The Trinity In History A Theology Of The Divine Missions

The second volume of Robert M. Doran’s magisterial The Trinity in History continues his exploration of the Trinitarian theology of Bernard Lonergan, focusing now on the notions of relations and persons and connecting the systematic proposals with the so-called "Third Quest for the Historical Jesus." Doran not only interprets Lonergan’s major work in Trinitarian theology and Christology but also suggests at least a twofold advance: a new version of the psychological analogy for understanding Trinitarian doctrine and a new starting point for the whole of systematic theology. He links these theological concerns with René Girard’s mimetic theory, proposes a theory of history based in Lonergan’s scale of values, and creates a link between exegetical and historical scholarship and systematic theology.

The Trinity in History is the first volume in a new series by Robert M. Doran that uses the thought of Bernard Lonergan to develop a unified field structure for systematic work in theology. Building on his successful and thought-provoking Theology and the Dialectics of History and What Is Systematic Theology?, Doran works out a starting point for a contemporary theology of history and proposes a new application of the 'psychological analogy' for understanding the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Advancing the work of Lonergan, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, The Trinity in History also enters into conversation with contemporary philosophical emphases, especially with the mimetic theory of noted anthropological philosopher René Girard. Doran suggests several refinements of Lonergan's notion of functional specialization – developing a perspective for including the data of various religious traditions in theological construction, and establishing this theory's relevance for contemporary interreligious dialogue.

The Trinity in History is the first volume in a new series by Robert M. Doran that uses the thought of Bernard Lonergan to develop a unified field structure for systematic work in theology. Building on his successful and thought-provoking Theology and the Dialectics of History and What Is Systematic Theology?, Doran works out a starting point for a contemporary theology of history and proposes a new application of the ‘psychological analogy’ for understanding the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Advancing the work of Lonergan, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, The Trinity in History also enters into conversation with contemporary philosophical emphases, especially with the mimetic theory of noted anthropological philosopher René Girard. Doran suggests several refinements of Lonergan’s notion of functional specialization – developing a perspective for including the data of various religious traditions in theological construction, and establishing this theory’s relevance for contemporary interreligious dialogue.

This book, the first serious analysis of the doctrine of the Trinity for many years, presents a defense against the conservative treatment of the Trinity as an impenetrable "mystery," and against the radical position that the doctrine is incoherent and therefore unacceptable. Brown favors "the founding of a new discipline of philosophical theology (or the widening of the horizons of the philosophy of religion) to apply more widely the type of penetration of theology by philosophy" that he exemplifies in his treatment of the Trinity. He argues for belief in an interventionist God (theism rather than deism), and contends that biblical criticism and historical research do not imply the abandonment of Christian belief, since "the historical original" should not be equated with "theological truth." Although historical difficulties must prevent any literal acceptance of the Gospel accounts in toto, "the true Christ" can be disentangled from "the historical Jesus" by philosophical method. Wide-ranging in scope, rigorous and candid in argument, Brown's work will prove of interest to educated Christian laypersons and others beyond the boundaries of professional theology and philosophy of religion. Perhaps most provocative is Brown's assertion that the Resurrection must be accepted as a literally true visionary experience, and that anyone who accepts it must be prepared to take seriously other visionary experiences, for example, visions of the Virgin Mary, even if he rejects them in the end. "It is certainly an astonishing truth that God should be so interested in a being of such vastly inferior powers as man," says the author. "But that clearly must be the implication of the doctrine of the Trinity . . ." To have reached this conclusion by means of philosophical argument is to have taken a major step toward the "complete penetration of theology by philosophy" that Brown calls for.

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

ÒA primary condition for fresh thinking on the Trinity is an accurate, objective account of past and present thoughtÓ wrote one reviewer when The Triune God first appeared in 1972. ÒThis [is what] Fortman has presented sensitively, accurately, and compactly.Ó The author sets out Òto trace the historical development of Trinitarian doctrine from its written beginnings to its contemporary status.Ó Thus he treats the biblical witness, the Council of Nicea, Augustine, the Middle Ages, and the development of this doctrine from the fifteenth century to the present in the Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic traditions.

Trinitarian Doctrine for Today's Mission This stimulating little book introduces some of the issues involved in mission in the twentieth century. Newbigin discusses missions from an ecumenical perspective before considering the limits of ecumenicity and the need for truth. He considers that the present situation of the missionary movement has brought the question of the uniqueness and finality of Christ into sharp focus. This question, he argues, and the question of the relation of what God is doing in the mission of the Church and in the secular events of history will only be answered correctly in the framework of a fully and explicitly trinitarian doctrine of God. With and introduction by Eleanor Jackson.