The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God (Thomistic Ressourcement Series)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
The Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith. What can we say about the divine nature, and what does it mean to say that God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three persons who are one in being? In this book, best selling author Thomas Joseph White, OP, examines the development of early Christian reflection on the Trinity, arguing that essential contributions of Patristic theology are preserved and expanded in the thought of Thomas Aquinas.
By focusing on Aquinas’ theology of the divine nature as well as his treatment of divine personhood, White explores in depth the mystery of Trinitarian monotheism. The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God also engages with influential proposals of modern theologians on major topics such as Trinitarian creation, Incarnation and crucifixion, and presents creative engagements with these topics. Ultimately any theology of the cross is also a theology of the Trinity, and this book seeks to illustrate how the human life, death, and resurrection of Jesus reveal the inner life of God as Trinity.
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- Examines the development of early Christian reflection on the Trinity
- Argues that essential contributions of Patristic theology are preserved and expanded in Aquinas’s thought
- Illustrates how the human life, death, and resurrection of Jesus reveal the inner life of God as Trinity
- The Mystery of God: Religious and Philosophical Origins
- The Problem of God in Modernity
- The Revelation of the One God in Israel
- Foundations for Trinitarian Faith in the Life of Jesus Christ
- Pauline Trinitarian Theology
- Johannine Trinitarian Theology
- Nicene Trinitarian Theology
- The Advent of Orthodoxy: Cappadocian Trinitarian Theology
- Augustine’s Trinitarian Theology
- Trinitarian Analogy: Dionysius the Areopagite and the Fourth Lateran Council
- Analogia Entis within Analogia Fidei: Arguments for God’s Existence
- Naming God Analogically
- Divine Simplicity
- Divine Perfection and Goodness
- Divine Infinity and Omnipresence
- Divine Immutability and Impassibility
- Divine Eternity and Unity
- Divine Knowledge and Love
- Divine Omnipotence
- Knowledge of the Triune God
- A Prologue to Thomistic Trinitarian Theology
- Immanent Processions in God
- Trinitarian Relations and Notional Names of Persons
- The Divine Persons
- God the Father
- God the Son
- God the Holy Spirit
- Perichoresis and Trinitarian Communion
- Appropriation, Creation, and the Unity of Divine Action
- The Divine Missions
- Is There Such a Thing as an Economic Trinity? On the Trinitarian Activity of Divine Revelation
- The Trinity and Creation
- The Trinity in the Incarnation and Life of Christ
- The Revelation of the Trinity in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ
- Conclusion: On Being Trinitarian
Part I: Principles and Disputations: On the Development of Trinitarian Doctrine
Part II: On the Mystery of the Divine Nature: St. Thomas Aquinas’s De Deo Uno Treatise
Part III: The Immanent Communion of Persons: St. Thomas Aquinas’s De Deo Trino Treatise
Part IV: Trinitarian Economy: Creation and Christology
It is a massive project to present a biblically and patristically grounded Thomistic analysis of both the De Deo Uno and the immanent and economic Trinity, engaging with modern theologies and their philosophical underpinnings, in order to argue for how these often seen as separate treatise are interrelated. One not only needs a lengthy manuscript as this one but more importantly a thorough knowledge of the biblical and patristic information, a profound access to Thomas’ works and a masterful control of the main modern theologians. Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP, has succeeded in giving all this to the reader. Truly a unique achievement.
—Jörgen Vijgen, Major Seminary, Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam, Netherlands
Fr. Thomas Joseph White is a master of theology sensu eminenti, and this book is a master course on the Trinity from a Thomistic standpoint. What makes it especially valuable, however, is not just how well it serves as a historical and systematic introduction to Trinitarian theology before Thomas—from the biblical witness to the Cappadocians and Augustine to the Fourth Lateran Council—but that it puts Thomas in direct conversation with modern Trinitarian theology (Bulgakov, Balthasar, Moltmann, and others). The result is an impressive renewal of Thomism and a novel restatement—emphasizing the analogy of divine and human natures in Christ—of Thomas’s relevance to contemporary Trinitarian theology
—John Betz, University of Notre Dame
Ask Christians about the Trinity and all too often they respond with ‘It’s a great mystery’ and then change the subject! Thomas Joseph White was never one to evade such a challenge, and here he systematically investigates the central mystery of our faith. Just as people we love are a mystery to us so deep that we can never exhaust who they are as we endlessly discover new depths to them, so Thomas Joseph demonstrates that getting to know the Triune God is endlessly fascinating, meaningful, and life changing. To embrace this mystery is to discover the Absolute is personal, the Totally Other is totally for us. Fr. Thomas Joseph faithfully mines two millennia of human contact with the Trinity in Scripture, in the Fathers, but especially in the greatest theological master, St. Thomas Aquinas. He explains, defends, and creatively extends the master’s insights. At the end of this great read you’ll know God better and love God more!
—Anthony Fisher, OP, Archbishop of Sydney