The New Atheism
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 54, No. 1 – Fall 2011
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
Edited by Daniel J. Treier and David Lauber. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009. 262 pages. Softcover, $26.00.
This work is a three-part collection of selected essays from the 2008 Wheaton College Theology Conference: “Scripture: The Bible and the Triune Economy,” “Community: The Trinity and Society,” and “Worship: Church Practices and the Triune Mission.” Due to the nature of this collection, one would not be able to find a single theme that penetrates throughout this work. However, that does not undermine the value of this book. Even one might be surprised with some of the varying positions concerning an identical issue or theologian. Nevertheless, such a theological disagreement among contributors makes this book more attractive because its readers would have a rare opportunity to compare opposite views from responsible scholars.
In the first section, “Scripture: The Bible and the Triune Economy,” Vanhoozer wrote the best and most provocative article in this book. When reading the Bible, argues Vanhoozer, its readers do not merely study the past report of God but they actually “can listen directly to the Divine voice itself speaking immediately in the Scripture word” (35). Vanhoozer’s trinitarian doctrine of the Bible is a synthesis of Barth’s theology of the Word and Wolterstorff’s “analytic philosophy” of divine speech (45). In opposition to extremely rationalized propositionalists, Vanhoozer reminds us of Barth’s theology of the Word, a theology that points to the necessity of listening to the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ who freely speaks the will of the Father through the Holy Spirit in the Bible. On the other hand, Vanhoozer rejects Barth’s anti-propositional position. Following Wolterstorff’s analysis of speech, Vanhoozer declares that a divine speech makes a divine action the revelation of God by assigning a specific meaning to that action. Barth’s disjunction between a divine action and human speech is meaningless because the Son of God speaks human words, both oral and written, as divine revelation. Therefore, Christians must accept biblical inerrancy. Again, however, biblical inerrancy should not be an excuse of ignoring the illuminating role of the Holy Spirit who witnesses to the living Christ, the Word of the Father. Edith M. Humphry establishes that the eternal functional subordination of the Son is essential to a biblical understanding of the Trinity. Humphry vigorously refutes reading perichoresis as “a round dance,” which theologically refuses any functional subordination of any divine Person within the Trinity. Etymologically, perichoresis does not derive from “chora (meaning ‘place’),” or “chorus (dance)” and, therefore, it means that the three divine Persons share the same place through mutual indwelling and interpenetration (95). Humphry accurately asserts that Augustine never denied the monarchy of the Father when defending the filioque.
In the second section, “Community: The Trinity and Society?,” John R. Franke praises the Cappadocian Fathers and Richard of St. Victor who opened a social trinitarianism and saw community, not substance, as the divine nature of the Trinity. In Franke’s view, Augustine is responsible for creating a psychological analogy of the Trinity—being, knowledge, and will—that fails to demonstrate the Godhead in terms of personhood. However, this reviewer challenges Franke to reread Augustine in De Trinitate, who was fully aware of a social analogy of persons like that of the Cappadocian Fathers. Augustine did not choose such a social analogy of plural persons because of the danger of tritheism. In fact, Richard did not suggest his exegesis of the communal nature of charity as an alternative to Augustine’s trinitarianism. Augustine had already explained the interrelationship of the divine Persons in the immanent Trinity in light of the communal love of the Father (the lover), the Son (the beloved one), and the Holy Spirit (the mutual love between the Father and the Son). Unfortunately, Franke does not reflect recent scholarship led by Ayres and Barnes on Augustinian trinitarianism that attests considerable theological congruence between the Latin Church and the Greek Church regarding the Trinity.
In contrast to Franke, Mark Husbands is very critical of contemporary social trinitarians such as Volf. According to Husbands, Volf’s social trinitarianism comes from his misreading of Gregory of Nyssa who never taught social and anthropological implications of the immanent Trinity for a human relationship. Husbands rightly warns of the “overrealized” eschatological orientation of social trinitarians who argue as if Christians could and should achieve the perfect perichoresis, the mutually dependent and interpenetrating life shared by the divine Persons of the Trinity, on earth (126). The Bible presents Jesus Christ as the sole realization of the perfect communion between God and man. Therefore, even the church and any Christian organization cannot manifest the perfect communal life within the triune God. Keith E. Johnson also points out the theological dangers of a utilitarian approach to the doctrine of the Trinity in the way that delineates the ontological distinction between the triune community of God and the creaturely community of humans. Johnson shows from the Bible that the divine commandment to imitate God is to imitate the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, in the economy, not the intertrinitarian life of God in eternity. Therefore, Christians should defy any attempt to justify religious pluralism or to weaken the uniqueness of God’s redemptive work only found in Jesus Christ. Unlike Franke, Johnson commends Augustine’ trinitarianism because of its ultimate goal to enjoy and honor the triune God, not to use the Trinity as a social model. Johnson suggests Augustine’s De Trinitate as a good theological antidote for contemporary theologians’ “functionalizing” of the doctrine of the Trinity in supporting egalitarianism and communal responsibility versus extreme individualism (160).
In the third section, “Worship: Church Practices and the Triune Mission,” Gordon T. Smith notes that Christians often take baptism and the Lord’s Supper as an encounter with the Father and the Son. He urges his readers to be open to the Holy Spirit who leads them to the fellowship of the triune God. Smith’s thesis is commendable, and his critique is legitimate; however, most evangelical readers need to be alert to his strong sacramentalism that Catholics and Lutherans would appreciate more. Philip W. Butin’s argument concerning prayers for the illumination of the Holy Spirit before reading and preaching the Bible deserves every contemporary preachers’ attention. Unlike Vanhoozer, Butin fails to be critical of Barth’s anti-propositional view on the inspiration of the Bible. Leanne Van Dyk presents the church’s proclamation of the gospel as a way of participating in the triune God’s mission. Interestingly, Dyk pays attention to not only worship and preaching but also to common daily things such as work and marriage as channels through which one could participate in the triune community of God, for the gospel of salvation should certainly be visible outside the church.
This book would not be a textbook on the Trinity or helpful for lay people who want to understand the basic elements of the Trinity. Rather, this work is for advanced M. Div. students and could be useful as a book review for an elective class on the Trinity.
