both apophatic and cataphatic language, connecting our knowledge of God with God's revelation in the missions of the triune persons. Kilby and Jenson represent apophatic and cataphatic tendencies respectively, but their differences largely concern methodology. Regarding the purpose of trinitarian doctrine, they each hold that the dogma functions as an interpretive grammar for the Scriptures, so that by patterning our lives on the biblical narrative, human beings may be incorporated into Trinity itself. These hermeneutical and incorporative principles create room within Nicene trinitarianism to accommodate varying methods and theories of theological knowledge while preserving the doctrine's core functions.

Damaskios’ triadische Theorie des Einen im Hinblick auf ihre Divergenz gegenüber Iamblichos’ und Proklos’ Prinzipientheorien

The metaphysical model developed by Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism, is determined by the following three principles: the One, Nous, and Soul. Later, Neoplatonists tried to differentially explain the inner constitution of all three principles without abandoning the fundamental Plotinian tripartite structure. As a result, the telescoped metaphysical model characteristic of early Neoplatonism unfolded in late Neoplatonism. The primordial hypostases of Plotinus became three different spheres of reality, which go through the necessary inner evolution (in a supertemporal sense) and accordingly contain new principles or evolutionary stages. It was also the case with the One. The present paper aims to investigate the triadic constitution of the sphere of the One in Damascius, considered as the last Neoplatonist. This could be of interest in both contexts, i.e., the ancient Neoplatonic and the Christian. On the one hand, the question about the nature and orientation of the late Neoplatonic doctrine of principles requires particular attention, especially given that compared to the Proclean doctrine, Damascius’ doctrine receives less attention. On the other hand, Damascius’ theory of the undivided triadic unity of the three principles making up the sphere of the One, namely the One-all (ἓν πάντα), the All-one (πάντα ἕν), and the United (ἡνωμένον), reveals some interesting similarities to the Christian Trinitarian doctrine. In an argument with Iamblichus and Proclus, Damascius rejects the beyondness of the One to the triad of Limit (= Monas, Father/Existence), Unlimited (= Indefinite Dyad, Power), and Mixed (= Triad, Nous), identifies the One with the first triadic member, and repeatedly emphasizes the absence of number and division in the highest realm of reality. For him, the three members of the triad represent the three undivided moments of the original causal activity of the One in itself.

Contesting the Dynamics of Secular Development: An Ontology of Trinitarian Well-Being as Christian Rationale for Human Well-Being

Abstract Christianity has been instrumental in fashioning the contemporary Western paradigm of humanitarian aid and development. However, as a secular agenda increasingly defines this space, the question of what difference a religious cosmology makes to Christian faith-based development organisations (FBDO s) becomes significant. While faith convictions initiated early humanitarian efforts, Christian FBDO s have arguably acquiesced to secular pragmatic rationales for their work, rather than allow theology to have explanatory and regulatory influence. In many ways, therefore, FBDO s are devoid of the influence of “faith”, or more specifically, the influence of a robust theological foundation. To address this deficit, a critique of the philosophical moorings of Western international development is mounted, with consideration given to nascent trajectories of an alternate Christian rationale and praxis. In particular, the paper argues that the ontological foundation for the dynamics of human well-being is divine well-being. Employing a Trinitarian relational ontology, the dynamic characteristic inherent to the actualisation of divine well-being is identified as a triune kenosis (self-giving). Such an ontology of divine well-being provides the context to articulate principles for actualising human well-being as a reiteration of the divine archetype. From such a perspective, the Trinitarian doctrine of God provides the pivotal foundation for a Christian cosmology necessary to articulate an alternative paradigm for sustainable development.

