ABSTRACT
We turn now to the heart of the ontology of orthodox Christianity: the being of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While Eastern Orthodox theologians have consistently embraced Trinitarian doctrine as the hermeneutical key to understanding the distinctive truth claims of orthodox Christianity, Western theologians have not always followed their lead consistently. Roman Catholicism’s flirtation with classical theism, conservative Protestantism’s suspicion of doctrinal claims not explicitly contained in the Bible, and Liberal Protestantism’s modernist- derived suspicion of metaphysical questions, have at times served to obscure the centrality of the doctrine of the Trinity. Western Christianity is, however, currently in the middle of a renaissance of Trinitarian theology that is proving instrumental in the recovery and reaffirmation of the core ontological claims of Christian orthodoxy (Kärkkäinen 2009; cf. Barth 1936–1952; Mackey 1983; Gunton 1991, 2003; J.B. Torrance 1996; T.F. Torrance 1996; Cunningham 1998; O'Collins 1999; Marshall 2000; Tanner 2001; Grenz 2004). The doctrine of the Trinity is essential to orthodox Christianity: it is not a logical problem to be resolved; not a ‘difficult’ or ‘embarrassing’ doctrine to be placed to one side; not a mystery to be carefully guarded; not the product of idle speculation; not the outcome of an unnecessary and misplaced flirtation with Greek metaphysics; and not a thin Christian veneer superimposed on the God of classical theism. Rather, it is the result of a retroductive attempt to identify, describe, explore and iteratively refine an understanding of the ontological being of God, and hence the ontological foundation of the whole of creation, in the light of the history of Israel, the first disciples’ encounter with Jesus of Nazareth, and the ongoing lived experience of the Christian Church. As Robert Jenson puts it, the doctrine of Trinity ‘has explanatory and regulatory use in the whole of theology ... it is not a separate puzzle to be solved’, but rather the ‘framework within which all theology’s puzzles are to be solved’ (Jenson 1997, p. 31).
