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God the Holy Trinity: Reflections on Christian Faith and Practice (Beeson Divinity Studies)

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When I was a student at Harvard Divinity School during the 1970s, one of my teachers published a book entitled God the Problem," writes Timothy George, contributor and editor of God the Holy Trinity, Reflections on Christian Faith and Practice.

"While reveling in obscurity and complexity may be the delight of some theologians, if there has ever been a genuine `problem' in Christian doctrine, then surely it is how the eternal God can be both One and yet Three at the same time" (p. 9).

Yet, this is exactly what all orthodox Christians confess: that God is both One and Three, who has made Himself known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While this doctrine is confusing and wrapped in mystery, it is essential to the Christian faith.

God the Holy Trinity is a collection of essays originally presented at Beeson Divinity School's symposium, "God the Holy Trinity: A Conference on Faith and Christian Life," with speakers representing Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant (Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian and Holiness) theological traditions. The purpose of the book, as was the case in the conference, is not to ignore or deny the (sometimes severe) doctrinal differences between each of these traditions, but to present the best in trinitarian thought from each (in fact, only two of the contributors are not from Protestant traditions, as far as I can tell).

Every contribution contained valuable and thought-provoking insights, and it was actually quite refreshing to see such a diverse group firmly committed to the doctrine of the Trinity and it's role in faith and practice. The Trinity infuses all of life and thought for the Christian--music, experience, unity, salvation, the pursuit of godliness, evangelism. There's not a single thing that isn't affected by the doctrine of the Trinity, and all the contributors serve their audience well by reminding us of this truth.

In expressing the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity, the contributors don't shy away from the reality that God's nature as One God in Three Persons is mysterious. Alister McGrath, in his opening chapter, offers a "dose of theological cold water," reminding us that while the Trinity identifies and names God, forcing us to be "explicit about God in discussion," we must be wary of subjecting the doctrine to "considerable theological speculation, occasionally leading people to see the Trinity as little more than a mathematical puzzle or logical riddle" (p. 35).

There comes a point where our best explanations will fall short of the mystery, and this is something we must embrace, particularly when talking about the Trinity.

I greatly appreciated Gerald L. Bray's chapter, focusing on the Christian experience of the Trinity. Bray writes to show that "the Christian doctrine of the Trinity did not emerge from some kind of philosophical speculation, but from the realities of the Christian spiritual experience of him" (p. 55).

What I like best about Bray's chapter is that he asks good questions, even as he answers them. "Why is it so hard for Christians to let go of the Trinity when there seem to be so many things they may gain by doing so," he writes (p. 43). And he's right. Muslims and Jews both reject the Trinity as Tritheism. It is a stumbling block to them (a point Timothy George addresses in his contribution). It gets in the way of interfaith dialogue. Wouldn't it be easier to just throw it away?

No, argues Bray. If we did, we'd actually lose the Christian faith altogether. Without the doctrine of the Trinity, penal substitutionary atonement--the basis of salvation through faith in Christ--is reduced to an act of horrific injustice, as some within evangelical circles today would claim (referring to it as "Divine child abuse"). Bray counters this well, arguing that, "such people have failed to grasp the voluntary nature of the Son's substitution."

"God the Father never decided to punish his Son on our behalf, and given their fundamental equality within the Godhead, he probably could not have done so even if he had wanted to. It was only when the Son humbled himself and became a servant, to accomplish the Father's will, that the Son became a man, since only in the mode of humanity could he pay the price of our redemption. If there is any "injustice" in this, it is not in the Son's voluntary act on our behalf, but in the fact that we have been redeemed; we have received something from God that we have done nothing to deserve, and that all our own thoughts and desires make us unworthy to obtain." (p. 51)

"At the heart of the atonement lies the relationship between the Son and the Father in the Godhead, without which is saving act could not have occurred," writes Bray. And, according to Bray, this truth is at the heart of our experience of God.

Puritan theologian John Owen and J.I. Packer concur.

