Systematic Theology: The Triune God (Systematic Theology)

Rating:
Summary: America's Finest Theologian
Review: At a lecture in Chicago, Wolfhart Pannenberg pointed to a man in the audience and announced that the gentleman was the finest systematic theologian in the United States. That man was Robert W. Jenson. Jenson is not an easy theologian to read. His writing style is unique. His erudition overwhelming. His commitment to a catholic presentation of the Christian faith is emphatic; but he is also creative and original. What is perhaps most refreshing about Jenson is his refusal to surrender to the ideologies and fashions of the day. I have been reading Jenson's works for the past twenty years, and he remains one of the most intellectually exciting theologians that I know.

If you want to understand Jenson, you must understand that that he truly believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, that the historical man Jesus is constitutive for the identity of God.

Few will agree with Jenson at all points; but all will be creatively challenged by him.

Jenson is sometimes compared to Moltmann. Moltmann is of course far more popular; but he cannot hold a candle to Jenson's erudition, originality, and creativity.

Jenson is profitably read in conversation with the systematic theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg.

Rating:
Summary: America's Theologian
Review: This is systematic theology at its finest. Robert Jenson is, without much doubt the best systematic theologian writing in the United States today. In this fascinating work, Jenson draws on Gregory of Nyssa, Thomas Aquinas, Jonathan Edwards, Karl Barth and a host of contemporary thinkers to construct a truly masterful theological treatment of the Trinue God.

Jenson's central point of emphasis in the book is that the resurrection of Christ is definitive for the Trinitarian life of God. Jenson is consistently running against the grain of theologians who would like to maintain an idea of God as being distinct from or "above" the God made known in the history of Israel and Jesus. Jenson is emphatic that the history of Israel and Jesus is the history of the Triune God and (though 'and' is not quite the right word) his life with his people (Israel and the Church).

Some of the particularly amazing elements of this book are Jenson's thoughts on the Holy Spirit, particularly his role in the Trinity, the relationship of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and Jenson's "musical" ontology of the Trinity and our participation in the Triune music.

Jenson is helpfully read in concert with Wolfhart Pannenberg and Colin Gunton. Also very interesting are the ways in which central features of Jenson's thought overlap with some of the themes of the "Radical Orthodoxy" movement. Issues such as a metaphysics of participation, an understanding of philosophy as inherently theological and theological aesthetics of musicality are all themes in common with Radical Orthodoxy. What is remarkable is how Jenson is able to formulate these doctrines in ways that are far more coherent, biblically grounded and Trinitarian. It may very well be that the success of the broad aims of Radical Orthodoxy can only be achieved by those who, like Jenson are more radically committed to the biblical narrative and robust trinitarian theology.

Jenson (of course) has his difficult points. He can be quite difficult to read at points and he can veer into abstraction. His terminology also can be confusing on some levels. I was also a bit disappointed to see him attempting to appropriate the language of "subsistent relation" to describe the persons of the Trinity. How that language coheres with his prominent talk of "distinct identities" which are defined by their unbreakable relations to one an other, is unclear to me.

However, there is no question that this is perhaps the best systematic theology written by and American theologian in the twentieth century. For that the church and the acadamy owes Jenson much gratitude. Highly recommended.