Trinity and Truth (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine) [Hardcover]

Bruce D. Marshall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0521453526 | ISBN-13: 978-0521453523

This book is about the problem of truth: what truth is, and how we can tell whether what we have said is true. Bruce Marshall approaches this problem from the standpoint of Christian theology, and especially that of the doctrine of the Trinity. The book offers a full-scale theological account of what truth is and whether Christians have adequate grounds for regarding their beliefs as true. Unlike most theological discussions of these issues, the book is also extensively engaged with the modern philosophical debate about truth and belief.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In an age when skepticism about truth and objectivity is so prevalent, this is a remarkable book." Theological Studies

"...this is a very important, challenging, and poerful book that provides both insight into and a measure of guidance out of the crisis of Christian theology in the West. Marshall's book exemplifies the classical vocation of faith seeking understanding." First Things

"This remarkable book sets forth a bold thesis and develops it with great subtlety. To theologians and allthinking believers Marshall displays the intellectual superiority of a robust version of the historic faith over reductionist restatements of it. In highly technical style, he furnishes a surround for the kind of advocacy that has been conducted in evangelistic, apologetic, and pastoral mode by Lesslie Newbigin and other significant theological writers of the late twentieth century." The Thomist

"Bruce Marshall's book is best understood by way of this last trope. His purpose is to take the philosophical water of a particular approach to the question of truth - specifically, that found in the analytic philosopher Donald Davidson's work, a corpus in which there is scarcely a spark of explicit interest in theological questions - and to turn it into the Christian wine of a Trinitarian account of truth. This is an important book, both for its particular constructive proposal and for its method. It is in this procedural sense that Marshall's work is most different from that of those modern theologians with whom he takes such effective issue in the first half of the book." The Journal of Religion

"Trinity and Truth is finally an important contribution in philosophy and theology. Virginia Quarterly Review

"Trinity and Truth is finally an important contribution in philosophy and theology." The Virginia Quarterly

"Marshall employs an account of truth that is so intimately linked to belief that it can be stretched for Christian purposes, in which truth is a person. Advanced graduate students an scholars only." Religious Studies Review Jan 2002

Book Description

This book is about the problem of truth: what truth is, and how we can tell whether what we have said is true. Bruce Marshall approaches this problem from the standpoint of Christian theology, and especially that of the doctrine of the Trinity. The book offers a full-scale theological acc ount of what truth is and whether Christians have adequate grounds for regarding their beliefs as true. Unlike most theological discussions of these issues, the book is also extensively engaged with the modern philosophical debate about truth and belief.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 301 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521453526
• ISBN-13: 978-0521453523
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,592,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trinitarian Truth and Analytic Epistemology, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Trinity and Truth (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine) (Paperback)

In this important work, Bruce Marshall has brought a robust Trinitarian way of thinking about truth and the justification of belief into the wider human discussion of truth and knowledge as it is currently being engaged by analytic philosophers. The author follows George Lindbeck (see "Nature of Doctrine") and attempts to answer the difficult questions that arose as a result of his presentation of a "post-liberal" approach to theological claims which is really more of a return to classical Christian approaches to theology, especially as synthesized by Thomas Aquinas.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Theology Meets Analytic Philosophy, February 28, 2010

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Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trinity and Truth (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine) (Paperback)

The concept of Trinity is one of the most profound and yet most complex ones in Christianity. It is oftentimes the stumbling block for non-Christians when they attempt to understand Christianity, and even most Christians have hard time properly understanding it or even articulating it. It could be argued that most of the early struggles in defining what Christians believe were in fact struggles to properly understand Trinity. It may be hard to understand why anyone would want to incorporate such on the surface strange and counterintuitive concept into their belief system. The reason, however, is rather simple: God has revealed Himself to us as Trinity. Trinity is not something that philosophers and theologians had conceived a priori, but rather who God really is in His own nature. The best we can then hope for is to use our limited human concepts and language to appreciate this utter transcendence of God. The good news, though, is that we are not completely left to grapple in the dark, trying to come up with our own clever and smart ways of understanding this awesome concept. For it is an integral part of the belief about Trinity that Trinity consists of Truth itself. Jesus often speaks of Himself as "Truth," and He refers to the Holy Spirit as "the spirit of Truth." It is then one of the great claims of Christianity, and one of the central themes of this book, that understanding Trinity truly requires a whole different set of epistemic considerations. These can never be completely reduced to ideas and concepts that are derived from other intellectual reflections.

In this book Bruce Marshall tries to bring up the understanding of Trinity in terms of modern philosophy, and analytic philosophy in particular. The analysis employed is very subtle and at times technical, so this is not a book for those who are discouraged by demanding philosophical reasoning. However, if you can appreciate that kind of thinking this book can be an extremely rewarding read. It is probably one of the most profound reflections on Trinity in modern Christian Theology.

5.0 out of 5 stars Trinitarian Epistemology as Theo-formity, February 22, 2012

By 

Jonathan Platter (Liberty, MO USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Trinity and Truth (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine) (Kindle Edition)

Marshall begins by outlining the concept of truth and then developing a basic notion of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. He takes the liturgical route by analyzing the way we adress God by name as "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" in our worship. He then goes into a more philosophical engagement with epistemology in general. An earlier reviewer is correct to say that Marshall relies on the work of Davidson (without looking at MacIntyre's critiques) but I'm not sure that it's as devastating to his argument on a whole as the reviewer would imply. For one, he doesn't neglect Wittgenstein, though Wittgenstein is clearly not as central for Marshall as many current theologians place him - especially in contrast to the post-liberal "Yale" school and Lindbeckian's. Second, he is not uncritical of Davidson's coherence theory.

It is at this point that Marshall's Trinitarian epistemology is central. Marshall argues that Christian's don't posit their 'own' truth or their 'own form' of truth. Rather, we take Jesus as 'the way, the truth, and the life' as a central epistemic claim. The Father is the creator of truth (the truth-maker), Christ (the Son) is the truth, and the Spirit is the way into all truth. Here Marshall explains the pairing of truth and love as the way that love, by the Spirit, guides us to be formed by God into Christ-likeness, thereby being formed into the truth and into true knowledge. Thus, epistemology is theo-formity, being formed into the image of God.