THE WHOLENESS OF HUMANITY: COLERIDGE, COGNITION, AND HOLISTIC PERCEPTION

AbstractHolistic perception is an antidote to the subject–object divide, a divide that leads to a mechanistic understanding of the world and can see human beings only in terms of parts, without a robust articulation of wholeness. In this piece, I argue that philosopher of science Henri Bortoft offers an empirically grounded theory, based on consciousness studies, which recasts the problem of the many and the one, offering insight into just such a holistic perception. I further argue that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's philosophy of unity and multiplicity agrees in many respects with that of Bortoft. However, Coleridge draws further implications of his philosophy for Trinitarian theology. I will argue, in line with Bortoft and Coleridge, that perception is a hinge point in this discussion, allowing the move between the discussion of wholeness, subjectivity, and identity. I conclude that a holistic perceptual shift reconstitutes the human person in a way that is theologically significant, especially with respect to Christian Trinitarian doctrine.

The Trinitarian Doctrine of Isidore of Pelusium

Abstract The correspondence of Isidore of Pelusium (360–435/440?), which consists of approximately two thousand letters, deals to a considerable extent with spiritual teachings and biblical exegesis and to a lesser degree with theological subjects. This article focuses specifically on Isidore’s Trinitarian doctrine and aims to bring to light its sources. The examination of the predominant anti-Arian and anti-Neo-Arian arguments and of the biblical passages Isidore deployed to support his doctrinal points illustrates two aspects of interest: on the one hand, it reveals Isidore as a derivative representative of Neo-Nicene orthodoxy acquainted with different anti-Anomoean works; on the other hand, it confirms the well-established view that Isidore was a resourceful and cultivated exegete.

The Trinity as social and constitutional: a rejoinder to Brian Leftow

AbstractBrian Leftow continues to argue against my use of the constitution relation in explaining the Trinity. I consider his arguments, and have a bit more to say about Leftow's own formulation of trinitarian doctrine.

Sergii Bulgakov’s Linguistic Trinity*

AbstractAs the work of Sergii Bulgakov has become more widely available in English, his Trinitarian theology has become a subject of particular interest. This article analyses his less well‐known works on the Trinity from the 1920s, arguing that the understanding of Trinitarian doctrine developed there is inseparable from Bulgakov’s analyses of language and consciousness. By analysing Bulgakov’s approach to the Trinity via language, this article will draw particular attention to his negotiation of the notion of divine transcendence. We will see that Bulgakov’s writings on the Trinity display, contrary to received opinion, a deep apophatic tendency, or recognition of divine transcendence. But we will also see that his more thoroughly linguistic approach to the Trinity, in which divine transcendence flows from what it means for God to be Love, contradicts his explicit discussion of divine transcendence elsewhere as a transcendence of the Father alone.

Trinitarian Doctrine in Fortunatian of Aquileia’s Commentarii in evangelia

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Fortunatian’s Christology and Trinitarian theology that can be deduced from his recently found work Commentarii in evangelia and, by doing so, to present a general re-evaluation of his role in the political-doctrinal clashes at the middle of the 4th century. By investigating Fortunatian’s (Trinitarian) theology in relation to the prior early Latin Trinitarian doctrine and to different heterodox traditions, and ascertaining his doctrinal standpoint in the Arian controversy of the middle of the 4th century, his doctrine reveals itself to be far more Catholic and “pro-Nicene” – though remaining deeply rooted in the Latin theological tradition – that it was regarded before.

Editorial: Conciliar Trinitarianism

Much recent work in analytic theology concerned with Trinitarian doctrine has been limited both by: (1) a narrow focus on the apparent inconsistency of the doctrine and (2) little regard for the historical context in which the doctrine developed. This special issue represents an effort to overcome these limitations in two ways. First, following Timothy Pawl’s definition of “Conciliar Christology,” we define “Conciliar Trinitarianism” as the conjunction of claims about the Trinity in the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Rather than speculative attempts at reconciling, say, sentences taken from the Athanasian Creed, or the common parlance of contemporary, Western Christians, the papers in this issue all address specifically Conciliar Trinitarianism. Second, the special issue brings together both analytic philosophers and patristics scholars in a format in which, in several cases, a scholar from one field responds to a scholar from another. We hope that this will help to jump-start some further conversations between scholars in analytic philosophy and in patristics, as we believe both fields can benefit from a deeper mutual engagement in the study of Conciliar Trinitarianism.

