TH012-712 - God as Trinity

  • 2,784 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 12
    Credit Points
  • 0.125 EFT 
  • 7
    AQF level
  • Category developing unit
    B
  • theologyUnit Discipline

Prerequisites

24cps TH/CH

Corequisites

96cps of study, including 36 cps at AQF level 6

Exclusions

Prior to 2020, this unit content was delivered under the unit code TH421.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

Demonstrate Functional knowledge and understanding of God as Trinity.

B. Be able to

1. Critically Analyse the interrelationship of the Trinity

2. Discuss methodological and theological issues of the Trinity

3. Present Critical evidence-based perspectives on the Trinity

C. Be in a position to

1 Applying perspectives from ‘God as Trinity’ to contemporary Christian life and ministry practice as a reflective practitioner

Content

  1. A study of the doctrine of the Trinity as presented in the following Fathers: Athanasius, The Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine of Hippo; and
  2. An examination of the relevance of the doctrine of the Trinity to faith and life. In this regard texts of the above Fathers are to be studied in company with TWO modern writers, such as Rahner, Barth, von Balthasar, Moltmann, la Cugna, Volf.

Set Readings

Prescribed:

Augustine, “On the Holy Trinity” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church,Series1, Vol.3  (Edinburgh: T & T Clark/ Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979-). CCEL online, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf103.html

Athanasius – see Hardy, Edward R., (ed.), Christology of the Later Fathers, Library of Christian Classics 3, (Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox, 2006, reprint of 1954 ed.). Also good for the Cappadocians.

Barth, K., Church Dogmatics (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994, I.1).

Gregory, N., “Five Theological Orations”, NPNF S2, vol.7, CCEL online, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.i.html

Rahner, K, “Remarks on the Dogmatic Treatise ‘De Trinitate’”, in Theological Investigations IV (London: Darton, Longman & Todd 1966,  77-102).

Rahner, K.,‘Towards an Understanding of the Doctrine of the Trinity” in Rahner, Foundations of the Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity, (London: Darton Longman & Todd, 1978, 133-137).

Zizioulis, J. B., “The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: The Significance of the Cappadocian Contribution”, in Christoph Schwobel (ed.), Trinitarian Theology Today: Essays on Divine Being and Act (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark 1995, 44-60).

 

Recommended:

Ayres, L., Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: OUP, 2004).

Beeley, C. A., Gregory of  Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God: In Your Light we See Light (New York/London: OUP, 2007).

Boff, L., Holy Trinity: Perfect Community (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000).

Brümmer, V., Atonement, Christology and the Trinity: Making Sense of Christian Doctrine (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005).

Coppedge, A., The God who is Triune: Revisioning the Christian Doctrine of God (Downers Grove IL: IVP, 2007).

Crisp, O., “Problems with Perichoresis”, Tyndale Bulletin 56/1 (2005) 119-140.

Davis, S. T., et al (eds), The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity, (Oxford: OUP, 2002; Oxford Scholarship Online, 2003, www.oxfordscholarshp.com).

Del Colle, R., “ ‘Person’ and ‘Being’ in John Zizioulas’ Trinitarian Theology: Conversations with Thomas Torrance and Thomas Aquinas”, Scottish Journal of Theology 54 (2000) 70-86.

Dunzl, F., trans. John Bowden, A Brief History of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Early Church (London/New York: T & T Clark, 2007).

Fiddes, P., Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (Westminster: John Knox,2000).

George, T., God the Holy Trinity (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006).

Grenz, S. J., Rediscovering the Triune God: the Trinity in Contemporary Theology (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2004).

Grenz, S. J., The Social God and thee Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001).

Gunton, C. E., Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Toward a Fully Trinitarian Theology (London/New York: T. and T. Clark, 2003)

Gunton, C. E., The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (London/New York: T & T Clark, 3rd  ed. 2003).

Hanson, R. P., Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006)

Heim, M., The Depth of the Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001).

Kärkkäinen, V-M., The Trinity: Global Perspectives (Louisville/London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007).

Kay, B., Trinitarian Spirituality: John Owen and the Doctrine of God in Western Devotion (Waynesboro GA: Paternoster, 2007).

Johnston, E. A., She Who Is (New York: Crossroad, 2002).

Jowers, D. W., “The Theology of the Cross as Theology of The Trinity: A Critique of Jurgen Moltmann’s Staurocentric Trinitarianism”, Tyndale Bulletin 52.2 (2001) 245-266.

Letham, R., The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship (Phillipsburg NJ: P & R, 2004).

Leupp, R. T., The Renewal of Trinitarian Theology: Themes, Patterns, and Explorations, (Downers Grove IL: IVP, 2008).

Metzger, P., Trinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology, (London/New York: T. and T. Clark, 2005).

Molnar, P. D., Divine Freedom and the Doctrine of the Immanent Trinity: In Dialogue with Karl Barth and Contemporary Theology (London/New York: T. T. Clark, 2002).

Molnar, P., “The Trinity and the Freedom of God”, Journal for Christian Theological Research 8 (2003) 59-66.

Olson, R., and C. Hall, The Trinity (Grand Rapids/ Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2002).

Seamands, S. A., Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service (Downers Grove Il: IVP, 2005).

Sherman, R. J., King, Priest and Prophet: A Trinitarian Theology of Atonement (Edinburgh: T.& T. Clark , 2004).

Smail, T. A., Like Father, Like Son: The Trinity Imaged in our Humanity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006).

Sokolowski, R., Christian Faith and Human Understanding: Studies on the Eucharist, Trinity, and the Human Person (Washington DC: CUA Press, 2006).

Torrance, T. F., The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons (Edinburgh/New York: T & T  Clark, 1996, Paperback ed. 2001).

Weinandy, T. G., Does God Suffer? (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2000).

 

Classics:

Jenson, R., “Justification as a Triune Event”, Modern Theology 11/4 (1995) 421-427.

LaCugna, C. M., God for Us: The Trinity and the Christian Life (New York: Harper SanFransisco, 1993).

Moltmann, J., The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993).

Moltmann, J., The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology, R. A. Wilson and John Bowden (trans.), (London: SCM/New York: Harper and Row, 1974).

Sherman, R. J., “Toward a Trinitarian Theology of the Atonement”, Scottish Journal of Theology 52 (1999) 346-374.

Schwobel, C., Trinitarian Theology Today: Essays on Divine Being and Act, (Edinburgh: T.& T. Clark, 1995).

Torrance, T. F., “The Atonement and the Holy Trinity”, in The Mediation of Christ (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1992; 99-125).

Torrance, A. J., Persons in Communion: An Essay on Trinitarian Description and Human Participation with Special Reference to Volume One of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1996).

Torrance, J. B., Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1996).

Volf, M., After our Likeness: The Church as Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998).

Wainwright, G., “The Doctrine of the Trinity: Where the Church Stands or Falls”, Interpretation 45 (1991) 117-132.

Wright, N. T., Jesus and the Victory of God (London: SPCK, 1996).

Zizioulas, J. B., Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (Crestwood: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press 1985).