Customer Reviews

The Trinity (Guides to Theology)

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Roger Olson and Christopher Hall have done Protestants like me a great service by offering a readable survey and introduction to the history of Trinitarian thought. It is a short book, 115 pages, but it does get into some detail as it reviews the contributors from the Ante-Nicene fathers down to authors of the late 20th Century. Its brevity doesn't mean it covers all of the players in Trinitarian thought, but it gave me a good feel for how we got from there (the New Testament) to here (2006) and how the doctrine developed.

This survey gives an insight on how influential Augstine was in Medieval Catholic theology as well as the Reformation. They also do Anselm justice to show how he influenced the next move in the Trinity. I had not heard of Richard St. Victor, but they give some insights on his impact which can be seen in the writings of today. The very interesting thing for me is that I am reading other books on the Trinity, especially on the intra-Trinitarian relationships, and the Augustine-Anselm connection gave me insight as to how they have influenced Trinitarian thought even recently.

They also cover some of the heresies that were encountered such as Abelard and Michael Severus. Their discussion of the rise of Unitarianism and Deism is also very insightful and helps see the different currents at work while Trinitarian thought ebbed and flowed.

There is a very helpful annotated bibliography at the end. If you are looking for a survey-introduction to the thought and development of the Trinity, then this book is for you.

A must read for anyone remotely interested in the Trinity. Easy to read but not simple. In this work, Olson starts from the beginning of the Trinitarian debates and leads you through an amazing ride through history as new thoughts on this essential doctrine develop. One of the things that is made evident is that what we have now is trully a develpment of doctrine, the Trinity is not something that was defined overnight. In the last chapter, Olson covers three contemporary theologians and how they define the Trinity today.

Never coming to any conclusions, Olson allows you to taste all that he's given you and chew on it. The best book on the Trinity that I've read in 2002.

Enjoyed the tracing of the tradition from early patristics through modern times, but felt that the book was too short to really delve into the substantial differences between some areas of thought. While I affirm that orthodox descriptions of the Trinity will necessarily be close to one another, I often felt like the nuances between the two could have been brought out more. Overall, I felt as if another 50 pages or so of description of things like the social trinitarian model, the psychological model (including the benefits and limits of both), the context or pressures out of which various nuanced definitions sprung, and more philospophical underpinnings of the modern (re)constructions would have been helpful. Another 50 pages would still have this work be in the "guide" category, and I believe would have helped the reader naviate the hermeneutical landscape of trinitarian thought. For instance, the seven key propositions listed on page 46 are never pulled throughout the book to aid in understanding where controversy may erupt, or the ways in which the rules may actually operate when used in real life. e.g., How does LaCugna's project interact with these rules? I'm left wondering the real utility of Carey's rules when interacting with post-midieval thought.

Nevertheless, the excellent annoted bibliography and index make this a work that is usable for a quick refresher, or if I need to track down a primary source.

The book is readable, but since much is assumed by the author, I would caution that some background in theology/philosophy is necessary to follow much of the development. For instance, patripassianism is mentioned, but never fully explained (neither by definition, nor by historical importance), but patripassianism has huge implications for the early development of trinitarian thought.

This is better than any other summary I have read, which were all too long, but this one just felt too short.