Judgments in Scripture and the Creed: Reflections on Identity and Difference

AbstractThe article considers whether Nicene trinitarian doctrine is present within biblical texts. It focuses on some terminology that David Yeago has developed for approaching this question. The article argues that in order for his distinction between judgments and concepts to work, it is necessary to amplify the acknowledgement of difference that is inchoate in his assertation that the Bible and the Creed are basically the same rather than fully and completely identical. Three specific domains of difference receive attention: the Creed is a retrospective claim about Jesus’ nature and mission, while the Old Testament prefigures Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of God’s promises; the Bible consists of several different literary genres, while the Creed is a single sort of writing; and Scripture is a long, internally differentiated text, while the Creed attempts a summary of leading themes. In order fully to recognize these differences, it is necessary to emend the ecclesiology that underpins Yeago’s thesis. Without modifying the relationship between the Spirit and the church, it remains impossible to give the three areas of difference due acknowledgement, and there is pressure to fall back on an established prior understanding of the text.

The Trinitarian Dimension of John Wesley's Theology

The revival of interest in Trinitarian theology, beginning in the 1980s with works such as Jürgen Moltmann's The Trinity and the Kingdom of God and John Zizioulas's Being as Communion, led to a widespread assumption that Western Christianity had effectively given up on a Trinitarian doctrine of God some centuries ago. This timely and important book demonstrates that, at least so far as the Wesleyan tradition is concerned, this is an oversimplification. Its author serves as professor of systematic theology and Stanley Professor of Wesley Studies at The University of Dubuque Theological Seminary and is particularly known for his exposition of the Trinitarian theology of Thomas Torrance. In this work he focuses on his own Methodist tradition, arguing that a vision of ‘participation in the economic trinity’ is a neglected yet central aspect of John Wesley's theology. In doing so he combines detailed historical research with passionate advocacy.The first chapter takes the reader to the Trinitarian controversies in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English theology. This gives a valuable summary of arguments from the various disputants who either criticized the doctrine as unbiblical and/or unreasonable or defended it on the basis of a (usually outdated) philosophical framework. Wesley, says Colyer, needs to be read against the background of this theological controversy and, in particular, against the tendency for both opponents and defenders of the doctrine to divorce it from the worship and practice of Christian living: what Wesley called ‘vital religion’. The chapter ends with an exposition of Wesley's 1775 sermon ‘On the Trinity’, written at the request of the Methodist society in Cork. Wesley, argues Colyer, reunites what the Trinitarian controversy had driven apart: doctrine and life, belief and worship, the nature of God and human relations with God. Wesley's Trinitarianism, he concludes, is evangelical, doxological, and participatory.The remainder of the book seeks to justify this conclusion through a comprehensive search of Wesley's sermons and other published works and then to develop a Wesleyan vision of the church as ‘Trinitarian embodiment’. This involves taking issue with Wesleyan scholars such as Randy Maddox and Kenneth Collins, criticizing them for failing to appreciate the extent to which Trinitarian participation is such a dominant thread in Wesley's preaching and writing, providing what amounts to an organizing principle, or a lens through which the early Methodist movement can best be viewed. This theme of Trinitarian participation, says Colyer, crops up repeatedly in Wesley's preaching and animates his understanding of the church, not simply as a functional institution, but as the means by which we are incorporated into the life of God as the body of Christ. More than that: the forms of ecclesial practice developed in early Methodism (society, class, band, and so on) were practical expressions of a Trinitarian faith that was evangelical, doxological, and participatory.Two questions need to be asked of a book of this kind. The first is: Does the argument work? My answer would be by and large, yes. It may sometimes be overstated; I suspect Wesley was not quite as consistent or as theologically coherent as Colyer would like him to be. Nevertheless, he has given us a meticulously researched monograph that makes a significant contribution to the literature of Wesleyan theology. Incidentally, it was sometimes irritating to have to break off from the main text to follow a long argument that continued in the footnotes, an indication, perhaps, that the editors were unsure how much scholarship readers would cope with.But, granted that the picture painted here is historically well-founded, why might it be significant for the church of the present? It is a strength of Colyer's work that he sees historical theology as a servant of contemporary Christian life. Wesley's participatory Trinitarianism can help liberate us from the individualism that has plagued evangelical Christianity, giving us a vision of the Christian life that is necessarily communal because it involves participation in the communal economy of God. In addition, argues Colyer, this Trinitarian ecclesiology can help to correct that theologically inadequate and spiritually unhealthy understanding of the relation of the divine law to the person of Christ, which Wesley bequeathed to his successors. A vision of the Christian life that is more communal and less legalistic would be a very good outcome for this fine piece of theological investigation.

