The Holy Trinity

by Carl L. Beckwith

The Holy Trinity, volume 3 of the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series, explains the difficulties we face in confessing the Trinity in our world today and how we overcome these challenges by placing Christ and the Gospel at the center of our preaching and teaching. The Holy Trinity returns us to Scripture and shows how the Old and New Testaments carefully and decisively present the indivisible oneness and irreducible threeness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Finally, The Holy Trinity introduces readers to the sound pattern of words used by the Fathers and Lutheran reformers to clarify and defend the trinitarian witness of Scripture. We confess, worship, and glorify the Holy Trinity rightly when we boldly proclaim the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. Carl Beckwith is professor of church history and doctrine at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama.

Genres: Theology

412 pages, Paperback

Published August 18, 2016

About the author

Carl L. Beckwith (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) is associate professor of church history at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University. He has authored articles on church history for a variety of monographs and journals.

Reviews

[Jared Mindel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, I especially enjoyed his discussion of the Lutheran reception of the filioque, divine appropriations, and the relations vs. emanations theory of personal properties.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best theology books I've read; this is top 10 for me.

[James Key · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first time reading Lutheran theology. I really enjoyed this work. Beckwith has clearly spent time refining his thinking by thorough reading of the Great Tradition. He is strong in his Lutheran convictions but never slips into idolising Luther, Melanchthon or Chemnitz as though they were infallible. As someone who has mostly read in the Presbyterian/Reformed world this book was refreshingly different. I particularly liked the sharp epistemological distinctions made in the first section and also the walk through the Old Testament's complex monotheism in Part 2. Overall an excellent work. Even if you know you will disagree with Beckwith's conclusions at points, he will challenge and sharpen you. Highly recommend.

[Milkias Yeheyis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An immense contemporary work on the doctrine of the Trinity from a distinctly Lutheran perspective. I especially appreciated the integration of analogical predication and the centrality of the cross in understanding the nature of God. The scriptural treatment is robust, but where this book truly shines is in its presentation of the Church’s dogmatic reflection. Each word in that section is worth its weight in gold.

This is an absolute masterclass from Beckwith—scholarly, reverent, and theologically rich. I hope it serves as a foundational work for generations to come in articulating the doctrine of the Trinity.

[Konrad Helliesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Veldig fin intro til en del av diskusjonene rundt treenigheten, og samtidig de klassiske bibelske begrunnelsene. Spennende også der han går i dialog med både oldkirken og moderne filosofis gudsbegrep. Men til tider tung å lese, noe som er uunngåelig med et slikt tema - til gjengjeld er det vel dannende lesning.

[Xavier Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read on the Trinity.

A thoroughly Lutheran work, Beckwith is sceptical of how medieval schoolmen (and later theologians as well) separated the doctrines of God and the Trinity and thought that reason can be relied on in the former to arrive at some discussion about God without discussing the Trinity (eg. that He exists). Instead, Beckwith opines that "The very idea that we may talk about God “without respect to the three persons” ought to make any scriptural theologian uneasy." Not being a Lutheran myself, I was a little uneasy when I first encountered this scepticism in Chapter 2, but after going through the bulk of the book and re-encountering it in Chapter 15, I began to empathise more with Beckwith and the desire to guard against misrepresenting God and His attributes by divorcing discussions on God and on the Trinity (and instead using something else, such as attributes that we humans are familiar with, as a foundation for discussions on God instead).

The rest of the book is mostly a defence of the doctrine. After setting out his worldview and methodology, Beckwith puts forward a defence of the Trinity from the Old Testament, the New Testament, as well as a defence of the filioque clause (the procession of the Spirit from the Son). He then discusses the balance between the unity and distinguishing of the person's over the course of 3 chapters, following Augustine and Luther in asserting that the three persons always work together. For example, while the Son alone was born of the virgin Mary, yet this birth was the work of Father (who sent forth His Son), Son, and Spirit (who came upon Mary). The same can be said for creation, Christ's death and resurrection, and the list goes on. An especially insightful discussion and way of thinking of the triune activity of God which, as Beckwith points out, is lacking in modern theology.

Overall, a highly recommended read (even for non-Lutherans)

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy and thoughtful Lutheran dogmatic study of the Trinity.