The Quest for the Trinity
The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity
The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity
The doctrine of the Trinity was settled in the fourth century, and maintained, with only very minor disagreement or development, by all strands of the church--Western and Eastern, Protestant and Catholic--until the modern period. In the twentieth century, there arose a sense that the doctrine had been neglected and stood in need of recovery. In The Quest for the Trinity, Holmes takes us on a remarkable journey through 2,000 years of the Christian doctrine of God. We witness the church s discovery of the Trinity from the biblical testimony, its crucial patristic developments, and medieval and Reformation continuity. We are also confronted with the questioning of traditional dogma during the Enlightenment, and asked to consider anew the character of the modern Trinitarian revival. Holmes s controversial conclusion is that the explosion of theological work in recent decades claiming to recapture the heart of Christian theology in fact deeply misunderstands and misappropriates the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. Yet his aim is constructive: to grasp the wisdom of the past and, ultimately, to bring a clearer understanding of the meaning of the present.
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Short Review: (Read the long review this is a technical book). Holmes focus is showing that modern trinitarian theology is fundamentally different than the Trinitarian doctrine developed by the Patristic fathers of the first several centuries of Christianity. This is historical theology and I think we need more historical theology, especially in the Evangelical church world. I think he makes his point well in most areas. Modern language has altered the idea of personhood and substance so the patristic understanding of their language is very different than the way that modern readers understand the trinitarian descriptions of the Nicene Creed and other creedal statements.
What I was not convinced of is that Augustine and the Eastern trinitarian writers were in fundamental agreement. If it is true, then Holmes is right and modern work on the trinity focusing on its social aspects if fundamentally different. If Holmes is wrong, and the East were more focused on social interaction of the trinity then his thesis breaks down and modern trinitarian theology is an expansion of eastern Patristics, not a fundamentally different theology.
This is a book well worth reading if you are looking into the historical theology of the Trinity. It is technical. I have never used my Kindle dictionary and wikipedia look up function so much as with this book. Holmes clearly is familiar with the subject and far smarter than I am.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-quest-for-the-trinity/