Cyril of Alexandria and Julian the Emperor in dialogue for the ancient Greek philosophy and paganism

In the 5th century, Cyril of Alexandria wrote a large apologetic work, as a response to Julian the Apostate™s anti-Christian work Against the Galileans. Aside from the obvious divide of one being a Christian and one a pagan, Cyril's religious views were very different from Julian's. Julian's arguments against the Christian doctrine do not greatly differ from those used in the second century by Celsus, and by Porphyry in the third and he regarded the relations between Neoplatonic criticism of Christian Word. As a pagan, Julian had adopted the Platonic and Neoplatonic conception of the one God. Cyril doesn™t stack up against the Platonic one. Cyril™s goal in responding to Julian is, therefore, to help the skeptical reader to find the real faith. Cyril invokes precisely the evidence of Platonist philosophers in favour of the Trinitarian doctrine. Cyril shows, unlike Julian, that the Greek philosophers accept the three principal hypostases and using the term triad, they agree with Christian teaching. So, ancient philosophers as Porphyry supported that the substance of the divinity has proceeded towards three hypostases. Cyril doesn™t only confront Julian™s view against Christian, but he also confirms something that Justin the Martyr supported centuries ago about the ˜spermatic logos™. In this paper, we will examine this two works, ˜Against the Galileans™ of Julian and ˜Against Julian™ of Cyril, not only from their theological opinions but as arguments using the ˜common images™ (Iµa¼°IoIŒI„I±), the possible logical arguments, in supporting the positions of Julian and Cyril in a legal struggle.

Understanding Scientific Theories of Origins: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective

Understanding Scientific Theories of Origins: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective

A Genealogy of Inelegant Art

Abstract In 1567 a short Hungarian treatise employing eight woodcuts attacked the doctrine of the Trinity, using the woodcuts to show the enormity of Trinitarian doctrine through the abuses these woodcuts ostensibly represented. But the tract was far more than the woodcuts and their descriptions, but as well contained several swipes at the character of the Trinity as a uniquely Christian doctrine. This essay gives a translation of the tract along with an introduction and commentary on its sources (historical, pictorial, and theological), and the significance of the tract in the history of Antitrinitarianism.

Norming the Norm of Relationality: A Theological and Interreligious Exploration of the Trinitarian Doctrine

Norming the Norm of Relationality: A Theological and Interreligious Exploration of the Trinitarian Doctrine

On overcoming the culture–nature divide: a panpsychist proposal

AbstractWithin the recently published volumes, Knowing Creation and Christ and the Created Order, several authors argue that the theological category of creation can help contemporary society overcome the modern, and ecologically harmful, bifurcation between nature and culture. This paper supplements this important argument by showing how theological panpsychism, an ontology inspired by current debates within analytic philosophy of mind, can help theologians articulate a metaphysically robust and trinitarian doctrine of creation.