Christ and Culture Revisited
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 64, No. 2 – Spring 2022
Editor: David S. Dockery
By Robert Letham. Revised and Expanded Edition. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2019, 696pp., $29.99
Letham’s recent book, The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship, is a revised and expanded work of the same title (2004). This new edition maintains the same clear structure of the previous edition, dividing the book into four parts: Biblical Foundations, Historical Development, Modern Discussion, and Critical Issues. In Part 1 “Biblical Foundations,” Letham examines the biblical evidence about the Trinity, focusing on the Son and the Spirit. The excursus “Ternary Patterns in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians” discusses the triadic pattern demonstrated in this letter. Part 2 “Historical Development” provides a chronological sketch of the development of the doctrine. Here, Letham covers important historical periods and figures including early trinitarianism, the Arian controversy, Athanasius, the Cappadocians, the Council of Constantinople, Augustine, the filioque controversy, the divergence between East and West, and John Calvin. Part 3 “Modern Discussion” examines the trinitarian thought of modern theologians such as Karl Barth, Karl Rahner, Jürgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenburg, Sergius Bulgakov, Vladimir Lossky, Dumitru Staniloae, and Thomas F. Torrance. Part 4 discusses some critical issues that Letham deems important such as the Trinity and the incarnation, the relations between the Trinity, worship, prayer, creation, and missions, and the concept of persons in the Trinity. Chapter 17 “The Trinity and the Incarnation” is one place where Letham substantially revised the earlier edition of this book.
Letham is to be commended for the way he sketches the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. The historical survey provides a comprehensive guide that is accessible to novices. However, as meticulous as Letham is, he misses a recent update that affects his argument. On page xxxii, Letham remarks that “Leading evangelicals have recently questioned or abandoned the classic doctrines of the eternal generation of the Son and the one indivisible will,” and he then proceeds to list Wayne Grudem and Bruce Ware as opponents of eternal generation. However, both scholars recently changed their position and have embraced this doctrine, a point they made public at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2016.1 Ware also clarified his position of the distinct wills at this meeting. Letham’s presentation, in short, is out of date and does not accurately reflect recent developments in this debate.
Besides this oversight, I wish that Letham would have reorganized the first part “Biblical Foundations.” Although it is rich in content, unfortunately, the first part is not organized in a coherent way. The sections read like expanded dictionary entries that are only loosely connected. Moreover, Letham sometimes rushes to a conclusion without providing sufficient evidence for it. For example, while mentioning John 14:28, Letham says, “This is evidently a reference to his [Christ’s] incarnation.” (p. 29) He provides no exegetical or historical evidence for this conclusion, nor does he guide readers through his process of deduction. Inserting the word “evidently” will not do the job.2
Letham does an excellent job of presenting the historical development of the Trinity (Part 2). In Part 3 “Modern Discussions,” he captures the main themes of each modern trinitarian theologian’s thoughts, interacts with them, and evaluates their theologies in a judicious way. The reader will benefit tremendously from these two parts. However, due to the loose structure of Part 1 “Biblical Foundations,” and some of its rushed conclusions, the reader may want to consult other resources for a clear presentation of the biblical evidence for the Trinity. Because some of the information in Part 4 “Critical Issues” is outdated, the reader is encouraged to read this part critically.
- See details in Hongyi Yang, A Development, Not a Departure: The Lacunae in the Debate of the Doctrine of the Trinity and Gender Roles (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2018), 191–94. ↩︎
- See a more detailed exegesis and discussion of the interpretation of John 14:28 in Yang, A Development, Not a Departure, 285–96. Briefly, there are two major traditions of interpreting John 14:28. The majority of the early church fathers (Tertullian, Novatian, Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Hilary of Poitiers, Marius Victorinus, and possibly John Chrysostom) interpret this verse from the perspective of the eternal Father-Son relationship. Letham’s view belongs to the other tradition (represented by Cyril of Alexandria, Theodore, Ambrose, and Augustine) that uses the two-nature exegesis. ↩︎
