Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity

by Thomas McCall, Michael Rea

Overview

Classical Christian orthodoxy insists that God is Triune: there is only one God, but there are three divine Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who are somehow of one substance with one another. But what does this doctrine mean? How can we coherently believe that there is only one God if we also believe that there are three divine Persons? This problem, sometimes called the 'threeness-oneness problem' or the 'logical problem of the Trinity', is the focus of this interdisciplinary volume.

Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity includes a selection of the most important recent philosophical work on this topic, accompanied with a variety of compelling new essays by philosophers and theologians to further the discussion. The book is divided into four parts, the first three dealing in turn with the three most prominent models for understanding the relations between the Persons of the Trinity: Social Trinitarianism, Latin Trinitarianism, and Relative Trinitarianism. Each section includes essays by both proponents and critics of the relevant model. The volume concludes with a section containing essays by theologians reflecting on the current state of the debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199216215
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/18/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors ix

1 Introduction Thomas McCall Michael C. Rea 1

Part I Social Trinitarianism and its Discontents

2 The Trinity Richard Swinburne 19

3 Has a Trinitarian God Deceived Us? William Hasker 38

4 Anti Social Trinitarianism Brian Leftow 52

5 Toward a Tenable Social Trinitarianism William Lane Craig 89

6 Trinity Monotheism Daniel Howard-Snyder 100

7 Another Glance at Trinity Monotheism William Lane Craig 126

8 Fully Social Trinitarianism Carl Mosser 131

9 How Many Times Does Three Go Into One? Keith Yandell 151

Part II Latin Trinitarianism

10 A Latin Trinity Brian Leftow 171

11 Latin Trinitarianism: Some Conceptual and Historical Considerations Richard Cross 201

Part III Relative Trinitarianism: Prospects and Problems

12 And Yet They Are Not Three Gods But One God Peter van Inwagen 217

13 Relative Identity and the Doctrine of the Trinity Michael C. Rea 249

14 Material Constitution and the Trinity Jeffrey E. Brower Michael C. Rea 263

15 Does the Problem of Material Constitution Illuminate the Doctrine of the Trinity? William Lane Craig 283

16 Defending the Consistency of the Doctrine of the Trinity Christopher Hughes 293

17 Brower and Rea's Constitution Account of the Trinity Alexander R. Pruss 314

Part IV The Threeness/Oneness Problem in Contemporary Theology

18 The Trinity in Theology and Philosophy: Why Jerusalem Should Work with Athens Alan G. Padgett 329

19 Theologians, Philosophers, and the Doctrine of the Trinity Thomas McCall 336

Index 351