Fall 2020/Pasadena

ST840/TH540

Kärkkäinen

TH540: THE HOLY TRINITY: THEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen.

DESCRIPTION: This doctoral seminar (open to advanced master’s level students) studies Trinitarian traditions and developments at the international and ecumenical level including intercultural/contextual, interdisciplinary, interreligious, and pastoral interpretations.

COURSE OBJECTIVES/LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this course will have demonstrated their ability (1) to understand and discern key biblical, historical, and systematic developments in the growth of the Trinitarian doctrine both in the Christian East and West; (2) to appreciate and assess emerging intercultural/contextual, interdisciplinary, interreligious, and pastoral interpretations; (3) to reflect theologically on and analyze critically key contributions and challenges facing contemporary Trinitarian theology; and (4)to relate Trinity to key theological issues such as theological method, the church and her ministry, Christology and Pneumatology, sexism and society, as well as religious pluralism.

RELATIONSHIP TO PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES: “Students will have demonstrated capacities for historically informed theological and ethical reflection with a particular attention to the doctrine of the Trinity, in its historical, contemporary, interdisciplinary, and interfaith aspects.”

COURSE FORMAT: The class will meet once a week for a three-hour session of theological discussion and reflection facilitated by students and occasional guest presenters.

REQUIRED READING:

Intercultural, Global, and Contextual Interpretations.

Boff, L. Trinity and Society, trans. P. Burns. Reprint Wipf and Stock, 2005. ISBN: 978-1597521383. Pub.Price: $32.00. 286pp.

Johnson, E. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. Continuum, 1992 ISBN: 978-0824519254, Pub. Price $32.95 [344pp.] OR Baker-Fletcher, Karen. Dancing with God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0827206335. Pub.Price:$29.99. 208pp. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library

Lee, J. Y. The Trinity in Asian Perspective. Abingdon, 1996. ISBN-13: 978-0687426379. Pub.Price:$25.99. 258pp; OR Miyahira, N. Towards a Theology of the Concord of God: A Japanese Perspective on the Trinity. Paternoster 2000. ISBN-13: 978-0853648635. Pub.Price:$39.99. 270pp. OR Ogbonnaya, A.O. On Communitarian Divinity: An African Interpretation of the Trinity. Paragon House, 1994. ISBN-13: 978-1557787705. Pub.Price:$19.99. 144pp.

Interdisciplinary and Interreligious Interpretations

Kärkkäinen Veli-Matti. Trinity and Revelation: A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, volume 2 (Part I: Trinity). Eerdmans, 2014. ISBN: 978-0802868541, Pub. Price $40.00. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library

Polkinghorne, J. ed. The Trinity and an Entangled World: Relationality in Physical Science and Theology. Eerdmans, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0802865120. Price: $30.00. 232pp.

Volf. M. ed. Do We Worship the Same God?: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Dialogue. Eerdmans, 2012.ISBN-13: 978-0802866899. Price: $15.00. 176pp. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library

Other Constructive Theological Proposals

Holmes, Stephen R. The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity. IVP. 2012. ISBN: 978-0830839865, Pub. Price $26.00.

Moltmann, J. The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God, trans. M. Kohl. SCM, 1991.

ISBN-13: 978-0060659066. Pub.Price: $27.00. 256pp. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library.

Pannenberg, W. Systematic Theology. Trans. G. Bromilley, vol. 1. Eerdmans, 1991.ISBN-13: 978-0802865038. Pub.Price:$60.00. 486pp. Available as an e-book from the Fuller Library.

Zizioulas, J. Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church. St.Vladimir’s, 1985. ISBN-13: 978-0881410297. Pub.price:$25.00. 269pp.

Pastoral Perspectives: Weekly Common Reading:

Fiddes, P. Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity. Westminster John Knox, 2000. ISBN-13: 978-0664223359. Pub.Price:$35.00 322pp.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Useful Primers and Resources for the History and Contemporary State of Trinitarian Theology:

Emery, Gilles, and Levering, Matthew eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity. Oxford University Press, 2014.

Grenz, S. Rediscovering the Triune God: The Trinity in Contemporary Theology. Fortress, 2004.

Kärkkäinen, V.-M. Trinity: Global Perspectives. WJKP, 2006.

__________. Christian Understandings of the Trinity. The Historical Trajectory. Fortress Press, 2017.

Letham, R. The Holy Trinity in Scripture, History, Theology and Worship. P&R, 2004.

