Fall 2015/Pasadena

TH540/ST840

Crisp

TH540/ST840: TRINITY: THEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS (4 Units: 255/400 hours). Oliver Crisp.

DESCRIPTION: This is a 6-unit seminar designed for PhD and ThM students in the CATS program, also offered at the 500-level as a 4-unit course open to five MDiv/MA students by written permission. It offers a critical engagement with key themes and texts in the development of the doctrine of the Trinity.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this course will have demonstrated their ability to (1) analyze critically and assess the contribution of the dogma of the Trinity for Christian Theology; (2) offer a reasoned response to various proposals concerning the nature of this dogma in Christian thought; and (3) begin to formulate their own constructive views of the Trinity in dialogue with the tradition, and contemporary voices in systematic theology.

COURSE FORMAT: This class meets once per week for three hour sessions for a total of 30 hours of classroom instruction for lecture and discussion plus 10 hours of directed learning activities for a total of 40 instructional hours.

REQUIRED READING: 2,260 pp. total pages required

Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics I/1 §§8-12: The Doctrine of The Word of God. Study Edition. T&T Clark, 2010. ISBN: 978-0567610270, Pub. Price: $39.95 (Available electronically via the David Allan Hubbard Library.) [200 pp. assigned].

Coakley, Sarah. God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’. Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0521558266, Pub. Price: $29.99 [300 pp. assigned].

Hasker, William. Metaphysics and the Tripersonal God. Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0199681518, Pub. Price: $99.00 (Available as an e-book through the David Alan Hubbard Library) [250 pp. assigned].

Jenson, Robert W. The Triune Identity. Wipf & Stock, 2002. ISBN: 978-1579109622, Pub. Price: $24.00 [187 pp. assigned].

Karkkainen, Veli-Matti. Trinity and Revelation: A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralist World, Vol. 2. Eerdmans, 2014. ISBN: 978-0802868541, Pub. Price: $40.00 [240 pp. assigned]

McCall, Thomas H. Which Trinity? Whose Monotheism? Philosophical and Systematic theologians on the Metaphysics of Trinitarian Theology. Eerdmans, 2010. ISBN: 978-0802862709, Pub. Price: $30.00 [250 pp. assigned].

Moltmann, Jürgen. The Trinity and the Kingdom. Fortress Press, 1993. ISBN: 978-0800628253, Pub. Price: $27.00 [200 pp. assigned].

Rahner, Karl. The Trinity. Crossroad Publishing, 1997. ISBN: 978-0824516277, Pub. Price: $14.95 [140 pp. assigned].

Sanders, Fred. The Trinity. New Studies in Dogmatics. Zondervan Academic. (Pre-publication Manuscript) [240 pp. assigned.]

Torrance, Thomas F. The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons. Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2001. ISBN: 978-0567088291, Pub. Price: $55.00 [250 pp. assigned].

Additionally, for 800-level students (read in preparation for the class):

St. Augustine, The Trinity trans. Edmund Hill. New City Press, 1991. ISBN: 0911782966, Pub. Price: $36.95 [470 pp. assigned] (A 19th Cent. translation from the NPNF Series is available here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf103.iv.i.html?highlight=augustine,the,trinity#highlight).

St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Ben zinger Bros., 1947. Available online here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa. Treatise on the Holy Trinity, Prima Pars, QQ. 27-43 [c. 200 pp. assigned].

RECOMMENDED READING: See Syllabus.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT: All members of the seminar are expected to have studied the set readings for the week, and to participate fully in class discussion. Each week designated members of the seminar will introduce discussion, giving a brief background of the readings, summarizing the key issues, and offering a reasoned response. Assignments are differentiated according to whether the student is taking the course at the 500-level (i.e. Masters degree students), or the 800-level (i.e. ThM and PhD candidates).

500-level (MDiv, MAT) assignments and assessments (25.5hrs per week):

1. 2,260 pages of required reading [150 hours].
2. Completion of two 5-page critical reflections on key primary texts (30%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2] [20 hours].
3. Presentation and submission of a 20-minute seminar paper [2,500 words] (30%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2] [15 hours].
4. A research essay on an assigned topic [3,000 words] (40%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2, 3] [30 hours].

800-level (ThM and PhD) assignments and assessments (40hrs per week):

1. c. 3,000 pages of required reading [200 hours].
2. Presentation and submission of a 20-minute seminar paper [2,500 words] (30%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2] [50 hours].
3. A research essay on an assigned topic [8,000 words]. The essay is the length of a journal article or book chapter. The aim is to write a piece of publishable-quality work. (70%) [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #1, 2, 3] [110 hours].

PREREQUISITES: For TH540, written permission of the professor.

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

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.