An Introduction to the Trinity

by Declan Marmion, Rik van Nieuwenhove

Overview

Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of writing on the Trinity, indicating a renewal of ideas and debate concerning this key element of Christian theology. This introduction challenges the standard account of a decline and revival in Trinitarian theology, taking into account recent, alternative readings of the theological tradition by Lewis Ayres and Michel Barnes amongst other scholars. By clearly analysing the scope of these new approaches, the authors establish the importance of a sapiential understanding of the Trinity, resisting the notion of separating faith and reason and identifying theology's link to spirituality. Their account also eschews the easy stereotypes of Western Christianity's supposedly more Unitarian approach as opposed to the more Trinitarian view of the East. Offering an overview of the main people and themes in Trinitarian theology past and present, this book thus provides an accessible, comprehensive guide for students and scholars alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521705226
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/11/2010
Series:	Introduction to Religion
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Declan Marmion lectures in Systematic Theology at St Patricke's College, Maynooth and at the Milltown Institute, Dublin where he is Senior Lecturer. His publications include The Cambridge Companion to Karl Rahner (2004), Christian Identity in a Postmodern Age: Celebrating the Legacies of Karl Rahner and Bernard Lonergan (2005), Theology in the Making: Biography, Contexts, Methods (2005) and A Spirituality of Everyday Faith: A Theological Investigation of the Notion of Spirituality in Karl Rahner (1998).

Rik Van Nieuwenhove is Lecturer in Theology at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. He is the author of Jan van Ruusbroec: Mystical Theologian of the Trinity (2003) and is co-editor (with J. Wawrykow) of The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (2005) and Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries (2008).

Table of Contents

Abbreviations; 1. Introducing Trintarian theology; 2. The Trinity and its scriptural roots; 3. The doctrine of the Trinity: its emergence and development in the life of the Christian community; 4. Theology of the Trinity from Richard of St Victor to the reformation; 5. The Trinity from Schleiermacher to the end of the twentieth century; 6. Contemporary Trinitarian theology: problems and perspectives; Epilogue; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a first-class lucid survey of the development of Trinitarian theology and its ethical and spiritual implications in the history of Christianity, both East and West. Marmion and Van Nieuwenhove have succeeded in making intelligible the most complex of debates and even more, showing why they were necessary for a serious doctrine of God."
Gavin D'Costa, University of Bristol

"… this is without doubt a first-rate, suggestive study, one that should find its way into graduate seminars on the Trinity."
Joseph Wawrykow, The Thomist

From the Publisher