An Introduction to the Trinity

Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of writing on the Trinity, indicating a renewal of ideas and debate concerning this key element of Christian theology. This introduction challenges the standard account of a decline and revival in Trinitarian theology, taking into account recent, alternative readings of the theological tradition by Lewis Ayres and Michel Barnes amongst other scholars. By clearly analysing the scope of these new approaches, the authors establish the importance of a sapiential understanding of the Trinity, resisting the notion of separating faith and reason and identifying theology's link to spirituality. Their account also eschews the easy stereotypes of Western Christianity's supposedly more Unitarian approach as opposed to the more Trinitarian view of the East. Offering an overview of the main people and themes in Trinitarian theology past and present, this book thus provides an accessible, comprehensive guide for students and scholars alike.

Declan Marmion is Head of the Department of Systematic Theology and History at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin. He is the author of A Spirituality of Everyday Faith: A Theological Investigation of the Notion of Spirituality in Karl Rahner (1998) and is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Karl Rahner (Cambridge, 2005) and Christian Identity in a Postmodern Age (2005). Rik Van Nieuwenhove is Lecturer in Theology at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. He is the author of Jan van Ruusbroec: Mystical Theologian of the Trinity (2003) and is co-editor (with J. Wawrykow) of The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (2005) and Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries (2008).