Divine Simplicity: Christ the Crisis of Metaphysics

by Paul R. Hinlicky

Overview

A Fresh Articulation of the Unity of God

This volume critiques various ways divine simplicity--which suggests God's being is identical to God's attributes--has shaped Christian theology and offers a fresh articulation of the unity of God. The author proposes that the concept of divine simplicity, carried over from the Greek metaphysical tradition, was heedlessly incorporated into the language of Christian trinitarian theology during the patristic period. He identifies numerous problems that have resulted from its retention in postpatristic Christian dogmatics, arguing that uncritical use of the concept renders the biblical God inexpressible and unknowable. This major contribution to contemporary trinitarian dogmatics also contains a unique approach to the problem of Christian-Muslim relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493402748
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/19/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Paul R. Hinlicky (PhD, Union Theological Seminary, New York; DHabil, Comenius University, Bratislava) is Tise Professor of Lutheran Studies at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. He has authored three critically acclaimed studies in systematic theology, Beloved Community, Luther and the Beloved Community, and Divine Complexity.
Paul R. Hinlicky (PhD, Union Theological Seminary, New York; DHabil, Comenius University, Bratislava) is Tise Professor of Lutheran Studies at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. In addition to numerous contributions to edited volumes and journals, he is the author of Divine Simplicity and three critically acclaimed studies in systematic theology: Beloved Community: Critical Dogmatics after Christendom, Luther and the Beloved Community: A Path for Christian Theology after Christendom, and Divine Complexity: The Rise of Creedal Christianity. He is also coeditor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
1. The Simplicity of Consistent Perichoresis
Auseinandersetzung
Are Divine Attributes Projections?
Not a Possible Perfection of the God of the Gospel
The Régnon Thesis
2. The Unstable Synthesis of St. Thomas Aquinas
Ground Clearing
Thomas's Theology of Divine Nature
The Patrological Alternative
The Trajectory of Protological Simplicity
Excursus: True Gnosis in Clement of Alexandria
Sitz im Leben
The True Gnostic
The Defense of Philosophy as Handmaiden in Theology
Christian Platonism
The Difficulty of Evaluating Clement
Evangelization of Hellenism
3. Muddle, Not Mystery
Clarity on a Collapsing Synthesis
How Augustine Stumbled (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23) over the Folly of God
The Diversity of Simplicities
In Defense of Augustine
The Radicality of Protological Simplicity
The Personal Union
Christological Apophaticism: The Coincidence of Opposites in Christ Crucified
4. Analogy and the Communicatio Idiomatum
Analogia Entis?
Vindicating Univocity
Sorting out Paradox and Similitude
Jesus as Vestige of the Trinity
The Analogy of Faith as Union with Christ
At the Mercy of the Spirit
Conclusion: And Christ Must Reign until . . . (1 Cor. 15:25)
The Counterthesis of Analytic Theology
The Rule Theory of Doctrine
The Decalogue's First Table as the Rule of Weak Simplicity
Glossary of Foreign Words and Phrases
Indexes