Holy Trinity Holy People

Teaching on the sanctification of Christians using the difficult word perfection has been part of Christian spirituality through the centuries. The Fathers spoke of it and Augustine particularly contributed his penetrating analysis of human motivation interms of love. Medieval theologians such as Bernard and Thomas Aquinas developed the tradition and wrote of levels or degrees of perfection in love.However, the doctrine has not fared so well among Protestants. John Wesley was the one major Protestant leader who tried to blend this ancient tradition of Christian

Teaching on the sanctification of Christians using the difficult word perfection has been part of Christian spirituality through the centuries. The Fathers spoke of it and Augustine particularly contributed his penetrating analysis of human motivation in terms of love. Medieval theologians such as Bernard and Thomas Aquinas developed the tradition and wrote of levels or ""degrees"" of ""perfection"" in love. However, the doctrine has not fared so well among Protestants. John Wesley was the one major Protestant leader who tried to blend this ancient tradition of Christian ""perfection"" with the Reformation proclamation of justification by grace through faith. This book seeks to develop Wesley's synthesis of patristic and Reformation theology in order to consider how Christian ""perfection"" can be expressed in a more nuanced way in today's culture. Noble examines what basis may be found for Wesley's understanding of sanctification in the central doctrines of the church, particularly the atonement, the doctrine of Christ, and the most comprehensive of all Christian doctrines, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. What he sets out is a fully trinitarian theology of holiness. ""Holy Trinity: Holy People is a wise and winsome trinitarian account of Christian perfection. Noble conceives of holiness not in individualist terms of isolation from the world, but as a communion of love, [as] participation in God's trinitarian love, which is essentially redemptive in character rather than judgmental. Anyone interested in what a trinitarian account of holiness could be need look no further than Noble's profound and compelling work."" --Elmer M. Colyer, Professor of Systematic Theology and Professor of Wesley Studies, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary ""Carefully contextualizing the vital doctrine of Christian perfection in terms of Scripture and church tradition, both Eastern and Western, Noble offers the reader a remarkably balanced assessment of John Wesley's articulation of entire sanctification that is sophisticated, informed by a number of theological streams, and wonderfully trinitarian. Due to its many fresh insights, this engaging book will, no doubt, foster a lively conversation and considerable reflection among all who love holiness."" --Kenneth J. Collins, Professor of Wesley Studies and Historical Theology, Asbury Theological Seminary ""This book is a landmark in treatments of Wesley's doctrine of Christian perfection. Be assured: this is no parochial performance. Noble's work does not just revisit the Wesleys of old; he integrates his critical assessment of their insights into a penetrating vision of the Triune God. Marked by a singular beauty of expression and structure, this work will become a benchmark in the field of Wesleyan and Methodist theology."" --William J. Abraham, Professor of Wesley Studies, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University T. A. Noble is Professor of Theology at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and also Senior Research Fellow in Theology at Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, UK. He was recently president of the Wesleyan Theological Society.

"Why be concerned with the Trinity? What does it mean to say, "I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?" In this accessible work Leonardo Boff takes up the ancient doctrine of the Trinity showing its meaning and relevance for Christian faith today." "In a series of short chapters Boff unpacks the mysteries of the Trinity, spelling out the difference it makes to believe that God is communion rather than solitude. Instead of an image of God as solitary ruler standing aloof above a static universe, belief in the Trinity means that at the root of everything there is movement, there is an eternal process of life, of outward movement, and love." "While comprehensive in his treatment of the theological and anthropological dimensions of the Trinity, Boff is especially interested in the social implications. In the Trinity we find a program of liberation to the infinite degree: "difference and distinction, equality and perfect communion." The Holy Trinity is, among other things, the image of the perfect community. At the same time, in the Trinity we find the best image of the church: not a hierarchy of power, but a community of diverse gifts and functions. Thus comprehension of the Trinity, in which God comes out to meet us in the full realization of our yearnings, empowers our efforts for a better world and a more faithful church. Book jacket."--Jacket.

The Divine Dance has become a classic for fans of Richard Rohr and an important book on Christian mysticism, it provides a fresh perspective for anyone studying or teaching the trinity. The Trinity is the central doctrine of Christianity, but it is still widely considered a mystery we won't ever fully understand. Should we still try to understand it, even so? If we could, how would it transform our relationship with God? In this stimulating and thought-provoking book, internationally recognised teacher Richard Rohr explores the nature of God and the paradoxical idea of the Holy Trinity as both three and one. With clear, surefooted wisdom, he encourages us to build on the early Christian understanding of the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit as a flow and dance - a Divine Dance - that we are invited to join in. An engaging, accessible look at the nature of God, The Divine Dance will challenge the way you think about the Trinity and give you a much fuller understanding of the triune relationship that is at the heart of Christian doctrine. It will leave you with a faith that is renewed and strengthened, and show you how you can engage more deeply in your relationship with God and the world through the Trinity.

The following dissertation concerning the Trinity, as the reader ought to be informed, has been written in order to guard against the sophistries of those who disdain to begin with faith, and are deceived by a crude and perverse love of reason. Now one class of such men endeavor to transfer to things incorporeal and spiritual the ideas they have formed, whether through experience of the bodily senses, or by natural human wit and diligent quickness, or by the aid of art, from things corporeal; so as to seek to measure and conceive of the former by the latter. Aeterna Press

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this formula that Christians recite as though on autopilot lie the secrets for healing our world, rekindling our visionary imagination, and manifesting the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It’s an astonishing claim, but one that is supported by Cynthia Bourgeault’s exploration of Trinitarian theology—and by her bold work in further articulating the deep truth it contains. She looks to the ancient concept in light of the ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff and Jacob Boehme to reveal the Trinity as the "hidden driveshaft" within Christianity: the compassionate expression of the Uncreated Reality in creation.

Robert Letham's award-winning The Holy Trinity receives a well-considered update in this revised and expanded new edition. Letham examines the doctrine of the Trinity's biblical foundations and traces its historical development through the twentieth century before engaging four critical issues: the Trinity and (1) the incarnation, (2) worship and prayer, (3) creation and missions, and (4) persons. The new edition addresses developments in Augustine studies, teaching on the Trinity and election in Barth studies, and contemporary evangelical disputes on the relation of the Son to the Father.

Katherine Sonderegger follows her monumental volume on the doctrine of God with this second entry of her Systematic Theology, which explores the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Locating her analysis first in the Hebrew Scriptures, Sonderegger examines the thrice-holy God that is proclaimed to Isaiah in the sanctuary and manifested in the sacrifice of the temple. The book of Leviticus, read in conversation with Exodus, unfolds the doctrine of the Trinity under the character of holiness. In the One God, Trinity speaks of the life, movement, and self-offering of God, who is the eternal procession of goodness and light. In Israel's sacrificial covenant, the Triune God is perfect self-offering: the eternal descent of the Father of Lights is the offering who is Son, eternally received and hallowed in the one who is Spirit. Anchoring the theology of the Trinity in Israel's Scriptures in this way elevates the processions over the persons, exploring the mystery of the Divine Life as holy, rational, and good. The Divine Persons, named in the New Testament, cannot be defined but may be glimpsed in the notion of perfection, a complete and perfect infinite set. In all these ways, the Holy Trinity may be praised as the deep reality of the life of God.