Authentic Christianity
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 53, No. 2 – Spring 2011
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Douglas F. Kelly. Dublin: Mentor, 2008. 680 pages. Hardcover, $39.99.
In this volume, Douglas F. Kelly, a Reformed theologian, wants to construct a contemporary presentation of the doctrine of God based on the historic orthodox catholic tradition that the church fathers, medieval theologians, Calvin and his Reformed followers established. It is no wonder why Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin are Kelly’s favorite sources. T.F. Torrance and Stăniloae appear as Kelly’s most reliable interpreters of contemporary trinitarian theology. With this work’s special emphasis on the Trinity, it displays other interests as well, such as epistemology, revelation, covenant theology, and so on.
Chapter one, “Knowledge of God: God Reveals Himself,” is a prolegomena in the study of God. Here Kelly presents the community of faith as the ultimate locus and authoritative interpreter of The Trinity. Chapter two, “Knowledge of the Triune God through Creation and Conscience,” simply concerns the relationship between general and special revelations, but this chapter is not directly related to the doctrine of God. Chapter three, “Western Rejection of God’s Testimony to Himself in Creation and Conscience,” explains how the atheistic Enlightenment has kept people from speaking of God as revealed in creation and conscience. A meaningful and direct discussion of the triune God begins in Chapter four, “The God Who Is,” where Kelly demonstrates his knowledge of Hebrew, parallel with his Old Testament scholarship. Kelly introduces Stăniloae’s interesting explanation of why God is three in person, rather than two. The third person of the Trinity warrants “the sense of objectivity for the two by the fact that he keeps the two [Father and Son] from becoming confused within an indistinct unity because of the exclusiveness of their love” (275). Kelly does not favor some Western theologians’ attempt to embrace the Palamite distinction between essence and energies and deification in the doctrine of the Trinity, although he reflects no intention to condemn the Eastern tradition at all. The Western distinction between the immanent Trinity and the economic Trinity along with the identity between them is better than the Palamite distinction in preserving the validity of revelation of God in Himself in the economy. The Reformed concept of union with Christ through the real but spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist surpasses the Eastern doctrine of deification. This union with Christ keeps one from thinking of a transformation into the substance of God, although Orthodox theology never intended to teach that sort of pantheism.
Chapter five speaks of the divine attributes of God. Similarly, chapter six does not explicitly discuss the Trinity but contains very helpful critiques on the New Perspective movement. Chapter seven, “The One Lord Exists as Three Persons,” is the first chapter that attempts to provide a biblical foundation of a theological formulation of the threeness and oneness of God in the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament. Chapter eight, “The Christian Church Thinks Through how God is One Being and Three Persons,” speaks of the definition of “person” and the importance of perichoresis in the triune nature of God. Modern Augustinian scholars would not agree with Kelly’s argument that the Cappadocians began their discussion of the Trinity from the threeness of Persons, whereas Augustine began with the oneness of the divine substance. In fact, Augustine saw the threeness of the divine Persons as a theological presupposition that had been handed over to him.
In chapter nine, “The Full Co-equality of the Trinitarian Persons,” Kelly, following Torrance, is critical of the Eastern emphasis of the Father’s monarchy within the Trinity. The alleged superiority of the Father weakens the Son and the Spirit’s divinity, encouraging a subordination of their nature. Kelly agrees with Torrance that the Father’s monarchy was not universally accepted as the official position of Eastern Orthodox trinitarianism. Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, and Gregory of Nazianzus asserted that the whole Trinity, not the Father, is to be the source of the Trinity. The Son and the Spirit are not passive recipients of their generation and procession respectively. They are sovereign subjects of their relationship with the Father (549). Therefore, Kelly sees a valid argument in Augustine’s filioque that not only the Father but also the Son should be the source of the Holy Spirit. This reviewer is curious about Kelly’s response to the issue of the eternal functional subordination of Christ, a topic that has been debated among conservative evangelicals for years.
This reviewer personally enjoyed reading three of Kelly’s lengthy appendices: “Feminist Theology and the Fatherhood of God;” “St. Augustine’s Psychological Analogies of the Trinity;” and “The Differing Approaches of the Cappadocians and Augustine to the Trinity.” In particular, he fairly represents Augustine’s psychological analogies and the filioque. However, this reviewer questions why these articles should be separate appendices, distinct from the main discussions.
Kelly provides his excellent analysis and critical evaluations of Eastern Orthodoxy’s doctrine of God by citing many lengthy primary quotations from the Greek fathers and contemporary Orthodox theologians. Kelly’s careful citations show his readers that he is not simply providing proof-texts. This certainly presents an opportunity to confirm whether Kelly rightly reads his primary sources. In addition, some readers would like Kelly to engage in critical evaluations of Rahner and Moltmann, whose trinitarian theologies did not receive sufficient attention.
Unfortunately, this volume does not provide an adequate biblical foundation of each topic as one could find in Akin’s Theology for the Church. Kelly’s work is definitely not a systematic theology textbook for seminary students or pastors. This work lacks the pastoral implications of theological conclusions that Kelly made. It is more like a theological encyclopedia on the doctrine of God for theologians and professors at a school of theology. In spite of these few negative comments regarding the structure of this work, anyone who desires to study the doctrine of the Trinity should read Kelly.
