December 2006

ARTICLE TOOLS

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This book attempts to connect a crucial doctrine with the life of the church: "How does the doctrine of the Trinity shape the ways of the Christian life, its worship and prayer, its service and mission?" Contributors from the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions try to answer.

James Earl Massey shows how African American spirituals composed during slavery reflect a moving response to the triune God. Avery Cardinal Dulles traces some of the ways in which the Trinity constitutes the bedrock for ecumenical witness and work. From the vantage point of Eastern Christianity, Frederica Mathewes-Green argues that the subject of the triune God is often best approached through art, architecture, and iconography.

Perhaps the most innovative essay is Alister McGrath's "The Doctrine of the Trinity: An Evangelical Reflection." McGrath wisely warns against both "Trinitarian inflation" (a lovely expression, denoting ungrounded speculations such as the "social model of the Trinity") and various attempts to visualize the Trinity.

Two niggles. First, Timothy George includes at least half a dozen labels or summaries I find baffling, even misleading. Are Michael Servetus and Faustus Socinus best thought of as "evangelical rationalists"? I know they have been called that in the past, of course, but today's use of the term evangelical makes the expression misleading. Second, in a book ostensibly designed to trace the ways the doctrine of the Trinity shapes Christian life, thought, and worship, its silence on the parallel between Father and Son and husband and wife is passing strange.

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God the Holy Trinity: Reflections on Christian Faith and Practice and an excerpt from the book are available at ChristianBook.com and other retailers.

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