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The Triune Identity: God According to the Gospel

The Triune Identity: God According to the Gospel

List Price: $24.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A true tour de force
Review: Jenson's book on the Trinity is one of the most original and creative treatments written in the past thirty years. He takes Rahner's dictum "The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity" and pushes it as hard as it can go: God defines himself in the history of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is the Gospel!

In the first two chapters, he proposes that the Christian God has a revealed name--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--which in fact has fulfilled the Tetragramaton revealed to Moses. He then shows how this Name structures Christian prayer, worship, and proclamation in the New Testament. He then helpfully unpacks the Trinitarian debates of the Nicene period and shows why the Church insisted on the trinitarian revoluation when it could easily have simply adopted a more Hellenistic understanding of deity.

I have to confess, though, that the last chapter on the infinity of God has always eluded me.

Jenson has developed, and at points, corrected his thinking in his *Systematic Theology*; but *Triune Identity* remains a classic and is must reading for all who are interested in Trinitarian theology.

Jenson's work is profitably read in conversation with Wolfhart Pannenberg.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A true tour de force
Review: Jenson's book on the Trinity is one of the most original and creative treatments written in the past thirty years. He takes Rahner's dictum "The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity" and pushes it as hard as it can go: God defines himself in the history of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is the Gospel!

In the first two chapters, he proposes that the Christian God has a revealed name--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--which in fact has fulfilled the Tetragramaton revealed to Moses. He then shows how this Name structures Christian prayer, worship, and proclamation in the New Testament. He then helpfully unpacks the Trinitarian debates of the Nicene period and shows why the Church insisted on the trinitarian revoluation when it could easily have simply adopted a more Hellenistic understanding of deity.

I have to confess, though, that the last chapter on the infinity of God has always eluded me.

Jenson has developed, and at points, corrected his thinking in his *Systematic Theology*; but *Triune Identity* remains a classic and is must reading for all who are interested in Trinitarian theology.

Jenson's work is profitably read in conversation with Wolfhart Pannenberg.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Classic and Groundbreaking Work on the Trinity
Review: This book is one of the central books to understanding Robert Jenson's theology. Jenson essentially unpacks how Trinitarian doctrine is the outworking of the logic of the gospel. The great insight that Jenson brings to the table in this is the realization that outr understanding of God's identity is defined by his actions amoung us. Thus, when Christians say "God", we mean "Whoever raised Jesus from the dead" (and presumably, also "whoever sent the Spirit"). This goes back to the Old Testament idenfication of God as "The one who brought us out of Egypt."

Jenson also does some incredibly helpful work on the nature of God's eternity and infinity. Unlike Stocicism, Plato and Aristotle (thus, Augustine and Aquinas), Jenson shows how the biblical concept of God's eternality is not timelessness, but everlasting faithfulness through time. Likewise, God's infinty is not found in the fact that he lacks boundries, but rather in that he overcomes all boundries.

This work is seminal and vitally impoortant for understanding Jenson and Trinitarian theology. The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is because it is very difficult to read. Jenson clearly has a very stron background in philosphy and he seems to assume his audience does as well. If this is not the case (it wasn't for me when I first read the book), then it will be a difficult read. However it is well worth the effort. Highly recommended.


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