Olson, Roger E., and Christopher A. Hall. The Trinity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Phan, Peter C. ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Trinity. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Constructive Proposals and Perspectives

Adiprasetya, Joas. An Imaginative Glimpse: The Trinity and Multiple Religious Participation. Pickwick Publications, 2013

Bacon, Hannah. What’s Right with the Trinity? Conversations in Feminist Theology. Ashgate, 2010

Bobrinskoy, B. The Mystery of the Trinity: Trinitarian Experience and Vision in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition. St. Vladimir’s, 1999.

Boff, L. Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, trans. P. Berryman. Orbis, 2000.

Bracken, Joseph A., S.J., and Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, eds. Trinity in Process: A Relational Theology of God. Continuum, 1997.

Coakley, Sarah. God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity.’ Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Crisp, Oliver D. and Sanders, Fred, eds. Advancing Trinitarian Theology, Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics, eds. Zondervan Academic, 2014.

Davis, S. et al., eds. Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity. Oxford Univ. Press, 1999.

D’Costa, G. The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity. Orbis, 2000.

Flett, JohnG. The Witness of God: The Trinity, Missio Dei, Karl Barth, and the Nature of Christian Community. Eerdmans, 2010.

Fox, P. God as Communion: John Zizioulas, Elizabeth Johnson, and the Retrieval of the Symbol of the Triune God. Liturgical Press, 2001.

Gunton, C. Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Essays Toward a Fully Trinitarian Theology. T&T Clark, 2003.

Heim, S. M. The Depth of the Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends. Eerdmans, 2001.

Hick, J. and E. Meltzer, ed. Three Faiths—One God: A Jewish, Christian, Muslim Encounter. State University of New York Press, 1989.

Hunt, Anne. Trinity: Nexus of the Mysteries of Christian Faith. Orbis, 2005

Ingle-Gillis, WilliamC. The Trinity and Ecumenical Church Thought: The Church-Event. Ashgate, 2007.

Johnson, Keith E. Rethinking the Trinity & Religious Pluralism: An Augustinian Assessment. InterVarsity Press, 2011

Kimel, A., ed. Speaking the Christian God: The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of Feminism. Eerdmans, 1992.

Kärkkäinen, V.-M. The Trinity and Religious Pluralism. The Role of the Doctrine of the Trinity in Christian Theology of Religions. Ashgate, 2004.

LaCugna, C.M. God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991, 1993.

Molnar, Paul D. Divine Freedom and the Doctrine of the Immanent Trinity: In Dialogue with Karl Barth and Contemporary Theology. London: T.&T. Clark, 2002

Nyamiti, C. “The Trinity from an African Ancestral Perspective.” African Christian Studies 12, no. 4 (1996): 38-74.

O’Collins, G., SJ. The Tripersonal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity. Paulist Press, 1999

Peters, T. God as Trinity: Relationality and Temporality in Divine Life. Westminster John Knox, 1993.

Panikkar.R. The Trinity and Religious Experience of Man. Orbis, 1973.

__________. The Cosmotheandric Experience: Emerging Religious Consciousness. Orbis, 1993.

Parry, Robin. Worshiping the Trinity: Coming Back to the Heart of Worship. Wipf and Stock, 2012.

Polkinghorne, J. Science and the Trinity: The Christian Encounter with Reality. Yale University Press, 2004.

Powell, S. M. Participating in God: Creation and Trinity. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003.

___________.The Trinity in German Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001

Rahner, K. The Trinity, trans. Joseph Donceel. Seabury, 1997.

Sen, K.C. That Marvellous Mystery, the Trinity. Ed. M. M. Thomas. SCM Press, 1969.

Tanner, Kathryn. Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology. Fortress Press, 2001.

Vanhoozer, K.J. ed.,The Trinity in a Pluralistic Age: Theological Essays on Culture and Religion. Eerdmans, 1997

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

1. A careful reading of the required texts prior to class. [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, 2, 3] [ST586: 1,300 pp., 90 hours/ST886: 2,600pp., 218 hours].
2. Class time with active participation in class discussions (10%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2, 3] [30 hours].
3. ST525: DLAs include careful preparation of class presentations, questions to facilitate discussion and consultation of recommended readings per syllabus instructions [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2] [10 hours].
4. Class presentations (30%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2, 3, 4] [ST586: 1 pres.: 20 hours/ST866: 2 pres.: 40 hours].
5. Research paper (60%). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #2, 3, 4] [ST586: 12-15pp., 40 hrs; THxx: 25-30pp., 95 hrs].

PREREQUISITES: Master’s level students need written permission from the professor.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Option to meet the TH4 requirement in the 120 MDiv and 80 MAT Programs (Fall 2015).

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.

NOTE: This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. Textbook prices are set by publishers and are subject to change. Copyright 2019 Fuller Theological Seminary.