Introducing the views of Owen, who Packer calls one of his most honored travelling companions, he writes, "To [Owen, the Trinity] is, quite simply, the foundation of Christianity, which collapses without it. The gospel of salvation through a divine-human mediator and a divine Spirit cannot be true if trinitarianism is false, nor can there then be such a thing as communion with the three persons of the Godhead distinctly." (p. 100)

The truth of the Trinity, according to Packer and Owen, is "basic, crucial and totally nonnegotiable" (p. 101). The gravity of this statement cannot be overstated: To compromise on the doctrine of the Trinity is to lose the Christian faith. Owen's work demonstrates the communion of the Trinity based in the distinction of their roles within divine saving activity. The Father is salvation's loving originator, the Son is its loving achiever and the Spirit is its loving imparter. Each is essential, yet each is distinct.

Representing some of the finest trinitarian thinking of the last seventy five years, God the Holy Trinity presents readers with passionate and articulate essays on the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity to faith and practice. The Trinity lies at the heart of every Christian doctrine and every aspect of the Christian life. Because of its mystery, the doctrine of the Trinity leads us to humility.

I am humbled by the vision of God that is presented in this book. I hope you will be as well.

The publication of this book is a welcome addition to what is becoming a renewed focus in Western Christianity; namely, focus upon theology proper, God in God's self. With all of the anti-this & that and solas of the Reformation, God the Father, and thus a proper understanding of both His Son and Spirit, had been distorted and neglected. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is renewed contact with the Eastern Orthodox liturgical/theological tradition, Western theology, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, is recovering from its amnesia. While this slim volume is not one that I would put on a top ten list of books to read when thinking about Trinitarian theology, it does have its merits.

Alister McGrath's essay on Evangelicals and Trinitarian theology isn't too engaging (is he ever?), but does rightly call us to have a mental humility before the mystery of God. Without limiting God to transcendence, he rightfully remarks that we must stick to our data, and not get so absorbed in our thoughts about God that we forget that loving God covers over a multitude of "unknowings", and that this is just fine. This is akin to the Orthodox approach to apophatic, or negative, theology. God is fundamentally a mystery in which we participate, not understand. This is a good way to set the tone for reading the other essays.

Massey's essay on African-American spirituals notes the role of the Holy Spirit. While useful, I found it to be rather narrow for a larger reading; likewise can be said for Packer's reflections on the Puritan John Owen. In at least two other conferences I have heard him present on Owen and at this point it just doesn't do it for me. Too narrow for general readership.

Essays that I found more general and insightful would include Matthew-Green's reflections on the Eastern Orthodox approach/experience of God as Father, Son and Spirit in Her art & architecture. She reminds us that it is in the context of worship that we come closet to "knowing" God in a communion of love, as the Church is the Body of Christ. That can never be said enough, and one might find in this approach a useful metric to just how Christian much of what passes for worship actually is (or isn't). Dulles' essay echoes the liturgical aspect of theology, with his reflections upon the nature of baptism.

Charry's critique of Barth, Jenson and LaCugna is through her Augustinian lens. This means that she wants to temper the "social" aspect of the Trinity with Augustine's notion of divine simplicity. I am not exactly sold on this at all, but it will resonate with classical Western theology. It can be a tricky conception, but it does serve to guard against tritheism.

Most useful for myself has been George's critique of Muslim critiques of Christian trinitarianism, showing that Mohammed fundamentally misunderstood Christian theology on this point by believing that Mary was the third member of the Trinity and that she had sexual intercourse with God to spawn Jesus. While Mohammed may have been exposed to a heretical Marian cult, and developed his ideas of Christianity form that, it dose show that the Quran is off-base in its critique of the Faith. Robert Louis Wilken's Remembering the Christian Pasthas an excellent chapter on this topic as well.

There are a few other essays that are included that yo can see in the index above.

I would steer readers who are interested in this topic to a few other books before buying this one: Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (Contemporary Greek Theologians Series, No 4), Energies of the Spirit: Trinitarian Models in Eastern Orthodox and Western Theology (American Academy of Religion Academy Series), The Tripersonal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity, Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church (Theology), The God of the Gospel of John, The Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of Christian Orthodoxy, The Mystery of the Trinity: Trinitarian Experience and Vision in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition and, needed in any approach to theology, Vladimir Lossky's The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church.

Please see my other reviews for books that relate to theology and ecumneism.

