The Grammar of Salvation: The Function of Trinitarian Theology in the Works of Karen Kilby and Robert Jenson

Abstract

This study investigates the purpose of trinitarian theology in relation to theological knowledge, examining whether the doctrine of the Trinity is designed to serve an apophatic or cataphatic purpose. Through a comparative analysis of Karen Kilby and Robert Jenson, I argue that trinitarianism serves a hermeneutical and incorporative function in theology, encompassing both apophatic and cataphatic language, connecting our knowledge of God with God's revelation in the missions of the triune persons. Kilby and Jenson represent apophatic and cataphatic tendencies respectively, but their differences largely concern methodology. Regarding the purpose of trinitarian doctrine, they each hold that the dogma functions as an interpretive grammar for the Scriptures, so that by patterning our lives on the biblical narrative, human beings may be incorporated into Trinity itself. These hermeneutical and incorporative principles create room within Nicene trinitarianism to accommodate varying methods and theories of theological knowledge while preserving the doctrine's core functions.