Trinity - The consummated covenant: Theses on the doctrine of the trinitarian God

Abstract

In 1971 Herder and Herder of New York published my book The Christ,¹ which under the heading 'God and man, or God in man?' contains a study of Jesus Christ as God and man. This study implies a doctrine of the Trinity, although one more intimated than articulated. In Dietrich Wiederkehr's grandiose 'Design for a systematic Christology,^'2 this doctrine of the Trinity was implicitly contested. It also occasioned Jean Galot to speak of a Christology 'en dessous de l'arianisme' (beneath Arianism).³ Recently, in a report in Herder Korrespondenz,⁴ this conception of the Trinity was judged less consequent than that of Karl Rahner, although I think I am carrying on Rahner's trinitarian thinking.

Although I am preparing a longer work on the Trinity, it seems opportune to present my views provisionally in thesis form, so that a judgment can be formed about them. I am grateful to the editors of SR for providing this opportunity. The text was first published in German in the Swiss periodical Orientierung, 31 May 1973. It was translated by Dr Robert C. Ware and afterwards modified by me.