Persons in Communion: Trinitarian Description and Human Participation

401 Pages·2010·13.84 MB·English

by  Alan Torrance

PERSONS IN COMMUNION
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PERSONS IN COMMUNION
An Essay on Trinitarian Description
and Human Participation
with special reference to Volume One of
Karl Earth's Church Dogmatics
Alan J. Torrance
T&T CLARK
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Copyright © T&T Clark Ltd, 1996
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without the prior permission of T&T Clark Ltd.
First published 1996
ISBN 978 0 567 28322 1
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Typeset by Trinity Typesetting, Edinburgh
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, Guildford
Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1. Theological Description and the Content of
Theology in Volume One of Church Dogmatics 7
Earth's Perspective on the Task of Dogmatic Theology 9
Theology and the Being of the Church 10
The Non-neutrality of the Theologian 12
The Inseparability of Formal and
Material Considerations 15
The Necessity of the Semantic Revision of
Theological Terminology 28
The Identity in God of Word and Act 31
The Eschatological Tension in Human Existence 36
The Provisional Nature of Dogmatic's Forms
of Expresion 40
The Relationship between Proclamation and
Dogmatic Theology 42
The Methodological and Epistemological
Significance of Divine Fredom 46
The 'Scientific* Nature of Theology 54
Conclusion 57
V
vi Persons in Communion
2. Revelation, Reiteration and the Divine Identity 58
The Western Ordo Salutis and its underlying
Model of Revelation 59
The Primacy of the 'Who' Question over the
'How' Question 71
The Primacy of Proclamation 74
a) God's Revelation is its own Ground 75
b) The Epistemological Impossibility of Revelation 78
c) God's Lordship and Freedom and the
Consequent Novelty of Revelation 79
The Material Implications of Barth's Notion of Freedom 81
Earth's Reinterpretation of the Structure of Revelation 89
a) The Question of a Potential Circularity 91
b) Does Barth's Revelation Model involve the
Notion of a Private Language? 96
Reiteration and the Divine Identity 98
The Triune Nature of God's Being-with-us in the
Event of Revelation 100
a) The Task of Theological Expression 100
b) Barth's Rejection of Modalism 101
c) The Metaphor of Address and Divine Singularity 103
d) The One God in Threefold Repetition 107
Critical Evaluation 115
3. Theological Language, Vestigiality and the Question
of Continuity between the Human and Divine Realms 120
Is Human Personhood a Vestigium Dei) 124
The Question of Analogy in its Basic Form 127
St Thomas' Theory of Analogy as Traditionally
Interpreted 129
Forms of Predication 130
The Reinterpretation of Aquinas' Theory of Analogy 135
A New Classification of Aquinas' Modes of Analogy 141
Contents vi
Ontological Presuppositions 142
Earth's Doctrine of the Analogy of Faith 148
The Implications of the New Covenant for the
Analogy Debate 152
The Analogia Fidei as Analogia per Prius et Posterius
and Unius ad Alterum 154
Is the Analogia Entis Necessarily Incompatible with
the Analogia Fidei? 162
Mondin's Critique of Earth's Interpretation of
Theological Atribution 168
The Analogia Fidei, the Question of'Being' and
the Epistemologicaly Absurd 168
The Dynamic of Cognitive Reference 175
Mondin's Interpretation of the Analogia Fidei 178
Toward a Theological Ontology of Communion 180
The Contrast between the Two Approaches 189
Patristic Paralels 191
The Vestigia Dei Question Revisited 194
Interpretation versus Ilustration 203
Does Barth escape all forms of Vestigia Trinitatis
and Ilustration? 207
Vestigia Creaturae in Trinitate and Triune Personhood 209
4. Triune Personhood 213
Karl Barth 213
The One and the Three in Barth 216
Intimations of Earth's Interpretation of Personhood 221
Earth's Discussion of Trinitarian Personhood 225aaaaa
1) The Manner in which Barth Introduces his
Discusion 226
viii Persons in Communion
2) The Negative Orientation 227
3) The Underlying Material Concerns 238
4) Earth's Use of the Term Seinsweise 239
5) A Hint of Idealism? 242
6) The Divine Threeness, Modalism and the
Question of the Mutuality of the Seinsweisen 251
Karl Rahner and John Zizioulas: Two Contrasting
Expositions of Triunity 262
Karl Rahner 262
Rahner's Interpretation of Triune Tersonhood' 274
The Theology of the Cross and the Question of
Divine Unity 280
Redefining Triune Personhood 281
John Zizioulas 283
Implications of the Greek Identification of
'hypostasis' and 'person* 287
The Biological and Ecclesial Hypostases 296
Critical Assessment 301
5. Conclusion: Moving Beyond Earth's Revelation Model 307
Doxological Participation 307
The Doxological Model 310
Jurgen Moltmann 310
Catherine Mowry LaCugna 315
Semantic Participation 325
Conclusion 356
Select Bibliography 373
Index 385
Prefaace
This study has resulted from doctoral research which I
submitted to the University of Erlangen in Germany but
which I undertook while in different locations around the
world over a period of a decade. Initially begun in the
University of Cambridge, it was interrupted by moves to
teaching positions first in the University of Erlangen and then
in the University of Aberdeen before I was appointed to the
chair of theology in Knox Theological Hall, Dunedin, New
Zealand. A year's sabbatical leave in 1992, generously provided
by the University of Otago and the Presbyterian Church of
Aotearoa-New Zealand, meant that I was finally enabled to
complete my research.
This has meant that a large number of people have helped
and influenced me as I wrestled with the issues under
discussion. To them I owe a debt of gratitude. Professor
Nicholas Lash, my initial supervisor in Cambridge, was
encouraging and supportive during the initial stages of the
research. Professor Alasdair Heron, who appointed me to be
his 'academic assistant' in the University of Erlangen has
offered invaluable personal support over many years and
much excellent advice - not least with respect to the revision
of the thesis into its present form. Insightful comments on the
original thesis offered by Professor Reinhard Slenczka, also of
Erlangen, have proved to be of inestimable value in the
process of editing it for publication.
Given that the research was completed following many
years of teaching and graduate supervision, it will be of no
surprise that my most influential teachers during much of this
time have been my students from whom I have learned a great
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