Timothy George, as editor of God the Holy Trinity, intends to bring the discussion of the Trinity from the circles of academia into the pews of the church. Acknowledging that the ultimate "problem" of Christian doctrine is "how the eternal God can be both One and yet ever Three at the same time" (9), George presents this volume as one voice in the resurgence of Trinitarian conversation that has taken place in the past century. Surveying doctrinal emphases since the Reformation, George asserts that "the doctrine of the Trinity remained marginalized in a great swath of Protestant theology" (11).

This volume consists of a collection of essays originally presented at a symposium held by Beeson Divinity School of Samford University. Attempting to avoid presenting the doctrine of the Trinity as a "theological conundrum" (13), the participants of this conference investigated how the Trinity impacts the Christian life. While the contributors bring distinct approaches to the topic and come from various ethnic backgrounds and theological traditions, George insists that these essays "represent an underlying commitment to the trinitarian faith of the apostolic tradition" (12). These scholars reflected an ecumenical spirit as they dialogued with each other under the umbrella of Nicene Orthodoxy.

Taken as a unit, the first two essays by Alister McGrath and Gerald Bray function as the centerpiece of the book. McGrath seeks to recover the notion of the Trinity as a profound "mystery" and enable believers to "grapple" with this doctrine (22). He applauds the recent resurgence of Trinitarian discussion, but offers two concerns. McGrath recognizes the tendency of the discussion to digress into rampant speculation that employs unnecessarily extra-biblical terms and concepts. Thus, he urges theologians to have "Trinitarian modesty" (32), by maintaining a close proximity to the language of Scripture and by keeping a healthy distance from constructions built on speculative foundations.

In the successive essay, Bray answers McGrath's call by providing a thoughtful investigation of the relationship between the Christian Trinity and the God of Judaism. Bray's key insight is in highlighting the hermeneutical shift that takes place in a Christian reading of the Old Testament, whereby the one God of Judaism is demonstrated to be the Trinity of Christianity. Viewed externally, God is one, but viewed internally, God is three. Bray then demonstrates that the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is a "description of what that experience of God's inner life is like" (45-46). The rest of Bray's essay consists of a theological exposition of Galatians 4:6 that shows how "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba! Father!" Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity springs from the Christian's life experience rather than his philosophical speculation. In his attention to Scripture and theology, Bray's essay functions as an apt illustration of McGrath's model for Trinitarian reflection.

The group of essays that follow are as eclectic as they are ecumenical. James Earl Massey investigates the theological underpinnings of African-American Spirituals. Avery Cardinal Dulles applies the doctrine of the Trinity to ecclesiology. Frederica Mathewes-Green engages in art criticism of The Old Testament Trinity by Russian artist Andrei Rublev. J.I. Packer provides a "Puritan perspective" on the Trinity in a biographical essay of John Owen. Timothy George examines the implications of the Trinity for interacting with Islam. Ellen Charry argues for the legitimacy of Divine Perfections in thinking about God and his salvation. Finally, Cornelius Plantinga ends the volume with a sermonic exhortation to submit to the "deep wisdom" of Christ's selflessness evidenced in the Gospel of John.

One obvious strength of this work is the diversity of contributors and their attempt to translate the sometimes oblique discussion of the Trinity into a volume designed to engage the church. The first two essays provide a helpful framework for thinking through the mystery of the Trinity in light of the biblical text. After these chapters though, the focus of the book begins to wander. Both the nature of the topic and style of presentation vary greatly as the reader moves through this section of the work.

Massey's investigation of African-American spirituals is interesting, but his discussion of the Holy Spirit in these songs is more tenuous than with the other members of the Trinity. Dulles' ecumenically driven discussion of "Trinitarian ecclesiology" perhaps engages in the speculation about which McGrath cautions in his essay. Mathewes-Green's art criticism is intriguing but is based on a debated Trinitarian interpretation of Genesis 18:1-2. The chapters range from biography (Packer), to apologetics (George), to art criticism (Green), to literary criticism (Massey), to philosophical debate (Charry), and to sermon (Plantinga).

This topical diversity reflects the ecumenical makeup of the contributors but also detracts from the structural focus of the work. Though George accomplishes his goal of starting an engaging Trinitarian conversation, an editorial comment on how each essay relates to the next would provide this volume with the thematic cohesion that would strengthen its overall impact.