God: Three Who Are One

by Joseph Bracken

Overview

Drawing on the wisdom and teaching experience of highly respected theologians, the Engaging Theology series builds a firm foundation for graduate study and other ministry formation programs. Each of the volumes—Scripture, Jesus, God, Anthropology, and Church—is concerned with retrieving, carefully evaluating, and constructively interpreting the Christian tradition. Comprehensive in scope and accessibly written, these volumes, used together or independently, will stimulate rich theological reflection and discussion. More important, the series will create and sustain the passion of the next generation of theologians and church leaders. The word God, said Martin Buber decades ago, is the most heavy-laden of all human words. None has become so soiled, so mutilated. Twenty-first-century discourse and action often perpetuate that lack of reverence. In this volume Joseph Bracken shows us a better way.

• He begins with Christianity’s roots in Judaism and the inherent struggle to explain the reality of three persons in God who is one.
• He allows readers to engage in the lively and fruitful trinitarian debates of the early church and discover how the classical doctrine of the Trinity has shaped the church through the centuries.
• He offers a solid theological treatment of the history of the doctrine of God and its relevance for Christians today—for dialogue between Christian men and women, between Christianity and other religions, and between religion and science.

Systematic theology at its best, God: Three Who Are One helps us find unexpected unity and consensus in a world full of troubling differences. Along the way, Bracken urges us to pray as well as think and to let rational reflection lead to praise and worship, thereby giving the doctrine of the Trinity its due reverence and care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814659908
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	09/01/2008
Series:	Engaging Theology: Catholic Perspectives
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 8.94(h) x 0.32(d)

About the Author

Joseph Bracken, SJ, is professor emeritus of theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has published ten books and more than ninety articles in academic journals in the general area of philosophical theology/philosophy of religion. His most recent books include Christianity and Process Thought: Spirituality for a Changing World (Templeton Foundation Press, 2006), God: Three Who Are One (Liturgical Press, 2008), and Subjectivity, Objectivity and Intersubjectivity: A New Paradigm for Religion and Science (Templeton Foundation Press, 2009).

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
Editor’s Preface   ix
Introduction: Faith and Ultimate Reality   xi
          PART ONE: Retrieval of the Tradition
Chapter One:
The Birth of a Revolutionary Belief   3
     God as One in the Hebrew Bible   3
     The New Christian Experience of God   5
     Work of the Early Fathers of the Church   6
     Origen’s Controversial Theories   7
     Tertullian and Other Western Theologians   8
     Arius and Arianism   10
     The Council of Nicaea   11
     Semi-Arianism   12
     The Divinity of the Holy Spirit   13
     Conclusion   14
Chapter Two:
The Standoff between East and West in Medieval Christianity   15
     Augustine’s Theology of the Trinity   16
     Between Augustine and Thomas Aquinas   17
     Aquinas on the Trinity   19 
     A Fresh Look at the Doctrine   21
     The Cappadocian Fathers in the Eastern Church   22
     God as Mystery for John of Damascus and Gregory Palamas   24
     The Breakup of East and West over the Procession of the Spirit   26
     Conclusion   27
Chapter Three:
Mysticism and Rationalism   28
     The Cloud of Unknowing   29
     The Trinitarian Spirituality of Julian of Norwich   31
     The German Mystical Tradition: Meister Eckhart   32
     Teresa of Avila: An Early Modern Spanish Mystic   35
     The New Approach to Science   37
     Nicholas of Cusa: Mystic and Mathematician   37
     Descartes and Newton   38
     From Theism, to Deism, to Atheism   40
     Conclusion   41
Chapter Four:
Recovery of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Twentieth Century   43
     Karl Barth’s Approach to the Doctrine of the Trinity   44
     Eberhard Jüngel and Karl Rahner   46
     Catherine Mowry LaCugna: God for Us   48
     Bernard Lonergan   49
     Wolfhart Pannenberg   51
     Conclusion   53
          PART TWO: New Critical Perspectives
Chapter Five:
The Creative Suffering of God   59
     Jürgen Moltmann: The Crucified God   60
     Whitehead’s Worldview   62
     Paul Fiddes: The Creative Suffering of God   64
     Making Space for One Another: A New Approach to Intersubjectivity   66 
     Common Space: Where Separate Fields of Activity Overlap and Intermingle   67
     Conclusion   68
Chapter Six:
The Problem of the One and the Many   69
     The Trinity as Model for Contemporary Life   69
     New Ideals for Modern Life in Community   71
     Jürgen Moltmann: The Social Model of the Trinity   72
     Leonardo Boff: The Trinity as Model for Social Change   74
     Wolfhart Pannenberg: Spirit as Force-Field and Person   76
     The Divine Matrix   78
     Conclusion   79
Chapter Seven:
What’s in a Name?   81
     The Origin of the Feminist Movement   81
     Mary Daly: Sexism in the Roman Catholic Church   82
     Two More Sources of Sexism in the Church   86
     Rosemary Radford Ruether: God as the Divine Ground of Being   88
     Sallie McFague: God as the “Soul” of the World   90
     The Doctrine of the Trinity as an Asset to Christian Feminists   90
     Elizabeth Johnson: God as She Who Is   92
     Conclusion   93
Chapter Eight:
Perichoresis of the World Religions   94
     Evaluation and Critique of Paul Knitter’s Approach   95
     S. Mark Heim: Multiple Ways to be Saved   97
     Different Dimensions of One and the Same Divine Life   99
     Will Christians Have a Higher Place in Heaven?   100
     Will Everyone Be Saved?   101
     Still Another Trinitarian Approach to Interreligious Dialogue   102
     Conclusion   104 
          PART THREE: Trinitarian Theology for Today
Chapter Nine:
Overcoming the Clash of Two Cultures   109
     The Long-standing Connection between Religion and Science   109
     The Key Issue: The Relation between Matter and Spirit   111
     Whitehead’s Novel Approach to the Problem   112
     Revision of Whitehead’s Scheme   114
     Why This Makes a Difference   115
     A Philosophical Explanation for Emergent Monism?   115
     Application to the Mind-Body Problem   116
     Belief in Life after Death   118
     The End of the World and the Transformation of the Universe   119
     Conclusion   120
Conclusion   123
Further Reading   128
Index of Names and Topics   130

Editorial Reviews

A masterful retrieval of the traditional teaching on the trinitarian mystery and a compelling introduction to its relevance today.
Barbara A. Finan, Professor of Religion and Humanities, Ohio Dominican University


Bracken appears to have done the impossible. First, he has written a remarkably clear and accessible text that will be widely used as an introduction to the history of Trinitarian theology and its contemporary applications. At the same time, he offers a bold new proposal for thinking the triune nature of God in dialogue with science, philosophy, theology, world religions, and contemporary culture. . . . Perhaps the best one-volume presentation of constructive Trinitarian theology in print today.
Philip Clayton, Author of The Problem of God in Modern Thought and Adventures in the Spirit


This book is clearly the work of a master. In accessible prose and with probing questions, Bracken introduces his reader to a wide range of issues surrounding the doctrine of God. With resources that span from science to spirituality, interpersonal experience and classic texts of the theological tradition, as well as major contemporary movements in philosophy and theology, this short book seems to cover it all! Bracken offers a comprehensive treatment of a classic theme with innovations relevant to our 21st century context.
Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Associate Professor of Theology, Fordham University


This text, in its accessible format in an excellent series may be a first step in this reevaluation of the human relation to the triune God.
Catholic Books Review

From the Publisher