Customer Reviews

The Trinity (Foundations of Christian Faith)

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This book is a great starting point for those who are just starting out in studying the Doctrine of the Trinity. Prior to finding this book, my method had been to go out on the net, and pick up random articles and read them. This had its problems in that some of these articles were (very)difficult, and also reading all of these articles left many gaps in my mind.

The book goes through roughly three phases: 1) the history of the Doctrine, 2) the contemporary scene, and 3) the practicality of the Doctrine.

Walker starts out in the first chapter with a discussion of just who is this God, into whose strong name we have been baptized into ? What is this God like ? The next chapter moves into a brief discussion of the God as found in scripture, as being a triune in nature. Since the book is not an apologetical work, Walker does not spend too much time in arguing from scripture, the triunity of God. Instead he moves on to the heresies that plagued the early church, and the Councils called forth to settle these matter. Among the heresies discussed are Arianism, Modalism, and Gnosticism. Also discussed are the greek and latin terms (ex.homoousion, person,) around which the resolution of some of these heresies revolved.

In the chapters that follow, Walker takes us through the thoughts of many a theologian - past and present. From the past are included the Cappodocians, and their explanation of the most fascinating perichoresis, Augustine and his analogies, Richard of St. Victor and "the Trinity as a community of love", Julian of Norwich and "the motherhood of God", Peter Lombard, St. Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, and many others. From the present, Walker takes us through the two Karls - Barth and Rahner, Vladmir Lossky, and Met. John Zizioulas of Pergamum. Something sort of new for me that Walker also discussed here was social trinitarianism. Prior to my reading of this, I had always mistakenly assumed that the Eastern Orthodox were social trinitarians. Well, I found out that I was wrong, and that there is a difference between talking of the Godhead as a divine society(or community) and talking of the Godhead as divine communion.

Moving on ...since I think I'm running out of space... other recent theologians discussed are Jurgen Moltmann and the suffering of God, Elizabeth Johnson and She Who Is, Leornardo Boff and the divine community, Hans Ur Von Balthasar, Catherine M. LaCugna, Mary Ann Fatula, T.F. Torrance to name a few. Walker also talks at length about the patriarchy, matriarchy and our God. The book comes to a close by showing how our understanding of the Trinity affects worship, our understanding of salvation, mission, koinonia, church, love for one another... I particularly liked the discussion on koinonia.

Last but not least, I would like to point out a couple of problems in my estimate. Since the book is really more of an Intro. book and really tries to cover so much in just a 126 pages, a lot of material does not get covered in depth. Like for example there's only a 1/2 page discussion on Bonaventure, a 1/2 page on Wilfred Richmond. So like if you find their ideas really interesting, you'll have to make a trip to the library or else be left hanging. Another problem which stems from this same lack of in depth coverage is that, suppose you just dont understand what Walker is saying about someone, say Peter Lombard, you are once again going to make a trip to the library. The reason being, is that the discussion is so brief, and there is only so much to analyse and reanalyse. If Walker had added just maybe 5-10 more pages, it would have been good.

In Christ, Raj Rao

While this book is perhaps not completely useless, I do not feel like those who are actually interested in studying this subject will gain anything of substance from this book. It does not seem to create a foundation for the trinitarian doctrine and it is too basic to support scholarship. Overall, this book does not measure up to the scholarship of Reformed Theology (of which I am not a part but well respect). Robert Letham has a better Reformed perspective (though admittedly a more difficult read) and there are others outside the Reformed community whose books will better serve as (basic) foundational studies in both the areas of doctrine & practicality (Bruce A. Ware) and history (Roger E. Olson and Christopher A. Hall).