God : Three Who Are One

by Bracken, Joseph A.

• ISBN13: 9780814659908
• ISBN10: 081465990X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-15
• Publisher: Michael Glazier

Summary

"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."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Joseph A. Bracken is Professor Emeritus of Theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Table of Contents

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