Under the broad umbrella of the Christian religion, there exists a great divide between two fundamentally different ways of thinking about key aspects of the Christian faith. Eugene Webb explores the sources of that divide, looking at how the Eastern and Western Christian worlds drifted apart due both to the different ways they interpreted their symbols and to the different roles political power played in their histories. Previous studies have focused on historical events or on the history of theological ideas. In Search of the Triune God delves deeper by exploring how the Christian East and the Christian West have conceived the relation between symbol and experience. Webb demonstrates that whereas for Western Christianity discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity has tended toward speculation about the internal structure of the Godhead, in the Eastern tradition the symbolism of the Triune God has always been closely connected to religious experience. In their approaches to theology, Western Christianity has tended toward a speculative theology, and Eastern Christianity toward a mystical theology. This difference of focus has led to a large range of fundamental differences in many areas not only of theology but also of religious life. Webb traces the history of the pertinent symbols (God as Father, Son of God, Spirit of God, Messiah, King, etc.) from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament through patristic thinkers and the councils that eventually defined orthodoxy. In addition, he shows how the symbols, interpreted through the different cultural lenses of the East and the West, gradually took on meanings that became the material of very different worldviews, especially as the respective histories of the Eastern and Western Christian worlds led them into different kinds of entanglement with ambition and power. Through this incisive exploration, Webb offers a dramatic and provocative new picture of the history of Christianity.

"A Michael Glazier book." Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-123) and index.

Who is the God of the Bible? From both within the church and outside her walls the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity, declared in Scripture and passed down in ecumenical creeds and local confessions of faith, is under attack. The emerging absence of a Trinitarian mind-set so prevalent in the church today has enormous implications for the future of the Christian faith. Concerned to counter contemporary attacks on the doctrine of God, Peter Toon here demonstrates the existence and priority of a Trinitarian pattern in Scripture and defends the essential role of the Trinity in Christian belief, faith, and practice.

The theology of the Trinity is undergoing an intense renewal filled with a vitality and vibrancy not seen since the fourth century. What had become, for most believers, dormant and peripheral to the understanding of the Christian faith is once again at the center of lively theological discussions. The Triune God offers a comprehensive overview of the theology of the Trinity from its origin in the Bible, through the significant periods of development in the early church, and up to the present time. Author Thomas Marsh reviews key biblical understandings of God, explains early church developments, highlights controversies about the Trinity considered at church councils, and chronicles the scholastic distinctions of the middle ages. He also explores contemporary efforts to revitalize the theology of the Trinity, and considers the question of inclusive God-language, the ÒrebirthÓ of the Spirit, and the role of the Trinity in the theology of the kingdom and in the place of the church in society. The Triune God is a serious exploration of the Tirnity well suited to college, seminary, and university courses. Anyone interested in an in-depth examination of the Trinity from a scriptural, historical, and pastoral perspective will find this book essential reading.

In this brief and winsome book, Michael Reeves presents an introduction to the Christian faith that is rooted in the triune God. He takes cues from preachers and teachers down through the ages, setting key doctrines of creation, the person and work of Christ, and life in the Spirit into a simple framework of the Christian life.

In this book of meditations, based on a series of meditations by the author shortly before he became Archbishop of Munich-Freising, in 1977, theologian Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) presents his profound thoughts on the nature and person of God, building a bridge between theology and spirituality as he makes wide use of the Sacred Scriptures to reveal the beauty and mystery of who God is. He writes about each of the three persons in the Holy Trinity, showing the different attributes of each person, and that "God is three and God is one." God is - and the Christian faith adds: God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three and one. This is the very heart of Christianity, but it is so often shrouded in a silence born of perplexity. Has the Church perhaps gone one step too far here? Ought we not rather leave something so great and inaccessible as God in his inaccessibility? Can something like the Trinity have any real meaning for us? It is certainly true that the proposition that "God is three and God is one" is and remains the expression of his otherness, which is infinitely greater than us and transcends all our thinking and our existence. But, as Joseph Ratzinger shows, if this proposition meant nothing to us, it would not have been revealed! And it could be clothed in human language only because it had already penetrated human thinking and living to some extent. "Without Jesus, we do not know what 'Father' truly is. This becomes visible in his prayer, which is the foundation of his being. A Jesus who was not continuously absorbed in the Father, and was not in continuous intimate communication with him, would be a completely different being from the Jesus of the Bible, the real Jesus of history... In Jesus' prayer, the Father becomes visible and Jesus makes himself known as the Son. The unity which this reveals is the Trinity. Accordingly, becoming a Christian means sharing in Jesus' prayer, entering into the model provided by his life, i.e. the model of prayer. Becoming a Christian means saying 'Father' with Jesus.” — Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)