Is the Trinity a piece of celestial algebra that really makes no difference to Christians, or a life-giving mystery that teaches us something vital about God and ourselves? This doctrine has taken its shape and focus over many centuries, and this textbook aims to retrieve key insights that have emerged at different times and to root them in their authors' life experience. It also explores contemporary re-expressions and ramifications of this teaching. It seeks a fruitful integration of various approaches to this mystery, notably to the psychological (intra-personal) and social (inter-personal, communitarian) models which continue to be put forward today. In greater detail, this text-book covers the development of Christian teaching on God one and triune, starting with its roots in the Hebrew scriptures, and surveying its development down through the centuries. It covers the impact of Jesus on our understanding of God and the early traces of teaching about the Trinity in the New Testament; the foundations for the doctrine of the Trinity laid in the period of the Fathers and Councils; developments in the Western Church from Augustine to the Medieval period, with attention to the contrasting approaches of the Eastern Church; and the contribution of great authors of the 20th century such as Rahner, von Balthasar, Lonergan, Mühlen, and the models they provide. It then explores a contemporary approach that brings together earlier understandings, and reflects on the pertinence of this teaching on the life of the Church, focusing on how we might name God in a post-patriarchal society, and how we might foster genuine dialogue between world religions. Rather than put forth an out-and-out critique of earlier authors, it seeks to retrieve what is of genuine value in their approaches, and rather than set them in opposition to each other tries to bring them together in integration. A detailed table of contents at the end of the book will serve as a road map, and study questions will help the reader better actualize the connection between this teaching and his/her experience.
About the Author: Jean-Marc Laporte, S.J. joined the Jesuits in 1958, studied theology at Regis College (1964-68), and was ordained a priest in 1967 in Toronto. He received his doctorate from the Université de Strasbourg in 1971. He taught at Regis College from 1971 to 2002, with focus on grace, Christology, Trinity, and Aquinas. He was president of the college from 1975 to 1982 and from 1992-1999 he was Director of the Toronto School of Theology. From 2002-2008 he was Provincial Superior of the Jesuits in English Canada. He is currently the director of the Jesuit Spirituality Centre in Halifax and priest-in-charge of St. Patrick's Parish in Halifax. In addition to articles and the publication of his doctoral dissertation, he published Patience and Power (New York: Paulist 1988), a contemporary theology of grace for the first world. This book, God One and Triune: Retrievals and Explorations, comes out of many years of teaching Trinitarian theology, with a view to impacting the personal experience and pastoral approach of students.