IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT: TOWARD A TRANSCULTURAL TRINITARIAN WORLDVIEW

Abstract

Broadly across Christian traditions today, the renaissance of Trinitarian studies continues to yield productive directives regarding the practical implications of faith in the tripersonal God.[1] Some ideas align fairly readily with classical Christian faith, others appear more distant from the Niceno-Constantino­politan Creed as historically interpreted—whether in the East or the West [1] Recent Trinitarian contributions include: Allan Coppedge, The God Who Is Triune: Revisioning the Christian Doctrine of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007); Peter Drilling, Premodern Faith in a Postmodern Culture: A Contemporary Theology of the Trinity (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006); John F. Fish, ed., Understanding the Trinity (Dubuque, IA: ECS Ministries, 2006); Kevin Giles, The Trinity and Subordinationism: The Doctrine of God and the Contemporary Gender Debate (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002); Stanley J. Grenz, The Named God and the Question of Being: A Trinitarian Theo-Ontology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2005); Grenz, The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2001); Andreas J. Köstenberger and Scott R. Swain, Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008); Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2004); Bruce L. McCormack, ed., Engaging the Doctrine of God: Contemporary Protestant Perspectives (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008); Marc Cardinal Ouellet, Divine Likeness: Toward a Trinitarian Anthropology of the Family, trans. Philip Milligan and Linda M. Cicone (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006); John Owen, Communion with the Triune God, eds. Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007) William C. Placher, The Triune God: An Essay in Postliberal Theology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2007); Fred Sanders and Klaus Issler, eds., Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology (Nashville, TN: B & H Academic, 2007); Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005); F. LeRon Shults, Reforming the Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005); Tom Smail, Like Father, Like Son: The Trinity Imaged in Our Humanity (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005); Miroslav Volf and Michael Welker, eds. God’s Life in Trinity (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006); Bruce A. Ware, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005).